Metal Gear Solid V The Phantom Pain is wrapped in lore, easter eggs, concepts, and many interesting
facts.
It's amazing to see some of the ideas that were involved in creating the characters and
other ideas that were scrapped altogether.
Let's take a look at 12 awesome metal gear facts that you should know about in the Phantom
Pain and Ground Zeroes.
Quiet's Original Design Quiet, the sniper deprived of her Words, is
one of the most complex characters that Kojima Productions has created.
And there's many layers to her backstory hidden within Phantom Pain.
But what most players don't know is that her original concept art had her looking a lot
like Paz in a bikini.
Her revealing appearance is a key part of her character, but the designers insisted
that they carefully chose how to develop her character.
And of course her current likeness is based off of her voice and motion capture actress,
Stefanie Joosten.
Drawing heavily from her look, her body language, and facial expressions to bring Quiet to life.
80s Filter One of the original ideas scraped for Phantom
Pain was to have an 80s filter to bring players closer to the feel of the time that the game
takes place.
It was inspired by the 2013 film Rush due to the unique look that this movie had.
But the idea was scrapped and forgotten because the effect was too intensive to render all
the time on consoles.
PSP Version Ground Zeroes is known primarily for being
a next gen PS4 and Xbox One game with its advanced fox engine, huge open world, and
detailed graphics.
But Ground Zeroes was originally slated for release on PSP alongside PS3 much earlier
than its 2013 release date.
The team pushed it back so that it could be within the launch window of the new PS4 and
Xbox One consoles.
Skull Face Origins Skull Face is the heavily scarred commander
of the military group XOF during the 1970s.
Who would also become a commander of the Parasite Unit in the 80s.
He suffered extensive injuries in his youth which caused his characteristic facial scars,
burns, and discolorations.
Skull Face's original name was supposed to be Scarface.
And he was also meant to appear on the box art for Ground Zeroes, but he was removed
because Kojima thought that it would be too creepy.
Moby Dick References Kojima likes to keep a lot of mystery in his
lore and let the fans interpret the games.
But he even extends his storytelling to the press releases and information surrounding
the game.
The demo Hideo Kojima showed at GDC 2013 for The Phantom Pain starts with the words, "Okay
Ahab, time to go."
A bandaged man then turns and runs to Snake, saying, "You can call me Ishmael."
Snake is also revealed to have a prosthetic left arm and in the actual trailer for the
game you can see a large flaming whale.
These are all allusions to the novel Moby Dick.
The main character in Moby Dick is named Captain Ahab, the first words in the book are "You
can call me Ishmael", and Ahab has a wooden leg and is hunting the whale that took it.
The trailer claimed that the game was being developed by a Swedish company called Moby
Dick Studio.
Despite this, numerous clues suggested that the trailer was actually created by Kojima
Productions to promote a new game in the�Metal Gear�series.
This led to Kojima being questioned about The Phantom Pain.
When asked about it, he laughed and said that while he saw the resemblance between Ground
Zeroes and The Phantom Pain, it was being developed by Moby Dick Studio and that he
had nothing to do with it as he was working on the former.
Obviously Kojima just knows how to generate media buzz and get fans riled up looking for
answers.
Kojima Cameo In the side op Intel Operative Rescue, the
player has to help an agent get into the helicopter.
In the end cutscene, he is revealed as the creator of the Metal Gear series, Hideo Kojima.
After the mission, he'll be in the helicopter in the main menu and waiting a while on the
mission select screen will make him spin the list of missions.
David Bowie and 1984 References There are many references to Kojima's favorite
influences wrapped into Phantom Pain.
Diamong Dogs is a private military company led by Big Boss during the 1980s.
It was created as a result of the devastation of the Militaires Sans Fronti�res as well
as the attack on Mother Base.
The name stems from the group's profession as "dogs of war," who were willing to carry
out unsavory jobs for clients, while at the same time maintaining pride in their work.
But it's also a reference to David Bowie's 1974 song and album 'Diamond Dogs' which was
a musical adaption of George Orwell's famous book '1984'.
Hideo Kojima is a known David Bowie fan and in the Metal Gear Solid 5 trailer, it is stated
that Big Boss has been in a coma for 9 years; 'Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker' - which precedes
the events of MGS5 - was set in November 1974, placing MGS5 in late 1983 or more probably
1984, the year of George Orwell's novel, with Big Boss shown to be part of a new squad known
as 'Diamond Dogs', a direct reference to the album.
Paz Death In Ground Zeroes, Paz was originally supposed
to be�Dead All Along, and Skull Face was going to�place her corpse in front of Chico
in a way that he couldn't look away from it.
Foxdie Easter Egg During the Deja Vu extra mission in the�PlayStation
4�release of Ground Zeroes, interacting with the prisoners in Chico and Paz's cells
will cause both prisoners to die from Foxdie.
After both prisoners are dead, the Fox Engine will appear to be under attack, and will then
correct itself moments later.
Ground Zeroes & Phantom Pain One Game It was originally intended for Ground Zeroes
and Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain�to be a single game, but the game's designer,
Hideo Kojima, wanted people to experience the game near the launch of the PlayStation
4 and Xbox One.
And thus Ground Zeroes was created as a separate prologue and ultimately an early demonstration
of the Fox engine.
Phantom Pain Reference in Metal Gear 2 In the 2006 version of "Metal Gear 2: SOLID
SNAKE" they changed the portraits in the "codec calls" with Yoji Shikawa's artwork, and they
also added a new line in Gray Fox's speech after you defeat him:
"They had cut off my ears and my nose, I looked terrible"
These new words fit perfectly with Ishmael's bandaged face in Metal Gear Solid 5.
Which means they had the Phantom Pain plot developing even back in 2006.
Signature Style Several hallmarks of the other games were
removed in order to make it more realistic and serious, such as Ration-based healing.
Originally, Kojima thought about removing the trademark exclamation point, in favor
of realistic expression from the enemy.
Ironically, it seems that the grandfather clause�prevailed.
What is the grandfather clause?
It's when a character uses a trope which may be clich� or even dead at this point, but
is kept in because it's tied into the character's legacy.
What are your favorite facts about the Metal Gear Solid series?
Let us know in the comments.
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