Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain has been released amidst many positive reviews with IGN calling it a masterpiece. However, even with all these great reviews Metal Gear creator Hideo Kojima has said his heartfelt goodbye to the series.
Kojima parts ways with longtime partner Konami with the release of Phantom Pain following an undisclosed fallout which resulted in Kojima’s name being pulled from Konami’s website back in March, Konami attempting to hire people for a new Metal Gear series, Kojima’s productions being pulled from Silent Hill’s website, but ultimately Metal Gear Solid 5 kept its release date. Kojima’s goodbye to Metal Gear came in the form of a video.
The first half of the video is a lot of praise for the game designer, especially following the release of Metal Gear Solid 5 yesterday. He sits down with many of the talented people he’s worked with on the long running series. We are given a look inside the world of Metal Gear from the perspective of actors, developers, and other media personalities. We’re also given a glimpse into what inspired Kojima to work on the series for 28 years.
The second half of the video shows Kojima visiting the home of Sean Paul Gillespie, who passed away back in February this year. He shared an email that was sent to him by Sean, and with this message, he helped to inspire the team to complete working on the game.
In the end of the video Kojima apologizes to the fans for taking so long to get the game out and he thanks the players for their continued support of the franchise. He states that, “the players are everything,” he goes on to say that, “without them nothing I do matters.”
It is a heartfelt farewell to a thriving world. Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain is out now for Playstation 4, XBOX One, Playstation 3, XBOX 360, and PC.