9 Years Later: 9 Reasons why The Phantom Pain is Incomplete.

[@Luckymann1223]

Phantom pain was too detailed, causing the budget for the game to skyrocket. And that's about it, actually. Konami just hated Kojima's gut and his obsession. His professionalism cost Konami too much. They simply couldn't bear Kojima and his demands. And I'm gonna hate Konami forever for this.

[@Kreapypastoid]

Exactly, people who say this game is finished are delusional as hell.

[@dillydraws]

@@Kreapypastoid What plot point other than Eli's story was unfinished?

[@Kreapypastoid]

@@dillydraws this is sad🤦🏾‍♂️ asking for “what else” is crazy considering you can’t even answer for that one.

[@Kreapypastoid]

@@dillydraws don’t even have to mention the most hyped vehicle that Huey spends all his time making during the course of the game “battle gear” ends up being just another tick box for deployment, the biggest red flag there is. Why would do much time and dedication be put into that one item only for us not to use it.

[@dillydraws]

@@Kreapypastoid Eli story was cancelled dlc which explains why that was unfinished but gear is not "unfinished" It was cut content due to the battle gear not having a place in the gameplay. Afghanistan and Africa are full of mountains, trees and other objects that are perfecting for sneaking but when it comes to a big vehicle they don't work in those environment unless you're on the road, think how useful tanks are in the game. Plus everything the battle gear could do is already doable with D Walker who can travel across those open and wild environments. Tell me this, how often do you deploy with a tank and do missions with em? The battle gear would be about the same as that. Also Huey spent like 3 missions or so. He made it once he got to mother base as a "Look what I can do for you" before causing all the stuff with the children and starting the outbreak for shining lights.

[@adamdavis1737]

This game is such an anomaly to me. Somehow it manages to be unfinished, underwhelming, and disappointing while also being one of my favorite games of all time and possibly my favorite in the franchise. It's at the very least my most played of the franchise by far There was just so much missed potential. But what's there plays so great to this day

[@nicolasgimenezo.0503]

Relate too much

[@FMarinDM]

9 years and still dont understand why people loved it so much... as you said its such a disappointment... considering ive played every mgs game more than twice, this was one I STRICTLY played ONCE... its mind bending to me how people found replay value in this game... i couldnt bare the ending, face off with skullface and the absolutely not explained fight with MG whatever its name was... 😢

[@leif54]

I got lost in this game. Played it over and over. Konami could have pumped out New mission Maps over and over and I would not have stopped. The ending left with such and odd uncomfortable feeling. And i love it, I still think about this game. Mgs 4 answered everything with nanonmachines but this game still feels like has mystery left.

[@mero7731]

​@@FMarinDMgameplay fun, story bad

[@TheOG_Austin1776]

It’s because the game IS complete. But the story is not. There is nothing missing gameplay wise aside from content. It could so easily be solved by a DLC. It could have been completed 100 times since then

[@yumetutos]

the mandela effect you had is part of the kojima intended experience

[@markusturunen7929]

Ironically, this entire feeling of phantom pain that we never saw the finished metal gear V game is exactly kind of phantom pain the game inflicted upon players, forever missing and pondering what could have been the ending of the story. We have been intentionally left unfinished because it's causes us the Phantom pain.

[@P_Taters]

The game is complete if you watch several hours of fan analysis videos. The game's narrative feels like a fever dream. Once the parts are collected and analyzed, you get can see the full tapestry. In a weird way, I think that's the point. You see the game through Venom's eye. Venom was Kojima's way of writing the player into the game. But, Venom is also a broken man. Someone who has lost themselves to the demon they've been turned into.

[@christianvachon9709]

I 100% agree with you.

[@120Pythons]

Bro shut up lol. You can use all the flowery language you want and try to sound deep and meaningful, that is irrelevant to the actual game itself. This game is a mess with awful pacing. A huge empty world that has basically no level design, ridiculous travel times and a story that is revealed through audio tapes as if this is an indie game. You are a nobody running around a huge empty desert/jungle doing a bunch of random missions that have no true meaning, it's like a bootleg Tom Clancy game. MGSV is an awful MGS game and is the only one that feels incomplete.

[@Leeor1214]

Damn, that's very poetic and accurate

[@Egobert]

@@P_Taters it is, that's why we are made to listen to half the story via tapes to makes us investigate like we are Venom

[@idontwant2beasoldiermama241]

Of course, Kojima would not deliver an "incomplete" experience, are you slow? Let's put it this way, I'm tasked with delivering a meal, my plan is to make a hamburger, but my boss says time's up, and I didn't get the chance to get the bread, no problem, I still can make a high quality salad, but the people that know my cooking, recognize that I planned for sometime bigger, but was cut off short.

[@j.avance9031]

Can we just acknowledge that even now nine years later MGS5 is still a graphical masterpiece? Very few games even come close to it and the majority of modern titles are still unable to surpass it.

[@austinuren3807]

I just replayed the game start to finish, really focusing on no kills and leveling up Mother Base and that stuck out to me almost my whole playthrough. Here we are 9 years later in a world of PS5s and XBOX series, and this game is running at a smooth 60fps AND I’m seeing light rays in the jungle! In all seriousness this games graphics do look fantastic, especially at sunrise/sunset in Afghanistan

[@antoinefabre8476]

Unfinished and yet one of the best video games ever made.

