Kojima's game is actually cutscenes? We did math

There is no doubt that Hideo Kojima's dedication to the art of video games. But one question that followed Metal Gear Master for most of his career was “Why didn’t he just make movies?”. This view, undoubtedly, stems from his views on Konami and Kojima Productions, both cutscenes, who choose to tell stories through often curated films rather than organic gameplay. But is this concept of perception a reality? And, more importantly, is this even important?

Well, I've done some numbers and figured out which part of each Mainline Metal Gear Solid game and the duo of Death Barrier is cutscenes. In some cases, this is what you expect. Among others, not so many…

How many cutscenes are in each hockey game?

To figure out how many games are in each game, I used the average time to complete a major story playback from How long does it take to defeatdata. I then spent the total run time of each game's cutscene and used it to evaluate the percentage of that runtime is the average play time. turn out:

• Metal Gear Solids: 20.29% (11 hours, average toys 30m, cutscenes 20m)
• Metal Gear Solid 2: 23.21% (13-hour average toy, 3-hour 1M cutscene)
• Metal Gear Solid 3: 26.35% (Average toys for 16 hours, cutscenes for 4 hours)
• Metal Gear Solid 4: 40.63% (18 hours 30m average toy, 7 hours 31m cutscene)
• Metal Gear Solid 5: 8.13% (45 hours 30m average toy, 3 hours 42m cutscene)
• Death Stranding: 15.75% (40 hours, 30m average toy, 6 hours, 22m cutscene)
• Death Stranding 2: 15.97% (37 hours 40m average toy*, 6 hours 1M cutscene)

It is important to note that this percentage is Movie cutscenes Only. Codec calls or other conversations in such games are not included because they require some player to progress.

*Average playback based on data Multiple IGN editors.

These percentages reveal Kojima’s career?

It turns out that the initial three metal gear solid games followed a similar trend – cutscenes accounted for 20% of the entire game time, and each subsequent entry gradually promoted a very slight upward trajectory. It is the metal gear solid 4 that does change. 40% of the movies are movies, not too far from the facts, saying that Patriots' guns are half-stadiums. Understandably, the game has become a poster kid in the Kojima movie Indulgence, which only emphasizes the length – the story is famous in the last movie that lasts up to 71 minutes. This is 10 minutes shorter than the 1995 animated film Toy Story.

For Metal Gear Solid 5: Phantom Pain, Can't Say the Same. It's a game on a troubled development path to say the least, and it runs into the exact opposite problem, like MGS 4: A Paper Story. In the 45-hour gameplay, cutscenes are less than 4 hours, a significant low percentage compared to its predecessor. MGS 5 is undoubtedly one of the greatest stealth games made from a mechanical perspective, but it lacks the narrative through line (to be honest, ending) to stop it from being like a full Kojima package.

Then we have the Death Stranding game, which features similar features to Phantom Pain, but the percentage of cutscenes is closer to the first metal gear solid. The result is a disease of a more narrative game than MGS 5, but not trapped by cinematic ambitions like Kojima’s more indulgent projects.

Are there too many cutscenes in Kojima game?

With all this data solution, let's solve a real problem: Does Kojima rely on cutscenes too? I think the answer lies in every project, or at least in every era of his career.

In the original Metal Equipment Solid Trilogy, one-fifth to one-quarter of each game is a movie. Passive during this duration? I'm not sure. In the PS1 and PS2 eras, telling complex stories is hard to do in player-controlled scenarios, so this is where movies, codec phone calls or lengthy conversation sequences come into play. The first three metal gear solid games were praised in their time and are still respected for their method of film performance, as well as those early shadows of Moses, the Big Shells and the Soviet Forests unimpeded travel. Yes, they tell their stories through a healthy amount of cutscenes, but never at the cost of gameplay. them yes Cutscenes, but never at the expense of the game itself.

There is no doubt that Metal Gear Solid 4: Patriot's Gun. 7 hours and 31 minutes of free time to watch movies played on both sides of the linear invisible corridor and the boss’s battle. Kojima has a grand story he wants to tell, multiple threads need to be bound from the previous trilogy, but it can be said that this comes at the cost of the game itself. This story is not necessarily a bad one, it interrupts the stealth action we all want from the snake adventure in extreme frequent times. Often, they can be too long – I've mentioned the ending of more than one movie, but cutscenes that bridge one performance to another usually feature TV-like runtime.

