Entrevista a Kojima en Game Informer sobre MGS4

Creo que no se ha puesto, si es así, avisadme y chapo:

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Without question, one game at the recent Tokyo Game Show outshone all others. One game amazed both those in attendance and those following the show online with its incredible graphics and cinematic presentation. That game was Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots. A stunning nine-minute trailer of the title debuted on the show floor, and it so astounded show goers that MGS 4 instantly became the hottest topic of the convention. Created with the powerful Playstation 3 hardware, the trailer detailed the new direction for the beloved Metal Gear Solid series with amazing realism: A battlefield setting, intense action, and most surprisingly, a shocking old and gray Solid Snake.

While Solid snake is synonymous with Metal Gear for many players, another name immediately leaps to mind for others: Hideo Kojima, the creator and mastermind behind the series. Kojima’s name is tied to his signature series more completely than nearly any other creator in the game world. To understand the future of the Metal Gear Solid franchise, one simply must talk with Hideo Kojima. In the aftermath of the Tokyo Game Show, Mr. Kojima granted Game Informer one of the longest interviews he’s ever given, and we sat down with him to learna bout the past, present, and future of the Metal Gear Solid games.

Kojima has a reputation of providing misleading information about his games and playing his cards close to his chest, as was most famously evidence by Solid Snake’s shocking second-fiddle role in Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty. But despite this, we found Mr. Kojima to be surprisingly candid and willing to talk about his plans for Metal Gear Solid 4. But before we got in depth on the next game, Mr. Kojima spoke at length about the franchise’s past, and how it has dictated to the parth for the series’ first next-gen iteration. To Mr. Kojima, it was an obvious choice that Metal Gear Solid 4 debut on the Playstation 3, because the series is inextricably linked to the Playstation brand.

“When I joined Konami, Metal Gear was the first project that I worked on. It was for the MSX [a Japanese home computer – ed.], and that was in 1987,” explained Kojima. “I was in a division that was concentrating only on PC game software, so I was working on things for the PC engine, PC, and 3D0. At the time of 3D0, there were some rumors that the Playstation would come out, and that was quite shocking, because it was the first time that a consumer machine would be able to create a 3D polygon. And I thought about this and thought that I would like to recreate Metal Gear in #D for that platform. The name Metal Gear Solid came from the creation of the PSone. The Solid means 3D. That’s why we named it Metal Gear Solid, because it was the first time 3D could be used.”

Metal Gear Solid was one of the defining games of the original PlayStation, and was obviously a huge hit. Excited to explore the capabilities of the PlayStation 2, Kojima developed Metal Gear Solid 2 specifically to take advantage of the new system’s abilities, and it was an even bigger success than the first. “For MGS 3, it was therefore a very natural choice to stay with the PlayStation platform,” said Kojima. “The reason why I always select the PlayStation format is because at the same time that I was unknown, the PlayStation was unknown. We were a good match, and we got evolved to what Metal Gear and the PlayStation are today together.”

Although the series has appeared on both Xbox and GameCube, Kojima feels that Metal Gear Solid will always be a PlayStation series. To Kojima, the fact that the MGS games on the other systems weren’t nearly as successful is because they weren’t designed around those consoles. He views ports of games as unfair and disloyal to the fans, and isn’t interested in creating them. He is eager to develop for other systems, but wants to make original titles for them as well. “For MGS 4, we have already started the project for the PS3 platform, so we would like to concentrate specifically on what we could do just for the PS3. So for example, if I were to create MGS 5 or another title for the 360 I would create solely for the 360, taking advantage of the hardware, and would not convert to the PS3, because that will not be a very good conversion. Another example is the Revolution. I will try to create a title specifically taking advantage of the Revolution hardware.”

Originally, Kojima did not plan to direct Metal Gear Solid 4, like he had previous titles. Although he intended to work on the story design, plot, and gameplay systems his intention was to step back into a producer role and let the teams from the previous games take over the project. But apparently, some die-hard Metal Gear Solid fans had other plans. When Kojima announced that he would merely be producing the title during a European press tour earlier this year, some fans were so incensed that he actually received death threats. Hearing this, the staff at the newly-formed Kojima Production became concerned and implored him to direct the game. Kojima decided to return to his old role one last time. Eager to work on other game ideas, Kojima won’t be in the director’s position for future Metal Gear titles, although he will certainly still be closely involved in the projects.

