Black Ninja in MG2: Solid Snake is one of the most significant boss encounters of the entire series because he’s the first instance of the iconic post boss battle dialogue sequence where a boss expresses his reasons and motives in a sympathetic manner. A sequence which becomes a staple point of the entire series. After Snake beats Black Ninja, he reveals his identity to be Kyle Schneider from MG1, who was Snake’s ally in that game. But after Snake defeated Big Boss in MG1, Schneider explains to Snake that Outer Heaven was indiscriminately bombed by NATO with no regard for their operatives like Schneider, who were still at the facility. Schneider explains to Snake that despite fighting against Big Boss, it was BB himself who rescued Schneider among others during the NATO bombing. So that’s why Schneider decides to fight for Big Boss in Zanzibar and ends up going from Snake’s ally to Snake’s opponent. Schneider admired Big Boss for being someone who would rescue soldiers even if they were his opponents on the battlefield. This is important because it not only frames Big Boss in a sympathetic light which is a plot thread elaborated on in MG2 itself (Gray Fox, Madnar, etc), but that same characterisation becomes a staple point of Big Boss throughout all subsequent games. So yeah for many reasons the Black Ninja fight is the origin of the renowned boss encounters of the Metal Gear series.
MG2 has pretty much everything that made the series great aside from voice acting. Even The End battle in MGS3 which was considered groundbreaking(and it certainly is my favourite boss battle in a game), because it took place across different screens….but MG2 had 5 boss battles which took place over multiple screens (Running Man, Jungle Evil, Hind D, Night Fright, Big Boss) and you could damage some those bosses even when you were on different screen to them (I.e if they ran into a mine you’d placed on that screen). There really ought to be a UA-cam video essay called “Metal Gear 2 did it first”, where it shows many of everyone’s favourite MGS moments already being conceptually realised in that beautiful 2D game from 1990.
black ninja one of the most memorable metal gear bosses ever lol. super high difficulty jump, some insane backstory about being a nasa experimental soldier or some shit if you do the codec calls, the deep cut callback to a guy with like maybe half a dozen lines in the og game and then he just blows himself up. rip to a real one
I’m gonna go super deep into “Kojumbo Meta Analysis” here, so please stick with me I’ve always interpreted The Cobras as more of a parody of the prior Merc Bands rather than their noteworthy, individual pack of freaks. Instead of having their own protagonist tier backstories that tie into the themes in a subtextual level, The Cobra Unit are all very blatant statements of their purpose in the main theme of the game and Big Boss’ character arc. They’re literally given the names of what Snake is confronting. Even their order is, in my eyes, an intentional choice the parallels Snake’s story. The Pain and The Fear are the first two and they come and go faster than even the earliest bosses in the series, because Snake has already overcome these concepts. He mentions constantly in the early game how he has no fear of dying and has been battle-hardened by his training under The Boss. They’re not anything worth thinking on for Snake, not worth engaging with beyond their brief freak factor. The End is the midpoint of the entire game and the longest battle overall. The concept of Snake’s journey coming to an end isn’t something he’s given the time to consider, if anything he’s putting it off; trying to keep any talk about killing The Boss and finishing the mission to a minimum. His fight is even skippable if you REALLY don’t want to engage with that idea, rather than skulking him around for 30+ minutes with nothing but “The End” on your mind. The Fury is easily the most challenging of The Cobras and the first of two battle emotions Snake is currently dealing with. He feels betrayed by The Boss, angered that his country is so quick to put a target on her head and confused as to why it has to happen like this. Fury is the most trapped you’ll feel in a boss fight, as Snake has no hope of escaping this emotion; he has no choice but to confront it. Lastly, excluding The Boss, is Sorrow and this one is easy: You can’t win. There is no defeating the Sorrow, you can only face his wrath and accept his judgement. He’ll force you to sit there and wallow in your actions, wallow in your reality. And I don’t think I need to state how this fits into the legend of Big Boss, who’ll go on to destroy so much in his mourning of his dead mentor. Needless to say, I really like MGS3 and I completely understand if you think I’m just pulling this outta my ass. But to me, in all my years of playing Snake Eater, this is what the Cobras are: An almost “Ghost of Christmas” pack of monsters to foreshadow the rest of Big Boss’ story and the tragedy he has no chance of escaping
