Metal Gear Solid V Extended E3 2013 Trailer Analysis

On Monday June 10th, Kojima showed a new trailer for Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain at Microsoft’s E3 conference. The next Wednesday, an extended cut was released, intended for mature audiences.

This trailer starts out with a scene of a very angry Kaz. He wants to take revenge on Cypher (an alias for Zero’s organization, The Patriots). He has lost an arm and a leg, as well as his comrades, and it ‘feels like they’re all still there’ (his literal and metaphorical ‘phantom pain’). He seems traumatized and completely driven by revenge, which is one of the themes in the game.

Next, we see a torture scene. From the looks of it, the person being tortured is Quiet, the female sniper who gets a formal introduction later on in the trailer. We can see Ocelot in the room, who we know is an expert at interrogations, something he himself sees as a sport.

Next, we see part of a scene in which child soldiers are being trained. Now here is where it gets really interesting. Kojima has talked about touching on some taboo subjects with this game, and ever since people have been debating whether or not child soldier would have a role in the story. Looks like this is true.

Kojima Productions has said we should be able to infer some of the locations based on the trailer. An African setting seems to be the case based on these images.

Then, a scene taking place in Camp Omega, the Cuban Prison camp from the Ground Zeroes trailer. It’s another torture scene. The person is tortured and shot when he tries to run away.

Next, a person in chains in a room. The door opens.

The next scene shows the same person (a girl) lying on a table, with her stomach cut open.

Big Boss and Chico seem to be in the room. A package is retrieved from her stomach, possibly containing a bomb. Notice the peace symbol. Some people say this girl is Paz, the spy working for Cypher in Metal Gear Solid Peace Walker. In the Ground Zeroes trailer released earlier this year, we learn that Paz is still alive after being defeated by Big Boss. Could she be the ‘trojan horse’ Skullface is referring to in that trailer?

After this, there’s yet another torture scene, again with Ocelot. This time Huey (Emmerich) is being tortured.

Now the next caption is interesting. ‘Only for Revenge’, it says, showing an X Ray photo of someone’s ribcage. Instead of a heart, it shows the same kind of flower that was growing in the field were Snake fought The Boss.

Also in the room: a man wearing sunglasses and a Diamond Dogs beret, this is probably Kaz.

This is where the regular trailer began. Two men on horses: Big Boss and Ocelot. Big Boss wears in a ponytail, which reminds of an early screenshot from Project Ogre. He is riding a white horse similar to the one The Boss had, but it’s unlikely it’s the same horse, since Big Boss shot it in Peace Walker. Big Boss also has a mechanical arm, meaning this take place after the hospital scene (during which Ocelot saves Big Boss).

Ocelot has a new voice actor, Troy Baker. In this game Ocelot’s voice is transitioning from his young voice in Metal Gear Solid 3 to his raspy voice in the other games. His mannerisms in the way he talks make him really sound like Ocelot.

Big Boss and him seem to have joined up. This marks the first time Ocelot acts as a real ally to the player. Ocelot tells Snake that ‘he’s a legend to those who live on the battlefield’. This is how he was able to establish Outer Heaven and gather soldiers to his side.

“The whole world wants you dead.” Ocelot remarks. At the end of Peace Walker, Big Boss talks about this as well. “We’ll be hunted.” and “The whole world is on our tail.”

This is a new location: Afghanistan.

“Now go, let the legend come back to life!” Ocelot encourages him. Remember how he idolized Big Boss in Metal Gear Solid 3 and tried to imitate his techniques. This could be Big Boss’s first mission after his 9 year coma, hence the ‘come back to life’.

The camera moves behind Big Boss, and now we’re looking at gameplay footage. ‘MGS goes open world’, you can move freely through the environment.

What we’re seeing here is a rescue mission: Big Boss is breaking his ally Kazuhira Miller free.

A new mechanic is shown: hanging from the side of the horse to avoid being spotted by the guards. ‘A new breed of stealth’, as the trailer calls it.

Real time weather and day and night cycle will influence the gameplay. Here we see a sandstorm approaching Big Boss.

There are different modes of transport you can use, like jeeps and even armored vehicles.

Snake has binoculars that come in handy when scanning the big, open world for enemies.

We can see him climbing into the back of a passing truck and riding into enemy territory unnoticed.

The watch Big Boss is wearing is a Seiko. Kojima bought the same watch for himself and Yoji Shinkawa, and posted pictures of them a while ago on his Twitter. The watch is used to show the passing of time in this trailer, you can wait until nightfall to sneak into the enemy camp.

This image may be from a game mechanic where you can let time pass quickly to start a mission at a certain time of day. But that’s just speculation.

Snake is entering the camp, waiting strategically in the shadows while enemies scan the environment with their flashlights, until he sees a opportunity to get past them.

