E3 2014: Metal Gear Solid V Trailer Leaked

Even in the final hours leading up to E3 2014, no secret seems to be safe! Late Sunday night a new trailer for Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain was made live and quickly pulled on Konami’s official YouTube channel. The nearly 6 minute trailer is set to a very catchy, very James Bond style light rock song titled “Nuclear” and features a montage of both familiar and new faces. As opposed to the trend of many major games studios outsourcing trailers to companies who specialize in fancy CG productions, this Phantom Pain trailer is a Kojima production through and through: it is directed and edited by Hideo Kojima himself.

The focus of the video is clearly Big Boss, the protagonist of upcoming game, though flashes of Huey Emmerich, Kaz Miller, Revolver Ocelot, Quiet, and Skull face can be seen, in addition to the namesake of the series, a giant Metal Gear. The overall theme of the trailer suggests that MGSV may explore the events and experiences that lead to Big Boss becoming the villain of the contemporary MGS entries. Using striking imagery we see Big Boss cover his face with the ashes of fallen comrades during a burial at sea, we see his face covered in blood as he is silhouetted in front of a raging fire, finally we see his face with shrapnel lodged in it resulting in devil like countenance. The song alludes to someone who is being pushed to the brink of breaking, and then going nuclear. The trailer ends with some commentary by Big Boss, my Japanese is a little rusty so I’m left clueless as to what it all means, and a cheeky “Coming in 1984” tagline. Hideo Kojima has long been known for being heavily influenced by film, and the results are a spectacular trailer.

While the complaint against many game trailers is that they are overproduced CG movies that fail to represent the final game, here we can say that the trailer is an overproduced movie that will most certainly reflect the final game! For me at least, it has managed to get me pretty excited to play the game whereas Ground Zeroes and coverage up till now had left me feeling somewhat lackluster. Playing as a villain has always had a certain appeal as the road less traveled, but the truth is Big Boss is a pretty sympathetic character in Snake Eater and the PSP outings, Portable Ops and Peace Walker. If this latest MGS does show Big Boss at a turning point, it will be interesting to see how fans react to playing a darker character.

See the trailer for yourself here (until Konami takes it down):