This is a super interesting read on the story! I had some similar thoughts about the Cobras being about the allegory/symbolism, but the one thing missing is the irony of The Joy, that there's absolutely nothing joyous about Snake's victory or completing his mission, and that The Boss herself clearly takes no pleasure in what she's doing. The Boss having The Sorrow linger around her I think is meant to represent more than just that they were lovers, it's also meant to signify that she never left that emotion behind, the sorrow of that act lingers with her as much as the ghost does. Boss left the Cobra unit behind, so why call them back for this? I think it's part of her message to Snake to force him to confront these emotions himself, and in the end we see Snake repeat the same outcome, carrying "The Boss' will" with him rather than realizing that war is always going to end with the losses lingering and the victories feeling hollow. It evokes a bit of MGS2 to me, mirroring the circumstances artificially to shape a person in a specific way, trying to tweak the formula to get something better but only creating a new problem in the end, and the final boss not being the bad guy but instead the political forces behind that bad guy being the real and undefeated enemy.
@@fighting1fefnirI’d argue in the end, The Boss did find a Joy in her final battle against Snake. Lines like “I feel Content” and “Jack, you’re a wonderful man” feel to me like she’s going out with the hope that Snake has understood what all of this was for, that he’s understood her message. In reality though, Snake has no clue what she’s trying to tell him and any takeaways he has from this situation are going to lead him down a path as far as possible than what The Boss wanted for him. It’s what makes the tragedy of The Boss’ untimely downfall all the more unfortunate; she never lost hope that Snake will do the right thing in the end
I came to MGS late when a friend who was a fan of the series gave me the first three games for Christmas. When I got to the psycho mantis fight, I thought him very amusing and quickly noticed he always got hit by every third shot. So I just shot him twice with my weakest weapon, switched to my highest damage weapon to land the hit, then switched back. The fight was challenging, but it seemed a completely fair gimmick, and I was greatly confused when he talked about me changing controller port as he died.
I just met David Hayter last week and gave him a custom made Snake figure I made for him as MGS is one of my fav games ever and something hit me-- it's somewhat buried in history that the series was meant to end with MGS2 and future sequels were never really part of the grand scheme and by Kojima's admission, were made primarily because it's the only way Konami would green lit him the resource to spend. While MGS3 is terrific and serves as a last swan song, I always felt every other game post-MGS2 were just outlets for Kojima to exercise his creative pursuits, with a haphazard Metal Gear connection thrown in so that it sells. While I do love every entry, I always considered the true end of the series was MGS2 as intended.
For me, the original MGS trilogy reminds me a lot of the Godfather trilogy, or rather, as Copolla originally intended, with the first two entries composing the main narrative, with a third acting as an extended coda to the saga. You can stop watching after the second, it's a complete package with those two works, but the third really caps things off in a swell way. The later entries only serve to complicate and muddy matters further, especially Guns of the Patriots, though I have an affinity for Phantom Pain for largely being a kind of standalone adventure that has enough creative restraint (in some areas, at least) for the player to place their own meaning upon the work, letting it function as the final passing of the torch onto the audience.
oh absolutely, and after kojima was forced to make a game the first time (mgs3) the resulting games end up being meta-commentaries on being forced to exist
For me, from MG2: Solid Snake to Sons of Liberty there's the perfect balance of narrative and mechanics with the boss fights. Snake Eater, Guns of the Patriots and V are very good mechanically but sterile in narrative. Peace Walker is just tedious but I still love the fight with the titular mech.
