Konami sure is an odd company. On the one hand, it seems almost desperate to assure Metal Gear fans that—no, really—it has nothing but love and worship for the Metal Gears of old, and that it can be trusted to steward the series into the future. On the other, it’s pathologically averse to ever saying the name of series creator Hideo Kojima, to the extent that it put out a whole Metal Gear retrospective without uttering his name even once. It’s like the entire corporation is undergoing some weird form of de-Stalinisation.
But while the suits seem loath to say Kojima’s name, the same can’t be said for Noriaki Okamura and Yuji Korekado, lead devs on Metal Gear Solid Delta. In a recent chat with Inverse (via GamesRadar), the pair were only too happy to chat about Kojima, saying they’d love it if ol’ Hideo set aside some time to try their remake of MGS 3.
“We are not sure what he would want to do, but we want to deliver this game whilst being very respectful of all the people that we previously worked with,” said Okamura. “We would love for [Kojima] to see it too.”
Which might be a problem, since in another recent interview Kojima was asked directly if he had any plans to try out the remake of the game some consider (it’s me, I’m some) the best game he ever helmed. He was pretty direct: “No, I won’t.” Then he got a bit sidetracked talking about all the ways he knows to kill people. It was a weird interview.
Honestly? I find it all a little sad. Both Okamura and Korekado worked with Kojima on Metal Gears of yore back in the day, and I have to imagine it would mean a lot to get the big man’s stamp of approval on their work—especially given how much Delta feels like their pitch to Metal Gear fans that they can be trusted to handle the series. Alas, Kojima’s moved on to hanging out with Norman Reedus, and seems keen to leave the past in the past.
What would Kojima think of looksmaxxing Ocelot? Much to consider. (Image credit: Konami)
It’s a strange one. We rather liked nu-MGS, scoring it 87% in our Metal Gear Solid Delta review, but I think Konami is going to have to get out from under Kojima’s shadow sharpish if it really wants to prove itself with the Metal Gear series.
It’s one thing to show you can preserve what makes the series so beloved in an exhaustively faithful UE5 remake, but to really prove itself, it’s gonna need to take a big swing or two and have them pay off, whether they happen in a brand-new game or another remake. That’ll be the real test of Okamura and Korekado. And no, I doubt Kojima will play that either.
