At the recent Metal Gear 25th Anniversary event in Tokyo, we managed to sit down with Hideo Kojima, the grandfather of modern video games and one of Octopus City Blues biggest fans. Our CEO invited him to candidly share his thoughts, dreams, and opinions over breakfast.

Ghost in a Bottle Ltd. CEO (CEO):
Konnichiwa Kojima-san and thank you for having the time for this interview.

Hideo Kojima (HK):
On the contrary. It is me who should thank you for this opportunity. As you already know, I am a huge fan of the Octopus City (tm) franchise. (laughs)

CEO:
Kojima-san, tell us a little bit about your vision for the future of the Metal Gear Series, and for video games in general.

HK:
Ah yes. You do know about the big bang? How the universe is always expanding? That’s how I feel about games, they are always expanding and it’s up the gamers to decide how to process the ingredients. That is my vision! (laughs) The Metal Gear Solid series was about exploring themes such as gene, meme, scene and time. The new Metal Gear game is an open world experience. I asked myself, what if the game world itself was the enemy? What if the players created their own experiences? Whatever happens, this will be my last Metal Gear game.

CEO:
That’s fascinating. How do you come up with the ideas for a Metal Gear game anyway? What is the process behind producing such a piece of art?

HK:
It is a difficult process, but I draw inspiration from a variety of sources such as literature and movies. I grew up watching movies, and where 70% of the human body is made of water, 70% of my body is film. (laughs) We spent a lot of time visiting actual battle fields to really understand the reality of war. It is important to maintain your integrity when tackling such difficult subjects as you probably know from your experience with Octopus City Blues.

CEO:
Speaking of which, why don’t you tell us a little bit about your involvement with Octopus City Blues? How did you learn about it?

HK:
After the 2011 earthquakes in Japan, I spent a lot of time thinking about my life and the human condition in general;  it was a near-death experience and I realized how fragile life is. I was plagued with nightmares about a world torn apart by nuclear weapons and turned into a cold and desolate wasteland. I finally made my way to a single city in the middle of the snow, a city built around an Octopus. When I woke up, I found a tattoo on the back of my neck with a link to the Octopus City website. I was really delighted to learn about this game simulation. It is one of the best concepts I have ever seen and I am really sad that I didn’t think of it first. (laughs)

CEO:
(Laughs) You then sent me an email and we became best friends. You even got a chance to play an early demo of the simulation. What did you think about that?

HK:
I was blown away. It was beautiful. Kaf, the personification of the restricted and confused player exploring metaphors for serious topics such as dream censorship and drug addiction amidst a hidden war where soldiers no longer exist and tentacles replace nanomachines. It is almost if it took place in a future vision of Metal Gear Solid had Old Snake killed himself. My favorite scene is Kaf climbing a tentacle for 15 minutes. I wanted to do that in MGS3 but the play testers complained and we ended with only 5 minutes of climbing. I must say it’s a very brave thing to do.

CEO:
I’m glad you liked it. There are more climbing scenes later in the simulation; it is actually the central mechanic. One last question, Kojima-san, what do you think of the decline in Japanese games?

HK:
That is certainly worrying. But we are now looking at western games to see where they did things right. Castlevania can learn a thing or two from God of War, Suikoden can be more like Dragon Age, Final Fantasy will be the new Call of Duty and the open world Metal Gear game will be heavily inspired by Octopus City (laughs).

CEO:
Thank you again Kojima-san. Looking forward to seeing more of Metal Gear Rising and your new Ogre engine.