ANC Presents: Solid Boys: Operative Briefing

[00:01:02] Welcome to a new series. I have no name for this. Are we going to call it Solid Boys or the Metal Gear experience or something like that? I've just been calling it Kojima Quest, just off the top of my head. Kojima Quest. I don't know, but yeah, whatever you want to call it. Kojima Quest is not bad. Hey, this is Metal Gear in the introductory episode. We're just talking Metal Gear before we actually jump into the whole series.

[00:01:29] We're going to be covering every game in the series, if we can. I'm going to try to do one episode released every other month. First one is going to be late February. And we're going to go all the way from Metal Gear on the MSX all the way to PS4. Yeah, because Survive was the last one on PS4. I'm a wolf.

[00:01:59] Ended with a whimper. I've been dying ever since everybody's been saying Metal Gear, Metal Gear. I just wanted to do the solid sick. Metal Gear. No, it's more of a question. Metal Gear. Metal Gear. Oh my God. So you guys heard Eric already from the Unlockables. Eric, introduce yourself.

[00:02:25] Hello, Chris. My name is Eric. I host the Unlockables podcast, which I build the story of video games, the people who play them and the memories made along the way. But I'm most infamously known for my long running, really too long Kingdom Hearts series that's been going on for three years. And you're almost done with that, right? Yes. Depends on when this episode comes out. We might be finished. So yeah, we're like, we're right around the corner from being done. And then I can retire from podcasting for good. From one bullshit series to another.

[00:02:55] Yeah, it's actually kind of poetic because I was just kind of like, what crazy thing am I going to obsess over for the next year now that this is wrapped up? So this is perfect timing for this. Right, right. Right. So this actually, the idea started because I told you, hey, let's do Metal Gear at some point, like guiding keys. And you're like, cool, let's get Keith involved. I'm like, sweet, let's do it. And then I told Thrak, and he's like, I've never played Metal Gear. I want to play Metal Gear 5.

[00:03:24] And I'm like, just play them all with us. Just come on. So Thrak, who are you? Why are you here? Hi, Chris. Hi, Novel Console fans. It's back. It's back from the dead, despite my best attempts to do it earlier. But yes, my name is Thrak. I co-host the 3DO Experience with Bill, which is us chronicling the history of the 3DO. The console, the company, the games, all that crazy shit. It's a good, fun time. Which is, also, I'm a member of the Superpod Network, as this show is.

[00:03:54] So I guest on those shows all the time, the network specials. So yeah, that's what I do. I have played some Metal Gear games before, but my history isn't as super comprehensive. I've only beaten one game in the series before this. So yeah, this will be... Which one? Revengeance? It was Metal Gear Solid 3, Snake Eater. Yeah, I played it on the PS2 like 10 years ago now. So it'll be a fresh experience when we get to it.

[00:04:21] So I've been looking forward to playing this series for a very long time. Sweet. And last but not least, the brains of the whole operation, the guy that's going to decode everything for us, Keith. Oh, I didn't realize I was that important to this product. Shit. I've been saying it on the chat nonstop that you are here for your brains. He's not reading the chat. Every time I come into the chat, there's like 50 messages that I read. I'm like, I don't even know where to start.

[00:04:52] Yeah, hi. I am Keith Gasper, a.k.a. Gaseous Aardvark. And I have the host of the MainQuest podcast, which is a retro gaming podcast. And the caveat there is that I am replaying and reliving my memories of all the games that I played growing up.

[00:05:15] And oftentimes having friends of the show on and sometimes not, depending on what game is being talked about. But yeah, I appreciate you guys reaching out to me and having me part of this project. I can never say no to something like this. And if you guys are familiar with my show, if you're coming to this and are familiar with the show, you will know that I did a comprehensive lore breakdown of the Resident Evil games.

[00:05:42] And so this was kind of like Eric, right up my alley. So everybody has been on a novel console before except for Keith. Uh-oh. Do I have to assume the position? Not yet. That's on your third appearance. So. Yeah, with your punch card. Oh, I don't have it on me. Yeah, right.

[00:06:11] So because everybody else has been on the Loading Memories episode and Keith hasn't. Why don't you tell me about your favorite games? What you grew up playing? What you're looking to get into regularly when you play all that stuff. Oh, my favorite games? Dude, I wasn't ready for something like that.

[00:06:36] So I know you've done a series on a long-running series as well. Yeah, as I just mentioned, I tackled all the Resident Evil games, did a whole lore dump on that. And I guess maybe through Stockholm Syndrome, I've learned to love all of those games. A lot of them aren't. I wouldn't say they're very good. Even six? Even six. I wouldn't say they're particular.

[00:07:05] Some of them are... Anyway, that's besides the point. I have grown to love Resident Evil. And I've always said that Final Fantasy VII was probably one of my favorite Final Fantasies, if not one of my favorite games. And so that's kind of where I sit currently without thinking too hard about it.

[00:07:29] But, I mean, I grew up pretty much playing everything from the NES all the way up until modern day. I've never not owned a console or had a console in the house to play. And most of my experiences are with JRPGs. I feel like I've fallen off within the past ten years just because...

[00:07:58] I don't know. They're too... I'm going to be the person everybody hates on this podcast. They're a little too weeby for me. There's something... With the advent of voice acting, it's just gotten a little weird for me. So unless you've got some silent protagonists and stuff or your JRPGs mostly text that I could read, that's cool. But I don't need the voice acting.

[00:08:27] The voice acting is real breathy and cringy to me. And I just... I can't do it. I don't know if that answered any of your questions, by the way. I have never really heard that take that you hate... That somebody hates some modern voice acting. But I can respect that. And I guess you could say, oh yeah, well you should just listen to the Japanese voice track and just do the subs.

[00:08:56] And I don't know. I just can't do that either. I can't remember the last modern JRPG I actually played. You didn't play the Final Fantasy VII remakes? I played something after that, I think. I did play the first remake. Whatever they... I remember us talking about XVI. Did you play XVI? Yeah, that wasn't weeby though. That wasn't like... It was trying to be way too American. You know? It's like the most Western Final Fantasy.

[00:09:27] Persona. I wouldn't... I don't know anything about Persona. I would... I would err on... I would err on probably not. I have Persona 5. I just... I haven't played it. I think the voice acting in this is very good. But, you know. Yeah. Yeah. They're pretty good.

[00:09:51] Coming from somebody who spent more than 250 hours between the original Persona 5 and Persona 5 Royal. So... Wow. I just think they're... That game is fantastic. Even though getting into it is fucking bullshit. Having a 10 hour, you know, tutorial intro is absolutely ridiculous. But... That's why I haven't gotten more than 10 hours into it. I agree though. I think it... You also never finished 4. No. Because I'm a little bitch.

[00:10:21] What was that? No, I was going to say I agree with you. I finished it last year and I just... You know. All the little nitpicks I would have about that game are just kind of negated by just how much style that game oozes. So much style from the soundtrack to the way it presents itself. Oh yeah. So, yeah. Oh, dude. The music. The music's so good. The fucking music's so good. So, Thrak. Yes. Let's get on with you. Let's go in reverse order. Um... What are you...

[00:10:50] You said you played some Metal Gear. Yeah. You played 3. Uh... Why do you want to play the series? Well, it's a series that I've known for a very, very long time. Like I remember back in like middle school time, you know? Like... Middle school is really the time where it's like, oh, I'm starting to like play more sort of like adult video games or like more mature shit, you know? And then I'm having like my peers playing other stuff as well. Because I grew up around like Nintendo stuff and Sega stuff.

[00:11:17] So, it was really the first time people were obsessing over, say, a non-Nintendo or Sega IP with Metal Gear. Because I had some friends in middle school who loved Metal Gear. And they're like, oh, you really need to play the series. It's so fucking cool. And as my life has persisted and my friends have come and gone, there's always been one who's just obsessed with Kojima and everything he does. And it's like... It's like, y'all need to calm down. Y'all really need to calm down with glazing this man up. But I have dabbled in the series over the years.

