Hideo Kojima has said that the upcoming Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain will be the ‘last’ entry in the ‘Solid’ saga of the long-running stealth-action franchise.
“I always say this will be my last Metal Gear, but the games in the series that I’ve personally produced – Metal [Gear] on MSX, Metal Gear 2, Metal Gear Solid 1, 2, 3, 4 and Peace Walker – and now Metal Gear Solid 5 constitute a single Metal Gear saga,” said Kojima-san. “With Metal Gear Solid 5 I’m finally closing the loop on that saga. In that sense, this will be the final Metal Gear Solid. To me, this is the last Metal Gear.”
Kojima-san has of course previously expressed his interest in leaving the Metal Gear franchise behind, and originally said that he’d do so after completing Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater. And we all know how that turned out.
Elsewhere, the Kojima Productions boss shared a few more details on Snake in The Phantom Pain, who apparently won’t have much of a speaking role this time around.
“As much as possible, Snake will act based on the player rather than doing things like making spontaneous comments or flirting with women,” he said. “In fact. [sic] this time, Snake won’t really speak much at all. MGS5 is an open world game focused on giving freedom to the player who will drive Snake’s action. Snake himself will be more of a silent protagonist similar to Mad Max in Mad Max 2. It’s the characters around him who will expand the story.”
Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain is due out worldwide on September 1, 2015 for PlayStation 4, PlayStation 3, PC, Xbox One, and Xbox 360.