The stealth mechanics and controls look a lot smoother: Snake dives into cover, instantly switches from crouching to crawling, jumps from rooftop to rooftop, pulling himself up from the ledge.

Dynamic CQC. We can see Snake pushing an enemy forward, destabilizing him, and disarms him, after which he quickly eliminates the enemy and his ally with the rifle.

‘Words that kill’ – Metal Gear fans may already have recognized Donna Burke’s voice. She did the theme for Peace Walker (Heaven’s Divide) as well.

Snake reaches Kaz, who looks like he has been tortured by the enemies. The characters presented in the trailer all have a title below their name: Kaz’ is ‘A Visionary robbed of his Future’.

Now, a lot of different characters are shown.

Quiet. This female sniper instantly reminds a lot of fans of Sniper Wolf. It is possible this is a younger Wolf, but it may also be a new character. Her name and the phrase ‘deprived of her Words’ strongly suggests she is unable to speak (possibly has her tongue cut out), so that makes it likely this is a new character.

Eli. This may be a young Liquid Snake. Since this game takes place in 1984, Solid Snake and Liquid Snake will be 12 years old, so it adds up. Of course, it may also be a totally new character. The subtitle here is ‘A Youth who Curses his Fate’. This also seems to be consistent with Liquid’s behavior, especially in Metal Gear Solid 1.

Skullface: A Ghost without a Past. We know this man from the first trailer for the game, when everyone still called him ‘the burned man’. He has something to do with the XOF, as we have seen in that trailer.

Emmerich: A Technocrat who Stands his Ground. This is Huey from Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker, and the father of Hal Emmerich (Otacon), who is around four years old in this game according to his backstory. In the previous game Emmerich was tied to a wheelchair, but it looks like he managed to create himself some mechanical legs. This is probably what ‘who stands his ground’ partially refers to.

Ocelot. In this game Ocelot is 39 years old. He is officially part of Zero’s organization, but secretly works for Big Boss – that is, going by the established story. He is ‘A Rival living a Lie’, which could mean a lot of things. He is lying to Zero, but he might not be telling Big Boss the whole truth either. It’s Ocelot after all.

Code Talker. A new character. Who he is and what his role is in the story is not clear yet. He is ‘A Wise Man denied his Homeland’.

Those who “Don’t Exist”. These seem to be some high tech enemies, and the gasmask wearing character that also appeared in the hospital scene, and who could be a young Psycho Mantis. Probably part of Cypher.

We see several small children around a tank, carrying AK 47s. The child soldiers that were shown earlier. Will they be enemies in this game? Will the player have to kill them? Or will they be fighting for Big Boss?

Back to the Afghanistan mission. Now that Kaz is freed, the missions is to carry him back to the helicopter.

You can still shoot enemies with Kaz on your shoulders.

In this shot, Big Boss seems to be choking the kid in the cage, or at least pushing him to the ground, arm on his throat. This is said to be Chico, though some people believe he’s actually Solid Snake.

We see the character wearing a beret again. Some believe this is not Kaz, but Gene, which would be a bit strange given the fact that Portable Ops is considered a side story (its canonicity isn’t completely clear due to conflicting messages, and the game is often excluded from lists and compilations). Moreover, Gene died at the end of that game.

The song is called ‘Sins of the Father’, by Donna Burke. Does this refer to Solid Snake and Liquid Snake, with Big Boss being the father?

Kojima said this will be a very dark game, and the trailer does point in that direction, especially at the end. The title ‘Hell Bound’ appears, echoing Snake’s speech at the end of Peace Walker (“And yes, we may all be going straight to hell”). As stated before, Kaz’s main motive is revenge. He seems to be fully prepared to go to war with Zero’s organization Cypher (the Patriots). Kaz seems to be uninterested in morality or ideology, he just wants to answer the world’s call for wet work. “No greater good, no just cause.”

Children in cages are being handed diamonds. Blood diamonds? It probably has something to do with Big Boss and Kaz’s new organization Diamond Dogs as well. What’s confusing is that the children and Big Boss seem to be trading diamonds. Maybe some of them are fake?

Like some of the earlier scenes, it also makes the African setting more likely.

Punished Snake. A new alias for Big Boss. As you can see, his face is covered with scars. His title says ‘A Fallen Legend’. Is Snake shooting the children?

This is from the same scene as the very first shot. It looks like they are on the helipad of Mother Base, but chronologically this may not add up.

Big Boss: ‘Kaz… I’m already a demon.’ The trailer is concluded in style with these words.

Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain will launch on PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, as well as PlayStation 4 and Xbox One.

Right at the end there’s a short scene were we learn Cypher is developing a new weapon in Africa, to surpass Metal Gear.

This of course make Africa as a setting even more likely. Snake gets into some kind of armored suit/mech and walks off the screen. Maybe it can actually be used by the player during missions. It’s not that unlikely, since you will be able to use many vehicles at will in this game.