[@120Pythons]

it's the best video game ever if you like shitty open world games like assassin's creed

[@Yeshua_is-Cool]

​@@120Pythonsnah it's better then ass greed

[@youngnat]

Unfinished? It’s a decent game but looking at it as finished product? Mediocre

[@stannisthemannis8694]

​@@120Pythonsbro why are you under every comment soyjacking about this? It's not that bad it's just disappointing that it's unfinished

[@120Pythons]

@@stannisthemannis8694 Another fanboy with a Big Medic profile picture 😭 It really is that bad tbh, I want to like the game but I can't. I even started a brand new save and replayed it a few days ago with an open mind. I got all the way to main mission 40 too. It is very soulless. If you actually read my comments, my criticisms are valid and you can't refute them. I am stating facts, and it is a fact that this game is a barren wasteland with non-existent level design, tedious travel times and repetitive missions structure. Not to mention the story. Helicopter Simulator V.

[@crimsonhawk4912]

You mean how all other games had 4 or more chapters and this game only had 2

[@tecno-480]

I think thay due to the weapon in the research there was 2 more faction nato/France and america to be clear there is a France weapon for all category maybe we can say that the g44 (famas) is a legacy weapon but the other are'nt and there is italian France and German specialist unlockable via FOB

[@zoiker3512]

And now we have death stranding, where I have the funny feeling Kohima just lost his mind cause man, it doesn’t hold a candle to any of the metal gears

[@elqord.1118]

Well it’s not a MGS game

[@udopadrik9971]

I don't know what you're playing, but it's an amazing and innovative game for me. Considering he almost certainly didn't have access to most of the assets that they had been building on at Konami from game to game for decades, it's honestly amazing how much innovation he could get in with this game instead of it just feeling like a rehash of previous things, because of them trying to build up a fraction of the things they had built up at Konami. I have not quite finished the game yet, but based on what there is thus far, although not perhaps on the level of the best MGS games, it can end up being better than some. At the moment I feel it could end up higher than MGS3 for me personally. I do consider MGS3 an amazing game as well, but it is a seriously overrated game in the context of the MGS series. MGS3 feels much more of a fan service game where Kojima was playing it safe because of the backlash he got for MGS2 (a superior game in many ways, but especially in the story department), and MGS3 is also a game in which the gameplay mechanics, button scemes, level design felt the most clunky of all the MGS games I've played. A lot of it probably had to do with the forest settings. The technological limitations for designing open environments and the controls and button schemes really made it a pain to get into in any meaningful way. A problem that was smaller in MGS1 and MGS2 perhaps mainly for the industrial settings. An original gameplay and story correlation could make up for a lot, but as I said, they decided to go with a more safe story, not doing much of what Kojima hadn't done better in earlier games. The MGS fans dissing on MGS 5 story and Death Stranding I think might be people who are more into surface level stories and typical Hollywood fare that Kojima has always flirted with, but for me was never the most important and valuable aspect of his games. Some aspects of the storytelling in both MGS 5 and Death Stranding really feel like he has upped his game as a storyteller in the medium.

[@thevillageyid]

Death Stranding is amazing.

[@dillydraws]

1) 51 was cut no question about it. It was cut so late into the game probably for multiple reasons that we just don't know but if it was in the game, it wouldn't have been mission 51. 2) Camp Omega seems to have been cut early on because other than that one interview and some files, nothing was ever indicated that if you got GZ you could return to camp omega with a lot of those assets being reused for Online 3) Skull face was the big bad of the revenge chapter, in the grand scheme of things he was insignificant and he went on a 9 minute monologue talking about his plans and motivation. Quiet story was built up on all though race as the story with Eli and Millar's revenge seeking turning inwards lead to her whole plot and emotional connect to Venom. 4) Chapter 3 title was never peace. It was an translation error, in the Japanese version it translates to Syntheses/Continuance (Forgot which one) Chapter 2 whole thing is that once your revenge is over, you continue on in a war without end, thats why you reply harder version of missions because its meant to show that the war keeps going while mother bases becomes more paranoid of traitors with posters saying big boss is watching you. While not in missions, all the Eli stuff with the children and Huey all still take place in chapter 2, the fall of Dimond dogs so to speak. 5) Ishmael can shoot it just takes forever. 6) It was cut early on probably due to hardware limitation (it was on the 360) if he even said this at all. 7) This isn't really an issue with the game not being complete. 8) Guard dogs probably was cut due to the AI with the human handlers causing issues, not an unfished feature, just cut 9) The battlegear wouldn't have worked because of the terrain of both Africa and Afghanistan, hell tanks are usable in game and go unused most of the due to it only being usable on the roads and would make almost every other vehicle and buddy obsolete. Not an issue of having no time but an issue of it not working.

[@Reptifitness]

Could you elaborate more about quiet part. I didn’t get what you meant by “though race” Also did she pass away? Because she had no lungs so parasites wouldn’t be able to hurt her.