Great video. Honestly since you're talking about bosses, im surprised you didn't cover mgs portable ops. I think that it had a good combination of weaving the game play in with the narrative. Fighting them felt more similar to mgs 1 and 2 boss battles in a good way
I was the perfect age when mgs 2 came to xbox i just remember 555 dominos mt dew and 12 hour seshes. My mind has never been blown so much as with the first 2 mgs
Me, looking at the title: "Like, actual gameplay bosses or characters called Boss(es)? Because there's kinda a lot of the latter as well, enough to make a video out of it."
The fact that Kojima openly has characters state that Dead Cell were a stand in for Foxhound in MGS2 then has them merged with the Cobra Unit in MGS4 shows that even he struggled to make a group of Bosses as compelling as the original Foxhound members in MGS1
Want to see something funny in MGS2? Use the demo theatre to view the Solidus Vs MG Ray cutscene with Rose as Solidus. It's hilarious imagining her just demolishing these mech just to turn to Raiden and ask what day it is tomorrow. It also a badass model glitch where became Rose's model is smaller she can't hold the P90 correctly but it leads to the coolest shot ever where she leaps backwards, firing the P90 despite it casually resting on the back of her hand.
For as much as we all make the joke that these are playable cutscenes, the most vivid memories I have of metal gear solid is of playing them and messing around with the mechanics
I kind of liked that the final boss of MGS2 was underwhelming. It’s repeatedly stressed that beating Solidus was what the patriots wanted Raiden to do and that he’s not the real villain there. So the fact the boss isn’t that satisfying highlights Raiden’s aimlessness at the end
That question about the Cobras properly stumped me. I agree that narratively, MGS1 is my favourite rogues gallery, but mechanically, MGS5 is just a joy to play in every regard. I wish we were living in an alternate timeline where Konami weren't Konami and we could get the best of both worlds in a future title.
Obligatory metrics comment: Regarding the HF Blade's non-lethal mode, apparently it has a blunt side to it. Swapping to it is basically Raiden flipping the blade around in his grip to strike enemies with the blunt side of it.
I wanted nothing more than to play through mgs1 as Grey Fox as a kid and never even unlocked the costume despite completing it on the same same file about 37 times 😭
Ill be the first to ask where rising fits into all this, i know its an entirely different studio and even arguable as to if its a part of the canon but the bosses in that game are genuinely some of wildest personalities youll meet and every single one is iconic to the point of being recognized outside of franchise fans
OH~~~ we are in for a TREAT! Thank you for your hard work. Love it. PS: before having watched; I hated the MGS4 throwaway girl bosses. Other than fulfilling Kojimas fetish of actors, models etc there was nothing to them
They all had really well written and harrowing as hell backstories, but the problem is we find out none of that until after they're dead and even then it's by way of an exposition dump. If their experiences had been woven into the narrative, they'd have been much more compelling characters.
Anything after MGS3 has no soul, Kojima didn't even want to make MGS4. Tbh, MGS 3 is already a bit shallow in the story and dialogues, even though it's still a great game, it's the perfect example of Complex but shallow writing, whilst MGS1 was the other way around: Simple but deep writing.
Black Ninja in MG2: Solid Snake is one of the most significant boss encounters of the entire series because he’s the first instance of the iconic post boss battle dialogue sequence where a boss expresses his reasons and motives in a sympathetic manner. A sequence which becomes a staple point of the entire series. After Snake beats Black Ninja, he reveals his identity to be Kyle Schneider from MG1, who was Snake’s ally in that game. But after Snake defeated Big Boss in MG1, Schneider explains to Snake that Outer Heaven was indiscriminately bombed by NATO with no regard for their operatives like Schneider, who were still at the facility. Schneider explains to Snake that despite fighting against Big Boss, it was BB himself who rescued Schneider among others during the NATO bombing. So that’s why Schneider decides to fight for Big Boss in Zanzibar and ends up going from Snake’s ally to Snake’s opponent. Schneider admired Big Boss for being someone who would rescue soldiers even if they were his opponents on the battlefield. This is important because it not only frames Big Boss in a sympathetic light which is a plot thread elaborated on in MG2 itself (Gray Fox, Madnar, etc), but that same characterisation becomes a staple point of Big Boss throughout all subsequent games. So yeah for many reasons the Black Ninja fight is the origin of the renowned boss encounters of the Metal Gear series.