[00:11:46] Like, as I said, I've beaten Metal Gear Solid 3. I played a lot of MGS1, but I never properly finished it on the PlayStation. But MGS3, I had the subsistence. So, I played a bit of Metal Gear 1 and Metal Gear 2. I had a copy of Metal Gear for the NES. And I played through a good chunk of that, but I never beat it. And then I watched somebody play or somebody watch Metal Gear Solid 4 for a couple hours. And I was like, do you ever push a button in this game? Like, what's the thing?

[00:12:18] And then I've dabbled in Revengeance, Metal Gear Rising. But I've never, like, fully gone through. So, it's a series that's like, I should just do my due diligence. And finally sit down and just see what the whole deal is with this. You know what I mean? So, just might as well. Okay. What about you, Eric? Yes, first of all, I want to say Keith was the only one that, like, followed the rules of the doc and said his codename. So, I guess I will throw my codename in there, too.

[00:12:43] I'm going by Liquid Wombat for the duration of this series. Because the wombat is very near and dear to my heart. But, yeah, in terms of my experience with Metal Gear, it's almost as bare bones as you could possibly be. Which seems like an impossibility for, like, someone in our circle who, like, talks about video games semi-seriously. To not have literally any experience with Metal Gear in any capacity. Or with Kojima in any capacity.

[00:13:12] So, no Metal Gear, no Death Stranding. Like, I don't want to say I've avoided the man like the plague. But I just, like, have never gone out of my way to, like, seek out any kind of Kojima thing that has been made. And I don't know if that's just because I'm stuck in my own insane world with Tetsuya Nomura as, like, one of the top-ranked Nomura glazers on the internet. So, I just don't. I don't know if that's the reason why. My literal only experience with any kind of, like, Metal Gear anything is when Snake was put in Smash Bros. Brawl.

[00:13:42] That was it. That was kind of how I, like, got into the series. That's kind of how I just, like, learned the semi-peripheral things that I just picked up on my peripheral from just, like, that experience right there. And I've seen, like, I saw, like, Video Game Dunkey make a couple videos, like, when Metal Gear Solid V came out. And that looked pretty cool. But that's just, that's literally the extent to which I went to engage with the series. And now kind of getting into this podcast circle we're all kind of in together.

[00:14:08] And hearing people talk about that game and just people who appreciate gaming in general talking about how great the Metal Gear series is across the board. I've been meaning to go back to it and play it and check it out and fill that hole in my history. And finally kind of engage with Kojima and see what the deal is with him. Because I just don't know. What's the deal with Kojima? He's just this guy that, like, posts, like, funny pictures on Instagram to me. Because I follow him on Instagram and he just posts, like, a funny picture, like, every day of him doing something crazy.

[00:14:38] So. Yeah. A little fun, a little, a quick little fun fact. Me and Kojima have the same birthday. Ooh, there you go. August? August the 24th. August babies. Hell yeah. What's up, brother? So you're the most, like, universally aligned with him then in terms of, like, the horoscopes and stuff. I mean, I guess I can be a bit of a pretentious twat from here and there as well, which Kojima is. But, but, but he, but Kojima is a lovable pretentious twat.

[00:15:08] You know what I mean? Like, I feel like it's everybody else who makes it bad. Where it's like, Kojima's, I don't get the sense he's full of himself. He just has these grand ideas and people don't like to tell him no. And so it's everybody else who, like, you know, glazes him up. I hope you guys are ready because you guys, you're outnumbered by two Virgos. So. And the spirit of a Virgo in Kojima. So. I mean. I'm looking forward to. Sorry, Chris. Go ahead.

[00:15:38] I was just going to say, I'm looking forward to Eric's character arc here. Going from wearing 13 different belts to roaming around in cardboard boxes. He's going to be wearing an eye patch at a certain point. You may see 13 different incarnations of me across the series. It may just be the different states of mind that I'm in. I don't know. He's got. Yeah. He's going to pick up a smoking habit. Yep. By the end of the series, he's going to be wanting to have twins so he can name them

[00:16:07] David and I don't remember. Solid Snake and Liquid Snake. Yeah. I got on. I got another one on the way so I can just legally change both their names. It's fine. I won't tell my wife. Oh, yeah. So. That'll work perfect. Thrak, what is your name? Your animal name. My code name? You didn't. Okay. Gassy Flamingo. Okay. A lot of gas on this podcast. What was your second, Keith? Okay, you guys are going to. Gaseous Aardvark.

[00:16:36] But so, okay. Here's the thing. You guys are going to be annoyed with me. Every Metal Gear game has different villains. Like there's a different theme for their villains. And so I'm going to go with whatever theme of the game that we're covering. So, you know, like Metal Gear Solid.

[00:16:58] Like, yeah, I would go with like a gaseous, a gaseous Aardvark or whatever because there's like Psycho Mantis and. Vulcan Raven. Sniper Wolf and stuff like that. Vulcan Raven. And then Metal Gear Solid 2 has. I think they just have like. Fat man. Names for people. Yeah, just like Fat Man. That was my favorite. Or like, I forgot what the woman with the giant rail gun is. Fortune.

[00:17:28] Yeah. Fortune. So I'm just going to be like, I don't know, flannel guy. Flannel guy. Just something generic. Yeah. And then Metal Gear Solid 3 has like emotions. The fury. The pain. The end. The sorrow. Yeah. The sorrow. Yes. The joy. And I'll be the depression. Yeah, right. I'll be the anxiety. Yeah. The joy is one of them. Is that? Hmm. The anxious.

[00:17:57] It's the boss. Oh, okay. Oh, yeah. I forgot you. Yeah. Because it was the sorrow and it's stupid. See, I remember a bit of MGS3. It's a game you don't forget. No, no, not at all. So, Keith, you are the only one that has actually played most of them out of the other three apart from me. Why do you want to go back into it? What's up with Metal Gear and Keith? Oh, yeah, man.

[00:18:26] I mean, I grew up with it. I played the, well, okay, so I didn't play Metal Gear and Metal Gear Snake's Revenge. I did not know those existed until after Metal Gear Solid 2. So, yeah, I played the first Metal Gear Solid when it came out on the PlayStation and was hooked on the franchise since then.

[00:18:53] I mean, as much as I just dumped on anime like five minutes ago, I, you know, I love anime. At least anime from like the late 80s through the 90s. Kind of after that, I just, I fell off. It just wasn't for me after that point. And Metal Gear is like, it's full-on anime, but it's like this weird militaristic anime almost.

[00:19:22] The plot is completely, completely nonsensical, which we're going to find out very soon going through this. And the plot isn't what I come to Metal Gear for, though. I had always come to it for the gameplay. And so kind of like my concept of my show, if I may plug it one more time. It's just a curiosity to come back to these games after all these years.

[00:19:49] And I haven't played any of them in a very, very long time. I mean, the last Metal Gear game I played was Metal Gear Solid 5. And that was almost 10 years ago at this point. You don't have to say it. Actually, yeah, it was 10 years ago because I was living by myself. And that's the only thing that I played for months. And I had 200 plus hours in it. And I didn't need to even do everything on 5. That's believable. Yeah. So.

[00:20:18] Yeah. Yeah. You can spend a lot of time playing that game. The only one I really haven't played is Metal Gear Solid 4. And what I mean by I really haven't played is that I haven't played it. And I haven't played a lot of the side games. So like the stuff on the Vita and stuff like that. VR missions and all that stuff. So, yeah. Oh. Really excited to go through all of these again.

[00:20:48] So hopefully those all get brought modern to in the second collection, including four. I am already in plans of making sure that we can all play four in original hardware. I'm collecting PS3s right now so that I can send that PS3 to you guys. Hopefully you don't have to do that. Hopefully. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Hopefully. We'll just all drive down to your place and we'll spend a weekend.

