(Warning: This is an opinion/rant piece)
Question: What the hell is Konami doing? Especially with the Metal Gear Series? Because I’m as baffled as everyone.
Let’s take a quick trip down memory lane here. When I started gaming in the 80s, there were no real console wars to be mentioned. Sure Sega had the Mega Drive, but the NES was the shining symbol of home entertainment during that decade. The games that were made for NES were also streamlined by a few companies and one of those was Konami. They introduced us to games like Contra, where it was a pseudo knockoff of Aliens and the Predator movie – all in its 8bit glory! They followed up with other blockbusters like the Castlevania series where you hunt down and fight Dracula. At the time, Konami was a powerhouse since they released many smash hits.
Eventually, we were all introduced to Hideo Kojima and Metal Gear on the NES. This game was pretty damned difficult in that era since stealth games were non-existent. However, it wasn’t until the release of the first PlayStation did we truly understand the power of the Metal Gear series. Metal Gear Solid opened the doors to a cinematic video game style that encompassed stealth-action and beautiful story-telling wrapped in historical events. This style of gameplay was unheard of and eventually ushered in clones like Syphon Filter and Splinter Cell. Konami was leading the charge in this genre and the great thing was that people were wanting more and more of this.
Unfortunately for many of us, drama reared its ugly head between Konami and Kojima. There were rumors of a power struggle within the company, along with several employees at the time stating that Konami had their employees on lockdown and they were monitored at every step. When news broke that Kojima had been released from Konami, the internet literally exploded. I don’t blame them for it since Kojima is the creator and the brains behind everything that is Metal Gear. In a recent article, Kojima is contractually forbidden to speak about the reasons why he and Konami parted ways. This only helped to fuel the dumpster fires that were already being piled up with Konami-hate-paraphernalia.
This finally leads us back to the question: what the hell is Konami doing with the Metal Gear franchise? No seriously, what in the hell are they doing? Konami recently revealed a trailer for Metal Gear Survive. This gameplay looks to be a survival horror game set in the world of Metal Gear. Are you serious, Konami? Kojima poured his life and soul into Metal Gear for near thirty years. He spent many nights with this team researching our historical backgrounds, incorporating all his characters into historical text, then adding substance to those characters and what effect they had on changing history for the series itself. All of this work has now resulted in a video game about zombie survival horror? Seriously, who came up with this? Konami, If you’re trying to get the public to favor you again, we would suggest that you not use the Metal Gear franchise as an anchor anymore.
One thing Konami is doing right is sticking to pachinko machines in Japan. It was stated that they would be focusing their energy on pachinko machines and that’s completely fine to me. If that pathway helps to increase your profit, then so be it. Just don’t resurrect a franchise that doesn’t have its rightful captain anymore, only to mutate it to something that it never was in the first place. I’ll admit, I do love zombie games; I really do. However, having them in the world of Metal Gear is like having dragons and wizards in a James Bond movie – they don’t belong there.
If you’re excited for Konami to release this game and feel that it’s a new step, then that’s completely fine. I disagree with you though, but it’s fine. A lot of us just feel that they should at least finish The Phantom Pain first. Like many, I’m a huge fan of Metal Gear. This is why I feel Konami should just let the franchise be shelved and have the positive memories of it remain.
/end rant
from Nerd Reactor
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