MG2 has pretty much everything that made the series great aside from voice acting. Even The End battle in MGS3 which was considered groundbreaking(and it certainly is my favourite boss battle in a game), because it took place across different screens….but MG2 had 5 boss battles which took place over multiple screens (Running Man, Jungle Evil, Hind D, Night Fright, Big Boss) and you could damage some those bosses even when you were on different screen to them (I.e if they ran into a mine you’d placed on that screen).
There really ought to be a UA-cam video essay called “Metal Gear 2 did it first”, where it shows many of everyone’s favourite MGS moments already being conceptually realised in that beautiful 2D game from 1990.
black ninja one of the most memorable metal gear bosses ever lol. super high difficulty jump, some insane backstory about being a nasa experimental soldier or some shit if you do the codec calls, the deep cut callback to a guy with like maybe half a dozen lines in the og game and then he just blows himself up. rip to a real one
We went from Sniper Wolf and her beautiful monologue - to a guy in a bee outfit doing a little jig and repeatedly screaming his own name.
THE PAIIIN
I SEE IT! THE FEAR!!
Hey, not everyone gets to have a tragic, poignant backstory. Some guys just like bees
TOMMY GUN
@@CalhasnopalsWHAT’S THIS? A COVERT MISSION WOEFULLY UNDERPOPULATED BY BEES? A large influx of BEES oughta put a stop to that!
I’m gonna go super deep into “Kojumbo Meta Analysis” here, so please stick with me
I’ve always interpreted The Cobras as more of a parody of the prior Merc Bands rather than their noteworthy, individual pack of freaks. Instead of having their own protagonist tier backstories that tie into the themes in a subtextual level, The Cobra Unit are all very blatant statements of their purpose in the main theme of the game and Big Boss’ character arc. They’re literally given the names of what Snake is confronting. Even their order is, in my eyes, an intentional choice the parallels Snake’s story.
The Pain and The Fear are the first two and they come and go faster than even the earliest bosses in the series, because Snake has already overcome these concepts. He mentions constantly in the early game how he has no fear of dying and has been battle-hardened by his training under The Boss. They’re not anything worth thinking on for Snake, not worth engaging with beyond their brief freak factor.
The End is the midpoint of the entire game and the longest battle overall. The concept of Snake’s journey coming to an end isn’t something he’s given the time to consider, if anything he’s putting it off; trying to keep any talk about killing The Boss and finishing the mission to a minimum. His fight is even skippable if you REALLY don’t want to engage with that idea, rather than skulking him around for 30+ minutes with nothing but “The End” on your mind.
The Fury is easily the most challenging of The Cobras and the first of two battle emotions Snake is currently dealing with. He feels betrayed by The Boss, angered that his country is so quick to put a target on her head and confused as to why it has to happen like this. Fury is the most trapped you’ll feel in a boss fight, as Snake has no hope of escaping this emotion; he has no choice but to confront it.
Lastly, excluding The Boss, is Sorrow and this one is easy: You can’t win. There is no defeating the Sorrow, you can only face his wrath and accept his judgement. He’ll force you to sit there and wallow in your actions, wallow in your reality. And I don’t think I need to state how this fits into the legend of Big Boss, who’ll go on to destroy so much in his mourning of his dead mentor.
Needless to say, I really like MGS3 and I completely understand if you think I’m just pulling this outta my ass. But to me, in all my years of playing Snake Eater, this is what the Cobras are: An almost “Ghost of Christmas” pack of monsters to foreshadow the rest of Big Boss’ story and the tragedy he has no chance of escaping
This is a super interesting read on the story! I had some similar thoughts about the Cobras being about the allegory/symbolism, but the one thing missing is the irony of The Joy, that there's absolutely nothing joyous about Snake's victory or completing his mission, and that The Boss herself clearly takes no pleasure in what she's doing. The Boss having The Sorrow linger around her I think is meant to represent more than just that they were lovers, it's also meant to signify that she never left that emotion behind, the sorrow of that act lingers with her as much as the ghost does. Boss left the Cobra unit behind, so why call them back for this? I think it's part of her message to Snake to force him to confront these emotions himself, and in the end we see Snake repeat the same outcome, carrying "The Boss' will" with him rather than realizing that war is always going to end with the losses lingering and the victories feeling hollow.
