My first experience with Metal Gear Solid wasn’t until 2004, and believe it or not, it was a GameFAQs Contest match that prodded me into buying it. The match was Frog vs. Liquid Snake, and even though Liquid lost, it was so close and we all thought CT characters other than Crono were so strong back in those days (LOL Magus), so I finally decided I needed to check this game out and see what all the hype was about. I’m actually glad that our reasoning about CT characters was fallacious because first of all, it got me to play MGS sooner than I may have otherwise (if I would have at all), and second but unrelated to this list, it resulted in many hilarious contest moments in the coming years, with Knuckles > Magus being the best.
Anyway, I’m getting off topic here. The point is that I was finally playing Metal Gear Solid. The briefing videos where Campbell talks to Snake about the mission got me even more excited to play this game. Unfortunately, I got stalled in the very first area of the game for what felt like 30 minutes to an hour. To this day, I still believe that if you can get past the first area of MGS1, you can handle anything else the entire series throws at you (on Normal, anyway. I can’t speak for the higher difficulties). I’m not saying I was an expert on MGS after completing that area because I’m still pretty bad at the game and I die a lot even to this day when I play the games, but it did a good job of preparing you for what was ahead with the stealth elements.
Well, I’m rambling again. Let’s tackle what I love about MGS1 proper. First of all, Solid Snake is awesome. Avid Snake fans get angry at me when I say this for some reason, but the main reason I liked him so much as I was playing was because he reminded me so much of Squall. I’m not saying it’s a perfect resemblance or anything because they are obviously different in some ways, but it was big enough for me to notice it. Snake’s a loner by nature who doesn’t like to rely on others to get things done, but over the course of the game, he is slowly changed by the impulsive and overeager girl’s personality, with the tipping point being when she faces a life-or-death situation, with Snake helpless to do anything about it (and he does it in a matter of hours, but no one criticizes him for “falling in love too fast and that’s not realistic!”). And yes, I am oversimplifying things while overlooking the clear differences, but again, this is just to explain that there was a similarity between Squall and Snake that I saw that made me like him.
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"I couldn't stand a day without a past or future. I need to live each moment to keep fighting here and now."