10 Ways Hideo Kojima Should Have Made Metal Gear Solid 5: Phantom Pain

6. Show The Downfall Of Big Boss

I've done a full, three-part breakdown of everything that would've contributed to Boss' downfall in a past article on every cut piece of content, but sufficed to say it's one of the biggest omissions of the entire game.

In the run-up to release, we repeatedly saw images of Boss in a spiralling mental state, be it kneeling in a village following some harrowing event as he screamed in agony or distress, covering his face in the ashes of his fallen comrades, or even being completely soaked in blood, yet not seeming to care.

Trailers talked about how this game was the "missing link" between the hero Big Boss we knew from Snake Eater/Peace Walker, and the megalomaniacal warlord we'd kill in the original MSX Metal Gear. Thus, fans expected to see something that would trigger this supposed 'downfall', but it never materialised.

The scene in the village was removed, and although the ash scene comes after the infection at Mother Base, it doesn't seem to effect Boss whatsoever afterwards. The overly serious speech he gives about his soldiers' deaths feels out of place, and by the end of the game, the reveal that the real Big Boss was never affected by these actions means we have nothing to connect the dots as to why either of them ended up changing so much.

Fans have argued that the 'real' fall comes in Peace Walker as Boss establishes Mother Base as a nuclear superpower, but that's not what was advertised, and that's not what we got here.