Summary of Metal Gear Solid's Insane Cut Content Ft David Hayter

00:00:00 - 00:40:00

The video discusses some of the content that was cut from the Metal Gear Solid games due to development issues or censorship. Among the topics discussed are the original plans for Metal Gear Solid 3, the cut content from Metal Gear Solid 2, and the differences between the Japanese and Western versions of Metal Gear Solid Portable Ops.

• 00:00:00 In Metal Gear Solid 3, the scene where Colonel Volgin tortures Snake was meant to be interactive and more violent, but was cut down to its bare essentials for reasons relating to the real world. In a 2005 magazine commentary, Kojima says they were also going to have an option as Snake was being tortured to have the player choose either "yes" or "no" when Volgin commanded him to "speak" or "break," but they ended up removing this feature. In Metal Gear Solid: Integral, Kojima says they were considering ideas for using PS2's internet features, but nothing came of it. However, in Sons of Liberty, Kojima says players could exchange weapons via the internet.
• 00:05:00 In the video, Kojima discusses some of the cut content from Metal Gear Solid 2, including characters and sequences that were eventually removed from the final game. One of the more interesting cut content sequences involves Snake swimming through a flooded tanker while being pursued by sharks. Kojima says that it was too difficult to create a sequence that would not slowdown the game on the PS2, and the scene was eventually cut from the final game. In addition, Kojima discuss's an unused "Antarctic Snake" design, which would've been a Penguin suit that lets Snake breathe underwater. However, because it would've been extra work to create the item, it was ultimately cut from the game.
• 00:10:00 The Metal Gear Solid 2 story was revised after 9/11 to avoid controversy, and one sequence that was cut was a scene in which Snake ran through Arsenal Gear naked. Other details revealed in The Kojima Archivist's translation of The Shedding book include that the protagonist of Snake Eater, Liquid Snake, was originally meant to be a villain, and that Kojima was afraid of the US government after the terrorist attacks.
• 00:15:00 Metal Gear Solid 3's development was extremely rigorous and involved many simulated combat scenarios. The final battle against The End was originally designed to be lengthy and require skill and finesse, but eventually became easier and shorter. Other cut content includes a mechanic for Snake to take control of aerial vehicles, and a story in which The Boss begs Snake to kill her.
• 00:20:00 This video discusses the content that was cut from Metal Gear Solid 3: Subsistence, which was intended to be a PSP game that focused on boss battles. Some of this content, including Extra Ops and the Boss Extensions, was discovered and hackable by a dataminer.
• 00:25:00 Metal Gear Solid Portable Ops was developed in just a single year, and Kojima wasn't closely involved in the project, leading to some regional differences in content. Ryan tells the story of how Kojima likes to make use of every feature offered by a console, and how the geo-cacheing mechanic in Portable Ops was one such example. Unfortunately, the GPS was only released in Japan, meaning Western fans never had access to that feature. There were also 8 soldier types you could only unlock by visiting Japanese stores like WonderGOO, who had worked out a promotional agreement with Konami. Metal Gear games usually released in Europe a few months after the US and Japan, so sometimes Konami gave them extra content to make up for it. For Portable Ops, European versions got a new boss rush mode, two more multiplayer maps, additional soldier types and careers, and five extra spy reports. So not only did America get less content than their friends across both oceans, but because of all the regional differences, nobody got the full experience. And with so many of those online features and promotions no longer in service, a big chunk of Portable Ops is completely inaccessible, and much of the game is essentially lost to time. Metal Gear Solid 4, the game that eventually emerged from
• 00:30:00 In "Metal Gear Solid's Insane Cut Content Ft David Hayter," Kojima discusses some of the original ideas for the game that were cut due to development issues or censorship. Among these ideas were 108 weapons, PS3-to-PSP connectivity, driveable vehicles, and incorporating smell and taste into games.
• 00:35:00 Kojima reveals that the Beauty and the Beast Corps were originally going to be nude, and Yoji Shinkawa mentioned that in preparation, they had the actresses do motion capture in the nude... but they couldn't use it in the final game. There was also a subplot in the Naomi tracking sequence where enemy soldiers left a trail of women's clothes leading you in the wrong direction. At the end of the trail you'd eventually find a naked female soldier... but that got cut. When we talked to Ryan Payton, he described a cut sequence intended to fit between the Big Mama motorcycle chase and running into Liquid. He said: "There were some things that definitely fell on the cutting room floor, including a sequence in Eastern European. There was an underground tunnel sequence that players would go through with Big Mama, as kind of an escort scenario. That was cut fairly late in the process. So I always thought if there was ever like a Metal Gear Solid 4: Substance version, maybe the team would dust that off. It was probably 60 or 65% complete... and part of the reason it got cut was because it was behind schedule. You were escorting Big Mama in a callback to MGS3, when you were helping EVA who was injured after
• 00:40:00 This video discusses some of the cut content from Metal Gear Solid, including a story about the original Metal Gear game that was changed to be a one-man-against-the-world game due to limitations of the MSX hardware.