[00:21:18] We'll hook up all the PS3s and play it all together. Yeah. We'll all watch the same way. I already got. Yeah. Right. I got like three of them already. So I'm missing just one more PS3 that I'm hoping to get soon. So did you say hook up all the PS3s? You want to like blow the house up? Yeah. What are you talking about? Oh, my God. My energy bill is $900 this month. Right. Goddamn PS3s are sucking up so much wattage.

[00:21:46] Remember when the news said that Al Qaeda was using PlayStation 2s to control their bombs or something stupid like that? Wasn't there like a government? That's what's going to happen at Thrax House. Wasn't there like a government? That sounds like a Metal Gear plot. Wasn't there like a bunch of PS3s as like supercomputers? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's like supercomputers by 1970s standards, but Jesus fucking Christ. All those card readers. All right. So my name is Plasma Gorilla. That suits you. That's a good one.

[00:22:16] Nice. I was going to say Gaseous Gorilla, but you know, there's too many gassy people here. But so like, like Keith, I have played all of them. I haven't beaten the PSP ones, but I have played them. I have beaten most of them except for one and two. And I was thinking about just replaying them at some point this year.

[00:22:43] And since my job gives me a lot of free time, might as well just make content out of it. So I'm subjecting Eric, Keith and Thrak to go through them and then record what hopefully doesn't turn out to be five hour episodes so that we can just talk shit about Metal Gear. Depends on the game. I think when we get to like five, it'll probably be a super long episode because there's a lot to talk about.

[00:23:07] So what I remember from five, it's long because there's just a lot of waiting and doing nothing because the story is bare bones as fuck. Yeah. Like it's basically from what I know, the gameplay, it's like Breath of the Wild before Breath of the Wild. It's very like it just drops you. It just drops you in this area and it's just like, have fun. Because my one friend who's obsessed with Kojima, I remember he bought this when it came out and I watched him play it quite a bit. But so I have a little bit of knowledge, but it's slight.

[00:23:37] Yeah, I hate it. I hate a Metal Gear Solid V. I know there's a lot of people that loved it. There are things. Yeah. Yeah. There's yeah, there's I mean, there are things to like about it. And I think maybe they bit off a little more than they could chew. They didn't finish. Then again, also one of the biggest problems, too. Yes, it feels like an unfinished game. But yeah, what Thrak was talking about with, you know, the open world thing. But you also are continuously visiting this hub area. Also.

[00:24:07] Mother base. Yeah. And you're growing it. Really annoying. Yeah. The one thing that I absolutely hated about that, and it's going to be a bit of a spoiler, is that you have different facilities within Big Shell. So you have like your medical bay and your weapons development and your jail and your barracks and all that shit in different struts.

[00:24:28] And you have to either walk to the strut, drive to the strut, or take a fucking chopper from one strut to the other so that you can go into this one place to do like one click and then go back to wherever the fuck you were so you can continue the game. And that takes motherfucking time. It is bad. But it's still Metal Gear. It's really fun to play, though. So you can make the horse shit on command. Do it.

[00:24:58] That's immersive gameplay. I know that bit because I listened to Gertzman, and there was a couple weeks ago he talked about that bit, you know. He's like, that's why he liked Kiefer Sutherland's taking over, because Kiefer Sutherland could say, do it, in a way that David Hayter never could. So, yeah. Oh, that's fucking great.

[00:25:22] So we kind of covered what we – well, actually, we didn't really cover. So this is going to go to Eric. What do you know about Metal Gear, apart from what you just said that it's Kojima? Like when you hear Metal Gear, if somebody tells you, describe to me Metal Gear right now and you've never played it, what is it? It sounds like we're being interrogated by, like, the colonel here. What do you know about Metal Gear? Yeah, right. What do you know about it? Your Codex is –

[00:25:52] Want to smell Metal Gear? Answer me. Your Codex is ringing. Yeah. Again, mostly just the things I've kind of picked up through, like, meme culture over the years. Like, you know, seeing people, like, make fake Kodak calls or, yeah, some of, like, the more, like, exaggerated voice lines or just any kind of videos or stuff. I couldn't really tell you kind of what the plot is. I didn't know until a few years ago that, like, all the snakes are, like, different characters. I thought it was just all, like, one guy.

[00:26:19] I just was like, oh, yeah, it's just, like, a game following, like, snake through the whatever. I didn't know there were different snakes even. So, yeah, I've mostly just heard it's kind of got this, like, impenetrable wall of, like, a story around it. And it's just kind of, like, generally ridiculous. And that's kind of right up my alley as a person who's carved out a niche for themselves as kind of peddling in impenetrable lore over the last couple years.

[00:26:44] So I think that's some of the things I'm most interested to find out is just kind of, like, what the actual, like, fuck are these games about? And, like, what are all the snakes? And, like, what exactly is, like, I know Metal Gear is, like, a giant robot. But I couldn't tell you, like, much more than that. I don't know if we're talking, like, Liger robots or, like, fucking, like, Gundam or anything like that. So, yeah. Yeah, I had to do the Zoids, right? The Zoids throwback.

[00:27:09] But, yeah, man, I don't really know that much about it. I don't really know that much about it. So it's more of just, like, this is a great chance. And I've been putting it off for a few years to just be able to, like, finally dive into these games and fill this hole, this history in my gaming history where people seem to have a really high regard for this game series and what Kojima has done. And I just kind of feel in the dark because at the time I just, I wasn't playing games like this.

[00:27:37] I was just kind of playing, I mean, when these games came out, like, early 2000s and stuff, I was really heavy into RPGs. And then Kingdom Hearts came out. And then, you know, fast forward to, like, the Xbox 360 days. And then I was playing, like, Call of Duty and any shooters with my friends. So, yeah, it's just, there's an impenetrable wall of fog around it. And I'm really curious to, like, go into that fog and start to, like, unravel what the hell is going on. And I'm only more excited to do it because Keith has just been constantly telling me, like, how just crazy things get. So that's really made me excited.

[00:28:08] I wouldn't say, like, the lore and the story are, like, it's not as, like, a winding road as Kingdom Hearts is. Oh, definitely not. I think it's just because of the way the games were released. They tell different points of the story on a straight timeline. So, like, Metal Gear Solid 1 and 2 are, like, consecutive. And then 3 is, like, a prequel.

[00:28:37] And then 4 is, like, way in the future. And then 5 is, like, a prequel but also a sequel. So it's just kind of like... Oh, well, I'm already used to jumping around. If we played them all in... Yeah, if we played them all in chronological order, the story would totally make sense. But because we're playing them by release date, right? It's gonna feel a little weird. But we'll get it.

[00:29:02] I think if you play them in chronological order, you'd jump all over the place in terms of, like, how games were made. So it would just be, like... Like, imagine playing all of, like, Metal Gear 5, right? Metal Gear Solid 5. And then you jump to the MSX Metal Gear. It's like, that's a fucking... Which is how it goes. Yeah. Right. Keith, I wanna see if you think the same way as I do.

[00:29:27] I don't think the story in Metal Gear gets crazy until that final conversation, that phone conversation at the end of Metal Gear Solid 1, where one of the characters is talking to somebody and all you hear is one side of the conversation. And then in 2, it starts in a way. And then it kind of is its own little contained story that kind of has to do a little bit with that final conversation of one.

[00:29:55] And then at the end, that other conversation, it just, like, throws a wrench into the whole fucking thing and ruins everything. And then that's when the story fucking breaks down and it's back and forth between all of these generations of people. It's just, like, I feel like probably original Metal Gear all the way through the end of Solid 2 is pretty followable. Then after that, it's just, what the fuck? Yeah, yeah. You feel that way, Keith?

[00:30:24] Man, I mean, it's been a while since I've kind of reviewed the story of those games. I know them vaguely, just going off of the memory of having played them. But, I mean, there's always... The thing about the individual stories in the individual games is that it's just, like, this run-of-the-mill tactical espionage-type missions.

