With MGS: Peace Walker making the jump to the smaller screen of the PSP, some people were worried that, considering the device’s younger audience (especially in Japan), Kojima would compromise the serious* tone that permeates the Metal Gear Solid universe. In a recent tweet about the topic, however, though admitting that the team did take what younger players like into consideration, Peace Walker is still very much a Metal Gear Solid game, sobering themes and all.
We studied what young people liked, and without changing the MGS world, added different elements for gameplay. System, characters, story, voice acting, etc. We just made the entrance into the MGS world bigger without changing the core. A product with a serious story along with a strong message.
We highly recommend following Kojima-san’s Twittering. Not only does he often ruminate about the precarious world of game development, he’s also constantly putting up images of what he’s having for lunch. Tomato base spaghetti with mozzarella cheese yesterday.
*That’s not to say the existing games in the franchise don’t have some ridiculously camp instances of silliness.