Fans of the long standing Metal Gear franchise are already aware that Kojima is attached to two more games, Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker & Metal Gear Solid: Rising. This was teased before E3 and announced fully during the event. Now that the Tokyo Game Show has finally come around, there’s been more news and a new trailer concerning the prior game.

Speculation is already running wild so I figured I would inject a dose of my own. For those who haven’t seen the trailer you can do so below, but I advise instead watching it here on the official site for better quality.

There is quite a log of dialogue English speakers will miss out on from watching a subtitle-less version, with their only salvation being the song near the end. Most will notice the addition of an English theme song, which hasn’t been really apparent since the release of Metal Gear Solid 3’s Snake Eater. I’ve already attempted to search for Donna Burke’s Heaven’s Divide across the internet, but it seems to be an unreleased track as of now.

The trailer itself starts out rather slowly, but by giving it a chance there is a clear comparison to the original Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater to a rather memorable and spoiler filled scene. Amazingly the PSP graphics in turn seem as good, which is rather hard to believe since most PSP games are a downgraded version of what the Playstation 2 could do. I do believe most fans will start to get excited for Peace Walker, merely because the other PSP games of the series aren’t up to this level.

It is already confirmed by those who have played the demo on the Tokyo Game Show floor that Ashley Wood still has a hand in the drawings. Most of these were featured as cover art and still art during cutscenes for the previous games. They will be used in the new game as well, but will have more of an interactive feel as players can zoom into them and explore other concepts of the images that would give more insight into the story. You can vaguely see this during 6:59 of the trailer through 8:48.

At this point we are given a better introduction of the characters. Released a few days ago was the following scan which showcased said character, but the scan itself is grainy and it is rather difficult to see each in detail.

From first hand accounts, it appears that Galvez is attempting to get Snake to fight for him and/or Costa Rica against the CIA (whether it actually is the CIA yet is questionable at most). Miller, your comrade, seems to like the offer itself, but Snake is far more shaky on the matter. It appears at this point, to better convince Snake, Galvez introduces Paz who appears traumatized from the war. At this point it appears Paz is making the most impact through the trailer, though we are unaware what her role directly is. Costa Rica now must rely on the group Militaires Sans Frontières, the mercenary army that will eventually give rise to Outer Heaven. This will finally fill a large gap within the story, and should make many fans excited.

Going through the characters one already strikes my interest and seemed to resemble an old favorite. Specifically Huey appears to look a lot like Otacon, but not only that, it sounds as if the same Japanese voice actor makes a small few speeches of dialogue within the trailer itself. I could be kidding myself, though checking on Wikipedia Hideyuki Tanaka is supplying the voice for the character. I’m positive due to the timeline that it isn’t Otacon with a codename, but I’ll jump on the bandwagon and say outright I believe it to be his father.

This would be increasingly interesting considering we’re already aware of Otacon’s mother and sister, but not his father. In previous games it was known that Otacon’s grandfather was involved in the Manhattan Project while his father was born on the day of the Hiroshima Bombing. Peace Walker takes place in 1974, the Hiroshima Bombings occurred 1945. If my theory is correct, then Huey would be twenty-nine which doesn’t look all that wrong.

As of yet there is little else I wish to really examine since the game will be out in the coming year if all goes to plan. It looks quite far along, so hopefully I can be patient until then. Though I am at a cross as to why there is so little word on Metal Gear Solid: Rising. I’m unaware if they are attempting to avoid overshadowing the PSP game, or if they just don’t have enough done with the game to really show it anywhere. There is still so few details on Rising that I’m still sitting on the fence on whether or not I wish to play it. I suppose Kojima will reveal his hand when he is ready. Tricky bastard.