LGC07: Kojima-san introduces Metal Gear Solid 4's boss characters

Hideo Kojima whipped out his Genius-to-English dictionary again today in order to address the press at the Leipzig Games Conference personally, rather than through a translator. Showing off a new video, he introduced us to Metal Gear Solid 4's boss characters. After a short video showing all the bosses from past Metal Gear Solid games, Kojima asked us "but how can you improve on these? Let me show you."

What followed was a spine-tingling in-game video showcasing each of the new bosses for the upcoming title. They come in the form of beautiful women transformed by a brutal war into sick, metallic beasts. A tentacle-wielding creature with a cruel laugh. A giant silver wolf with an echoing howl. A creature with wings and a jetpack, constantly screaming "rage!" and a floating puppeteer, complete with attached marionettes. All of them twisted, mechanical beasts.

Keeping with the "Beauty and the Beast" theme, Kojima modeled these boss characters and their movements off of "real world beauties", one of whom, Yumi Kikuchi, stepped up on stage to declare how happy she is to be in the game -- and how much she loves Leipzig, naturally.

Our anticipation for this game is at its highest yet. Q1 2008 can't come quick enough.

Reader Comments (70)

People are stupid. He has already hinted at bosses like these in the past. These are just the next-generation of suit Solidus wore in MGS2.

It is just an evolution of technology like the little Metal Gear.

What you say may be true, but my main problem is is that the new bosses look so generic. I mean one of the awesome things about the MGS series was that it had bosses that can only be done in an MGS game. I mean seriously, fighting a girl with tentacles....wow that's so exciting.

Does anyone else think that its kinda weird to just reveal the major bosses of the entire game this far ahead of the actual game launch?

I dunno it just sorta ruins it for me I guess.

Personally these bosses look like they were ripped from Neon Genesis Evangelion or something!

As much as I like MGS, I can not wrap my head around these enemies. I understand the stretch in reality in the Metal Gear series. But this seems like way too much; Kojima has jumped from scientifically strange to awkward.

MGS: Nothing truly bothered me with this game. Stealth camouflage was fine. The ninja was fully explained. Psycho Mantis was a stretch.

MGS2: Wow. First, I never liked that Liquid came back in Ocelot's arm. Plain stupid if you ask me. Vamp was like Mantis, a stretch, but I thought he would be explained by now.

MGS3: Having been through two games, I didn't find the Sorrow to be that strange (and even if it explained Liquid-Ocelot, I still didn't like it). This is the game, though, were I believed Kojima stopped being creative with his bosses. They really had no interesting back story, and the conversations before and after a boss's death went missing.

Dude, are you kidding me?! The boss fights in Snake Eater are easily as interesting as any of the other MGS games, if not moreso. Come on, that flaming Cosmonaut...The Rage or whatever? A 45 minute sniper duel with The End?! The shootout with Ocelot? The Shagohod/Jeep chase?!

Man, I think it's time to turn in your avatar, and me to pop MGS3 back in my Playstation...

No! Not my avatar! Please forgive me for insulting the great Kojima. It was just my shock from seeing the MGS4 bosses.

Next gen is brown!

Or gray.

I mean ... what the hell color is that anyway?

"I've played all three games and I'm bashing this game. It doesn't look interesting at all".-Ska Oreo

really it doesnt look interesting at all? wow what did u think of the previous 3 games? did that not satisfy, where they not at least an enjoyable gaming experience, where they not games well thought out and worthy of purchase. what makes u think kojima will release something that aint gonna satisfy. what the hell do you want to get satisfied, the same shit thats been released over and over again. well no my friend, metal gear always tries to suprise and differentiate with new gameplay methods or modes or characters, i highly doubt this wont be a killer app. too bad u gonna be missing out on the ride...

kojima support the Wii!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!please:P

I did enjoy the 3 MGS games. They were really good. My favorite is MGS3. But the trailers for MGS4 doesn't do anything for me. It doesn't make me wish I had a ps3 and it doesn't make me envious that ps3 users are getting to play this. I have no problem with you drooling over everything Kojima makes, but I think he overdid it this time. The game just doesn't look appealing to me.

That was awesome. Love the style.....and that's only 4 bosses out of the entire game.

To be a fan of Metal Gear, you've got to learn to take the Totally Awesome with the Metal Gear Bullshit. (Metal Gear Bullshit is a technical term).

The first "War has changed" trailer was a perfect example of the Totally Awesome. Or at least the first part of it was. It had all the style and substance of the best war movies. It kind of took a turn into Metal Gear Bullshit territory with the mooing metal gears and the 10 minute fight with Raiden.

Everything since then has pretty much been all bullshit, with a few rays of sunshine (e.g. the Colonel's voiceover in this trailer). What I do is cling to those bright spots and ride them like a surfboard over the waves of way-too-drawn-out ninja fights, philosophical technobabble (nanomachines whatnow?), and ridiculous over-the-top villainesses. And I always remember that nothing we've seen is half as stupid as the stuff in MGS2.

By the way, why the hell isn't Naomi British anymore?

I think there is an IQ requirement for this game.

Either that or every box comes with a bag of hash.

Comment of the Day!!!

I suspect that we're only seeing a fraction of the final bosses at this stage. I've got a thoroughly scientific table of boss fights on my blog to prove it (http://roguelikedeveloper.blogspot.com/2007/08/speculative-table-of-mgs-bosses.html).

I can definitely tell you that Hideo is going to be doing stuff with surround sound in these boss fights. You can't name them Screaming/Laughing/Crying/Raging without considering the aural aspect in the boss fights.

Hunch will be Crying Wolf will be an arena fight like Vulcan Raven and Fatman, but where you have to track Crying Wolf by its cries - probably because it moves too fast to follow by sight.

I like them. But where do I get a decent rez wallpaper of the 4 boss render. Without the "beauty and the beast unit" lines all over the pic. Anyone find this yet? Like the bigger version of the pic for this post.

Just remembered something... Doc Oct called. He wants his suit back.

How much you wanna bet the whole "Octopus, Wolf, Mantis, Raven" connection is going to turn out that the bosses are cloned offspring from the original MGS bosses....Think about it: All girls (I'm sure there will be some genetic explaination, like the lack of a Y chromosome), and the same "surnames".

It is true that the MGS series has a lot of video sequences and it has been ripped on in the past for being more movie than game, etc. But really, what is wrong with that?
I would welcome a game that openly presented itself as half game/half movie (or an even more drastic split than that), especially if it were something like MGS. I like movies; I like games; and unlike bananas and ketchup, they go just fine together. And, frankly, the gameplay of MGS is always fun to play around with, but the thing that keeps people moving to the next area is plot and character advancement (well, maybe that and the chance to pick up a new item or weapon) that your allies as well as your enemies are not just helping hands or bosses to fight; they are interesting and relatively nuanced characters.

Moreover, MGS boss fights are always awesome. They are some of the best bosses around IMO...or maybe I'm just settling into MGS1 nostalgia.

Anybody else thinks Kojima sounds like Gonzo at the beginning? =P

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LGC07: Kojima-san introduces Metal Gear Solid 4's boss characters

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