E3 2003 Hideo Kojima Interview
by Douglass C. Perry @ IGN, 15.05.2003

May 15, 2003 - One has to wonder what exactly does Konami's Hideo Kojima have under his sleeve. If he weren't so inventive or crafty in his approach to game-making, we might have fewer questions, or speculate less, or perhaps we would go home at night without the bizarre, loaded image of Solid Snake biting into a giant raw snake, looking up through the canopied jungle trees, and exhaling like a newly baptized demigod.

But as we all know, that's not going to happen. The videogame faithful will indeed wonder well into the year 2004 exactly what Mr. Kojima is up to. After all, we know what he's fully capable of. He wants us to think these things. Perhaps he even thrives on it a bit. That's why we tried, perhaps in vain, to squeeze some morsels of MGS3 goodness from him in our brief 20-minute interview at E3 this year.

IGNPS2: Yesterday at the Konami press conference, you spoke about everything in threes. Other than this being named Metal Gear Solid 3, is there any other significant meaning we can derive from this?

Hideo Kojima: It is the third Metal Gear , and in that sense, it is very important. Not that there will be a lot of threes in the game. You see, Metal Gear Solid is the third game in the series. There is has been Metal Gear games on the MSX and a solid is something that is three-dimensional, and it's solid. This is the third Metal Gear Solid. So, in a sense, this is like Metal Gear nine, with the three threes. (Laughter)

IGNPS2: Let's go back to Metal Gear Solid 2 for a moment. If you could go back and remake MGS2 , what would you do differently?

Hideo: We've been asked that question a few times today. And you see, the thing is that game came from myself and from the team two years ago and so it's complete. It's like the consolidation of all our emotions from two years ago. So we really don't want to go back and touch that game. If I don't want to touch this, then why do Metal Gear Solid 1 ? Why go back five years ago? That's why we're pumping in new blood, like with Nintendo's Silicon Knights and Metal Gear Solid Twin Snakes . We've using another director.

IGNPS2: The reason I ask is because for someone who has made so many games, so many wonderful complicated games, I wonder if you ever think back on previous games and wonder, well, what If I did this? Or maybe I could have changed that part there? But it's more of a lead into my next question, which is what can we expect from MGS3 that's not in MGS2 ?

Hideo: We, the creators of Metal Gear , and for those who have been playing Metal Gear , I'm sure feel that the ultimate dream is to play in the jungle, to fight in the jungle. It wasn't possible up until now, I guess because of the limitation of the hardware. And so that's what we really want to do, is to enjoy stealth in the jungle using the environment of the jungle to play Snake.

In Metal Gear Solid 1 and MGS2 you infiltrate these bases that have been occupied by bad guys. But in reality, you never land or get through the base. You know when people infiltrate these places in real life, they start maybe a few hundred miles away, like in the desert or in the ocean, and they gradually make their way to the enemy base. But all that has been skipped in all other games, including our own games. So, that's where we wanted to start in MGS3 . We actually wanted to land, I don't know the exact distance, a few hundred miles away and have players go through the jungle and maybe infiltrate the enemy base afterward.

And when you parachute down, you probably get drifted away by the wind and lose a few items. So basically, you have to get your own food by hunting. This is what we wanted to do in the game.

IGNPS2: So you start off with very little and genuinely earn all of the things and items as you need as you go along?

Hideo: Yes.

IGNPS2: So, because we live in the age of the Net, there are many theories flying about. One theory going around that Snake is not actually Solid Snake. He's a clone of Big Boss. Would you elaborate us on this theory?

Hideo: We'll leave it up to your imagination.

IGNPS2: From the long video clip we have seen, it looks like there are two major kinds of gameplay in Metal Gear Solid 3 . Obviously, this video is a small snippet of the game as a whole, but clearly there is a strong emphasis on stealth and also to a bigger extent that in previous games, wide open combat with many enemies at once. What can we expect?

Hideo: Yes, absolutely. What we are trying to do with the jungle is to, first of all, create a jungle that actually looks like a jungle, and now that we are in the jungle we want that stealth element that we can use with camouflage. And then since we are playing in a realistic jungle, what we want to do is to throw in gameplay that uses the jungle, such as hunting.

Again, the game doesn't consist of only playing in the jungle. Like if you get through the jungle, you'll get to buildings and when you get into the buildings, the gameplay will be similar to the previous games. The enemy AI in the jungle will be totally different. It will be acting on a totally different program, such as tracing footprints and all that, and it will be very interesting and fun.

IGNPS2: Can you describe some other areas in the game other than jungles that gamers will play through?

Hideo: There will be mountains, there will be caves, there will probably be a suspension bridge, things that we avoided in the previous Metal Gears. Where the game takes place, like in a specific country, doesn't really matter. That's not what we're going for. It's not like MGS2 where it took place in a specific place, you know New York City. So you'll see certain plants that you will not see in that particular area, in a rain forest. There might be an alligator in the game and we know that it doesn't realistically belong there but it going to make the game fun. We'll be doing that kind of thing.

IGNPS2: Metal Gear Solid 3 is a beautiful game. It's still stands as one of the best-looking games on PS2 . But this game appears to top MGS2. What kind of technical changes have you made to create MGS3? What kind of processes and alterations to the code have you had to make to enhance the game's graphics as you have?

Hideo: First of all, when we jumped from PlayStation to PlayStation 2, there was a big leap in the new hardware, so it was easy to surprise people. But now we can't do that. We're on the same console. But we still have to surprise people. And we couldn't do it with the previous engine because we pretty much used the power of the PS2 with Sons of Liberty.

What we have done is really inefficient, but we have completely come up with a brand new engine to create the jungle environment for MGS3 . That's why we have taken a year to come up with it. And again, we were doing that while we were creating Metal Gear Solid Substance . It's not like we dedicated one whole year to this.

IGNPS2: It looks like you can do a number of things you couldn't do in the previous MGS , such as hanging from trees and shooting, climbing up trees, etc. What kinds of extra new things can we expect to do?

Hideo: There are a lot of things to talk about. Just being able to climb up trees adds so much to the gameplay. We have gone through a lot of trial and error just trying to make Snake look cool climbing up trees. In many of the previous trials he looked like a monkey climbing up the tree. (Laughter.) And you saw in the video Snake standing-swimming? He can shoot while doing that, and when he is totally submerged in the water he can shoot too.

IGNPS2: The video you showed gives players many ideas and many not-entirely-clear themes about what MGS3 is and could be. Surely you have done this by design. But is there some major theme that you can leave us with so we have a clearer idea of what to expect in the next year or so?

Hideo: If I talk about the theme, I'll be revealing a lot of the story, so I'm not going to do that. But as long as I am the director of MGS titles, there will always be these kinds of ideas and themes in the games.

IGNPS2: So, for now I guess we'll have to wait in desperate anticipation for any clearer themes?

Hideo: Yes.

IGNPS2: OK. (Laughter) Thank you so much for your time. We look forward to seeing MGS3 in the future.

Hideo: You're welcome.

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