This game is really perfect wow. I've written off the Zelda series for a long time in my shitty teenage phase of believing games only held value if they were somehow profound. I assumed Ocarina of Time was not worth my time, not that it was a bad game but that perhaps it wasn't for me, someone who had been spoiled by the rich writing of Final Fantasy or other more narrative and character driven games I would place among my favorites. Oh, how wrong I was as I grew deeply immersed in the world of Hyrule. The whimsy of playing simple melodies on my ocarina, the joy of doing sidequests, the triumph of defeating Ganon, it captivated me in a way a game never has before. I spent so much time straying from the main game, something I rarely do unless I am already familiar with a games story. By the end I was surprised that I deeply cared about the fate of the kingdom. This game has made me look at video games in a new light and I am so excited to explore the rest of this series.

I want to write about this game in case I don't finish it, which as a huge fan of this series fucking sucks to say, even mgs4 despite how tiring it was for me I felt the need to finish, and I felt motivated too.

The big problem with this game isn't its quality or its passion or anything like that. I have never ever felt the way I feel about the Phantom Pain. The strange part is that I am really enjoying this game in the small bursts I play it. The combat is fun, visually its beautiful, I love the customization and the freedom of choice. But something is missing, and I can't even put my finger on what it is fully. Something about this game sucks the life out of me.

I know a major criticism of mgs5 is its lack of story, and while certainly its less story driven than its predecessors, I don't think it completely lacks story. There are characters and they say things to each other and stuff changes.

The game feels so empty despite the fact that objectively it isn't, its odd. Kaz doesn't feel like Kaz, Ocelot most certainly does not feel like Ocelot, I don't even really know who Venom is. In fact, if I have one major criticism of this game its that I don't understand Venom's purpose as a character and to the overall metal gear plot. Maybe this is a me problem, maybe I haven't played enough of the game, but Big Boss and Solid Snake are two very distinct characters with two very distinct roles in the story and despite looking exactly the same are different characters. Everyone has their favorite Snake; I would be incredibly surprised if anyone's favorite Snake was Venom. My big problem with Venom is not that he's a boring character with very little writing (although that is very very true as well) it's that there's no reason we shouldn't just be playing as Big Boss. Venom looks like Big Boss, talks like Big Boss, people call him Boss, but he's not Big Boss and as far as I can tell there's not really a purpose to his character. He's not a character ever mentioned in Metal Gear before or after. In Metal Gear Solid 2 when the perspective suddenly changes to Raiden's it was a real statement it meant something, It's still one of the most controversial decisions in games 20+ years later. When you play as Naked Snake in 3 you're obviously playing as a different character and one that has a history in the series. What does Venom add to Metal Gear.

idk I don't like mgs4 but I really think that was the better conclusion for the series as a whole. I'm gonna keep playing this game for now but it's gonna take a while for me to finish it.

this game sucks. straight up. the gameplay is drab the story is drawn out, the character assassination is abundant and abysmal. and yet in the half a year that has passed since I played Metal Gear Solid 4 I haven't forgotten it. For every fanservicey plot device therese a theme that begins to say something amazing and while I hate this games story its such a great ending for Snake. Solid Snake as a character is the single greatest thing about this game and it is really good at exploringbthis character weve never seen internally like this.

also revolver ocelot is the greatest video game villian of all time.