Story discussion (SPOILERS)

Hey Duders,

So with metal gear scanlon I finally got round to playing through MGS4 and then peace walker and then ground zeroes and boy oh boy I had forgotten how much I love this series.

Anyways I have a question is there anything that is either not obvious or may be easily missed about the story of the series so far?

Anyone have any theories going into 5?

Who is your money of Skull face being?

Whoa. That spoiler blew my mind, I had no idea.

I'd guess skull face is... ummmmm, errrrrr, otacon's dad. Why not.

Skull Face is a hologram, sent back in time by GW.

I don't remember if it is ever explicitly stated in the games but

@donchipotle: mind blown!

All the weird stuff about Otacon and his sister and their family is really something. Can't remember the details and it's late but yeah look that up

I don't remember if I heard this somewhere or if I'm just making this up but I think I remember hearing that Skull Face could be Colonel Volgin.

@nux said:

I feel like that makes sense, but is kinda too normal for this series.

@tavistavistavis: I nearly fell of my chair when i read it.

Holy crap I did just fall of my chair!

That was my first thought, my initial thoughts were Volgin or Zero.

99% sure they do say so in some Peace Walker tapes.

I want more backstory on Ocelot. It's implied in Snake Eater the he is the Boss's son but the series never elaborates on that. It also never goes into Big Boss's background much beyond just him being a disciple of the Boss.

I think MGS5 is going to lead right up to or possibly take place during the beginning phase of Outer Heaven.

The MGS 5 theories about it not being Big Boss but another Snake or Grey Fox are insane but I wouldn't be surprised if that is exactly what happens.

@stonyman65: The Boss had twins removed from her, she still carries the scars. Ocelot was one of them, Eva is rumored to be the other. The Sorrow was the father. Ocelot was never told about the Boss being his mother, unless BB tells him in MGS5. I believe Eva knew, and that's why she and the Boss "hang out"(Eva mentions she talks with the Boss in several Codecs, they seem to get along...) during MGS 3.

@subliminalkitteh: The Boss recognized Eva from the philosophers school that she taught at. Eva went there to learn how to be a spy.

I don't remember anything about the Boss having twins.

I guess a lot of people may miss the lineage of the Johnny Sasaki family. Luckily, our wiki page will get you up to speed.

@rene20tx: My bad, I was off a generation. Boss was Ocelot's mother, Eva was the "mother" of Solid and Liquid.

Para-Medic's real name was Dr Clark, the scientist in charge of the Les Enfants Terribles project and also one of the members of the Patriots. She was also the one who brought Gray Fox back to life, and then got killed by him before MGS1 took place.

Nah, Skull Face is an unknown right now. It can't be Zero, unless the dude had crazy plastic surgery and skin grafts (and then re-scarred his face) to look like a normal old man again at the end of MGS4.

In MGS5 trailers there's a fiery dude, and a figure of that guy was recently shown with "Volgin" in the name. The figure had bullets between the fingers, and his outfit is very similar, so it's pretty much confirmed to be him at this point. According to some people it might just be young Psycho Mantis (also seen in earlier trailers) messing with Big Boss.

It also doesn't make sense for Skullface to be Zero since in Ground Zeroes you learn that Skullface tortures Paz for the location of Zero. Why is he putting on this facade?

All these connections just make the story and the MG world sound way worse.

I need to play PW and GZ before September...

@nightriff: I would recommend just reading or watching peace walker if you don't want to play what is largely an arcade grindy game. And ground zeroes is only like 50 minutes so that should be easy

@krullban said:

I would argue you don't need to bother with Ground Zeroes either, storywise at least, considering how Phantom Pain will start.

@thephantomstranger: Yeah I guess. Wouldn't surprise me if phantom pain had the ending cut scene of ground zeroes in it anyway. The tapes are good to listen to as well to get some story about skullface

I love all the stuff like how

MGS3

MGS PW

MGS5

@krullban: Eh maybe not worth having to listen to a certain Chico tape for some people.