The opposite direction to the Metal Gear Solid 5 is heading in the exact opposite direction, and while some of them can be attributed to its harmful development cycle, much of its reduced cutscene percentage is attributed to the transition from linear to open-world design. This expanded vision is consistent with the 2015 “modern” game development trend, as a large number of opportunities are full of opportunities, which are all the rage in the post-Kerim world. Crucially, however, the open world that studios like Bethesda, CD Projekt Red and even Ubisoft developed during that time were full of narrative elements, whether small or large, narrative elements, told stories by the environment, accompanying dialogue, companion dialogue, companion dialogue, companion dialogue, companion dialogue, and Cutscenes. Kojima, however, did not agree with this formula, perhaps by stubbornly sticking to his traditional approach, namely, to stand out from the story. However, this large open world means more time spent on positive game scenes, and a single mission in Phantom Pain actually develops the plot as you play. Much of the main story is told through cutscenes, which are part of returning to the mother’s base, and your time is more limited than you’re in the wild. This approach is also very small, but is strangely removed from the complexity of storytelling we expected in 2015. It's a great game, but when viewed purely through narrative shots, it's less, and the number of cutscenes is significantly low.

Entering the 2019 death stranding, it may not be surprising to return to his roots in story building. Sam Porter Bridges’ story is told primarily through cutscenes, and of the many goods he requested to do so, few are many. There is a strange exception – for example, Higgs planted a bomb in his cargo, for example, he had to deal with it quickly, but for the most part, the story was reserved for hologram chat (Death Stranding's answer to codec calls) and presented with a beautiful cinema.

Both death stranded games have similar lengths to Phantom Pain, but crucially, they don’t feel bad in narratively. The core gameplay is that you can connect cities across the continent by delivering items and expanding an internet-like “chiral network” that may not be a direct tool for stories, but your mission will never be completely divorced from the human contact theme of the digital age. So while most plots are still told through cutscenes, like in 1998 on the original metal gear solid, the situation between each other is still richer than the narrative effect in Metal Gear Solid 5.

The Isle of Kojima on Single Story

We have seen that the ratio of cutscenes may vary greatly in the library of the island, but how does his work compare to other studios in similar spaces? After all, Metal Gear Solid really shapes what a modern PlayStation will become. We can see the impact of its legacy in many story-focused single player games – a major recent example will be our Part 2. 15.55% Its average game time includes non-interactive movie cutscenes, a ratio that is very close to two dead games. Similarly, another open-world game with movie aspirations, Grand Theft Auto 5 is 12.5% Cutscenes work evenly.

In our final part 2 and GTA 5, Feel Just like more stories happening between cutscenes, compared to Kaujima's game. The characters continually talk to build each other's backstory while the radio chat constantly paints pictures of the world. But this constant noise can be overwhelming, frankly, not fit in the world of metal gears and death at all. Both are built around the protagonists of isolated work – the route of enemies deep in the depths, or hiking on lonely delivery paths. This loneliness enables people to reflect and meditate, which makes these worlds (especially the world of death barriers) so strange. It feels counterintuitive to inject ideas into the story just to speed up its delivery. You won't reflect the bridge that Sam Porter Bridges expects to audiobooks. Instead, you get a therapeutic white noise machine that plays between new chapter milestones.

So, should Kojima “just make a movie”? No. He has created some of the most engaging worlds and unique mechanical gaming experiences, both of which have helped shape the entire media. Without his contribution, we will be poor. Should he not rely too much on film cutscenes or incorporate the story into his mission? Maybe. But his approach has been good enough for me so far, and I don't think a few spots from 10-15 years ago should change my view of this. Death Stranding 2: On the beach, he managed to tell a highly engaging story, like Kojima knows how, I don't want him to follow the trend because it has the potential to receive any less interesting risks.

Simon Cardy is a senior editor at IGN who can mostly find feeling desperate in the Open World Olympics, indulging in Korean cinemas, or in Tottenham and the New York Jets. Follow him in Bluesky @cardy.bsky.social.