Metal Gear Solid Should Never Receive Any Sequels

Over the past three decades, Metal Gear has become one of the most beloved franchises in gaming for good reason. Metal Gear’s popularity and absurdity earned Hideo Kojima a reputation as one of the industry’s first true auteurs, and since Kojima’s falling out with Konami, the franchise has been figuratively on ice. While some may view the virtually total disappearance of one of gaming’s most beloved series as a bad thing, I am of the belief that not only is it a good thing that Metal Gear hasn’t reared any metallic heads in nearly a decade but ideally, Konami will never make a new Metal Gear game again.

For some, the concept of too much of a good thing becoming a bad thing is one that is completely inconceivable. But even the most popular intellectual properties in the world are susceptible to franchise fatigue. Marvel’s rapid release schedule has been driving the franchise fatigue conversation since the beginning of its cinematic universe’s third phase, and Disney’s insistence on realizing a return on their investment in the Star Wars property as quickly as humanly possible has arguably plunged the quality of the series into a nose dive. The days of seeing the yellow text spelling out “Star Wars” across the theater screen while the brass section blared John Williams’ timeless theme song being a special occasion are long gone.

That spectacle used to elicit a sense of excitement and urgency to treasure the feeling because we, as the audience, were never sure if any given opportunity to see a new Star Wars movie in theaters would be our last. But ever since Disney took over and began releasing Star Wars content annually, that feeling of excitement has waned significantly. How are we, as the audience, supposed to get excited about new Star Wars media to nearly the same degree as we used to when we know there will undoubtedly be something new within the next 12 months?

Metal Gear Solid is finished–not finished in the sense that it has run its course or spent the remainder of its goodwill, but finished in the sense that the story is complete. Ever since Konami’s Silent Hill presentation in October, during which they announced a remake of fan-favorite Silent Hill 2 and multiple new Silent Hill projects in development, fans have been calling for Metal Gear to be next. But the idea of a sixth-numbered Metal Gear Solid doesn’t make any sense from a story perspective.

Between the two Metal Gear Solid trilogies and the intermediary Metal Gear and Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake, Kojima Productions’ vision for their saga is complete. The prequel games, Snake Eater, Peace Walker, and The Phantom Pain, and the modern games Metal Gear Solid, Sons of Liberty, and Guns of the Patriots gave Kojima and his team at Konami adequate time to develop Big Boss, Solid Snake, and Liquid Snake as character’s and tell the complete story of their crusade against the patriots. And for those that absolutely need to know what the world was like after Snake finally eradicated the patriots, there is even a sort of epilogue in the form of Metal Gear Rising Revengeance.

A continuation of the Metal Gear story or a new story told to connect to the existing games could only work to devalue what is arguably one of the best stories ever told in gaming. The patriots served as the backbone of the entire series, giving the heroes and anti-heroes something to unite against. But with the patriots properly dealt with, the prospect of bringing the audience back into that universe without their looming threat feels toothless. The overarching threat that served as the backdrop for the characters from the two trilogies to fight against and any connecting thread to those trilogies is gone.

But despite my pleading with Konami to please leave Metal Gear alone, I understand that we live in a system in which shareholders must be answered and my pleas will likely fall on deaf ears. So if they must continue to make Metal Gear games then there are some very specific parameters that can be followed for success. First and foremost, Konami should only make remakes of the older Metal Gear games. Not only would remaking the older Metal Gear games to the same extent to which the Resident Evil games and Dead Space have been remade make the epic saga available to a new generation of gamers who are accustomed to modern amenities but it would also offer the developers a chance to fold the stories into each other in a more coherent way. Konami could finally market and package the saga in a way that made sense with respect to the canonical order of the games, and they could also build the events of Metal Gear and Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake in as a prologue to the events of Metal Gear Solid. 

Konami should also avoid the temptation to turn Metal Gear Rising into its own sequel trilogy. Returning to the universe of Metal Gear after the patriots were dismantled made for a fun but relatively meaningless singular outing in Revengeance. Were Konami to try to expand that story into something larger, then they would almost certainly undercut the significance of the story told in the Solid Snake trilogy. With the patriots dealt with, bringing the audience back into the world of Metal Gear would be akin to when Poe Dameron said, “somehow Palpatine returned.” It would undercut the entire significance of what came before. While the recent Twitter teases from Raiden’s voice actor Quinton Flynn have some fans thinking that the announcement of a sequel to Metal Gear Rising is coming soon, Disney’s Star Wars should serve as a cautionary tale as to why that could wind up being a very bad idea. 

At the end of the day, Metal Gear is done. The fat lady sang way back in 2015, and while Kojima’s unceremonious ousting from Konami could understandably lead some to believe that there was more story to tell, there really isn’t. The falling out occurred right as Kojima was bringing his multi-decade story arc to a close, and Metal Gear without Kojima is like Star Wars without George Lucas; we all saw how that worked out. Too much of a good thing can be a bad thing, and more Metal Gear sequels would only devalue the games and stories that already exist. At this point, Konami needs to either make remakes or nothing at all.