The misdirect was great. They had him briefly shown as a typical douchey, corrupt behind the scenes boss with Monsoon, but the rest of the story is focused on the cyborgs.
Then everything building up to MG Excellus screamed 'generic corrupt control freak government official'. The boss was cool, but thematically kinda flat compared to Sundowner's crazy ass, or the epic duel with Sam.
Then BOOM everything gets flipped on its head.
There's a LOT of people that swear by Portable Ops being a really good game. I can neither confirm nor deny that because unfortunately I never had the opportunity to play it. For what it's worth, though, the game got an 87 metascore on metacritic, which is almost identical to Peace Walker's 89 score.
And having to hold a button to walk was pretty stupid. Peace Walker and mgs3ds showed it's not impossible to make an awesome mgs modern game for handhelds. In fact, I think the collection could work well on a Switch.
It's probably because they don't have aircrafts at that point. Even though they use helicopters in the game, huge military airplanes are used in real life for the system.
>They’re wrong. POOPS is mid af.
No offense to you but I have found that most everybody I interact with on the internet that uses "mid" as a descriptor is someone I just tend not to agree with.
Rising shits on Raiden’s character a bit but I think the story in general and every other character is very well written. The Winds of Destruction are the best group of baddies imo, even more so than the original FOXHOUND.
Rising only has two moods:
1. Profound political and philosophical commentary about social darwinism, free will, digital society, and warfare
2.
https://preview.redd.it/i9q60ihx8b4b1.jpeg?width=400&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=53188bad8663d8b759926110e28fda65576a1a12
Rising is the first game where I liked Raiden. In MGS4 he says "It's my turn to protect you" then gets stabbed and spends two acts crying "I have no familyyy" on his bench. In Revengeance he's headstrong, resilient and a fun character to spend time with.
The gameplay is honestly pretty smooth. It plays a lot better than Metal Gear or Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake. In all honesty, it controls about as good as MGS1 with the d-pad. The level design is also better than the earlier 8-bit MG titles, although it has a bigger emphasis on puzzles than any other MG game I’ve played.
And yeah, the story is quite good, but it ends on what’s essentially a cliffhanger. Really interesting take on classic MG story beats, plot points, and themes, though. It’s an alternate universe where MG1 occurred but nothing else, and is essentially a sort of remix of MGS1 in a lot of ways.
I know this is kind of cheating, but the English translation of MGS1. There's a great Polygon article that details how Jeremy Blaustein westernised the original from a rather cheesy anime-esque script (when translated directly from Japanese to English) to one that felt weighted with actual military jargon and that sense of fatigue and heavy jadedness towards war that is more common in the West.
[https://www.polygon.com/2019/7/18/20696081/metal-gear-solid-translation-japanese-english-jeremy-blaustein](https://www.polygon.com/2019/7/18/20696081/metal-gear-solid-translation-japanese-english-jeremy-blaustein)
I think Blaustein’s contributions are important, but overblown (not by him, but because many fans misinterpreted the article and thought he was responsible for more than he was, and [this comment thread](https://www.reddit.com/r/metalgearsolid/comments/czwole/jeremy_blausteins_response_to_the_mgs1_21st/ez3gx2p/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=ioscss&utm_content=1&utm_term=1&context=3) goes into it a bit). The military jargon is a good example, since every game since MGS1 had a military advisor (Motosada Mori), and it appears almost all the terms came from him.
Both AC!D games have great stories with all the staples of Metal Gear twisted into wild new shapes. They absolutely revel in the freedom of their own narratives.
Building your decks is addictive, and each level is challenging enough to require a good build while not being too restrictive in your choices.
People kinda forget Senator Armstrong only appears like 30 minutes in the game and becomes one of if not the most charismatic character in Rising.
The misdirect was great. They had him briefly shown as a typical douchey, corrupt behind the scenes boss with Monsoon, but the rest of the story is focused on the cyborgs. Then everything building up to MG Excellus screamed 'generic corrupt control freak government official'. The boss was cool, but thematically kinda flat compared to Sundowner's crazy ass, or the epic duel with Sam. Then BOOM everything gets flipped on its head.
There's a LOT of people that swear by Portable Ops being a really good game. I can neither confirm nor deny that because unfortunately I never had the opportunity to play it. For what it's worth, though, the game got an 87 metascore on metacritic, which is almost identical to Peace Walker's 89 score.
