Metal Gear Solid Timeline Confuses Kojima

In an interview with Eurogamer at Gamescom, Hideo Kojima, creator and director of the Metal Gear series replied to one question by describing how confused he gets when trying to understand his own series timeline. If you’ve ever played more than one Metal Gear game, especially in the ‘Solid’ series, you’ll probably have gotten yourself lost along the way, and chances are there are still some aspects of the narrative that you still don’t understand. MGS4 definitely aimed to sum up as many plot holes as possible, but the arguments are still ongoing as to how well this was achieved, and how well the answers fit in with the rest of the timeline. If Kojima gets confused himself when looking at the games, then what hope do we have of understanding Metal Gear?

I personally get confused too about the whole timeline and saga of Metal Gear Solid. This is especially tricky when you create the future first and then go back in time to create something new. There are a lot of small aspects where sometimes it doesn’t match completely.

If I come up with the concept and the game design, a lot of people in the team say that I am the only person that fully understands what I thought of, so it’s really difficult for other staff to carry on working. Therefore the concept and the game design in Rising is actually based on the younger staff’s ideas, and I kind of oversee and say, oh, maybe this way or that way. I think that makes it easier for my younger staff to work within the Metal Gear Solid world.

Source: Eurogamer via Kotaku via Official PlayStation Forum