That whole Metal Gear Survive trailer shebang was pretty funny. A lot of outcry which is understandable, Konami being Konami and fans being fans. Me? I’m on the fence. Metal Gear doesn’t like me, and I don’t really like it. But since I’m enamored with other titles from the Japanese company’s library, I’ve been paying close attention to their antics. Ever since the release of 2014’s Ground Zeroes, the $50 demo that was dropped just before Hideo Kojima himself got dropped. And in that time, I feel like I’ve gained enough information to deduce that both sides are wrong in their own ways.
The newest addition to Survive will be a William Tell gamemode.
Not completely wrong, though. Konami have the rights to Metal Gear and so, they can do whatever they want with the licence, fan dismissal be damned. And the fans also have the right to be one of many words. Angry, annoyed, irritated, mad, fuming, the list goes on. It’s ok to be outspoken about a beloved series of yours, but a few of the repeated statements made by said fans are slightly incorrect and slightly misjudged.
The Konami Katastrophe!
But before that, a warm congratulations to Konami! I mean, releasing a game instead of a pachinko machine is rather impressive, but to actually make the trailer intriguing without the series’ main man at the helm is some otherworldly top notch stuff. That trailer was looking pretty alright, even if it was a farce by judgement of the majority. However, it’s understandable and in a way, respectable of them to not continue the main story with Kojima (And if he did approve, he’d probably make it a bigger clutter of sheer WTF .) “How is it respectable?!”, you may not be asking?
Well, it’s only fair. It seems to imply there’s not nearly as much bad blood as everyone made it out to be and their previous comments of “We kind of want the earn the trust back” shows that maybe they aren’t all about the cash, as previous theories believed. It’s a long shot, certainly, and I hardly believe it myself, but hey, weirder stuff has happened in the past.
Make no mistake, however, they are still in the wrong at this point in time. Anyone who has seen Jim Sterling’s chronicles on some of the events surrounding Konami are vile, from the alleged conditions of the studios to the treatment of it’s video game medium (Blades of Time’s and MGS HD Collection’s release issues spring to mind), they’re all ungodly amounts of stupid. And at the first glance, it’s like it’s going to get possibly worse with time. But there’s still hope. It’s as fickle as a flame in a hurricane but a small glimmer can be seen.
The janitor of Silent Hill left after he realized he wasn’t going to be paid extra for this
The small glimmer being that maybe there’s a chance for other IPs to return. As stated in the GameRant article linked above, never say never to maybe Castlevania or Silent Hill returning from the graves. Yes, the original handlers have jumped ship and with that, the vision that they carried is gone. But it’s not hard to look back on stuff like Symphony of the Night and Silent Hill 2 and discover WHY they’re almost perfection in their respective genres. I don’t know, maybe the fanbases would understand. Speaking of..
Like a fever is going ’round..
I don’t think the people rallying against Konami are exactly helping matters. And I’d put a bet on them knowing this as well. It’s true that the voices that speak the loudest, will reach the most people, but it never clarifies that those people will be in their favour or cause. And while a lot of ears have pricked up in the past year to this debacle, and this previously mentioned trailer bringing an equal uproar, it still feels feeble, with the casual fans probably not caring enough and the possible reach of Konami’s power being intimidating in comparison.
This is the greatest cutscene in video game history
Another feeble point people tend to make, time and time again, is the completely blind faith that Konami will file for some form of bankruptcy, which is silly. Almost an impossibility, if I’m frank. To believe the company will lose everything from a few suicidal moves is to completely disregard everything else they’ve done and distribute. Yu-Gi-Oh!, Pro Evolution Soccer, the aforementioned Pachinko, the works. A tired and tried point I just made, but in some small way, I hope that I’m rebuffed.
A Miserable Pile of Secrets
In the end, I feel like I need to state that I don’t approve of most of Konami’s actions, and I still remain in neutrality towards the whole situation and both sides. They have their reasons, but they also illogical mindsets. For Konami, I suppose it’s ok for them to make what they want to make, but the way they’ve presented it and what name is strapped on the title is still questionable at best, even if it’s understandable. And the fans are free to be compassionate about something they hold dear to themselves but they also must know where the criticisms should lie instead of just shooting vulgarity in every direction. Or just shoot at all.
I feel like that’s the only way to beat the beast you want to conquer. Pure, unfiltered ignorance towards their enemy. Like the ending of Drop Dead Fred.