For the time being, however, Kojima is focused on MGS 4. He has lofty goals for the title, many of which are revolutionary for the action genre. For MGS 4, Kojima is interested in working on what he calls the “inner qualities” of a game – the things that a player can’t immediately see. He sees this approach as the future of game development, because there will be fewer revolutionary jumps in gaming machines from this point forward.

“Even though hardware has evolved, games have not evolved or been revolutionized for the last couple of years,” explains Kojima. “Games are like movie sets. It’s a battle of making the movie sets prettier or bigger. This development practice has gone for a couple of years now. The leap from Famicom to Playstation was revolutionary because 2D became 3D, and everyone could walk around in a 3D environment. There was nothing that much of a drastic change from the Playstation to the PS2. Of course, the graphics look prettier and the sound is better, and there is a touch of online, but 3D remained 3D. With the next generation, there’s still not a big change. 3D is not going to 4D. So if the hardware will not take us to the next level in games, we thought that we have to bring ourselves to the higher level on the game side.”

“In the past, if we made a jungle, it was just a set. The trees were plastic. We could make the trees prettier, or make more plastic trees to look like real jungles. Or make the details more intense. But plastic would remain plastic, and this is what I don’t want to do. There should be life in that tree. If we water the tree it will grow, if we burn the tree it will die. I want to create this kind of simulation world. This is the direction of what we ant to do. What worries me is that if we actually try to do this, it might take up a lot of CPU power, meaning the visual side might not be up to the standard of what the users expect. So, we will always think about the balance of what we can see and what we can’t see. However, it’s a next-gen platform. The users will expect upgraded graphics and sound, so that was another reason for the TGS trailer. It was expressing that we will go up to this kind of visual standard. Of course, that was not the completed version, so we will go even higher. However, that is the level that Kojima productions will produce in MGS 4. After that, we will concentrate on the things you cannot see.”

Kojima’s comments about creating a living breathing world may seem somewhat out of place for a typical action game, but incredibly exciting when coupled with what we know about MGS 4’s setting. As the trailer suggested and Kojima confirmed, the Metal Gear Solid 4 will primarily take place on war-torn battlefields. The thought of a world that reacts realistically and dynamically to the chaos of war is simply ripe for inventive new gameplay scenarios. Kojima confirmed that the player will encounter civilians in the course of his missions, although what is even more exciting is the way that Snake will interact with the soldiers he runs into.

“The troops you encounter will not necessarily be your enemies like they have always been in the MGS series.” Kojima offered. “For instance, say there is a battle between Country A and Country B, and Snake belongs to Country C. He is not directly involved with either A or B. But if, for example, Snake’s goal is on the battlefield of A vs. B, Snake has the option to interfere in the battle or not. To complete a mission, the simplest way will be to sneak into the battlefield without getting noticed by either of the armies. However, if Snake is attacked by Country A and kills one of their troopers, that means he becomes an enemy of Country A. So, if he continues to fight Country A, that makes him an ally of Country B, and that makes him a hero from the Country B point of view. And of course, it’s up to the player. Snake could kill somebody from Country B, and that will make him Country B’s enemy as well. So he will have two enemies, Country A and Country B. The situation will change in real time.” This constantly-evolving situation on the battlefield is what Kojima meant when he used the phrase “no place to hide” to describe the game at E3 – you’ll have to adjust to an ever-changing situation, meaning that places that were once safe can instantly become deadly.

The Metal Gear Solid games have always rewarded players for not killing, and with such extreme consequences for the deaths of the soldiers in Metal Gear Solid 4, this moral lesson seems to be even more prevalent. But it also has huge impact on the stealth aspect of the gameplay. Kojima stressed that it’s always preferable not to interact with the troops, as your actions may have effects that ripple throughout the game. If you kill all the soldiers from one side in an area, you’ve effectively won the battle for their enemies, meaning the opposing team is free to pursue their own objectives in the area. But this can also lead to new ways to evade detection. If the army of Country A is strong in one area, slipping into one of their uniforms may be the perfect way to prevent detection. However, if you’re spotted by one of their enemies, the other team will assume that you’re a foe. This all ties into one of the central ideas behind MGS 4: identity on the battlefield.

“I’m interested in the concept of the substitution of war,” explained Kojima. “For instance, if there is country A and B against each other, even today, maybe some countries don’t have troops or military. Maybe they hire mercenaries to represent them to fight a war. So it could be that on a battle-field, both sides are actually Americans. Another example is that it should be a battle of nation vs. nation, but sometimes robots are battling against each other, meaning that they are substituting the actual humans. It should be a battle of nations, but what’s happening is substitution of war. The actual battle is only happening between professional troops and mercenaries.”