[00:30:54] But then also, some of the soldiers, for whatever reason, are, like, cyber ninjas and people are vampires for some reason. And it just... It's very anime. And so when I say, like, the story gets, like, really off the rails because it's just like, well... Yeah, I'm just, like, this snake Plissken motherfucker.

[00:31:19] And I have to go fight this guy who looks like he plays drums for Slipknot. Yeah. You know, so... But, like, thinking about Metal Gear Solid 2, I remember when I first played that. And, I mean, we'll get into the reasons why people hate on that game.

[00:31:43] Metal Gear Solid 2 is actually probably my favorite in the series because it's just more of one but better. And, you know, you look at the story and you're kind of like, yeah, some of this makes sense in what they're talking about. But also, what the hell is Kojima on? What is he talking about?

[00:32:07] And now, with hindsight, and where we are culturally, you look at that game and you're like, oh, yeah, like, this all totally makes sense. You know? I think, too, and particularly... And I suppose, like, had I been a little... Go ahead. I was just going to say, and had I probably been a little bit older, maybe, like, three or four years older,

[00:32:30] and actually had, like, given a shit what was going on with technology and politics and surveillance states and shit like that. Then I would have been like, oh, yeah, I can kind of see this is kind of where things are going. But, yeah. Sorry, what were you going to say?

[00:32:47] I was just going to say that, too, in particular, with the whole, you know, Arsenal gear shit, that is fucking scary compared to what's going on right now in the world with AI and all that bullshit. It is insane how in, what was it, like, 2002 that this game came out? Kojima was like, this is what 2024 and 2025 are going to be like. Like, what the hell?

[00:33:16] So, Eric, which one of these games are you most excited to play? I'd probably have to say it's any of the ones either from the PS1 or PS2 era. So, I believe that's MGS 1, 2, and 3, probably. Just because that era specifically, the PS1 and PS2 is, like, very... That's, like, a nostalgic, like, golden age for, like, video games for me. So, I just think going back to, like, that kind of style and, like, hearing how highly those games are praised on those systems specifically,

[00:33:43] like, people talk about Metal Gear Solid 1 is, like, the best game on the PlayStation. And then Metal Gear Solid 2 and 3 is, like, two of the best games on the PS2. So, it'd probably be any one of those. I just have very limited knowledge of, like, what actually happens. And I've seen very little of, like, what actually happens in, like, each game. Like, I know, like, I think in, like, Metal Gear Solid 3 is, like, when you climb, like, the long-ass ladder while the song plays or something like that. So, I'm just excited to, like, experience, like, those moments that have been, like, memed in the culture and be like, oh, that's where it came from.

[00:34:12] But it's probably definitely one of those, like, it's either Metal Gear Solid 1 or probably 2 or 3 from PS2. It's got to be one of those. What about you, Threk? Well, it's weird. I don't... There's not one specifically I'm looking forward to. It's, like, I'm kind of excited to finally get to all of them. Because a lot of them I know through, like, the big bits, you know, like, well, like, Metal Gear 1 and Metal Gear 2, I don't know a huge, like, lot about them. But, like, Metal Gear Solid 1, I want to sit down and finally finish that game. Because I've...

[00:34:41] I played... I think on PS1 it was two discs. I played all of disc 1 and then a little bit of disc 2. So, it'd be nice to finally finish that out. And, like, Metal Gear Solid 2, see that whole thing play out start to finish. Because I know some of the bits, like, say, the weird kernel bit near the end of the game. But I'm really excited to revisit Metal Gear Solid 3 because I have such fond memories of playing that game. So, I want to see if it still holds up. Like, 4 to, like, you know, be like, what the fuck is this shit?

[00:35:08] Because 4 is, like, kind of the weird one in the middle for me. And then 5 because 5 sounds like it's a super fun game. Regardless of, like, the story bits, you know. But, like, I'm also interested in Peace Walker. Because people really, really like Peace Walker. So, I think, like, all of them have equal interest for me. Because it's like, oh, they're all kind of special, unique little things, you know. But if I had to pick one, maybe 3. Just because it's the one I know. And I want to see if it lives up to what I remember.

[00:35:38] And we're getting that 3 remake, too. You also said that you want to... Yeah. Oh, yeah. I'm probably not going to play that. But, you know. Because I don't think it's, like, that much of a remake. Compared to... It's probably not going to be. Compared to, say, like, you know, Resident Evil 4 or something like that. Right. And Konami's developing it. So, I don't know how much hope I have for it personally. So, I don't know if I'm going to be getting it either. I mean, I was worried about the Silent Hill 2 remake. We'll see what happens. People seem to really like it. So, it's... That was really good.

[00:36:07] Well, that was Blooper Team. That was very good. That was Blooper Team. That wasn't Konami. Yeah, it was just Konami's name attached to it. Blooper Team decided to stop making that game. You had said in the chat that you wanted to play Twin Snakes. Are you just going to play both of Twin Snakes and PS1? I can if you want. Because I have... Like, I can get MGS1 on my Xbox through, like, the Master Collection stuff. And then I do have a copy of Twin Snakes. I would just have to hook up my Wii to play it properly on here. But I could do it.

[00:36:37] Because I personally plan on playing both 1 and Twin Snakes because they're not long games. And I really fucking love the stupidity and shit that they added to Twin Snakes because it is... If the original was anime as fuck, Twin Snakes is even worse. It's even more anime. So, it's like if MGS1 is Dragon Ball, Twin Snakes is Dragon Ball Z.

[00:37:08] It's Naruto. Oh. Oh, no. Oh, man. Yeah. Oh, dude. It's so bad. It's so good. I just want to go through it because I fucking love that game. What about you, Keith? Which one are you most excited to play or looking forward to? Hmm. Good question. I can tell you which one I'm not looking forward to. Five. Metal Gear Solid 4. Oh, really? No. Four. Four. That's the one I haven't even played.

[00:37:38] Just because it's one large cutscene. I mean, Thrak already made the joke. So, you know, it's... I don't know. There's a curiosity to it that I'm like, yeah. I'm glad I'll actually have the opportunity to play it now, hopefully. You know, I think I'm most excited to play the first few titles. You know, Metal Gear and Snick's Revenge.

[00:38:07] Um, just because I play a lot of retro games and that's just a huge blind spot for me. It's, uh... I think it's going to be interesting. I haven't played any of those, either of those games. And, um... Someone who plays a lot of old video games, it's like a curiosity to me. I want to know. Like, nobody really talks about those games other than, like, it was the beginning of the franchise. Guys, that's...

[00:38:37] That's it. Yeah, there it is. We're kind of obscure because the MSX was not a computer that was out here in America. Right. And, I mean, there was Metal Gear on the NES, but it's different from the MSX version. And then it got an NES sequel, Snake's Revenge, which is its own game that Kojima wasn't even involved with. So we didn't even get Metal Gear 2 Solid Snake until the MGS3 subsistence version. Yeah. Right?

[00:39:02] I mean, Kojima wasn't even Kojima until after he made Police Knots. Yeah. That's kind of... Or Snatcher. When he got his name on the, you know... Snatcher's awesome. Snatcher as well, yeah. I think, uh, Metal Gear 1 and 2 are important games because they get referenced throughout the entire series. Um, they're referenced a lot in one, uh, characters from one are referenced all the way through the rest of the series.

[00:39:29] And there are a lot of parallels between some characters in one and two and then in four. And even though I don't know how much story they could put in an MSX game, um, there are reverberations of it throughout the entire series. And they are semi-important to who these characters are and how they interact with the world and everything. Because, you know, you start Metal Gear Solid 1, there's this guy, he's talking about Sansibar Land.

[00:39:58] And you're like, what the fuck is Sansibar Land? So. That's one thing I'll give Kojima credit for is that, like, each entry in this series feels important. Like, all the mainline ones play a part in this big tale that he's telling. So there's not any that's like, oh, that's like a lesser one or that one's like, no, they're all on the same level. It's like, no, you kind of need to play them all to know what's going on. I was going to say that, uh, I think Zanzibar is a Halo map too, so. Oh my God.

