Reading some of these comments make me think that Kojima sort of sabotaged himself by making Snake into this "Old Snake" character.
I honestly HATED seeing Snake turn old (and grow a mustache on top of it). I understand the reasoning behind it, the storyline for it made sense, but I just didn't like it! We always have this belief that these characters are "timeless" and "ageless". Link, Mario, Luigi, Master Chief, etc. will never truly "die" or "age". Comic-book superheroes haven't aged for over 40-50 years!
Like you said Solidus, the fans were outraged about how Snake was handled in MGS2. Even I was when Raiden showed up. Of course they released games like "Substance" to try and make things cool by being able to play as Snake during the whole "Plant" section but the damage was done.
Snake, in my opinion, never really was the true "coach" in MGS2. He was there on his own mission during the Plant section. He just fell into that sort of role as the behind the scenes guy later when things fell apart for Raiden. If he is in MGS5 and is regulated to a Commanding Officer role, I'm sure Kojima KNOWS he has to regulate a *new* main character to be of the same level of intrigue and caliber as Solid Snake or you're going to have a fan uproar.
Raiden was a prettyboy punk who came out of nowhere. Had a unique storyline but he looked more the part of a Final Fantasy character than a young soldier and I think that resonated deeper than Kojima expected. Especially the American audience, because MGS sells better in the USA than it does in Japan and Kojima has acknowledged this. I think it made some of think about what happened? Especially since we're spending half the game playing as a character we know so little about.
I will say that playing as Raiden in the second half of MGS2 was one of the BIGGEST mistakes/disappointments in video game history. Hence the outrage at Kojima, the death threats, etc. He had a HUGE amount of momentum going into the PS2 and after the immense success of playing as Solid Snake in MGS1, he really dropped the ball with that decision in MGS2. So he knows he has to be careful with the direction and decision that he makes.
Imagine playing Halo 2 and then suddenly you play the second half of the game as a young soldier punk with little care to who he is. What happened to Master Chief? Or playing a Legend of Zelda and suddenly you're playing some other elf kid and NOT Link?
I honestly HATED seeing Snake turn old (and grow a mustache on top of it). I understand the reasoning behind it, the storyline for it made sense, but I just didn't like it! We always have this belief that these characters are "timeless" and "ageless". Link, Mario, Luigi, Master Chief, etc. will never truly "die" or "age". Comic-book superheroes haven't aged for over 40-50 years!
Like you said Solidus, the fans were outraged about how Snake was handled in MGS2. Even I was when Raiden showed up. Of course they released games like "Substance" to try and make things cool by being able to play as Snake during the whole "Plant" section but the damage was done.
Snake, in my opinion, never really was the true "coach" in MGS2. He was there on his own mission during the Plant section. He just fell into that sort of role as the behind the scenes guy later when things fell apart for Raiden. If he is in MGS5 and is regulated to a Commanding Officer role, I'm sure Kojima KNOWS he has to regulate a *new* main character to be of the same level of intrigue and caliber as Solid Snake or you're going to have a fan uproar.
Raiden was a prettyboy punk who came out of nowhere. Had a unique storyline but he looked more the part of a Final Fantasy character than a young soldier and I think that resonated deeper than Kojima expected. Especially the American audience, because MGS sells better in the USA than it does in Japan and Kojima has acknowledged this. I think it made some of think about what happened? Especially since we're spending half the game playing as a character we know so little about.
I will say that playing as Raiden in the second half of MGS2 was one of the BIGGEST mistakes/disappointments in video game history. Hence the outrage at Kojima, the death threats, etc. He had a HUGE amount of momentum going into the PS2 and after the immense success of playing as Solid Snake in MGS1, he really dropped the ball with that decision in MGS2. So he knows he has to be careful with the direction and decision that he makes.
Imagine playing Halo 2 and then suddenly you play the second half of the game as a young soldier punk with little care to who he is. What happened to Master Chief? Or playing a Legend of Zelda and suddenly you're playing some other elf kid and NOT Link?