Kojima isn’t ready to reveal who the different forces at work in MGS 4’s conflict will be, largerly because the story is still being worked on. But one character that he’s ready to confirm for certain is Solid Snake. The elderly appearance of the character in the trailer led some to speculate that the main character of Metal Gear Solid 4 wasn’t actually Snake, and many elaborate theories immediately appeared on the internet. Given the series’ history, it’s natural to assume that the old soldier in the trailer isn’t Solid Snake. After all, the character only truly starred in one game, as Raiden took center stage in Sons of Liberty and Naked Snake (Big Boss) was the focus in Snake Eater. However, Kojima assured us that the main character in MGS 4 is definitely Solid Snake, and his new look was deliberately designed to throw people off. “It’s definitely Snake. It’s not Raiden wearing a mask,” Kojima explained with a laugh. “The reason why he looks so much older is because of course he is a clone of Big Boss, and the technology during the seventies was not as mature as it is today.”

At one point in the trailer, the aged Snake is overcome with a coughing fit, and injects a syringe into his neck to calm the attack. Although Kojima wouldn’t confirm this point, it would seem that the injection combats the effect of Snake’s inferior clone technology, and it seems logical that this may replace the need to eat introduced in Metal Gear Solid 3. Although Snake’s age will certainly play into the gameplay, it definitely serves another purpose. The Metal Gear Solid games have always been thematic, and in MGS 4, Mr. Kojima wants to use Snake’s age to say something about the character, the series and even the players.

First of all, Snake’s new look is a comment on the character’s ongoing struggle against nuclear proliferation. Throughout the series, Snake has tried to destroy the Metal Gear technology in order to bring peace to the world, but has ultimately failed. His premature aging is a reflection of his failutre to complete his mission. IT is also a bit of Kojima’s black humor, a way of saying that the Metal Gear Solid series is past its prime, although few who have seen that trailer would agree with that assessment.

Kojima also wants to use Snake’s new look as an acknowledgement of the series’ longstanding fans. “It has been 18 years since the first Metal Gear game, and probably the fans have changed along with the series,” said Kojima. “They’ve gotten married, or have children, or are living in hard times. I wanted to give those users a pat on the shoulder, and say, ‘Snake’s this old, but he keeps on going.’” Creating a character with flaws and imperfections is almost more representative of what next-generation hardware can do, according to Mr. Kojima. Although the machines can create beautiful young girls with flawless skin, creating a wrinkled old man with a moustache is a far better way to express the power of the hardware in his view.

Because the PlayStation 3 is capable of creating such incredibly lifelike casuals, far more intricate and detailed characters must be created as a result. Not only does the elderly Snake have a moustache and wrinkles, his new stealth suit is absolutely packed with fine detail. To demonstrate that the MGS 4 trailer was not pre-rendered, he moved the camera around in a live demonstration at the Tokyo Game Show, and zoomed in on some of the finer points of the suit. Individual bolts were clearly visible, and all the text on the suit is actually legible close up. The suit has an intricate logo on the chest, a Japanese kanji symbol with the message “to let the world be” written underneath. The symbol is a combination of the name Otacon, Snake’s long-time ally in his battle against the spread of Metal Gear technology, and the symbol for “spirit.” In the game this symbol will be visibly on any equipment created by Otacon.

Another aspect of Snake’s new look that has received a lot of attention is the high-tech eye patch worn over his left eye. The name Solid Eye is visible on the device, and Kojima admits that part of the reason he included that eye patch in the trailer is that he wanted to mislead people into believing the character was Big Boss. But the Solid Eye also has a more practical purpose. In the trailer, Snake switches the device on to get a tactical readout of the battlefield, and Kojima confirmed that this device will indeed take the place of the radar system from the first two games. It will also replace several other gadgets, including the Thermal Goggles. Although the Solid Eye shares a name with the 3D peripheral device packaged with the upcoming Metal Gear Acid 2, players shouldn’t read too much into the similarity. The name was originally created for the MGA 2 device, and Kojima simply decided he liked the name and used in for the trailer – without telling Shinta Nojiri, the producer of MGA 2!

Although the character in the trailer definitely isn’t Big Boss, other cast members from the previous titles should make appearances in MGS 4. Kojima wasn’t ready to confirm any specifically, but did day he would like to have the characters from the first two games appear in MGS 4 as much as possible. Approximately 10 years have passed since the end of Metal Gear Solid 2 (although the exact amount of time hasn’t been decided), and each of the retunging friends or foes will have aged appropriately. Kojima wants the player to bet a sense of what kind of life the character lived based on their changes.