[@dillydraws]

@@Reptifitness Chapter 2 is called "Race" and during that chapter we build up her relationship with Venom. Granted it's not really though gameplay but during all the different cutscenes on MB. Her rescuing the necklace was a good character moment to show her softer side and care for MB members like the Children. Or her refusing to speak when being tortured because of Miller's own Paranoia or even the playing in the rain moment with Venom. Also It's a bit confusing but since she spoke English that would infect everyone who speaks English so the only way she can stop that from happening is so wonder off alone in the desert to die. (I think at least)

[@Reptifitness]

@@dillydraws It’s been forever since I have played the game. I played it when it came out. Just so if I remember it correctly how was the parasite supposed to work like once it activate if someone speak the specific language parasite eats that person’s lungs? But I also remember about them creating an cure. Quiet’s ending part always bothered me. Even till this day! I felt there wasn’t a complete closure as to what exactly happened to her after. I notice all females usually go away from all the playable Snake’s life. Like Eva, merile and boss. But at least they showed proper ending as to what happened to them but with Quiet they kinda left you wondering. I am not sure her pulling the bolt of rifle is supposed to represent something. Usually it supposed to mean you are about to shoot or ready to shoot.

[@dillydraws]

@@Reptifitness They fed off the lungs and breed to make more parasites, they activated due to different language that they are trained to enjoy and mate in. However they didn't really find a cure but a treatment, they basically turned all the female parasites into male ones making the host sterile. (Imagine if that got out into the whole world who spoke English) Also they can mutate to counter the treatment as Huey oh so thankfully did. (Prick) I think the bolt pulling was meant to show that Quiet will keep fighting, even if she's about to die, just away from everyone she can harm due to the parasites in her body.

[@CJS3637_MforAone]

​@@Reptifitness i know im nine days late but the cure was used for the kikongo language. Not the english parasite strain. And of a cure? That last one was the only one code talker had, and once it got used up. Gone. No more. Anyone else gets infected then its bye bye. Which is why we had that scene on the quarantine platform of you killing all your soldiers. Can't escape or else it'll spread and there's no more cure. It does suck that there wasnt a way to develop a cure but honestly considering I've never seen any other metal gear game dabble in these parasites. This might just be a mgs 5 thing and was overlooked to send some sort of message.

[@rpe7418]

Every time this game comes up it just makes me sad. I am a diehard mgs fan and this game should not have been released incomplete, and kojima should not have been forced to stop making new mgs games

[@dillydraws]

Kojima wanted to stop making MGS games since 2 and always got pulled back in.

[@NGSF_GrayFox]

can relate to the "took a week off work and suddenly credits rolled" part. Was super bummed out back then because MGO was still waaaays off and I had experienced all the story and most of the side content (didnt have the time due to work to finish 100% until waaaay later on PC). Still it is, for me at least, a great final entry in the MGS franchise, because it more or less lets you yourself be Big Boss in your own Eyes and that for me is better than some half baked missions after the "Truth" mission imo. Great Video :)

[@FernandoMMuniz]

I really wished Venom could have his demon head model from the last MGSV trailer edited by Kojima

[@GrimStudios0]

I’m afraid it’s been, 9 years.

[@TheBlueLink3]

I agree that mission 51 should have been included and finished. That’s the only part of the game that feels unfinished to me. Everything else can be chalked up to normal cut content that every game has. Skull Face’s story was definitely fully explored. Taking him down was the big climax of chapter 1. Chapter 2 is just the fallout of those events. Sure, I have some gripes with the game, but feeling incomplete is barely one of them. The game has its own unique identity, whether it be from Kojima’s grand plan or just happy accidents, and I think chalking everything up to it just being incomplete does the game a huge disservice. The fans hurt this game more than Konami at this point. Personally, I’m largely very happy with what we got, and I wouldn’t really want it to be different at this point.

[@sadman7141]

Still play this game until this day and never get bored

[@HotdogRawdog]

It was my understanding that The Phantom Pain was supposed to go all the way to the fall of Outer Heaven.

[@solidmage1720]

The game could have had a epilogue/debriefing like MGS4 where you see a remake of Metal Gear (1987), and players play as Solid Snake and infiltrate Outer Heaven and the guards are the ones players fultoned earlier in Ground Zeroes and The Phantom Pain. Players would fight Big Boss and escape Outer Heaven Uprising. Then after the credits roll, you see a cutscene of Solid Snake swimming through the water, gets out and climbs up a cliff and it mimics the cutscene similar to Ground Zeroes with Big Boss to get to Zanzibarland and you hear Roy Campbell, “Remember, just like in Outer Heaven four years ago, this is a sneaking mission. There are lots of enemies and only one of you. And Weapons and equipment OSP.” You hear Solid Snake ‘s voice, “I have infiltrated the fortress. Commencing operation Intrude F014.” Roy Campbell then says, “Excellent Snake. In time as usual. Age hasn’t slowed you down one bit. My frequency is 140.85. Contact me if you have any questions about the mission.” Than Snake takes his goggles and helmet off and camera zooms to his face and finally says, “Kept ya waiting, huh?”. Scene fades to black then you hear the Metal Gear Solid VR missions mission failed theme and the text similar to MGS1/MGS2 game over screen but it just resembles a text saying “Thank you for playing Metal Gear Solid 1987-2015.”

[@xenoplayz4524]

@@HotdogRawdog There's a fan made ending called the "last day in outer heaven" that and mission 51 would have been a great ending to this unfinished game.

[@HotdogRawdog]

@@xenoplayz4524 I think I've seen that. If it's the one I'm thinking of, it was pretty good.

[@HotdogRawdog]

@@solidmage1720 That would be pretty awesome! I wonder if something like that could be made with mods...

