Metal Gear Solid V: Every Piece Of Cut Content You Need To See
11. The True Downfall Of Big Boss (Part 1 - African Child Soldiers)
Heres a big one - the fact we didnt really get to see the downfall of Big Boss from a moral standpoint, despite everything leading up to release hinging on it. So many cutscenes were stripped from the final game that could of contributed to a man slowly losing his mind in the pursuit of world peace, yet all but one were stripped out.
The first, is this powerful image above from a scene that was removed, where Boss is kneeling in the middle of an African village, lamenting some sort of loss as he shouts to the heavens about something he cant take back or couldnt prevent.
My take is this was supposed to relate to the child soldiers, and how through some action of his own, Boss couldnt prevent them being slaughtered in their droves. Why? Because we know the children were initially a far larger part of the story through another pre-release cutscene where they were shown being trained how to use firearms.
Now, the child soldier plot line IS in the game, but in a very fragmented, un-involved way. Essentially you save them, they remain on Mother Base, and then leave again. There's zero interaction.
This burning village scene was most likely the culmination of Boss having to face scores of child soldiers he didnt want to harm, who met a grizzly end regardless. Burning bodies and the general look of this area still remains in the bowels of Kungenga Mine where you first escort the children, and with Kojima mentioning pre-release he was tackling "a certain type of taboo if I mess up, I'll probably have to leave the industry, its more than enough to make me think the depiction of children being killed is precisely what affected Boss so much.