The trailer only revealed the presence of two for sure: Snake and his friend Otacon. Otacon only appeared on the screen of a tiny robot, which he was presumably controlling from a safe location. Those familiar with Kojima’s portfolio of games will recognize the robot as the Metal Gear MK-II from the Sega CD game Snatcher. Of course, the MK-II wasn’t the only Metal Gear visible in the trailer – not only is there what appears to be a smaller version of the Metal Gear Rex in the trailer, there are more than one! Whether one army on the battlefield controls multiple Metal Gears, or if each side has their own mobile nuclear missile launcher, remains to be seen. However, it is clear that these robots have new functions that the old Metal Gears didn’t, some that are far more insidious than you might expect. Kojima claims that the enemy AI in MGS 4 will be so realistic that each character will react exactly like a real human, meaning that using psychological warfare on your foes will be more crucial than ever before. Of course, you’re not the only one who can play this game – the Metal Gears will now play with your mind as well.

“In this trailer, there is a new Metal Gear,’ explained Kojima. “When this comes closer, it makes the noises of a cicada. To most Japanese people, this sound makes you think about your childhood days, because you were going outside into nature and catching cicadas. And the actual sound of the Metal Gear walking is a horse clopping. And that cry it makes is a sound of a cow. So combined, these three aspects, the sounds of the cicada, the horse, and the cow makes the person who hears the sounds a little bit peaceful, because it makes you go back into your childhood memories. You’re supposed to feel tense in a battlefield, but when you hear this, it really cuts the tense feeling. And when that happens, the Metal Gear attacks you. It’s nasty, and it’s a psychological element of this Metal Gear title.”

Kojima continued on to describe this subtle lulling effect that the Metal Gear creates as the opposite of the infamous beach scene from Apocalypse Now, in which attack choppers blast Wagner’s “Ride of the Valkyries” in order to over-whelm their enemies. He stated that players will be able to use the Metal Gear’s lulling abilities against Snake’s foes. By waiting until the Metal Gear emits its strangely calming cry, Snake can then sneak up to the nearby soldiers while their defenses are down. Of course, this will put Snake in close proximity to the deadly war machine.

Although we don’t know exactly who will be controlling the Metal Gears in MGS 4, or even who the multiple forces in the conflict will be, there are a few clues out there as to what the plot will be. We know that the game takes place roughly after 10 years after the end of MGS 2, and that Snake is still working with Otacon to destroy Metal Gear technology, and that he is aging prematurely due to the primitive cloning technology that created him. But perhaps what is most telling is the game’s subtitle, Guns of the Patriots. Obviously, the Patriots (the group revealed in MGS 2 as the secret power behind the United States) are involved, although the end of the second game implied that they were long-dead. Given Kojima’s comments about the theme of professional soldiers fighting a war in the place of a nation, it seems that the “Guns” in the title refers to these troops. Therefore, we can assume that much of the game revolves around the mercenaries hired by the Patriots to right their wars for them. But who could they be fighting? Perhaps multiple factions within the Patriots’ organization will be fighting each other.

Kojima certainly won’t reveal much about the plot until after the game is in the hands of the players, but he would confirm that MGS 4 will continue with the use of the series’ many cinematic cut scenes. While avowed movie fan Kojima clearly loves using these scenes to convey emotion and thematic elements, he plan on making some changes to the way these cinematic sequences are used. Since the PS3 is capable of creating such amazing graphics, and in at least some instances, the camera will transition seamlessly between the two elements. Kojima has also looked at how some other games convey story elements, and will be adding new techniques into the game. For example, he cited games like Halo 2 and Half-Life, in which players encounter characters in the game who speak to the player to impart information and advance the plot. Since these moments take place entirely in-game, the player is free to move around and control the scene. “Of course, we will make it better and not a complete copy of those games,” said Kojima with a smile. “We will add some flavor and special touches as well.”

