Sense: A Metal Gear Solid 4 Analysis

I think the primary argument for the ‘Phantom Pain Theory’ is less of ‘MGSV was intended to be bad,’ and more along the lines of ‘MGSV was designed to feel like something was missing.’

You releasing this just after the game was shit talked on Jacob Geller‘s charity stream seems like a real power move :D

at the end it is said, that it's sad that they have less and less views; this channeld helped me so much of making sense about all of this and actulally helps me see lots of hidden beauty, basically enabling me to appreciate it- this shouldnt be sold short or underestimated. thanks a lot, and all the patreons' support is speaking for itself!!!

The first half of this video has made me realize that the eventual MGS4 port will lack analog control entirely... Hello? Sony? I need a PS3, STAT.

Just now realizing the solid eye night vision was included for people who may have not had great sound systems. It’s to give you the power of vision to get through all the sections since you wouldn’t have the power of sound.

As someone who’s favorite game in this series has been mgs4 for a long time this is probably the best analysis/breakdown of its intricacies I’ve seen. I’ve always intuitively known what you said about the game’s gameplay in terms of how it forces you to get so immersed in it that you use your very basest of senses to plan, feeling like something of a real stealth soldier more so than any other game in the series, but I think I never really was quite able to verbalize that intuition until this video. Something I’ve also found quite compelling about the game is that with the first 3 games you could reasonably argue that one word theme is something that was controlled by powerful entities for their own gain. In mgs1, genes were controlled to create useful super soldiers for the U.S. and essentially the patriots if you add the lore of the other games to it, in MGS2 memes were controlled by the patriots to more easily assert their power over society, in MGS3 the rival nation-states of the Cold War controlled the scene to make their populaces more prone to wanting to carry out their geopolitical interests. Mgs4, in a sense (teehee), is the logical conclusion that follows when the former 3 themes are kept under control. He who controls the populaces genetic destiny and inputs, the information that they receive and perpetuate, and the overall scene or context that they believe themselves to exist in controls their idea of reality, their perception, their sense. He who controls the past controls the present, and he who controls the present controls the future. Once again this was a marvelous video, and your certainly one of the most thought provoking video essayists on this platform.

Another fantastic entry in this series! As an aside - the idea that difficulty settings can be looked at as "engagement requirements" is a fascinating one.

babe wake up new leadhead vid

Your analysis are always so pleasant to listen to !

The Usage of the Flashbacks when you talk about previous games is also a very nice touch and i love it.

The surround sound in Afghanistan was one of the first things I noticed too. I was so taken aback by how "realistic" (I have nothing to compare it to) it was. It really made me realise how little context I had on how war could affect someone, what someone could go through. For the first time in a game ever, I really felt like I was in a middle of a battleground.

1:25 I've been arguing that for a couple years. Kojima might have envisioned every metal gear since 2 to be the last but it does not mean he didn't put passion it. Before MGS5 the fans who didn't liked something in the series would straight up say it, people who didn't liked MGS2 would straight call Kojima a self indulgent hack who lost his mind but after MGS5, more specifically since when it was announced that Keifer Sutherland would be Big Boss VA(i'm sure people here heard about the "Hayter is sick and can't do the Snake voice anymore" hoax), suddenly a ocean of coping, borderline conspiracy theory rethoric, started flooding the community. Whatever is your opinion on V, it's clear the community dived so deep in their expectations for V that it broke them. I mean, just look at the insanity r/ NeverBeGameOver turned in to by the time Death Strabding's release date was announced.

This is the most elaborate way of saying 'this is getting old real fast' I've seen.

I always interpreted the various ‘retcons’ in the series as certain characters not having the same information as other characters, creating a situation where the audience hears two either completely or mildly different sides to the same event. It’s a pretty natural conclusion to come to given how misled Liquid was about Les Enfant Terrible, not to mention countless other characters throughout the series. This game felt less like ‘sabotage’ to me and more like ‘crafting a more well-rounded experience that recontextualizes everything we had seen before,’ something MGSV also does, but in a much more extreme way. That said, I personally love 4 and V’s stories, and idk if it’s just because I gave them the benefit of the doubt about some of the things I didn’t like about them, or if I just have poor taste 😂

This was a great video, and probably one of my favorite MGS videos so far. MGS4 has always felt like a fairly complicated entry in this series, and while there were definitely points in your previous video that I agreed with, I feel like this was a much more nuanced take on the game that I enjoyed. Thank you!

The fact you're passionate about it is what matters - MGS means so much to so many people, and we get a lot out of these videos, too. You keep doing you. We all gotta survive.

these videos change the way i see games i've played 100 times for over a decade. thank you!

I don’t understand people who think mgs5 is bad. The story takes a backseat and isn’t a satisfying narrative, sure. But as an actual game, I think it has the strongest gameplay in the entire series and is the deepest and most forward thinking stealth game ever made. There aren’t other games that can really satisfy the stealth gameplay loop that 5 has just due to the massive amount of emergent interactions they plan for and how the world and enemies react to just about anything. Personally mgs5 felt like a response to the valid criticisms of mgs4 being called more of a 10 hour film than a game, the story isn’t the focus in 5 and it really shows that kojima can design a really fun modern stealth game. Mgs4 had solid gameplay but there was just so little of it and the actual level design often was pretty weak imo, for example you usually don’t have to worry about hiding bodies in 4 because the environments are so small and there are so few enemies in them so you can often just walk around tranquilizing everyone you see and not have to worry about raising an alert. You could interact with the expanded systems in fun ways but there’s very little incentive to do so because infinite ammo tranquilizers and his active camo makes stealth trivial on normal and hard at least. It had lots of good ideas that would be expanded upon in 5, most notably the emergent npc interactions and the ability to just sort of sit and observe guards change patrols, go to sleep, talk, get distracted, etc.

Your passion shines through. I've been adoring this series the last couple days and it's given me some food for thought to mull over in am otherwise quiet work day.

this is my favorite video in this series. the enjoyment you got out of the replay really shines through