[00:40:28] It's a village old song. Yeah, I think that's my connection right there. What was I going to say? Oh, to Thrak's point. Yeah. Even when you play five, even if you play ground zeroes, if you haven't played Peace Walker, you're missing a huge part of the story. I never played Peace Walker. So I felt like I was missing a lot when I got to five. And I hear a lot of great things about Peace Walker. Like people really braze that one. We'll find out. Uh, okay.

[00:40:57] So Kojima, uh, general thoughts. It's on Kojima. Who, who wants to pick this one up? He seems. This is where the podcast becomes three hours long. He seems like a nice guy. He has a huge love for cinema. Like he's not a bad game designer. I think there are better ones than him. Um, but I just think. I don't have anything against him personally. I just think his like. His fan base is so like toxic.

[00:41:25] And so like praising of him that it has soured a lot of people on the man himself. You know? It's like the whole like the Jeff Keighley thing. You know? Like every year Jeff Keighley wheels out Kojima. And he's like, oh, he's like the best thing ever. I love this man. Blah, blah, blah, blah. Right? And it's just like, yeah, yeah. We get it. We get it. You know what I mean? But honestly, like. Of all the, the weird esoteric Japanese game designers. You know? Like your Nomuras. Your Yoko Taros. Your Suda 51s.

[00:41:55] Like I think Kojima might be the most like competent of all of them. You know? But. But I have nothing against him. He's earned his place in history. Eric? Yeah. I used to kind of. I'm glad Thrak said that. Because he kind of adds a little bit of context to like my relationship with Kojima. Where I kind of went into this like kind of a little bit annoyed by him. Because I felt like everybody just like kind of like jerked him off and glazed him. As Thrak said. But looking at it now. Yeah.

[00:42:24] I could see how that could be his fan base. I'm very hesitant. And I'm very against kind of like the narrative of the romanticization of like the solo game dev. Right? Like oh it's Kojima's game. It's Miyamoto. It's Nomura. So I personally have gone out of my way in my Kingdom Hearts series to like be like yes. Nomura is the creative force behind the series. But to highlight other people on the dev team that were just as instrumental as him. Like without these people he wouldn't have succeeded. So it kind of annoys me when people are just like oh yeah.

[00:42:54] Like Kojima made Metal Gear. And like so it's like he wouldn't have been able to make it without his team of people. So I kind of like I said I kind of bristle at that like romanticization of the solo game dev. Right? Unless somebody's like legitimately making something by themselves like Vampire Survivors or Bellacho or something. So but yeah. I think he probably is just a quirky Japanese game maker. And kind of hearing that the way he puts the story together with Metal Gear. And like each game has something specific to say about the overall larger narrative.

[00:43:24] Makes me warm up to him a little bit more. Because that's what my patron saint of my show Nomura does. Everything. Even though there's like a million fucking different games that he's put out across like six systems. Everything has its place in the overall arching narrative. And that's something that I really really appreciate. So I think I'll be able to warm up to him a little bit as we go through the games. And just kind of see like what he's doing. And maybe realize that yeah he himself is not like the insufferable game designer. It's kind of the fans that kind of make this hullabaloo like around him.

[00:43:54] And it's not even like the only time that people do that. Like I don't feel the same way about Shigeru Miyamoto that I felt about Kojima. And I feel like his fans too me included can talk about so much about how great of a designer he is. And kind of glaze him as well. So yeah I'm just kind of curious to get to know him a little bit better. And just see what he's all about. Because yeah I only have like the Instagram photos that I see of him to go off of. And just kind of like what people have said around him. I do feel like I'm a little bit more sympathetic towards him.

[00:44:23] Because I think the way that his relationship with Konami ended was pretty bullshit. And the way that they treated him kind of going out the door after the years of kind of hard work that he had given them. And made a lot of successful games and a lot of money for them very clearly. So I think the way they treated him in the end was not spectacular. I think with the going off on the solo dev thing with Kojima. It doesn't help that almost all the Metal Gear games it says a Hideo Kojima game. Like he attaches it his name to it.

[00:44:52] The way say like a movie director would. And now he has his own production company that has his name on it. Yeah exactly. But I think like with Miyamoto he never really put himself out there. True. You know what I mean? Like he was always like it wasn't really until like I don't know like the GameCube era. Where he became more of like a prominent figure for Nintendo. You know he was just kind of in the background doing his thing. But over the years he's become more of a prominent guy. He's kind of built this mythos around him.

[00:45:19] Whereas like he was yeah he was in the trenches for like 30 years. Oh yeah. And Kojima is in the trenches as well. True true. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah he's not going to take any more of a role like he did with Metal Gear Solid 1. Because I don't know if you guys know this. But for that game he designed every single room. He designed the pattern that every single soldier would take in that room.

[00:45:44] So he cut his teeth in that game by doing what he wanted and just shoving out this amazing product. But after that he never did that again. Imagine Keith if he would have done that shit with Metal Gear Solid 2 or 3 with how big they are. Design every single little aspect of the game. It would have been insane.

[00:46:11] This is going to be a really fun podcast to listen to because you guys keep freezing out. So it's all going to be new information to me. Are we still talking about Kojima? Yes. What are your thoughts on Kojima? Okay. Well I missed half of what Eric said. But I did hear what Thrak said.

[00:46:37] You know I think he is overall a very good game designer. Good programmer. Was a good programmer. I think he has a lot of great ideas to put in games. And he is very good at executing those ideas. I don't know if you guys played Death Stranding.

[00:47:05] But Death Stranding is a game where I feel like... Again he had a very good idea. He executed it very well. And maybe they should have put a little bit more restraints on him. I think he works better when he is working with more restraints. And obviously Sony gave him carte blanche to do whatever he needed to do after he left Konami. And so he made Death Stranding.

[00:47:34] Which is you know... It's a game. People like really like that game. I don't think any of it is particularly interesting. Other than like... Unfortunately. I just... I could not do it. But I really wanted to keep playing it. Because it had that stupid ass Kojima fucking type of story to it. Where I was like... Yes. This is what I... It's the shit I come to Metal Gear Solid for. It was just like these really weird characters.

[00:48:03] And just having a bunch of anime nonsense. Oh yeah. And... It just... I don't know. He... Like I said... I think he works better with restraints. And I think... You know... Konami as we're going to... According to the document here. Where we're going to be talking about very soon. Konami had those restraints in place. And perhaps that was for the better. Yeah.

[00:48:30] I think most creative forces need some restriction in order to really shine through. Because otherwise they're just going to like indulge. And there's nothing wrong with indulging. But there is like a limit to it. Right. I don't... I've not played Death Stranding. But I do have it. Because when it came out on the Xbox and it was like 20 bucks. I was like yeah might as well grab it. So eventually I will sit down and try my best to play that game. To kind of see what... You know... How that goes. Because that's another like mixed response game.

[00:49:00] There's some people who love it. And there's some people who hate it. Like capital hate it. I appreciate Death Stranding. I mean it's a gorgeous game man. It looks amazing. Oh it's gorgeous. The soundtrack is fantastic. Like I said the story... I mean if... You could probably take or leave it. I loved where the story was going. I didn't get to finish it. But again I like that kind of weird archaic type of storytelling that Kojima does.

[00:49:30] Um... Everything else... Everything but the gameplay was like... This is perfect. 10 out of 10. But I don't want to play this anymore. I do think Kojima's way of writing... It has a way of engrossing you. You know? There's just something about the way he writes stuff. Where you're like... This is kind of bullshit. But it's like I'm kind of into it. You know? I kind of want to see where... Yeah. Because his thought process is very unique. So you just kind of want to see where it goes. You know? Everything you guys are saying is like right up my alley.

