Solid Snake’s Japanese voice and movement seize actor is eager to return for a new sport, although feels conflicted about any recent entry with out the involvement of creator Hideo Kojima.
In an interview with Bunshun (translated by IGN), Snake actor Akio Otsuka reminisced about his deep attachment to the Metal Gear collection and eager want for Konami to make one other entry — which can come as a shock for Japanese followers of the collection. Famously, Otsuka beforehand stated he wouldn’t make a new sport sans Kojima — a quote that unfold across the franchise’s Japanese fandom after the Konami/Kojima cut up.
Reflecting on that and his bond with the collection’ creator, Otsuka stated: “My job as a voice actor is to do what I’m informed. However when it comes to the Metal Gear collection, it was created by Kojima, and I take delight in having helped convey it to life.
“So I [previously] stated, ‘I don’t need to do a Metal Gear that doesn’t contain Kojima.’ Now I’ve stated that, I am unable to take it again,” he stated.
Given Konami and Hideo Kojima’s removed from amicable cut up, it appears fairly unlikely that Kojima will ever helm a MGS sport once more. When requested whether or not Otsuka had informed Kojima that he’d just like the Demise Stranding director to make a new Metal Gear sport, Otsuka merely replied: “I am going to depart that to your creativeness.”
Trying again over his years of voicing Snake, Otsuka recalled that Solid Snake’s well-known “Stored you ready, huh?” (“mataseta na”) line was really an adlib throughout the Japanese language recording. “It was subsequently utilized in adverts too,” Otsuka added, with David Hayter’s English rendition of the road changing into equally iconic.
Otsuka additionally recalled how surreal it was to have his real-life father, voice actor Chikao Otsuka, voicing Huge Boss in MGS4’s finale, whereas Otsuka himself supplied the efficiency seize. “Once I arrived on set, my father’s eyes widened on the sight of me within the movement seize swimsuit, and he requested with shock, ‘Am I really going to be voicing you?’ It was quite amusing.”
Otsuka expressed a lot fondness and empathy for Kojima all through the interview. “He went by so many difficulties after leaving Konami but managed to end making this main sport,” Otsuka stated, referring to the creator’s subsequent mission, Demise Stranding. “In spite of everything, if Demise Stranding had failed he may have simply ended up with money owed that he would not have been ready to repay even when he continued working for the remainder of his life… So when the sport was completed and so they introduced its launch, I burst into tears.”
Otsuka has additionally beforehand expressed assist for former members of Kojima’s crew nonetheless working at Konami, who for numerous causes didn’t leap ship to Kojima’s new firm Kojima Productions. In an MGS cutscene-worthy bit on his Nameless Mouse podcast again in June 2023, Otsuka emphasised that, “I need the followers to perceive this. I do not need them [the remaining MGS staff at Konami] to be made out to be villains. The individuals who stayed at Konami had been a part of the crew on Kojima’s ship. These individuals, who inherited the director’s legacy, need to shield Metal Gear.”
Simply as David Hayter is usually held up by MGS followers because the definitive English voice of Snake (regardless of his controversial alternative by Kiefer Sutherland in MGS5), Otsuka’s efficiency holds related significance for Japanese followers. “I actually have a deep attachment to Snake,” Otsuka concluded. “In spite of everything, to the [Japanese] followers, Snake will at all times be Akio Otsuka, no matter what occurred between Kojima and Konami. Once I consider the followers… properly I am actually caught within the center.”
Whereas Kojima could also be busy for the foreseeable future engaged on new tasks O.D. and Physint, Konami clearly nonetheless has an curiosity in Metal Gear — one thing that will properly lead to an all-new entry in future. Final 12 months’s profitable Metal Gear Solid Delta Snake Eater reused Otsuka’s authentic efficiency from 2006’s MGS3. Nonetheless, plainly the actor may be open to engaged on a new Metal Gear Solid, ought to Konami select to make extra than simply remasters and remakes of the groundbreaking stealth collection.
Verity Townsend is a Japan-based freelance author who beforehand served as editor, contributor and translator for the sport information web site Automaton West. She has additionally written about Japanese tradition and films for numerous publications.