News: Metal Gear Solid Master Collection Vol. 2 Announced

[Helikaon]

Heh, that is pretty damning. I've always been part of the "it's not canon" crowd, but I've enjoyed many healthy debates over the years about it. Seeing it in black and white feels final. As far as KONAMI are concerned, it's not canonical.

Does that take anything away from the game? Hell no, it's a damn fine game, one of the best on the system and I hope to see it get a chance to shine in a hypothetical Vol 3. Knights of the Old Republic isn't (and never was) canonical to Star Wars, either, didn't stop that game and its story being the best thing since sliced bread.

[starschwar]

I'm pretty sure the KOTOR games and SWTOR were indeed considered canon before being demoted to "Legends" after Disney decanonized most non-movie media after their takeover. And parts are back - Revan is canon to some extent. But that is another story, for another time, in another galaxy.

I'm not a big fan of Portable Ops, but with good controls and a stable frame rate, I could come around on it. Calling to the Night is one of the best themes in the series, I'll say that much!

[Helikaon]

It's... complicated.

Pre-Disney LucasFilm used a canon tier system. KOTOR was only ever canon to other EU stuff, and only then if the authors cared to reference it, such as Drew Karpyshyn (who was the lead writer of KOTOR, he mentioned it A LOT in his Darth Bane books).

It (and other EU works, such as The Thrawn Trilogy) never had any relevancy to the top tier of canon, G-Canon, because George Lucas didn't work on it. Only the (at the time) 7 movies (OT + PT + animated Clone Wars movie), and The Clone Wars, were truly canon in Star Wars.

Ironically, Disney!LucasFilm made it a simpler situation. It's not canon, but that won't stop them cherry-picking elements of it to become canon. For example, the broad strokes of the Mandalorian Wars are canon, because the Armourer mentions them to Din Djarin in dialogue.

[starschwar]

It also helps that all of the Dave Filoni animated stuff was retained, but I really don't want to derail this thread with too much Star Wars stuff.


Portable Ops is such an odd entry. I played through it once - struggled really - and never got far on attempts to replay it before giving up. No matter how I set up the controls, despite unlocking the frame rate to 60 via emulation, I just couldn't find any way to ever interact with the gameplay that felt natural. It's weird that there's voice acting for some parts but not others. I think stuff was cut for disc space / battery consumption issues? At least one text-only line was voiced in one of the trailers. If there's more, it'd be really cool if they could reinstate such audio for a remaster. Of course, the "Showtime" version of the MGS theme that was used in the trailers would be nice to have back, but at this point we're lucky they didn't retroactively remove it from older games let alone Delta.

[Dirty Duck]

I think canon is something that is best kept loose and I think Kojima realises that. On MGS FaceBook groups one of the most prevalent feelings I see to this day is disregarding MGSV because of its flexible approach towards previously established canon, but the fact of the matter is all MGS games, not just Portable Ops, have been treated with the same "canon until contradicted" that starschwar speaks about. Snake wasn't a clone until MGS1. Liquid Ocelot was supernatural until MGS4. Everything sticks until something else is thought up.

[Wayno]

Big Boss isn't a whiny husk of a man in MGS:POPS so of course it's not canon.