[00:49:59] So I'm pretty excited about that. I too... I picked up the director's cut of Death Stranding for like $20 on Steam when it was on sale. So maybe... Maybe when we're done with Metal Gear maybe we have a little dive into Death Stranding. There's like an extra content or addendum to the series or something. I think that'll be the longest game of all of these. Probably. Isn't it like 80 some? Yeah. It's really long. It's not longer than Metal Gear Solid 5. Okay. You just walk.

[00:50:27] That sounds like a perfect game for a person that has two new babies to play. It's a game where you just walk. So... Oh yeah. Yeah. Death Stranding came out during COVID if I'm not mistaking. No. Before COVID. It was 2018 I think. Okay. So I was working in Amazon during the time when it came out. So I would... Same. Go deliver packages. Deliver packages. Come home. Deliver more packages in Death Stranding.

[00:50:57] So... It was like I was working extra shifts while playing Death Stranding and it was fucking terrible. But the story and some of the gameplay just had like lizard brain neurons just shooting off left and right. And something that I really liked about Death Stranding was the way that the story was told. How it was presented. How all of these characters acted. Like their personalities. How they... How Norman Reedus would react to all of them.

[00:51:26] Because there's a point in the game where you meet a guy that every... I think every 30 minutes he kills himself for 15 seconds. 15 minutes. Brings himself back. Continues his normal life. Kills himself again. And then comes back. And it is the weirdest fucking shit. And it is done in a way where it kind of feels like Norman Reedus is in this nightmare. Or he's going fucking psychotic.

[00:51:54] And he's the only normal person in the entire world. It is such an interesting like fucking contrast between characters and what's going on in it. It's so good. But the gameplay at times is kind of bad. Quick correction. Death Stranding came out November 8th, 2019. 2019. So that's probably why you thought it was COVID. Because it was like right before. Yeah. Right before. Yeah. The pre-days. I think I was still at Amazon too.

[00:52:23] So I understand your pain, Chris. Oh, so fucking bad. I hated that job. Fucking spineless ass company. Thanks, Bezos. Just like Konami. Another spineless ass company. Though in some ways I think they were right. But... Hmm. Hmm. We'll discuss that as we go. Hmm. Not in the way they treated him as he left or got fired or whatever.

[00:52:51] But more in, as we've mentioned, like the constraints they kind of put on him to like, you know, be like, hey, like you got to finish the game and it has to get out, you know? And like you can't be too nuts about it, you know? So I liked Konami.

[00:53:07] So I liked Konami growing up. Like just do one through four.

[00:53:34] And just reverse engineer the ROMs and be like, hey, M2, do you just want to like, because they're the best emulation studio in the biz. You just have them like make up emulators and reverse engineer the ROMs so that we could play them like they've done with a bunch of other games for Konami and even like Sega. You know, maybe with that kind of era of games, it might be harder to do, but I would trust M2 to do it and do it well. I'll take remakes because that Silent Hill 2 remake was fantastic. Yeah, that's fine.

[00:54:03] Yeah, they need to remake one. Oh, definitely. Yeah, definitely. Because that game looks awful. Because I heard a rumor that they were going to do Silent Hill 3 next and I'm like, you can't do 3 next. You need 1 because 3 is a sequel to 1. So don't do 3 without the context. Keith, Konami, thoughts? Fuck Konami.

[00:54:27] I mean, like you, Chris, I grew up again with the NES and the PlayStation and Super Nintendo. There were two companies back then. It was Capcom and Konami. They're one in the same. And it was banger after banger.

[00:54:55] And none of them could do wrong. And then like 2005 hit and then it wasn't just Konami. It just wasn't Capcom. It was like almost every Japanese developer at that time just didn't know what to do anymore because the Xbox just Microsoft messed everything up with all the American developers. I don't know about that. But then also, you know. I don't know about that. But also the Sony, the PSD architecture was really hard to develop for as well. Like I think that as well.

[00:55:25] Oh, yeah. That as well. The issue from what I've seen is that it was just moving to HD assets. They were a lot slower because I think Japan was slower to go to HD, the HD format as like, say, you know, the Western like hemisphere did. You know? Yeah. Yeah. That's what caught Square Enix off guard too because they had just like finished Final Fantasy 12 and Kingdom Hearts 2 and then, yeah, 05, 06 rolled around and they were just not prepared for that transition. They tried to build like their own dev tools. Like Final Fantasy 13 was not the success they wanted it to be.

[00:55:55] And, yeah, a lot of Japanese devs around that time were just really caught flat-footed when that switch happened. Yeah. And I think a lot of them were trying to cater to a Western market. True. And that was at the time where it's like – That was a mistake. And that was at a time where like – That was a huge mistake. And that's what I mean. That's what I was alluding to was that, yeah, the Western market was a lot bigger than it had ever been. We only liked games that were brown back then, like brown and gray shaders. That's what we wanted. And it's weird because at that same time, anime was starting to rise in popularity and become mainstream.

[00:56:25] So it took a while for like – I think where we are now, it's perfect. Like you get your weeby Japanese games, you get your like hardcore Western games, and you get stuff that's in the middle. Like that variety like has been settled. So – but yeah, like – but yeah. Yeah, I guess I can add my thoughts in on Konami. Yeah, I recognize them as like one of the devs back in the day, right? Like NES, Super Nintendo. They had a lot of huge hits.

[00:56:52] They're really integral to like the NES console Western American market era of the history of the video game market, right? I don't know all the details about like what went down between like Kojima and Konami, and it very well may have been a thing where like Kojima was just kind of buckling against his restraints that Konami had put on him. But yeah, Konami just being like, oh, fuck our history. We're going to go do pachinko machines.

[00:57:18] Kind of put a little bit of a sour taste in my mouth and then just them using all their IPs to like make pachinko themed machines of like all their nostalgic IPs and be like, hey, look. Remember our things that we used to do and like take money from people? And then I think they realized, oh, we kind of messed up because they saw like the insane growth that the video game industry has had like over the last 10 years and just how many billions of dollars people are making. We're like, oh, we should probably get back into this. And now it's kind of like, hey, you remember Silent Hill 2?

[00:57:48] Hey, you remember like all these games are putting on our collections? Like I'm really glad that we're getting them because like I think making things available is genuinely like a good thing. But it feels like there's a little bit of like a just capitalistic cash grab intention behind like what Konami is doing. And I messaged Keith about it before. I'm just like, oh, man, like what corpses are we going to see defiled? Like, are they going to go after Symphony of the Night next? They're like, what are we going to see that what will Konami just like try to try out to us to try and like take money from us?

[00:58:16] So, yeah, I kind of I'm kind of in a weird spot with like Konami in general. I don't really know like how to feel. I think they have some work to do in general, just kind of win back some some good grace from the general audience. I think Silent Hill 2 remake is probably a good start in that direction, even though it wasn't them specifically who made it. I know that there was some when they put out the first part of the Metal Gear Solid collection. Like I heard that that collection came out and was like not very well optimized.

[00:58:46] It wasn't running well, like right away. And I think it's gotten better, but I just I think they still have some work to do to kind of win back some favor from the general audience. I feel like a lot of people are probably if you were to draw like a line, I feel like a lot of people probably be on like Kojima's side over like how everything went down. But that was 10 years ago. Gamers memories are short. So maybe that's like all water under the bridge now. I'm not sure. To be fair, most games and they come out today don't run very well. No, you're OK. That's fair. You're right.

[00:59:16] I think the whole thing with Konami is when they made the switch, it was still during that time where like Japanese devs were struggling and a lot of them weren't sure what the path forward was like. This was like when Capcom was almost going to be like sold to Microsoft. You know, it was like it was kind of that era. That's a scary future. Yeah. But like Capcom looking back, they did the smart thing. They downsized. They just focused on a few core franchises that were doing really well. Now they're killing it. And now they're killing it.

[00:59:44] They can expand and be like, fuck, let's bring back Okami. Why not? Kami has got nothing better to do. Right. But Konami basically were like, oh, we like this is we can't do this. We're fucked. We're out of here. Right. When they should have just like done what Capcom did. But, you know, hindsight's 20, 20. So it's like I understand what they were trying to do, but they were thinking a little too short term rather than long term. And now they are paying for it.

