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

2. Tie Up Eli/Liquid Snake's Arc

I'm going full fan service for these last two points, but when you think on how much Kojima loves this stuff in say, MGS 4, we had a bunch of obvious plot points that by all means should have been in The Phantom Pain.

As it stands, MGS V ends with Eli/future Liquid disappearing with the devastating Sahelanthropus mech, only for us to assume he bides his time for 20 years until the Shadow Moses incident. It just doesn't add up - and that's entirely because the Episode 51 cutscene that features the battle to render the machine useless, isn't in the game whatsoever.

Resigned to the bonus disc as an unfinished cutscene, it at least sets up the gap in the timeline by noting that Mantis and a wounded Liquid leave the battlefield together to grow up, before deciding they want another crack at world domination.

For the game's events though, Eli pops up as the leader of some child soldiers, features a brilliant voice performance from Piers Stubbs, gets mentioned in regards to being Boss' son, steals Metal Gear and leaves. There's no motivation, no idea of who he really is - it's more fan service that he's in there at all, if his final scene's dangling plot thread wasn't so strong that it ends up hanging around the game's neck.

We needed Episode 51 and we needed something that cemented Eli's feelings for Boss, even at this early stage. Instead, he comes across as a kid doing their best Liquid Snake impression, before leaving and being forgotten about - even by Ocelot, who's supposedly going to reconnect with him in the near future to set up the other games.