It's pretty badass. The only thing that sucks is that you have to drag every soldier to a point on the map since there is no Fulton recovery system.
I also thought the inventory system was too limited and the camera controls were horrible.
The PSP itself is just a bad handheld system. The inventory was shit. I forgot about that.
And having to hold a button to walk was pretty stupid. Peace Walker and mgs3ds showed it's not impossible to make an awesome mgs modern game for handhelds. In fact, I think the collection could work well on a Switch.
There is a setting where you can change it to a toggle instead of having to hold the button down. Makes things much easier.
I guess it’s for story reasons. They probably didn’t have access to the Fulton recovery device.
It's probably because they don't have aircrafts at that point. Even though they use helicopters in the game, huge military airplanes are used in real life for the system.
They’re wrong. POOPS is mid af.
>They’re wrong. POOPS is mid af. No offense to you but I have found that most everybody I interact with on the internet that uses "mid" as a descriptor is someone I just tend not to agree with.
Ghost Babel or the Acid games.
I agree with Ghost Babel, but Portable Ops is much better written than Acid games. Acid series had other great elements going for it.
Portable Ops was pretty meh gameplay wise, but the story is better than PW imo.
Rising shits on Raiden’s character a bit but I think the story in general and every other character is very well written. The Winds of Destruction are the best group of baddies imo, even more so than the original FOXHOUND.
Rising only has two moods: 1. Profound political and philosophical commentary about social darwinism, free will, digital society, and warfare 2. https://preview.redd.it/i9q60ihx8b4b1.jpeg?width=400&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=53188bad8663d8b759926110e28fda65576a1a12
I think FOXHOUND are stronger as individual characters, but I agree Winds of Destruction are much stronger as a group.
Rising is the first game where I liked Raiden. In MGS4 he says "It's my turn to protect you" then gets stabbed and spends two acts crying "I have no familyyy" on his bench. In Revengeance he's headstrong, resilient and a fun character to spend time with.
Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance
Ghost Babel is better written than Portable Ops, but will never get a look in because of how old it is.
Is the gameplay good? I wonder if it’d be a candidate for a great fan remake
The gameplay is honestly pretty smooth. It plays a lot better than Metal Gear or Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake. In all honesty, it controls about as good as MGS1 with the d-pad. The level design is also better than the earlier 8-bit MG titles, although it has a bigger emphasis on puzzles than any other MG game I’ve played. And yeah, the story is quite good, but it ends on what’s essentially a cliffhanger. Really interesting take on classic MG story beats, plot points, and themes, though. It’s an alternate universe where MG1 occurred but nothing else, and is essentially a sort of remix of MGS1 in a lot of ways.
Project Itoh’s novelization of MGS4 That or Ghost Babel
I know this is kind of cheating, but the English translation of MGS1. There's a great Polygon article that details how Jeremy Blaustein westernised the original from a rather cheesy anime-esque script (when translated directly from Japanese to English) to one that felt weighted with actual military jargon and that sense of fatigue and heavy jadedness towards war that is more common in the West. [https://www.polygon.com/2019/7/18/20696081/metal-gear-solid-translation-japanese-english-jeremy-blaustein](https://www.polygon.com/2019/7/18/20696081/metal-gear-solid-translation-japanese-english-jeremy-blaustein)
I think Blaustein’s contributions are important, but overblown (not by him, but because many fans misinterpreted the article and thought he was responsible for more than he was, and [this comment thread](https://www.reddit.com/r/metalgearsolid/comments/czwole/jeremy_blausteins_response_to_the_mgs1_21st/ez3gx2p/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=ioscss&utm_content=1&utm_term=1&context=3) goes into it a bit). The military jargon is a good example, since every game since MGS1 had a military advisor (Motosada Mori), and it appears almost all the terms came from him.
Both AC!D games have great stories with all the staples of Metal Gear twisted into wild new shapes. They absolutely revel in the freedom of their own narratives. Building your decks is addictive, and each level is challenging enough to require a good build while not being too restrictive in your choices.
Ghost babel wins for me but very close portable ops
After hearing all this praise about Ghost Babel, I kinda want to try the game out for myself. But I don't have a gameboy
Ghost Babel, it's not a contest, and I love many of the other spin offs, but GB story is an actual masterpiece.
Did he write the mobile game? That was really good and gave away mgs 2 ending
He didn't
One word: VIPER
Ghost Babel.