[01:00:08] And they put out that awful Metal Gear Survive game that just got like it was like it was a bad move. That was a very bad move. The optics were like they kicked Kojima out of the company and just kind of like shit over like shit on his legacy with that game of like the things that he had done there. So, yeah, that game's awful. They tried to be like, oh, we can do Metal Gear without Kojima. And everyone's like, no, you can't. And then that came out and Bond so bad they haven't touched it. Yep.

[01:00:35] So I think this is what what I think this is all me speculating. I think the whole problem was Kojima wasn't done with five. And Konami was like, you need to be done. And he's like, I still got a lot of work to do. And they're like, no, we're done. And he's like, all right, fuck it. I'm leaving. But they had spent a lot of money on the engine, on the assets, on the technology for it.

[01:01:04] And then they're like, fuck, we're stuck with all this. We haven't made our money back. Let's just shit out a Metal Gear game so that we can use all of this. And it just they literally shit out a game. That's interesting. And yeah, that's that's what I'm thinking, because there is no reason why they would have they should have done survive. I don't think it ties anything together. Like the only thing that ties to it is some soldier from Mother Base fell into a portal and then landed in some other world. Yeah, that's it.

[01:01:31] And then it's just like a zombie survival game, which I've heard some people say. A really bad one. I've heard some people say it's not the worst thing in the world. But like the again, as we'd said, like the optics was so bad. And like the timing is just like no one was going to give it a fair chance. No one. Oh, no, no, no. No. So at least at least that's what I think happened there.

[01:01:52] And, you know, I don't think Konami is ever going to get back to the way that it was, even if they start releasing Castlevania games left and right. I wish. They start doing licensed games all over again, you know, like they did with Turtles and all that. Just do them. But modern, I think that would be amazing. That's not going to happen. Tournament Fighters remake? Don't get your hopes up. I'd be.

[01:02:20] I love that I can get Castle a new Castlevania collection pretty much every year. I really like that. Oh, yeah. And they've been great. But yeah. Thanks. Thanks. The games are going to run out. It's been doing them. Yeah. Yeah. It's good shit. Yeah. I would. I hope that they maybe do like a modern, like a brand new Castlevania game. Like it doesn't have to be anything crazy. Just like a 2D. Like they don't even have to do a Metroidvania. Just do like a 2D, like linear Castlevania.

[01:02:48] Like say the NES ones or, you know, like bloodlines or something. And people wouldn't fucking love it. Or even if it was like how they did Dread. I think that would be really cool too. So Metroid Dread. So. I wouldn't be against that either. Yeah. They'd be like, hey, Mercury Steam. You want to make another one? What would it take to get Konami back into your good graces, Keith? Oh man. I don't know. I don't really care. At this.

[01:03:14] I mean, I'm not like the hold into any like, you know, developer. Anything like that. I mean, if they put out something cool, I might check it out. Like I said, I might check out that Metal Gear Solid 3 remake. But I don't know. Probably not. Um, everything about them just, just seems like disingenuine. And I like, I understand. And I don't know if you guys brought this up in like the past 10 minutes that you guys were frozen for me.

[01:03:43] But like they, I understand as a company, they had to make that pivot. You know, we see it happening to so many publishers and developers right now that like the budgets are so over bloated. That like you could see Konami and you can see somebody like Kojima, who we just talked about, like has no restraints. Like his dog running wild.

[01:04:10] And Konami is like, yo, we're not, we don't want to spend this fucking money. Like get Guillermo del Toro the fuck out of my office. I'm not paying him anything. I'm not paying Norman Reedus prices to have him in our video game get out of my office. Um, and so you could see why like Konami would be like, yeah, video games aren't profitable. We're going to get into casinos.

[01:04:36] And now you kind of see them like, I understand you guys are probably laughing because you've probably just talked about this. But no, no, I'm just imagining like Guillermo del Toro in Konami's offices and a guy comes in and be like, get him the fuck out of here. Like, see, all I'm picturing is it's like Konami being like, we are not paying Norman Reedus in Coors Light. Fucking get rid of him.

[01:05:03] Like imagine Kojima bringing like, like Konami into like, you know, the, or yeah, Kojima bringing Reedus into the Konami headquarters. And they're like, what the fuck is he doing here? We told you, no Norman Reedus. And he just, and Norman Reedus has no idea what's going on. Norman Reedus already has like the, the, the balls all over him and stuff for like the motion capture. Yeah. Yeah. This is for like, this is for like Silent Hill. Like.

[01:05:34] Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That's a big what if. Trying to smoke in there and they're like, no smoking in Silent Hill. Yeah. That's the big what if. But I do like. Silent Hills came out. Yeah. You know. Yeah. We'll never know. I was going to say, but yeah, I do enjoy the fact that they are kind of dabbling in video games. And I guess, like I said, we'll see what happens with Metal Gear Solid 3 remake.

[01:05:58] Like it's like the first game that they've made in like forever since survive. So, yeah, I mean, I don't know. Like one hand, I don't care. The other hand is like, yeah, I hope they can make a comeback. But at the same time, like if they find that for whatever reason, video games still are not worth making. I totally get it. You need to be a business. You need to go make your money.

[01:06:27] But that's also kind of like a problem with me because they are just so transparent about wanting to make profit. That's like. Yeah. All right. I get it. But also like it's just seems like the video game stuff isn't coming from a genuine place anymore. Hmm. I can see that. That's fair. It also does feel a lot like Konami is just throwing money at developers.

[01:06:56] Be like, develop this, put our name on it. But don't get too crazy. So I am interested to see where they go with this remake and if they do anything else afterwards. I think it's interesting, too, that one of the things that Kojima is known for is like he's a major cinephile. So he loves he loves movies. Right. And then we were joking about like Norman Reedus and Guillermo del Toro. It feels like to me he's trying to like have kind of like a video game, like movie hybrid.

[01:07:25] He's like he's trying to like merge like the two art forms into like a like that's at least feels to me like what he's doing with like Death Stranding and Death Stranding 2. You are 100 percent right. Yeah. So he's always been trying to do. Yeah. So, yeah, as Konami, a video game company could very well have much been like, hey, like we're tired of this, like your movie bullshit. Like it's getting too expensive. Like just get out of here.

[01:07:48] So that may have played a thing in it, too, because like I always see him posting about like movies he watched or like he's in the theater like three, four times a week just watching different movies. So. Yep. He's like, yeah, Konami is like, we're not making money on Dance Dance Revolution anymore. So we can't afford your. Get the fuck out of here. It's crazy. Bring it back. Look at how many if you they still make them. But like it's crazy. If you look at how many IPs Konami has. They have a bunch. It's a lot.

[01:08:18] Like more than you think. Yeah. Like they have like Frogger and Bomberman and DDR and like Beat Mania and all this crazy shit. Yeah. Like and even like was it like football club manager or whatever? Like that's them. You know, so you're like, oh, shit, that's Konami. Yeah. So. No, Jesus. So moving on from Konami. Let's go into final thoughts. Keith, final thoughts before jumping back into Metal Gear.

[01:08:48] Anything at all that you want to say before you ruin your life with this series? Ruin my life. No, I mean, I'm I'm super excited to get down and dirty with this and, you know, experience it all again. And really talk to you guys about it and hear what y'all think about it.

[01:09:12] Eric, I can't wait for you to come back after Metal Gear Solid 2 and tell us how it went trying to explain to your wife what the Lali Lule Lo is. I mean, yeah, she'll probably be seeing me play most of these because my my PS5 is in the main living room and I had to move it up from stairs from my basement just because it's it's not ideal for like kid watching and playing games at the same time.

[01:09:41] So she'll probably see me play most of these and just be like, what the fuck is going on? But no, I'm really excited to dive into the series and experience it for the first time and fill in some of my gaming history. I think this is a really like unique panel, Chris, that you put together where we have a wide breadth of experiences, whereas like you and Keith have experience with the series. Thrac has like a middling amount and then I have literally next to nothing. So I think that'll bring a lot of different perspectives and some good conversation.

