Words... can kill

E3 is usually an event that is all about excitement, hype, and entertainment. So imagine how melancholic it was that E3 for me began with a brand new trailer for Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain. What's so melancholic about it? Well, it's the last trailer by Hideo Kojima... ever.




First thing is first: Wow. Incredible trailer. In my opinion, the best one yet. I didn't think anything would beat the GDC '13 trailer, also dubbed the "Nacho People" trailer. That trailer was fucking awesome and even if the Nuclear trailer was pretty good too, Nacho People holds a special place in my heart.

This shot, found in the new E3 2015 trailer at about 1 minute in, is particularly depressing. Almost sobering, really.

THOSE WHO DON'T EXIST

The Kojima Productions logo, sans, er, the "Kojima Productions" part.

The parallels between Big Boss and Hideo Kojima are really interesting, if not coincidental. The story of Big Boss, a man who lost everything only to build it back up, and then Hideo Kojima, a man who built up an incredible career and studio only to lose it because Konami thinks mobile games are the future, or something. The guy who put Konami on the map by making games that few dreamed of and even fewer could actually make.

After all, Hideo Kojima has been telling us since 2008 that there's no place for him.

Makes you wonder if he knew all those years ago.

But it seems with the release of the new MGSV trailer, and with the actual game only a few months away, that statement will finally become true.

 Kojima did seem to be aware of this, or at least it appears so, or it's just a cosmic coincidence. But Ground Zeroes featured a mission where you obtain a special gun with a light on it that erases the logos from past Metal Gear games. Erasing all of them will prompt a statement from Kazuhira Miller saying the games may be gone but the memories will remain forever, following a message from Hideo Kojima saying "Thank you for your support!".

In that very same mission you find 2 other logos, one for Kojima Productions and Kojima Productions L.A. but they are missing the FOX found within the logo. The FOX logo is attached to a search light that requires you to get on and aim into the logo boundaries. Once you do this, Kaz asks questions like "Kojima Productions? What are they doing here?" as to imply that he doesn't know who or what that is.

It seems, as best as I can understand it, that Kojima knew far ahead of time and did his best to make these meta references to the fact at least a year before it would even go down. Clever, but sad. And also liberating for him to go out and then do whatever his beautiful and creative heart desires.

The music, titled "Elegia", is from the band The Order. Elegia, latin for "elegy" was written in memory of Ian Curtis, a member of New Order's former band, Joy Division.

Clever and cheeky, just what you'd expect from Kojima. On on hand, it's an incredible song that goes well with the haunting imagery from the trailer. And on the other, a funny reference for Kojima being fired. An elegy for him, if you will.

The trailer itself was on a whole 'nother level. It goes the distance by making everything insane and amazing and confusing and awesome and even more confusing at the same time.

The first and most immediate reaction from me would have to be the facial capture being on point for this trailer. It's looked great in past trailers, sure, but wow you can really see the fucking disdain in Big Boss's face when Miller interrupts him.

If LOOKS could kill! Womp womp!

Then there's the incredible scenes of the, if I remember right, "Parasite Unit" which look absolutely fucking nuts.

P.T. didn't get canceled, it got absorbed into MGSV!

Seriously. I don't even know what to say there. I have no idea what's happening but it's both terrifying and amazing at the same time. It's funny that I see something like this and completely forget that I'm going to be FIGHTING THESE THINGS. Not only that, there's potential that these fuckers are gonna pop out after me in the open world somewhere. That's some crazy shit.

Quiet, striking a pose in the desert as part of her "Main character standing in the distance looking cool" class for Mother Base.

The trailer goes places, places I can't comprehend. Seeing familiar faces, and voices, I didn't think I see again.

Honestly, the most exciting part of the trailer was seeing all of this insane shit going on. Because even though MGS has a pretty major paranormal presence in the series, I can't help but think about how this could all be a crazy delusion from Big Boss due to his fucking brain damage. For all we know, those Parasite Unit people could be normal soldiers coming to kill Big Boss after shooting down his chopper, but the giant piece of shrapnel in his head is making him piece together things from his past, like The Fear and The Sorrow. But of course these guys are most likely just the typical "freak show" enemies you will encounter this time around.

It doesn't hurt that they look fucking. amazing.

Facial capture, again, on fucking point

 Just look at his face! It's like his puppy just got kicked, shot, set on fire, revived by nanomachines and then stomped like Gray Fox at the end of MGS1.

To think, I actually mocked the facial capture at one point. I mean sure, I think it's kind of dumb that we're getting a mostly-mute Big Boss, not because of brain damage or any actual logical reasoning, but because they would rather convey his thoughts, feelings and mood through his face. But still.

Big Boss looking like an actual BIG BOSS

Really, the newest trailer just makes me excited. Flat out. So many game trailers will spell shit out pretty explicitly, but the MGSV trailers have made a very good job asking questions, not answering them. So that helps get people excited to get their hands on the game and figure this shit out. I'm going to go out on a limb and say that this trailer made us ask a lot of the wrong questions in an attempt to mislead us, because it does seem to hint pretty heavily at certain things.

Like Skullface potentially being a figment of Big Boss's imagination. Or maybe, since fucking ghosts exist in MGS, he's a fucking ghost. But I think that'd be a waste of everyone's time.

Then there's Eli, where it's STRONGLY hinted that he may be Liquid Snake. But it's too simple, you know? You take one look at him and go, oh yeah, of course it's Liquid. There's no mystery. But just once I want a game to really surprise me. Like, really surprise me. Like you play the entire game under the assumption that Eli is Liquid but it turns out he's just little Jimmy Jacobs who one day will start his own auto repair business and strike it big.

Jimmy Jacobs, future auto repair tycoon of the world

But if everything was spelled out all the time, it would get boring. We've got to have trailers that hint and suggest, because for all we know they'll just pull another MGS2 and change some character models so that this character was actually that character. But hey, don't stop there! Shove a giant piece of metal and bone into Big Boss's head and we can skip the trailers and start doing that shit during the actual game.

As per usual, I'm mega hype and can't wait for the game. It's cruel and unfair that these trailers are so good because it makes the wait even harder. I mean there's so many hours I can put into Witcher 3 before I duel everyone in the world and run out of cards to obtain. But hey, maybe MGSV will have it's own collectible card game!