Did Kojima ever give a real reason as to why he sacked Hayter? I think he said they were trying to move the series in a new direction, but then all the returning voice actors kept the same actors in English and Japanese except for Boss.
Ground Zeros and Phantom Pain should have been combined into one game. As I felt more atmosphere in Ground Zeros than Phantom Pain. Going by the trailers for Phantom Pain only, it looks like we would return to Gitmo as they showed some American soliders beating up detainees and even shooting on in Cold Blood. Other issue is the so called Chapter 3 business. And the African village scenes were just not shock value enough as the whole world felt depopulated with only soldiers running around. No civies of any type and we couldn't use the Metal Gear we created either. The game was rushed now when I think about it. It had potential to be greater than Witcher 3 but has fallen very short as the years have gone by.
Kojima flat out said that you could return to Camp Omega in Phantom Pain, but it seems that was cut entirely. Which is a shame since I agree that Camp Omega felt more atmospheric than the open worlds of TPP. I never felt safe in Camp Omega; it had a claustrophobic structure which forced you to be in close with guards. You don't really get that with the wide open spaces of Afghanistan and Africa. Sure, the base interiors had that feel, but for 95% of the game you had a lot more space to work with and thus an easier time evading guards. Getting caught in Camp Omega was tense because you had nowhere to run to and you had to think about where you were going to hide. Meanwhile in Phantom Pain, you could just run off to some bushes a mile away and the guards eventually forget about you.
I always assumed it was Kojima's Hollywood celebrity boner. He wanted to get rid of Hayter in 3 and 4 too and get Kurt Russel. This time he had the money to do it and got Sutherland. I think if David Hayter really turned up and voiced Big Boss at the end of the game a lot of my goodwill for the game and Kojima would have returned.
I'm sure someone else has a better idea than this, but I'd probably have Mantis ask Snake about other movies his actor has been in. Not perfect, but it's the best equivalent I can think of right now.
It would be kinda cool if it were on a streaming service and it checks your recent history and makes vague references to it, like "You like gangster movies, don't you?" "You've been watching a lot of horror movies, haven't you?" And depending on the service, it could directly reference popular stuff the person had been watching.
The skull fights are actually pretty satisfying (especially the counter animations where you use there own sword against them) but yeah Much like the 4 horsemen in Metal gear 2, the camO genome soldiers in MGS1, the tenge commandos in MGS2, the ocelot unit in mgs3, and the Haven troopers in mgs4 at the end of the day they’re just Gangs of four really tough mooks and not individual characters with interesting gimmicks or strategies.
I wish the game had had scenarios either in missions or the open world where you’d see conflict between the Soviets and Mujahadeen and the Soviets in Afghanistan. Or the PMCs in Africa getting into fights with each other with XOF thrown into the mix from time to time... would’ve made the world feel more alive
Kojima swapped the long ass cutscenes from MGS4 for long ass action. And just went way over budget or time I guess. Doesn't help that Konami was breathing down his neck. And we saw the same shit with Death Stranding. If the guys at Witcher 3 can get it just right, idk why Kojima couldn't.