It evokes a bit of MGS2 to me, mirroring the circumstances artificially to shape a person in a specific way, trying to tweak the formula to get something better but only creating a new problem in the end, and the final boss not being the bad guy but instead the political forces behind that bad guy being the real and undefeated enemy.
@@fighting1fefnirI’d argue in the end, The Boss did find a Joy in her final battle against Snake. Lines like “I feel Content” and “Jack, you’re a wonderful man” feel to me like she’s going out with the hope that Snake has understood what all of this was for, that he’s understood her message. In reality though, Snake has no clue what she’s trying to tell him and any takeaways he has from this situation are going to lead him down a path as far as possible than what The Boss wanted for him. It’s what makes the tragedy of The Boss’ untimely downfall all the more unfortunate; she never lost hope that Snake will do the right thing in the end
I came to MGS late when a friend who was a fan of the series gave me the first three games for Christmas. When I got to the psycho mantis fight, I thought him very amusing and quickly noticed he always got hit by every third shot. So I just shot him twice with my weakest weapon, switched to my highest damage weapon to land the hit, then switched back. The fight was challenging, but it seemed a completely fair gimmick, and I was greatly confused when he talked about me changing controller port as he died.
I just met David Hayter last week and gave him a custom made Snake figure I made for him as MGS is one of my fav games ever and something hit me-- it's somewhat buried in history that the series was meant to end with MGS2 and future sequels were never really part of the grand scheme and by Kojima's admission, were made primarily because it's the only way Konami would green lit him the resource to spend. While MGS3 is terrific and serves as a last swan song, I always felt every other game post-MGS2 were just outlets for Kojima to exercise his creative pursuits, with a haphazard Metal Gear connection thrown in so that it sells. While I do love every entry, I always considered the true end of the series was MGS2 as intended.
For me, the original MGS trilogy reminds me a lot of the Godfather trilogy, or rather, as Copolla originally intended, with the first two entries composing the main narrative, with a third acting as an extended coda to the saga. You can stop watching after the second, it's a complete package with those two works, but the third really caps things off in a swell way. The later entries only serve to complicate and muddy matters further, especially Guns of the Patriots, though I have an affinity for Phantom Pain for largely being a kind of standalone adventure that has enough creative restraint (in some areas, at least) for the player to place their own meaning upon the work, letting it function as the final passing of the torch onto the audience.
oh absolutely, and after kojima was forced to make a game the first time (mgs3) the resulting games end up being meta-commentaries on being forced to exist
For me, from MG2: Solid Snake to Sons of Liberty there's the perfect balance of narrative and mechanics with the boss fights. Snake Eater, Guns of the Patriots and V are very good mechanically but sterile in narrative. Peace Walker is just tedious but I still love the fight with the titular mech.
I heard the reason that the Cobras explode the way they do is because they wanted to directly reference toku villains who blew up when defeated
Great video. Honestly since you're talking about bosses, im surprised you didn't cover mgs portable ops.
I think that it had a good combination of weaving the game play in with the narrative. Fighting them felt more similar to mgs 1 and 2 boss battles in a good way
One of the few UA-cam channels I will wait months dare I say years for and will watch any length of video. Let this man cook!
Great video sir, very nostalgic and enjoyable watch. Thanks for sharing, you're pretty good.👉👉🎮🍀
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Random words
I was the perfect age when mgs 2 came to xbox i just remember 555 dominos mt dew and 12 hour seshes. My mind has never been blown so much as with the first 2 mgs
Me, looking at the title: "Like, actual gameplay bosses or characters called Boss(es)? Because there's kinda a lot of the latter as well, enough to make a video out of it."