[@P1Volvo850R]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/jIrSYqBsm6iLgrc *edit* this is not fan made this is cut content

[@AlvinPhanMusic]

Is it bad that I'm still waiting for the game to finish.. Couldn't they dlc or finish it without the man?

[@rexded]

Its probaly not going to be finished, unless the devs at Konami are brave enogth to make continue the story in some sort of anaversery addition

[@thepricklyprick4729]

Your not the only one

[@acidpool-ap]

It's like i still waiting for that game we've never got

[@r1yax212]

the reason there is no new mgs bc konami knows without kojima they just cant make one and if they do it will be a disappoinment they know kojima is mgs they fired their gem their core

[@cannedcoffee2518]

More like the fans would tear it apart before it even got a chance

[@jaemynbaer4504]

​@@cannedcoffee2518No they just cant make one. Metal gear survive comes to mind.

[@solaroid2152]

8:22 he actually will shoot both the guards if you wait long enough

[@none0403]

yup he shoot them both when i was planning to play the game with 0 kills 😅

[@greyfox4577]

I do think it is incomplete for the simple fact that when Ground Zeroes released, Kojima per his own words mentioned that the Phantom pain was bigger but it was "one and the same game" and the final product did not contain Ground Zeroes Guantanamo Map. On top of that some community modders where able to insert Gunatanamo bay in the Phantom Pain as a selectable location without any disruption to the game. Meaning it was most likely intended to be there, otherwise no amount of modding could have achieved this monumental task. All the other hints at it being unfinished are all the plots that seem to start going somewhere and then abruptly stop, deleted cutscenes and other odd things found in the games code. Also having so many selectable detailed characters in the single player game makes no sense and probably an indication there was suppsoed to be some form of co op and not just online. You also have to think about what was happening with Konami around the time Phantom pain was in development, they started cutting back on large AAA games and transitioning to mobile games. So Phantom pain was the opposite of what Konami wanted at the time and would naturally have conflicts with Kojima and his team. I would think that if anyone is told they are going over budget on a project that was not finished, they would probably have to change a lot of things so they could finish as quickly as possible. I can understand why Konami would never admit it is unfinished, since the community would either ask for refunds due to purchasing an unfinished game or pressure Konami to complete it, when they would not be able to since Kojima was most likely the only one that knew how to do that.

[@e.goryas]

We can use a find battle tank, and yet battle gear is breaking balance

[@johnwick-ss1ul]

I swear to God that many people will call this game the goat but this masterpiece is like puzzle without the last piece

[@udopadrik9971]

Which is often true of real masterpieces. Real art often leans towards leaving things to the imagination. 'Stories that "tell everything" and fill in all the holes with no question marks leftrarely get to that status. I'm guessing Kojima understood this and it was never an intention.

[@AndréVilaFranca]

It's definitely unfinished but it's still one of the best games ever. I wish Kojima Productions would get the MGS IP so they could make a proper ending for this game.

[@aboya7ia56]

Short answer 1:A lot of missing gameplay elements 2:Cut ending 3:No new game mode 4:No new game + mode 5:And Kojima and Konami drama happened

[@monzirahmed1548]

imagine if they let us use battle gear to fight sahelanthropus, rather than just the same tanky boss fights 3 times if we included ep51

[@frogglen6350]

its funny how this game still has better game mechanics than most games now. if not all of them now

[@michaelsuezo]

The beauty of the fox engine. Kojima planned to build a robust and flexible engine that future Konami games would run. Then Konami decided they're out of the console games business and just dumped the engine.

[@Ikkey]

Even now, 9 years to the day, we will go back and forth on whether or not the game is finished. The one thing I truly believe we can agree on is that we all wanted more from the game

[@venn7eance925]

We will just have to wait and see how PHYSINT turns out. But even without that for reference, it's clear that MGSV:TPP could have been so much more when you look at the quality and depth of Death Stranding. All Konami needed to do was let him cook, regardless of time taken, and they would still be reaping the rewards to this day. Not only did Konami rob us of the full TPP experience/vision but they also fucked us over with P.T. being shelved. Plus it didn't help that they wanted it to be playable on PS3 as well as 4, restricting innovations.

[@ThisIsGlitch]

The coop was announced for MGS5... in a trailer, it got replaced with the buddy system

[@kingnro1]

Got a video title or link? I have no memory whatsoever of this and I followed every piece of content like a vulture pre-release. If it happened it mustve been like 2012 or something before even the actual TPP trailer.

[@ThisIsGlitch]

@kingnro1 I remember commenting on the video... it appeared for a few seconds on the pre mission screen, where instead of the buddy select it was " play with a friend " or " coop ". I dont promise but I'll try to find it

[@kingnro1]

@@ThisIsGlitch hmm, then it would've been by the time they were showcasing bona fide TPP gameplay footage. Doesn't ring any bells, and I was involved on mgsforums and other boards where every piece of news was relentlessly discussed. I think you might just be misremembering, unless it was maybe some Japanese gameplay showcase that wasn't discussed in the west? Dunno

[@LoneWolfFromEast]

It doesn't have end mission/ending, which actually have, episode 51 as you said so there you go. Everything else in terms of gameplay is superb so get over it, jezz.

