Eurogamer Expo: Q&A with Hideo Kojima

Hideo Kojima made a special appearance at the Eurogamer Expo to discuss the Metal Gear Solid series as well as its upcoming open-world entry: Ground Zeroes. Of the hundreds of people that lined-up to see the legend speak, only a handful of people made it. Luckily, I was one of the lucky few. Check out the full Q&A below:

Many of your games have themes interwoven into the game, do you start out with the theme as the central idea for the game, or does that come later, after the game design?

Hideo Kojima: as a game designer, while I’m thinking of the game design I’m simultaneously thinking of the story. I think of the story and game system in parallel, there’s nothing added on at the end, I think what game systems compliment the theme.

What is your favourite game moment in the MGS series?

The end of MGS3, the battle between the Boss and Snake is really pertinent to me. A battle where Snake has to defeat his mentor, and it creates a struggle within the player where you have to defeat this enemy, even though you don’t want to. That’s something I think is really unique in gaming.

Another boss battle I’m really fond of is the end battle of MGS4, where you fight Liquid Ocelot. That one boss battle traces the history of Metal Gear; you fight the original Liquid, then move on to Ocelot, along with the boss battles in MGS4. It kind of forces players to look back on the series and retrace the steps it has gone through over the past with the game system, and even the original soundtrack. Things like the background music and life gauge change as you fight.

Who is your favourite MGS villain?

As you know I’ve done a lot of boss battles in a lot of games, but one thing I try to accomplish is to create something truly unique. Two battles I’m very fond of are Psycho Mantis from MGS1, and also The Sorrow from MGS3, because the way you defeat those enemies is very unusual, and something that’s never really been done before. So I think that’s something special. Moving forward from this point on I have a lot of ideas for supposed villains, and I hope you’ll look forward to seeing what I come up with.

Apart from the Boss, do you think there’s enough of a story left to tell with the other main characters in the MGS saga?

The thing is, Snake is such an iconic and powerful character that I think there are very few characters who can take his place. Maybe the Boss or someone from the corporate unit could pull that off, but we do have Raiden, who can bring out a different type of gameplay, and we’re doing that with Rising. I think if you like Rising, fans will come to like Raiden…I hope.

Do you have any plans for Liquid Snake? Maybe before Shadow Moses?

In all honesty, when I first created Liquid Snake in MGS1 I never expected him to become such an iconic and powerful character. Obviously, I killed him off at the end of MGS1, and that was because, at the time, I didn’t plan to make a sequel, then I kind of regretted that [killing Liquid]. So later on when we made the sequels, I felt that we really needed an iconic villain, and that could take the form of Liquid. So in a way we already did bring him back in the form of Liquid Ocelot, with him possessing Ocelot as it were.

How do you feel about Solid Snake? Do you ever find yourself asking “what would Snake do?” In certain scenarios?

Not exactly, I can’t say that I do. Sometimes in the office, I do think about “What would Snake do here?” But obviously I can’t go around killing people! But what I can say is that I’ve aged along with Snake, and toured along with him. And as long as I’m creating Metal Gear and there’s a Snake in MGS, that Snake will always be a part of me and reflect parts of myself.

So I don’t think I could ever put in a Snake that’s much younger than myself. So for example if at some point we decided to bring out a new Metal Gear that’s like a JRPG with Snake in his teens, or something like that, I don’t think its something I could really do, so I may have to leave that to some of the younger staff. And so as you’ve seen, Ground Zeroes will feature a fairly old Snake.

How do you feel about Metal Gear Online in hindsight?

[Kojima asks the audience how many people liked it, receiving a few cheers.]

So one thing that I noticed is that MGO was really popular in Japan. A lot of people spent a lot of time on it, but it wasn’t quite as popular in the west. So of course, I’m the one who came up with the original idea and concept for MGO and supervised it, but I left all the actual creation to the staff, most of whom are Japanese, so most of the game design was primarily targeted at Japanese users.

MGO has obviously ceased service at this time, but we’re always looking forward, and I think for the next implementation of an online component we’re looking to having it more accepted in America and Europe, so rather than develop it in Japan, we’re looking at having it developed in out LA studio, that Kojima productions is in the process of creating.

Will you ever revisit Policenauts or Snatchers?