The fact that Kojima openly has characters state that Dead Cell were a stand in for Foxhound in MGS2 then has them merged with the Cobra Unit in MGS4 shows that even he struggled to make a group of Bosses as compelling as the original Foxhound members in MGS1
Want to see something funny in MGS2?
Use the demo theatre to view the Solidus Vs MG Ray cutscene with Rose as Solidus.
It's hilarious imagining her just demolishing these mech just to turn to Raiden and ask what day it is tomorrow.
It also a badass model glitch where became Rose's model is smaller she can't hold the P90 correctly but it leads to the coolest shot ever where she leaps backwards, firing the P90 despite it casually resting on the back of her hand.
I am commenting to increase engagement metrics
For as much as we all make the joke that these are playable cutscenes, the most vivid memories I have of metal gear solid is of playing them and messing around with the mechanics
Hey, welcome back! I missed your voice :)
Big Boss: "This is good, isn't it?" *dies, credits roll.
I kind of liked that the final boss of MGS2 was underwhelming. It’s repeatedly stressed that beating Solidus was what the patriots wanted Raiden to do and that he’s not the real villain there. So the fact the boss isn’t that satisfying highlights Raiden’s aimlessness at the end
That question about the Cobras properly stumped me. I agree that narratively, MGS1 is my favourite rogues gallery, but mechanically, MGS5 is just a joy to play in every regard. I wish we were living in an alternate timeline where Konami weren't Konami and we could get the best of both worlds in a future title.
FUUUUCKKK YEAAAAAASSSS
Excited to see this whole thing, I already know it's a banger!!!!
Obligatory metrics comment: Regarding the HF Blade's non-lethal mode, apparently it has a blunt side to it. Swapping to it is basically Raiden flipping the blade around in his grip to strike enemies with the blunt side of it.
I wanted nothing more than to play through mgs1 as Grey Fox as a kid and never even unlocked the costume despite completing it on the same same file about 37 times 😭
Welcome back my fellow Scot
Holy heck, new WOG!!!
Ill be the first to ask where rising fits into all this, i know its an entirely different studio and even arguable as to if its a part of the canon but the bosses in that game are genuinely some of wildest personalities youll meet and every single one is iconic to the point of being recognized outside of franchise fans
WRITING ON GAMES METAL GEAR EPISODE LETS GOOOOO
Metal gear solid 2: SoL, the Ray boss fight is my favourite boss fight of all time, hands down.
OH~~~ we are in for a TREAT! Thank you for your hard work. Love it.
PS: before having watched; I hated the MGS4 throwaway girl bosses. Other than fulfilling Kojimas fetish of actors, models etc there was nothing to them
They all had really well written and harrowing as hell backstories, but the problem is we find out none of that until after they're dead and even then it's by way of an exposition dump. If their experiences had been woven into the narrative, they'd have been much more compelling characters.
That's quite childish
They definitely got worse. MGS4 and MGS5's bosses sucked compared to MGS 1,2,3's bosses.
Hour and a half WoG episode? Amazing 🎉🎉🎉
I take it there aren't any bosses Metal Gear Survive? Wouldn't know as I never played it
It's such a shame the quality of bosses in the series steeply declined with MGS4 onwards.
Awesome 🙏🥇🏆🏆
Nah.
What’s that game at 0:59?
The remake of Shadow of the Colossus.
Notification squad, reporting in.
I can never watch this video until I eventually find the time to play the games, so here's the like and keep up the good work ❤
the rights of passage videos for youtubers. for film, it's making a Shining video, for video games, it's making a Metal Gear video.
Damn, Hamish, at least warn someone before you drop a banger like this
Notification foxhound squad reporting in.
Hello again
Anything after MGS3 has no soul, Kojima didn't even want to make MGS4. Tbh, MGS 3 is already a bit shallow in the story and dialogues, even though it's still a great game, it's the perfect example of Complex but shallow writing, whilst MGS1 was the other way around: Simple but deep writing.