[@TKEDEADLY]

Happy 9 years!🎉 also I agree with you it’s a unfinished game I hate that we never got chapter 3 nor going to camp omega but maybe in the future we’ll get it idk we don’t know we just have to keep waiting also coop will be really fun if they did that

[@tecno-480]

To balance the batle gear t-90 would be a good counter in the open world

[@Pliskin_Is_MSX2]

Hi Jaguar King, I hope you read this. I am a +4,000 hour non-lethal player of GZ and TPP and I can confirm that the lowest kill count possible to have in TPP is 33 kills. Mission Shining Lights requires you to kill 27 of your soldiers and Mission Truth requires 6 soldiers killed at the hospital entrance. In this video at 7:54, Ishmael does kill both of those soldiers if you don't harm any of them. You can avoid killing them completely in both mission Prologue and mission Truth. It takes about less then 40 seconds for Ishmael to do it in both missions.

[@PanikDoctor]

Unbelievable that its been almost a decade since this games release

[@_GeneralMechanics_]

The replayed missions later in the game are intentional more than just recycled levels. It's to make you, as the player, realize that Venom was an unreliable narrator the whole time.

[@harrisonrg777]

in the japanese culture honor is a big thing with them. it’s clear that kojima was upset with how konami threated him and didn’t want to release the game unfinished but he can not openly talk about it without it hurting his honor and that comes with a lot of things people not wanting to work with him companies not wanting to work with his production team so he has to keep his mouth shut. it’s very simple. he wanted to make a huge game but all the money they spent making the fox engine pissed konami off they wanted the game out and out asap. the whole reason ground zeros was made was for konami to make some of the money back. they most likely gave kojima a deadline and when he said the game isn’t finished that’s when they took him off the game have his staff finish the game. this is why chapter two is all repeat missions. we will never know what the story was really meant to because we don’t know when they took him off the game. the people left in charge of finishing the coding and trying to figure out how to wrap the game up so it made sense who knows how much of that was done by his team and not him. remember he was not allowed to even communicate with his team at some point. as for camp omega i think we got a hint of what it was supposed to be. the map was released in mgv online but in a future setting. it was probably meant to be a part of the nuclear disarmament. after all pmc destroyed all their nukes everyone would be given a new special mission. where they have to go to camp omega and destroy the last remaining nukes on the planet. most likely would be insanely well guarded and would be the hardest mission ever. the whole “only can be done in video games” to me saids the zero nukes part and “going back there” if we go back remember at the end of the game we are in a different time so even if we go back it will be at least 9 years later most likely more but you get the idea.

[@scarrface28]

A dream come true is if Konami, re-release a master collection connecting ground zeros seamlessly, and adding a finished mission 51 to the end. Here’s to hoping!

[@isauldron4337]

With current Konami it's delusional

[@AdrianPowersFilmmaker]

In 2015, 2005 graphics seemed archaic and childish. In 2024, 2015's graphics are still astounding. What happened?

[@Salty_C.J.]

i think the biggest reason the game is unfinished is because when you get to the end of it it tells you theres another chapter and then theres not

[@RPGs]

Actually. Ishmel does kill a guard before that though. When he gets the gun after that volgen and helicopter scene. ishmel kills that one guard that comes around the corner

[@dereklong2072]

You're meant to be left with your own "phantom pain" after finishing the game. That's why after 9 years people are still upset and talking about their issues with the game. "You hope Hatred might one day replace the Pain, but it never goes away" - Skull Face

[@wolfboy4987]

I just dont know why Konami couldnt release mission 51, the have the material and the capabilities Co-op with friends would have also been really fun and it defineately could have been added. Just feels like a missed opportunity

[@Darthpsychonis]

Because they fired Kojima before he could finish it and they didn't want to make it without him.

[@xenoplayz4524]

Exactly hell they could have finished mission 51 as part of a dlc with co op added

[@shabberto]

They clearly really wanted to turn the tap off so gave the team an absurd deadline after firing Kojima

[@AngelYZ125]

Props to you for taking A WEEK off work whenever a new MGS came out, that’s some dedication, I love it!

[@ScrodumHat]

your point about the "real" episode 46 also brings into the question, what exactly was the intent behind bringing up that V's horn is pressing on his optical nerve and may cause illusions? it only really comes into play scarcely, and it never feels meaningful. the whole game i was waiting for them to reveal that maybe seeing the story through V's eyes makes the events he witnesses unreliable, such as Ishmael never being in the hospital in the first place like you said. but no, it's only really ever used in very subtle ways, like his horn growing larger in certain cutscenes or him seeing skull face for a second even though he's already dead.

[@bakr3639]

7:40 I also think it's weird that Psycho Mantis couldn't just read Ishmael's mind and know that he is the real Big Boss, while the other is just a clone of him.

[@rpe7418]

Maybe he did...

[@djsarsaparilla5427]

He could have but like a ton of characters and their characterization were also incomplete. Psycho mantis is a character that’s both telepathic and one of the main villains of the first game. And the motherfucker gets zero dialogue even. One of the many reasons why people saying “ah games have content cut all the time” is just bullshit.

[@Nilon241]

Mantis dgaf about Venom not being the real boss. He only cares about who wants the most revenge at the time.

[@grayfox4288]

@@Nilon241this!!!

