Metal Gear on MSX2 was a genre that didn’t exist yet, and which sounded boring when he proposed it. The real Metal Gear 2 built on that in ways that would still be noteworthy features in Metal Gear Solid. Snatcher and Policenauts were little more than visual novels, but they were well-executed. That’s largely thanks to Kojima insisting on artist-driven tools for scripting the exact timing of graphics, text, and music.
Metal Gear Solid fucked with the player by constantly breaking the fourth wall. MGS2 cranked that ten times higher, along with prescient comments on memetics and populist narratives. MGS3 was just polished as hell. MGS4 opens with fake commercials starring the voice actors and only gets weirder from there.
MGS5-- calling back to artist-driven tools, I recommend the article about the game’s rendering engine. They developed a little rectangle you can drop into a screenshot, and then however you adjust the screenshot in Photoshop, copy-pasting that little rectangle back into the game will perfectly match whatever you did. Kojima productions have a certain “just solve the problem” vibe behind a lot of their technical direction. MGS 1-3 had too much focus on the minimap radar, so MGS4 has a holographic ring around your feet. Why? How? Who gives a shit, it’s a video game.
P.T. was a horror game demo set entirely in one hallway. And it was terrifying. And weird. And full of promise. So when Kojima handed that gift to Konami, reviving one of their beloved franchises, with several big names on-board thanks to his weird industry connections… and then Konami booted his ass out the door… people noticed.
Death Stranding is the ultimate illustration of why he became well-known and why he remains well-known. It’s a ridiculous product. It forces comically long sequences that are not technically gameplay. Its writing is completely bonkers and longwinded. But every aspect is deliberate. It is that way, on purpose. A premise that sounds boring becomes interesting because it’s well-executed. Balance and stamina aren’t floating UI elements; they’re represented in your character’s movement, so you keep your eyes on your dude.
Basically, Kojima is the sort of lead who can insist on a ten-minute opening cutscene, thirty seconds of actual gameplay, and then another eight minutes of cutscene, and still have people’s attention.
Because in a industry dominated by yearly rehashed ideas like CoD or AC or Battlefield, Kojima spends time and resources creating new, novel ideas and taking the artistic medium (yes, games are art despite what capital G Gamers want to say) to new and exciting and interesting places.
This is why Kojima gets name recognition. This is why Yoko Taro gets name recognition. This is why Fumito Ueda gets name recognition. This is why Hideaki Itsuno gets name recognition.
Even MGS5, which was pretty clearly pushed out before he wanted it to be and broke him up with Konami, was extremely technically sound, just not filled out as much as it should have been.
Even disliking it, I still saw how stylish and imaginative it was, akin to the OG MGS. The last half and parts of gameplay were very unferwhelming thanks to Konami. I wonder how it could’ve ended if MGS5 have been given the time wasted on that zombie survival flick.
For me it was basically that every encounter should have been multiplied by three. Those little checkpoints being two soldiers aren't worth it, and it's the same up the line. Even the big stuff almost always feels empty.
Sniper Elite 4 and 5 are comparable in terms of stealth mechanic quality, but their bases are actually filled in and they're better games for it. MGS5 could have been that, and I'm pretty sure Kojima wanted it to be that, but they pulled the plug and shipped a partial game instead.
Yeah. It ended up as a Pokemon Go with soviet solders, kek, istead off a full flashed masterpiece. And it’s depressing.
I’m happy tho that MG:R happened. Platinum Games did it in their own way, but they didn’t hold any punches. Unlike Kojima, they had time to do what they wanted to achieve, and even though it’s a niche game, it was a delight.
I think this is compounded by his reputation goes past just his fans.
I actually don’t think I’ve ever played a Kojima game and I don’t know that I ever will but even I understand he has a reputation of making extremely solid games even if it means he’s fighting tooth and nail to continue that trend.
Because he’s one of the few devs with true name recognition. All video game awards shows have always been chasing the Oscars but the film industry is full of massive celebrities. Not just stars but directors and even some writers and producers.
So Kojima has that. Plus his work always shows well. It’s usually something unique and cinematic.
Which seems a fruitless ambition, the talents required to be great at both are very different, charisma and attractiveness are much more important in the film industry. People will naturally like those stars more because their job is in part to be likable
Why other game devs don’t get that much recognition or screen time?
Probably because Geoff Keighle and Hideo Kojima are great friends. Game Awards announced 30 seconds limit for speeches, but those only apply to everyone else, not friends.
Because it’s an honest portrayal of America at that time. It makes racists look bad and it shows that the N-word itself isn’t the source of the pain, it’s how the label is used.
Apparently I'm in the minority here.
Subtitles drive me insane, and I always turn them off. My eyes always get drawn to the subtitles so I miss what's happening onscreen. I also read faster than the dialog is spoken, but my brain gets interrupted by the spoken dialog while it's processing what I just read, so I get the same information twice but struggle to retain the actual meaning. I have no idea how anyone can tolerate subtitles unless they actually need them.
I tend to watch everything I can with subtitles these days, watching old stuff again it's amazing just how much I was missing, either through sound design issues or just zoning out momentarily. The only issue is when the subtitles get ahead of the dialogue and you end up with a bit of a spoiler, albeit only by a few seconds.
I've also discovered some absolute gems of sounds/music being subtitled, one of my favourite ever being from the TV show Taskmaster, the sound effect of [he strums balalaika tunelessly], which added so much more than just hearing him strum tunelessly did.
The only issue is when the subtitles get ahead of the dialogue and you end up with a bit of a spoiler, albeit only by a few seconds.
This is the only real criticism of subtitles that I'll agree with, since you'll sometimes have a joke juimed because you'll read ahead of the dialog, but I'll take that any day over missing bits of story or jokes and either repeatedly rolling back to try to hear/understand something (and ruining the experience) or just not enjoying what I'm watching.
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