- 'You can do pretty much anything, and testing all of that took time.
You can just play through the story if you like, but there are a ton of missions and just an amazing amount of weapons you can make'
- 'The story isn't over just because you beat the game once.
I can't go into details, but a lot goes on right at the end, and you might wind up crying over it, even.'
- The same goes for Briefing Files, the recordings of the assorted conversations Snake has with his friends via wireless communicator - 'The conversations are all taped, and there's about eight or nine hours of it all told.
You can play the tapes while sitting on the train or something, like you were listening to a radio drama. You can learn about how Snake and Miller first met, too, so you could wind up crying while you listen to it."
- Where did Kojima get some of the inspiration for Peace Walker's amalgam of game design concepts? 'A while ago, I played Pokemon Gold/Silver with my son. Until I played it, I didn't understand at all what was so interesting about it, so I wasn't very excited at first. Actually playing it, though, was a huge surprise. It was like, I had no idea there was such a great game out there!
I wound up finishing it twice, I was so addicted.
I think Peace Walker works something like that. If just look at the visuals, it's not as amazing as a PS3 or Xbox 360 game, but you can't 'get it' unless you play it. That's why I want people to get hands-on with it -- it's like no game before.
In terms of features, it's got a bit of MGS, it's got a bit of Monster Hunter and Pokemon, and it's even got a bit of SimCity to it.
This game's different from the pack because it combines all of this into one package.'
- Like with every MGS game, a huge amount of content wound up on the cutting room floor - 'There was one really cool feature I thought up, but the team just flatly said 'We don't have the space.''
'There was a lot of stuff that we made but couldn't fit in. Still, most of what I wanted to do is in the game.
Since we're working with the PSP here, the evolution in gameplay isn't a great leap forward, but more of a sideways expansion. You can fight tanks against each other in Outer Ops and it winds up looking a lot like Advance Wars or something, but we put it in because it's vital a part of the game's design.
I often get asked by people overseas 'Why did you make this on the PSP?' and my response is that this sort of expanded game design could only have been done on the PSP.'
- 'This (Peace Walker) is only the beginning. I have things I want to do in the future that I can't do on the PSP -- but I can see, thanks to Peace Walker, that game design is not the problem with my new ideas.
My take-home from this project is as massive as it was with the first Metal Gear Solid, but it's sort of hard to put it into words. We did too much here, really, and so if I list it all out, it'll sound like the project was a failure.
Really, I just want people to try it out, to give it a play.
Some aspects of it are experiments for the future, but I think the core game design is as true as it's ever been. In my mind, I've got the same 'Now I've done it!' feeling going that I had when we made the very first Metal Gear.'