Story has always been paramount in the Metal Gear Solid series, and we have no doubt that MGS 4 will deliver just as well as the previous games in this area. The plot is usually the first thing MGS fans speculate about whenever a new title in the franchise is announced, and theories are already running rampant. Of course, the breathtaking graphics of the latest game are generating just as much discussion. Between the two topics, fans haven’t been asking as many question about other elements of the game, such as the actual gameplay. The trailer suggests that a totally new camera system will be used, and Kojima has also alluded to this idea. The clip begins with an intentionally misleading section in the first-person perspective, but then plainly states that Metal Gear Solid 4 won’t be a first person shooter. However, it never states explicitly that it won’t use the first-person perspective. Based on our time talking with Kojima, as well as the new tweaks to the camera system in Subsistence, the updated version of Metal Gear Solid 3, we’re guessing that MGS 4 will use a combination of first – and – third person perspectives more completely than the previous games in the series. That’s purely speculation on our part, but the first-person section of the trailer is amazing to look at, and it would seem odd to create something so impressive simply as a joke.

Whether or not the new camera system in Subsistence will carry over to MGS4 remains to be seen, but the new version of MGS 3 does sport one feature that indicated something that players will see in MGS 4: online play. Subsistence takes the series online for the first time, and Kojima confirmed that this feature is indeed a hint at what to expect in the fourth game. He didn’t have many details to reveal, but did say that “Subsistence is restricted to the PS2 format, and therefore PS2 online. In MGS 4, we will not be restricted to eight players. So you can probably look forward to having a wider and deeper online experience.”

As with any Metal Gear game, we have more questions than answers about Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots. But after our time at Kojima Productions, a lot of the thematic elements have been laid bare, the basic setting is clear, and Kojima shared some surprisingly frank thoughts on both the series and its protagonist, Solid Snake. The trailer gave us a good idea what to expect from the visuals, and we know that the gameplay will feature a constantly-evolving world unlike we’ve ever seen in an action game, psychological elements, online play, and new aspects to the storytelling. With its first iteration on PlayStation 3, the series looks like it will use the power of the next-generation platform to make significant evolutions to the game play. Of course, we’d expect nothing less. By Kojima’s own words, the Metal Gear series and the PlayStation are permanently bonded, and he’s always used the advances in hardware to further the grown of the games. It is therefore fitting that Metal Gear Solid 4 has already become the flagship title for the upcoming platform – the one game that seems quantify everything the upcoming console will deliver. Hideo Kojima, the Metal Gear Solid series, and the Sony Playstation are taking their next step into the future of video games together, and the partnership once again looks likely to set the world ablaze.

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Sacado de Metalgearsolid.org

No pongo los scans ya que vulneran la política de la web.

Me quedo con esto:

Although the series has appeared on both Xbox and GameCube, Kojima feels that Metal Gear Solid will always be a PlayStation series. To Kojima, the fact that the MGS games on the other systems weren’t nearly as successful is because they weren’t designed around those consoles. He views ports of games as unfair and disloyal to the fans, and isn’t interested in creating them. He is eager to develop for other systems, but wants to make original titles for them as well. “For MGS 4, we have already started the project for the PS3 platform, so we would like to concentrate specifically on what we could do just for the PS3. So for example, if I were to create MGS 5 or another title for the 360 I would create solely for the 360, taking advantage of the hardware, and would not convert to the PS3, because that will not be a very good conversion. Another example is the Revolution. I will try to create a title specifically taking advantage of the Revolution hardware.”


El comentario que se malienterpretó por parte de gente interesada. Deja bien claro que un mgs será exclusivo de una plataforma, no se harán conversiones porque no le gustan. No dice que vaya a salir un mgs en otra consola por ahora a parte de este mgs4 para ps3.

Además de hacer un poco la pelotilla a sony y sus playstations en otros comentarios.

Y luego me quedo con esta otra:

Kojima referred to the trailer as the "minimum bar" for the visuals in MGS 4 - He's confident that the finished game will look even better!



Uff no quiero imaginarme algo más impresonante todavía.

Y otra parte que trajo controversia:

Because the PlayStation 3 is capable of creating such incredibly lifelike casuals, far more intricate and detailed characters must be created as a result. Not only does the elderly Snake have a moustache and wrinkles, his new stealth suit is absolutely packed with fine detail. To demonstrate that the MGS 4 trailer was not pre-rendered, he moved the camera around in a live demonstration at the Tokyo Game Show, and zoomed in on some of the finer points of the suit. Individual bolts were clearly visible, and all the text on the suit is actually legible close up. The suit has an intricate logo on the chest, a Japanese kanji symbol with the message “to let the world be” written underneath. The symbol is a combination of the name Otacon, Snake’s long-time ally in his battle against the spread of Metal Gear technology, and the symbol for “spirit.” In the game this symbol will be visibly on any equipment created by Otacon.

Confirma que no es pre-renderizado y que era en tiempo real.

Bueno espero que os guste.

Un saludo