In the first half of the game or so it's pretty clear that you are playing one of the best puzzle games ever created by being clearly presented with a fully transparent physical logic that will never play no cheap magic tricks and do what a lot, or all, puzzle games always seek and never reach, keep showing level after level defying your conception of what can even be done with very simple rules every single time.

Now, earlier for some, later for others, you're going to get stuck. That's fine. About that time, the game clearly reveals itself as a masterpiece.

It’s at those times that the background elements will come to the foreground. While standing still with a total lack of ideas, searching for anything to hold onto, you’ll start appreciating the colors of the day and night cycle, the flower leaves rising with your steps, the ever present synth that rarely makes a full melody, the fire crackling, the waves threatening your sausages... You’ll even give it a rest, go take a walk, go live. And you’ll return without expecting it. The map is static, you know the exact consequence of an action before the movement, with the game closed too. So you’ll go to sleep and replace the sheep to count with the level that’s been there for days, already burnt into you. Take advantage of the lack of logic to build the possibilities back.

I guess there is something about frustration and wisdom (or knowledge) here, but it’s related to a particular greater topic: inspiration. And the patience it needs. You cannot invoke it by stomping against the same wall again and again in the same way. You can only clear your head, give it time, distance and hope that when inspiration comes you will be ready to welcome it properly.

Keep dreaming those sausages.

Waited for the dub patch before playing. Yong did a fine job. The writing in this title is really well done and keeps scenes mostly interesting. Music is decent. Game looks good. Loved the customization and dress-up, even if it was a tad limited.

Ultimately, I found this game to be pretty empty and full of meandering. I don't see myself ever playing it again and will be forgetting everything that wasn't in a marketing trailer within the week.

New "Agent style" is whatever. Giving Joryu a grapple hook wire sounds cool, but it's so lame. It's a crap-shoot if the wire even works. The best tactic for large group fights is to get some drones out to distract while you lay explosive cigs around the arena.
"Yakuza style" is a bit more fun and the charge moves work well enough to combat the constant kneeling and heaving most grunts do. Them hunched over would mean kicks fly right over their head- they are immune to throws as well. Not a fan. The best strat for the little guys is to mash light punch while they're down and tank damage with yakuza-style for the big guys. A certain part of me misses the old style of gameplay. Pop an energy drink, try to see as many unique heat moves as possible. New heat moves in this title are few and far between. Really lacking in that area.

Akane is a pretty neat addition, offering most of the "side content" and adding an additional currency to manage. Though, I gotta say, I did not like a single side-story. The best optional stuff to me was recruiting fighters for the coliseum- but even that side of things got old quick.

If this was a launch title for a new console generation, I could see some merit here. A little taste of what makes this series good in a cheap package. But that's not what we got. What we have is a story that could be summarized in 2 sentences, stretched out to make us feel like it was "worth more." That brings with it all the implied padding as well. I could see players who are new to this franchise liking this a bit more than the die-hards.

Now, why do I dislike this more than ground zeroes?
I think it's because Ground Zeroes was NEW. It was a bold taste of the next generation of metal gear. It was something to be excited for.
I was going to be excited for 8 because 7 was good. Not this mini adventure.

Just watch the cutscenes online if you really wanna know.

(This game also destroyed my entire SSD. The game crashed and caused the entire drive to fail. It's hilarious. I promise that had nothing to do with my score.)

Hi my name is Carmen Winstead. I'm 17 years old. I am very similar to you. Did I mention to you that I'm dead? A few years ago a group of girls pushed me down a sewer hole to try and embarrass me. When I didn't come back up the police came.The girl said that I had fell and everyone believed them. The police found my body in the sewer. I had a broken neck and my face was torn off. Send this message to 15 people after you listened the whole message if you value your life. A boy called David received this message. He just left and deleted it. When he was in the shower he heard laughing. My laughter. He got really scared and rushed to his phone to repost this message but he was too late. The next morning his mom entered his bedroom and all she found was a message written in his blood saying 'You will never have him back'. No one has found his body yet because he is with me. A girl called Charlotte received this message and she immediately sent it to 25 people, 10 more than required. I still watch over every second of her life to make sure that she is safe and to keep her and everyone close to her out of danger. Send this to 15 people in the next five minutes if you don't want your fate to be the same as David's. Your time starts now.the story is true you can research it on Google. the video game

This game is... just complicated. It's edgy, it's vulgar, and pretty sexist. I don't think the game itself is racist, but man 3 white supremacist endings, huh? I think that goes to show the problem with this game. It hammers it's edginess too hard to the point where it's not shocking or funny. It's just gross and hamfisted and it NEVER stops. I held on to this game thinking that the final "video" in the phone menu would be something genuine and sincere and have a thought out message... It wasn't. "We will never understand each other"....
Ok man. I think anyone raving reviews for this game is probably bigoted in some way.