Personally, I love adventure games, and would love to create additional chapters in Policenauts or Snatcher, but unfortunately from a business perspective its pretty hard to make that work, and I feel its my job to push the industry forward. I think I really have to be focused on creating the type of game that would be accepted globally, and that’s my mission.

But with that said, I do think there’s a possibility that I may create an adventure game, possibly in collaboration with someone else who is really great at that. As far as a remake is concerned, that is something that I would like to attempt, but at Kojima Productions we are always focused on the next big thing and moving forward, so I don’t think we could do it internally. If we could partner with someone, maybe that’s a possibility.

You’ve said the FOX Engine could be used on a Silent Hill game, but would you consider directing one yourself?

I’m a bit of a scaredy cat with horror movies, so I’m not completely confident that I could do it. But at the same time there’s a certain type of horror that only people who are scared by it can create. So from that perspective I think maybe there’s something I could do.

With that said I think Silent Hill has a very unique atmosphere and feel to it and I’d hate to see that disappear, so I think it does have to continue, and I’d like to help it continue. If that was somehow by supervising or lending the FOX Engine, then I’d love to participate in that respect. In the past I’ve mentioned Silent Hill interviews saying that perhaps it could use the FOX Engine, and as a result of that the president of Konami called me and said he wanted me to make the next Silent Hill.

To what extent are you involved with the MGS movie? Who would you like to play Solid Snake?

First of all I want it to be clear that I won’t be writing the script or directing the movie. But of course I’m supervising the movie, and working very closely with Avi Arad, supervising the script and casting, to make sure that it remains faithful to the MGS series. As I’m sure everyone knows, I did want to become a film maker very early on, but with that said, Metal Gear is a special thing to me, and in my mind it will always be a game, so I don’t think I will be the one to create a movie based on the franchise.

Historically videogame movies haven’t done so well, so when the news of the MGS movie came out I think many people were worried, but I do want to say that Ai Arad knows Metal Gear, and we’re working very closely to make sure that the script and casting will work out very well and you’ll get a really great movie.

And as for who you would like to play Snake?

If I talk too much I think Avi might get mad, so I have to be careful. But I’ve said in the past that I think maybe someone like Hugh Jackman would be good, but the more I think about it, I think it would be better to go with someone who is a rising star, who hasn’t been typecast, and that’s what we’re thinking right now. Avi is very good at finding new guys for whom Solid Snake could be their break.

Will we see any of the base-building or recruiting of Peace Walker in future games?

I think the concept of creating weapons and new things at your base and having that influence the gameplay is a very cool idea. (Something similar was mentioned for Ground Zeroes, the ability to customise your hub base is a part of the game.) Nowadays there are various ways to access the game world, you’re not just playing at home on your game console, but you can also access through your cell phone or other devices and still access the same game.

I think that type of access lends itself very well to that type of gameplay, and is definitely something we’re looking at in Ground Zeroes. I can’t say too much about this right now, but after you board the helicopter [in Ground Zeroes] you fly back to your base in real-time, and you land at your base, and you can walk around. Its all in real-time at that point, with no loading going on, and you can design that base. But for those who just want to focus on the main missions you don’t have to do that, but the option is there.

Are you worried that an open-world game will ruin the classic atmospheric feel of MGS?

I think I can say with confidence that its going to be ok. The gameplay is still stealth, you play with stealth, you head back to your base, that’s the basic gameplay cycle. Although how you infiltrate that base is free, the basic mechanic is stealth, except you have a lot more options available to you right now. A you repeat the cycle and complete missions, above that is the main story that will evolve with each mission.

With that said, you can pilot jeeps and attack vehicles, so for people who want a more action-oriented experience, you can go in with that in mind, and we’re designing the game for that experience also. But you will be rewarded for using stealth, by completing missions without alerting anyone and not disrupting that hub world, you will be rewarded.

How open-world will the game be?

Its a little hard to explain.

[Kojima explains differently, using the footage shown, but it’s a series of open worlds and one hub-world. Imagine a series of different areas, which you are free to explore once the helicopter takes you there, and can go anywhere within that confinement. The helicopter transports you between each ‘open-world’.]

The helicopter is what connects these various open world areas and your base. Within each open world, how you play that is completely up to the player.

[End Of Q&A Session]

What do you think? Would you like Kojima to direct the next Silent Hill? How do you feel about Avi Aram directing the MGS movie? He did pretty well with the recent Spiderman reboot. Let us know in the comments below.

One Comment