[@InsaneEnergy]

8:30 Ishmael is real, and was always meant to be. He does shoot the XOF soldiers if you wait long enough. He was meant to be more proactive (following through on shooting the other soldier), but for some reason this was cut, along with a lot more dialogue from Ishmael. This can be seen in the mod "Awakening and Bees Uncut", which restores some unused assets, voice clips, events, etc. from the Prologue as well as Mission 6 - Where Do The Bees Sleep?

[@michaelsuezo]

Isn't Ishmael supposed to be the real big boss? Helping venom snake escape and start the 2 big boss storyline?

[@JunLuden]

​@@michaelsuezoyes

[@Big.Joe.Grizzly]

What happened to the latest metal gear livestream jag?

[@eeyorebenji2836]

I understand that people believe the game is unfinished, but if a few cut story or gameplay contents make a game "unfinished", that would imply most, if not, all games are unfinished. Most games have significant gameplay and story cuts, because that's how game development works. Not everything makes it into the final game. I wish there was more to the game, but there's a lot of games I wish had more content in them. The only thing, to me, that would indicate the game is incomplete is that chapter 2 has a lot of reused missions, even then that doesn't inherently mean that the game is unfinished but more so the developers probably thought chapter 2 was too short on it's own and had to pad it out to meet a quota.

[@jasonfields9589]

I believe that the mother base is unfinished. There seems to be doors that were meant to be entered, but unfortunately cut in the final game.

[@tilambucano9521]

i'd love if they at least took what kojima wanted to do with the story and made some extra missions by dlc

[@jd61215]

8:25 he didnt take the shot because he couldnt see... Its big boss and the side he was positioned is where his missing eye is with the good eye side behind cover - another little hint at Ishmael's identity

[@nashdash6404]

I bought the game 3 years ago and started playing 2 weeks ago. I'm almost 100 hours in it. The game structure reminds me a lot of Warframe. In my opinion, the game was designed to be this massive experience with expansions released every 6 months or so, with new locations, missions and story elements to advance the story. Kojima was about to leave the company and Konami decided to rush the project.

[@paulalex9428]

i consider myself a MGS fan but not a die hard fan as MGS 1 was one of the first games i owned on my PC in 1999 and i have fond memories of it (altough i was to little to understand how to finish it then - a 7 yo that didnt know english ) and along my journey as a gamer i played most MGS games and i liked them all ( still have to play Reveangeance but i am not interested to play the old ones from the 80s) Ok, so , back to the point. MGS 5 is a masterpiece but i dont think i ever played a game that is also a true masterpiece and a once in a console generation type of game and also a total mess story wise. no game left me so confused and so empty, so unsatisfied at the end like mgs 5 did. I truly dont know if this was Kojimas plan (i consider him so "crazy" that it could have been his plan hence the name "phantom pain" like you mentioned in the video ) but this game is without a doubt unfinished. Unique game overall, still in my best 10 of all time and i played a lot of games.

[@fdrodreeguez20]

The worst part is that Konami didn't even finish the game despite Kojima leaving. Like they could have released a big update to the game, or a DLC to finish the game with the Kingdom of Flies episode and such.

[@hugotarga]

Clearly the Skull Face story and the introduction of Eli and his developing hatred for Snake was a first act of the story, that rumor that the game would have 5 chapters instead of the 2 we got most likely was true. The game was taking too long and costing too much, that's why Konami forced the launch of Ground Zeroes as a separate game, and why the game seems like it's missing a part of the story

[@studypurpose2001]

About Episode 46: One thing is certain about Ishmael is that he was actually a real person, not venom snake's hallucination. Now whether he was the real big boss or some other person is upto debate. When Quiet was sent to assassinate venom snake in the hospital, she said the line "Not yet. The patient in the next bed saw my face", which proves that it was Ishamel who saw quiet's face. Quiet never had any hallucinatory issue like venom snake and was fully mentaly healthy so she was there and she saw ishmael with her own eyes. Another thing to mention is that venom snake was physically exhausted and weak after waking up from a 9 years of coma. So he wouldn't be able to throw things at quiet and douse her with fire. Anybody after waking up even 6 months of coma would be very exhausted at first and would need some time to fully regain strength to fight and move around. Ishmael, the person, helped venom snake survive and escape from the hospital after venom snake woke up from a decade long coma. About cut guard dogs: cutting them was a better decision. They would have been too difficult to deal with in the game and that would have made the gameplay frustrating for most players. Other than these, i agree with everything else said in this video. Excellent video making. Everything is to the point. I myself is very disappointed about the fact that one of my favorite games was released incomplete.

[@michaelsuezo]

Isn't Ishmael supposed to be the real big boss? Helping venom snake escape and start the 2 big boss storyline?

[@sebastiantrias1529]

Ever thought of making the cut content playable instead of the repetitive missions from Chapter 2.

[@matias-jc3ip]

at the part at 7:55 you're wrong he will shot them if to take long enough. nice video though

[@Matt.2024]

I was so incredibly hooked on this game when it came out. I played it to the point where I playing it anymore was a chore. Fast forward I'm now replaying the game for the first time since I stopped playing it and part of the reason why It took me so long was because of how frustrated I was with the story. It was all going great then it just suddenly ended. No one would care if the game was trash but the game is amazing which makes it all the more painful.