[01:10:07] And yeah, I'm just it's nice to have an excuse to check something off my backlog that I've just been putting off for a while. And it's nice to have something that's going to transition me out of my my Kingdom Hearts project because I was really worried that I was not going to have something insane to obsess over this year once I wrap that up. Well, until Kingdom Hearts 4 comes out, but, you know, you'll yeah, that might never. That might be the same thing. Yeah, that might be like four years from now as far as we know.

[01:10:38] Yeah, but I have a feeling you're going to treat Kingdom Hearts 4 the same way you did Final Fantasy. 16 like it comes out and literally 40 hours later you're posting on social media. I finished it. Here's an episode. I might. I might very well do that. Dude, it wasn't even three days and he had an episode about Final Fantasy 7 16. Wow. That was a pretty impressive turnaround for me. I'm usually pretty lazy. Yeah.

[01:11:07] I was like, what the fuck? I'm not even I haven't even put five hours into this game. What is Eric doing? Yeah, I think I think I had some time off. I think it was just off. But it's also no more in Final Fantasy. So it's it's it's it was Yoshi P. That was all Yoshi P, baby. They kept no more away from that one. Yeah, I think he's crazy stuff. Is Yoshi P like the runner of Final Fantasy now? Like that's his series now? I think so.

[01:11:38] I think he runs he runs for the 14 team and he runs. They gave it. They gave 16 to him. So I would say depending on how that did would determine if he gets the next one or not. So I don't know. I think they're focused on wrapping up the seven remake trilogy. And then I think KH4 is the next thing on the docket. So according to Square Enix, none of their games sell well.

[01:12:05] So I think we get four before seven three. I hope interesting. Interesting. I feel like they bit off more than they could chew at that seven remake trilogy. Like they didn't realize. It's so good, though. Yeah, but I don't think they realize how much dev time it was going to take to do this the way they wanted. I think the quality of the project as a whole never doing this again. Yeah.

[01:12:29] I think the quality of the project as a whole depend on if they stick the landing in the last one, which that's a tall order. Yeah. I think part two really needed a lot of editing. They needed to hold back a lot because there's no reason why 60 hours in I'm getting a tutorial for a new minigame. That is insane. You didn't like riding dolphins 60 hours in? Oh, motherfucking dolphins. And I hated Queen's Blood too.

[01:12:58] And I got really fucking good at Queen's Blood. And I hated it. Yeah, that needed more focus. I will agree with that. I needed more focus. Yeah. Yeah. So, Thrak, overall thoughts before going into the series? I am ready to hear the sultry voice of David Hayter. Tell me about how smoking cigarettes is bad for you.

[01:13:25] Making jokes about rumbling controllers and finding out what this whole thing is about. I know a good chunk of the story through word of mouth from all the Kojima simps that have existed in my vicinity. But to finally get my own experience, I'm ready for it. So, we'll see how much of that clouds my judgment. I'm going to try to go in as open as I can be.

[01:13:53] I'm going to try to go in as I can be.

[01:14:21] I'm going to try to go in as I can be. I'm going to try to go in as I can be. I'm going to try to go in as I can be. And then just go from there. This is going to be a very interesting year. Video game wise for me. Oh, yeah. I look forward to it. Oh, yeah. So, all right. Plugs. Thrak, plug. You can find the 3DO experience wherever you're listening to this podcast.

[01:14:47] And go to the superpodnetwork.com, which is where me and Chris are affiliated with. I've written some blogs there. We started a fantasy draft, so you can keep track of how well I guessed how games will do this year. And, yeah, the Superpod Saga or Superpod Network website is a fantastic website of indie creators. So, go to that. There's a lot of content there. There's a lot of other great shows there. There's a lot of content there. I'm all over the fucking place. I'm a little bit like herpes. I keep coming back. So, you know, just get used to it. You do.

[01:15:18] All right. Keith. Yeah. Main Quest podcast. You can find that where all good podcasts are found. You won't. Well, you might find me on a bad podcatcher. Not sure. But otherwise, there is the link tree, which is linktr.ee forward slash main quest pod. And it has all sorts of links, including socials and all of that stuff. Erica.

[01:15:48] Yeah. As I said at the top, I host the Unlockables podcast. You can find all my socials at the link tree as well. Linktr.ee forward slash unlockables podcast. You can also find various popular podcatchers there. But it's pretty much available wherever you find your podcasts. And I'm transitioning away from some of the more toxic social media apps. So I've updated the link tree with my blue sky.

[01:16:13] And if things continue to go south for Instagram, I'll probably be fleeing that one as well to find a better alternative. So, yeah. Go there. Find the socials. You can chat with me on any of the ones I'm still on. And then I do have a Discord server. It's a bit more dead than most of the Discord servers you find. I mostly just post updates on my show. And then there's one or two channels where people post less than questionable things in there. If that's your jam. So we have to see. But, yeah.

[01:16:42] And I advocate for everybody on this episode. I'm a fan of all their show, of all the work that they do. Keith is my first podcasting friend. I am a huge fan of the Superpod Network. Everybody in that. Everybody does fantastic work. And then I had the honor of coming on and talking to Chris, I think, last year. I came on an episode of the show and just talked a little bit about myself. So, yeah. So, yeah. Like they said, you will find. Well, they didn't say that. I'm saying this. You'll find their links in the show notes. They're all going to be hyperlinks.

[01:17:12] All you have to do is click and you will get to their stuff. Highly recommend all of their shows. Main Quest is fantastic. Keith has the ability to make any game I haven't played feel nostalgic. That is. It's insane. Like, I did not grow up with saying that. Even Tasmania? Even Tasmania. Even Knuckles. The way that he talks about games. Even Knuckles Chaotix. Even Shadow the Hedgehog. Even Shadow the Hedgehog. Sonic Boy.

[01:17:42] Sonic Boy is here. We won't talk about that one. Yeah. No. No. Throck will go on. That was on Eric's podcast, actually. Shadow the Hedgehog was. It's true. I was off for that one. It's true. He dragged me into that one. You came willingly. Don't try to fight it. You came willingly. It was consensual. Yeah. It was consensual. Check out. Check out Guiding Keys. How many hours of Guiding Keys are there now? 40?

[01:18:10] As of right now, the episode count is 26. Totaling about 42 and a half hours of me talking about Kingdom Hearts. Yeah. It's more than anybody should probably talk about any one thing. So, I guess if you're like road tripping across country, it's a good road trip. Listen, I don't know. They're great. They're fantastic. When I used to have a regular job, I would love getting an episode on my feed so I could

[01:18:38] listen to it at least three times before it was over. It was great. And then Throck with the 3DO. Dude, what the fuck? Oh, yeah. Blame Bill. Don't blame me. He does all the work. You forced them to start it back up. That is true. That's on you. That is true. But it's been a fun time. And if anybody listening is a fan, we will be covering... We're going to start up the Army Men games pretty soon. Oh, that's going to be fun.

[01:19:08] Oh, yeah. That's so cool. It's such a not talked about console and video game history. It's so cool that you're covering it. Oh, yeah. So, that's it for this episode. So, we will be back late February with Metal Gear 1. And holy shit, I am so excited. So, yeah. So, do you all want to say goodbye? Oh, sign out with your name. With your call sign.

[01:19:37] Throck. Who wants to go first? I don't know what's going on. Can anybody even hear me? We can now. Yeah. Sign out with your call sign, Keith. We'll have you. I forgot what mine was. Gaseous Anaconda? What was it? Gaseous Aardvark. You're Aardvark, man. Aardvark. Gaseous Aardvark. Gaseous Aardvark, yeah.

[01:20:07] Gaseous Aardvark, signing out. From Gastly Flamingo. Bye-bye. Liquid Wombat signing off. And this is Plasma Gorilla. Over and out.