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Kojima talks MGSV theme and (now removed) filter for The Phantom Pain

Recently on Twitter, Kojima spoke about the themes in his games, mentioning MGSV’s theme as well.

Ellen Ulman’s “By Blood”. Protagonist finds himself being adopted & starts to search his bio parents. This reminds me of MGS1 theme, searching identity over DNA. In the mid of the story where he goes back to his parents ethnicity reminds me of MGSV’s theme of ID surrounded by RACE, and the last part reminds me of MGS2 where the theme of ID surrounded by MEME. Maybe.

All Metal Gear Solid games have identity as one of the most important themes, characters are often looking for who they are, or who they want to be, and about how they became who they are. Identity is shaped by many factors that were explored in the different games: genetic factors (MGS1), cultural factors (MGS2) and factors determined by (political) reality of a current time (MGS3) and now MGSV will explore identity shaped by race. Of course these things are not strictly separated and they intertwine, but they serve as a starting point for the themes in those games.

Kojima also talked about a specific filter they experimented with for The Phantom Pain, but that was ultimately scrapped because it was taking up too many recourses:

“RUSH” had very 70’s texture & tone of film. In fact we studied 80’s image & developed “80’s filter” for MGSV as TPP is placed in 1984. But when we actually implemented full screen effect, it was too heavy that slowed the system down so we had to take it out.

Source: Hideo Kojima Twitter

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