[@ALQahtaniBH]

About number 5… there is a kind of inconsistency in mission 46. At 02:32 Ocelot pulls Big Boss out of the ambulance leaving Venom unconscious, then time skips & you see them together at 05:59 (you witness sunrise during the scene). In the prologue Ocelot pulls Venom out of the ambulance at 03:07 & you play until you see them get on the ship together (before sunrise). You could say that Ocelot went back and forth while Venom was unconscious (why?), but how could Ocelot go back at 05:59 if he got on the ship (before sunrise)?

[@InsaneEnergy]

In the leaked script files, this is less ambiguous. The scene was supposed to take place right before Ocelot rescues Venom, with Big Boss hearing them talking and seeing the Man on Fire attacking them. In the GDC 2013 trailer, the scene also takes place at night, which makes me think the scene was changed late in development for some bizarre reason.

[@myfrozenhead]

If the current Kojima Productions could buy the MGS IP from Konami maybe... just maybe we can finally play the 100% vision of this masterpiece.

[@Chud_Bud]

I don't get the fanboy narrative that it's a complete game and it's the intended experience. It's easily observable that it's not. Even at a brief glance, but especially when you look into it. It's Actually less insulting to Kojima to say that he simply overspent because he was a bit too ambitious so they had to cut their losses and rush it out, than it is to say that he's such an incompetent creative that he genuinely thought that it was a good idea for the player to spend half of the game replaying missions from the first half of the game (complete with the same cutscenes they couldn't even be bothered to take out) and leaving the audience completely unsatisfied by slapping a rushed ending on all of that and calling it a day. Didn't wrap up Eli, didn't wrap up Metal Gear, nothing. It just sort of ends. Imagine playing the Witcher 3 and halfway through the game the story just stops and you're in White Orchard again. Then after that there's a cutscene and then credits. If ANY of that was intentional from a creative standpoint, then he's a massive hack and doesn't deserve a second of your attention.

[@futurewolfjackson1628]

I'm still afraid to beat it. you know...until 6 comes out

[@gertytk5528]

I still remember the release day like it was yesterday. What a day that was. And I also remember becoming increasingly confused and disappointed towards the end of the game. Still, even unfinished it's one of the greatest games ever. And no, despite what many people say, the game isn't "just like Kojima intended". It clearly is handicapped because of Konami, and not some 4D phantom pain vision by Kojima which worked exactly as he wanted. That's just a defense mechanism.

[@ImSomethingSpecial]

Crazy thing is I've never been able to beat the game after the motherbase massacre because I hate redoing missions with different difficulties.

[@JacktheStripper-tc5pn]

I think it's designed to feel unfinished, a true... phantom pain

[@Gutsu9X]

I don't think the story was unfinished, I didn't get much on the internet during that time so I was shocked with Venom snake not being John Doe/ Naked snake/ Big boss.

[@notsosolidsnakeproductions3596]

Kojima has mentioned in the Book of MGS V TPP that the game it self was Complete to him. Episode 51 was cut LONG before Kojima was fired. while the GAMEPLAY was 10/10 the story was about a 6/10 The game was "Complete" to the ones who made it. similar to What you experienced with Co-op play, i remember a video with him discussing it, but I can not find it. co-op as a Mod, should come out, Weve seen it done with Cyberpunk at the moment, i believe with a great modder, we can make it happen in MGS V

[@uqbar42]

Something in my gut tells me that the maps of Metal Gear Survive were meant to be the ones for Kingdom of the Flies...

[@frogglen6350]

Ive been playing PP and nobody has brought up guard dogs.

[@joj6666]

Exactly '' In our Timeline ' Maybe It's Not Over Yet

[@TheSoloManiac]

Camp Omega eas probably where you were supposed to find the Paz Tapes

[@martywittenberg1427]

I actually never finished it. Whatever this was..no matter if Kojima made it i do not call Metal Gear. It just lacked any feeling i got from the previous titles not to mention the lackluster boss. Quiet just felt like a rehash of Sniper Wolf and The End. And no i actually liked Wolf better. Quiet i found disgusting. Not to mention those Borg bathingsuit enemies. I could name countless things that just rubbed me the wrong way. And the end of it i consider 4 it's true ending as Kojima originally intended. Konami forced whatever this was on him. And i give it a big middlefinger. It did not even have David Hayter reprising his role as Big Boss because Kojima did not seem to like him or whatever. Sutherland was not bad..but a bit to late in the series to pull that on the original voice actor who made him great. That was pretty much the last straw for me and it disconnected me from this character. The gameplay was fun but the world itself was empty and ohw yes..it was unfinished. Never did i expect in a million years one of Kojima's games would release in a unfinished state. I was not even aware of that before i bought it. But once i did it was over. I don't do Unfinished Junk. And i don't care how famous the creator fancies himself to be or what trouble there is cooking between Konami and Him. I can sleep easy 4 was the last true Metal Gear Solid. And even in that one it already started to show it was out of gas. Konami just wanted more because it did not have shit to deliver otherwise except outdated unpopulair titles.

[@Delta2099]

funny how Konami Fumble not releasing mission 51 instead they gave the online mode no one ask for

[@skipskip342]

Konami probably got rid of Kojima because his vision cost too much money, as if they didn't have enough money But he still did his best before leaving

[@UrdnotWrex88]

Remember when everyone thought Chapter 3 would be released if every sever became free of nukes?