@thephantomstranger: @dudeglove: @krullban: This is probably one of 3 series that I want to play every game rather than watch. I looked into watching PW last year but decided not too and since I'm currently playing through all the games (currently on 4) before TPP comes out, I will probably play PW (following a guide to mainly just get the story) and eek out whatever I can get from GZ. Thanks for the advice and maybe I'll elect to watch a Let's Play if I get side tracked by other games and running out of time as September approaches.

@nightriff: I'd just like to reiterate that you might want to skip one of the Chico tapes. It's the 4th one. Trust me.

@nightriff: @thephantomstranger:

Definitely dont skip it.

@thephantomstranger: In GZ?

@thephantomstranger: that's like saying you should skip parts of movies because it's too scary or violent. And that's dumb.

Guys I think MGS might have a bad story.

Yeah, going back and playing MGS you can find out important things that you either forgot about, or totally missed the past times you played it, like the Darpa Chief thing (he's the one lying in the cell dead, not the one you get to talk to, as that's Decoy Octopus). Also, I'm pretty sure Skull Face is a new character, if you listen to his dialogue in Ground Zeroes, but if I had a hunch as to who he was and I didn't think he was new, I would have thought he might have been Hot Coldman, just by looks really, nothing else.

You meant best story.

yeah your right, Volgin seems the most likely however I saw someone else on the internet has a theory that it is Ocelot with a mask on which would be bananas.

On a side note, is GZ worth playing? I've already seen the story bits on YouTube so this would be more or less for the gameplay.

Also, I just beat Snake Eater again yesterday and I kind of feel that by them making all of the characters interconnected that it kind of made the story/universe a little worse and contrived.

Again, makes no sense for it to be Volgin or Ocelot. The former has no grudge against Zero (that we know of) since they don't ever interact in Snake Eater. Ocelot is on Big Boss' side and does want to bring down Zero, but why destroy MSF? Both of them make no sense. While the series has a propensity to retcon characters (Anderson = SIGINT, Dr. Clark = Para-Medic), I don't believe this is the case for Skullface. I want to think that the villain for a new MGS is an entirely new character. As for the Volgin Demon thing from the Phantom Pain trailers, I'm willing to bet it's just a hallucination from Big Boss' head or an illusion by the supposed young Psycho Mantis.

Not a chance, my dude. Huey is Hal's dad and he's at the MSF base preparing for a UN inspection when Skullface is doing his dark business.

@probablytuna: I don't really see how the example you gave is retconning. Granted I've only experienced MGS1 via metal gear scanlon (and that was several months ago), but I don't remember it going into the DARPA chief's background, or even bringing up Dr. Clark for that matter.

I thought all the complaints people had about retconning mainly had to do with the ending of 4. I also haven't seen that ending in years so I could be wrong again. I recently played through most of 4 (playing on hard, was having a great time until the beginning of act V and just quit), I don't remember any terrible retconning through what I played. I thought all of the integration of MGS3 into the larger story was fairly well done.

@nasher27: I remember Dr. Clark was originally meant to be a man. Donald Anderson was never given much of a background, so it was a perfect opportunity to turn him into an older SIGINT. I suppose it's not really retconning, but I highly doubt that Kojima had known or planned Anderson to be SIGINT nor Dr. Clark be Para-Medic until Snake Eater.

Edit: Anderson's background.

Wouldn't Volgin be pissed that Zero took his money?

@carryboy: Assuming he is still alive, how did he even come across this information? The US government wanted the Legacy, that's all he knew in Snake Eater. Half of it went to the CIA and Ocelot kept the other half then he and Zero took CIA's half after Portable Ops.

Not to mention Volgin and Skullface don't share any physical resemblance. Volgin is a big imposing man, easily dwarfing Ocelot who is by and large a regular sized person. Skull Face, on the other hand, is clearly not a hulking brute like Volgin.

@nightriff: Yes in GZ.

@hollitz: Thank you for the heads up about my guess that skullface is otacon's dad. Swing and a miss by me. I guess skullface must be the fury brought back from his explosive fire death!