The Phantom Pain is the ultimate rejection of everything the fans wanted Metal Gear to be. It encapsulates the messages and themes of all past games while also telling a story about the meaninglessness of revenge, loss and VOICE! It purposefully makes an entirely unsatisfactory second half to make the player FEEL a phantom pain of everything they've lost! By having our POV protagonist be an unreliable narrator it also seemingly creates a sort of meta narrative where EVERYTHING you do during gameplay could have happened just as easily as it couldn't. Coupled with the fact that by passing the baton to the player, and its placement in the MIDDLE of the timeline, every person can interpret this story as anything from a 1984 retelling where everything was the patriots' design and Skullface merely acted upon their will or simply a story of broken people who've lost their identity trying to fight for a better tomorrow. While ALSO having their own interpretation of how each character ends up where they do in the titles set further in the timeline! And whether or not that was the INTENTION with the game is honestly irrelevant as "think for yourself" is a message Kojima has been trying to hammer into the player since MGS2. It utilizes its identity as "Video Game" to evoke such strong feelings of self reflection and appreciation for media as a whole that should be deservingly praised. All of that without touching upon the phenomenally designed stealth jungle gyms that when matched with the intricately developed gameplay systems makes every enemy outpost infiltration feel like your very own distinct adventure from all the rest. And for that I easily consider this game to be my ALL time favorite piece of media of all time. Its the most perfect conclusion the Metal Gear saga could've asked for. It's everything Kojima wanted Metal Gear to be since MGS2 and i find that beautiful. Don't you, bro?