[@decoyaccount6]

To be honest mgsv never felt like an unfinished game to me, the main goal of Big Boss and Miller was to rebuild motherbase and get revenge on skull face for what he did 9 years ago, not only does diamond dogs grow bigger and better but we also take revenge on skull face and cripple him, the missions we get after that feels more like a small free dlc. Put i do understand the whole unfinished thing the game was good and even wli wanted them to add a dlc or more missions.

[@Marse913]

Yall remember the ending of Everybody hates Chris? It felt like that when it ended

[@nerysandoval9808]

Things that never happen …

[@GuyOnAChair]

There is still gaurd dog dialogue used in the game during FOB's.

[@Egobert]

9 years and people still with this "unfinished game" gimmick

[@Yeshua_is-Cool]

That's the phantom pain for you it's pain for something not really there

[@sciishere]

It gets tiring after 9 years of it

[@Egobert]

@@sciishere fr its like people don't understand that every game in history has cut content because of time or budged

[@120Pythons]

​@@Egobert that's a stupid argument. Every game has cut content but MGSV has a huge empty feeling, they literally didn't even add the finale and just gave us concept art. It's lazy AF and you're justifying it because you're a fanboy.

[@Egobert]

@@120Pythons my brother in christ the game is as intended and it clearly has an ending did you not watch the truth ending with the mirror and the tapes? It literary ends connecting V to Metal Gear 1 ....what more do you want? And those concept arts and videos to the supposed next chapter was given to people who bough the collectors edition so do your research before talking nonsense

[@juicesenpai1413]

what I don't get is that Konami did not attempt to add the missing pieces or add some updates for added side ops missions etc. They just did not want dish out more money on the game just to get on Kojima bad side.

[@markTK901]

Even though personally I didn't like the story of TTP what we really need is a remake of this game to get it in a finished state with all the cut content added back in and not a reheated MGS3

[@DIOhTheNobody]

Unfinished? Bro blame that on Konami. The game is still goated

[@MYoutube8]

Played more than 100 hours. Love it.

[@9ALiTY]

Why hasn't a Skilled Team of Modders Make the Finally Mission Playable?

[@Chud_Bud]

Something like that would require the source code, and we don't have that.

[@oldsk0ol]

It was already known that the game was unfinished due to Kojima's departure from Konami before the game was released.

[@TheOG_Austin1776]

Part of me still thinks this is still all a ploy that will be rectified in the future

[@Vicktorw]

If MGSV finished games, DLC and all featured completely.. this games will be best all of the times!

[@clamjammer4927]

Kojima is the master at getting you to question your own reality, causing you to have an existencial crisis

[@Calintares]

MGSV caused me to stop trusting Kojima. I got 100% and I wish I hadn't.

[@notcorinnothing]

Womp womp

[@bubba418]

Womp womp

[@nild9153]

Hahahahah

[@russellwestbrook462]

Have you played death stranding? If so I’d like to hear your opinion as someone who very much likes both mgsv and ds. my overall favorite is mgs1 tho

[@leeli4692]

​@@russellwestbrook462DS is awesome 💪

[@lisbon1492]

I first got this game around 8 years ago. I played through a our 1/3rd of it, and I put it down until about a year ago. I finished it a our six months ago. I couldn't put it down.

[@hemangkorane1797]

When you disregard what the creator has to say, and goes to nitpick several cut contents which every game has and say that it was robbed for the magnum opus you supposed it to be, while being obsessed with it's gameplay and story, just goes to show peak mgs fanbase IQ. Like even if Kojima didn't broke with Konami and still this was the game everybody got, i bet nobody would call the game unfinished and it would've been the masterpiece which everybody expected.

[@GeorgeGatsios-h9s]

I don't think it's a matter of theory. It was a well known fact that kojima and konami clashed a lot during production. I believe I've read somewhere that konami was working kogima and his crew to the bone, without paid overtime etc. and he packed the whole team and left. That is the reason the game was incomplete, and konami being the vengeful twats they are, even striped the phrase "A Hideo Kojima Game" from the cover. I also believe that the very ending of the game(or close resemblence to it) was a nod to the palyers, a love letter to the fans if you wish by kojima-sensei himself saying to us "Now, you are Big Boss", hinting that his legacy will live through us because konami was bound to destroy the franchise, and it did(MGS: Survive).

[@init_yeah]

I actually thought of Ishmael being a psychosis, he is just in his head.

[@majordeegan1849]

Time is flying 😢

[@Loreweavver]

I've come to accept that it was left finished unintentionally as revealing the prestige of the trick they played pisses people off. Speaking from personal experience, at least, exposing people to the truth of what that game depicts has received nothing but negative comments. Side note: Kojima was always one step ahead and created a narrative that chatbots and computers are incapable of discussing without exposing their nature as robots. La le lu li lo, friends.

[@shabberto]

For everyone in the comments denying this well known fact that this game is unfinished, we all know Konami practically decided to stop making games altogether for a decade, they decided this during the production of mgsv. Considering how large that game is unfinished i imagine it possibly inspired the decision. Knowing this and that the lead was fired before it went gold, combined with the fact that its infamously the most '3/4 of the way thru we were told fo wrap up asap' feeling game in history, Its a lot of smoke for no fire, even if the man himself is being prideful and classy about the situation.

[@RobertVitone]

Another segment you shouldve included was the Chico concept art, that wouldve been crazy had we of had that arc he wouldve been a buddy, too.

[@dillydraws]

His role was already filled by Quiet as the human buddy who appeals more to Kojima.