Characters of the Metal Gear series

This is a list of recurring characters appearing in the Metal Gear series.

Playable characters

• Solid Snake (Old Snake)
• Big Boss (Naked Snake)
• Raiden
• Gray Fox

Gray Fox

Japanese voice actor	English voice actor
Kaneto Shiozawa (MGS) Jun Fukuyama (MGS: Portable Ops, MGS4)	Greg Eagles (MGS) Rob Paulsen (MGS: Twin Snakes) Larc Spies (MGS: Portable Ops)

Gray Fox (グレイ・フォックス, Gurei Fokkusu, sometimes spelled "Grey Fox"), also known as Null (ヌル, Nuru, which means Zero in German) and whose real name is Frank Jaeger (フランク・イェーガー, Furanku Iēgā, also transliterated "Frank Yeager"), is a FOXHOUND agent and a friend of Solid Snake, introduced in Metal Gear.

Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops, set in 1970, expands on Gray Fox's past (integrating elements of the Cyborg Ninja into it), featuring a teenage Frank Jaeger as a masked machete-wielding member of the FOX unit code-named Null. Four years prior to the events of the game, Big Boss became acquainted with him as a nameless child soldier in a guerilla group in Mozambique. Big Boss took the young child and left him in a rehab centre, in which he was then taken by the CIA and used as a test subject for the Perfect Soldier project. He fights Big Boss twice during the game before joining him once he is beaten.

In Metal Gear, he disappears after sending a cryptic message about a "METAL GEAR," and Solid Snake, the protagonist, must save him and learn from him about the enemy super-weapon, codenamed "Metal Gear".

In the sequel, Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake, Gray Fox once again disappears, but turns out to have defected to the side of the antagonist, Big Boss. However, Gray Fox secretly assists Snake by leaving him anonymous tips over his radio. Solid Snake confronts and seemingly kills Gray Fox in a final fistfight to the death in a minefield. In the original MSX2 version, his character design was modelled after the likeness of actor Tom Berenger. In later re-releases of the game, Gray Fox was redesigned to be more in-line with Yoji Shinkawa's depiction of Fox in later games.

In Metal Gear Solid, a Cyborg Ninja in a powered exoskeleton and armed with a high-frequency blade (a high-tech Chokuto, which is a kind of ninja sword), confronts Solid Snake. Help comes from a mysterious ally, code-named "Deepthroat," giving Snake cryptic advice via CODEC. They both turn out to be Gray Fox, who challenges Snake to a final duel. This battle isn't to the death, however; Cyborg Ninja is later killed by Liquid Snake, piloting Metal Gear REX, after Fox destroys the vehicle's radome.

Just as Metal Gear Solid eclipsed its predecessors in popularity, the Cyborg Ninja turned out to be much more of a fan favorite than Gray Fox in his original form. The Cyborg Ninja has appeared in a number of games after Metal Gear Solid, either as crossover appearances in other games, or in the form of other mysterious characters in later Metal Gear games.

Other characters besides Gray Fox have donned a powered exoskeleton. In Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty, Olga Gurlukovich assumes the Cyborg Ninja identity, wearing a powered suit similar to Fox's exoskeleton. Her suit isn't the only reference to Gray Fox; she also offers cryptic advice via the CODEC, at first using the name "Deepthroat", but then changing it to "Mr. X". Revolver Ocelot had arranged for the appearance of "Gray Fox" as part of the S3 plan to recreate the events of Shadow Moses. Recently, the E3 2006 trailer of Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots has shown Raiden (wearing a Cyborg Ninja exoskeleton) performing acrobatic moves, which are very similar to Gray Fox's.

The Cyborg Ninja suit is a hidden option in two of the "VR Mission" modes included with other Metal Gear games. In Metal Gear Solid: VR Missions (which was included in Metal Gear Solid: Integral, released only in Japan, Metal Gear Solid: Special Missions which was released as an add-on pack to the original Metal Gear Solid for PlayStation and in the Windows version of Metal Gear Solid), the Cyborg Ninja appears in three unlockable missions, and in Metal Gear Solid 2: Substance, one of Raiden's unlockable outfits is the Cyborg Ninja exoskeleton. Cyborg Ninja also appears in the Game Boy Advance game Konami Krazy Racers, as one of several playable Konami characters.

Fox's last name, Jaeger, is German for "Hunter". This fact has been played upon in several of the games. In Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake, Natasha Marcova (Gustava Heffner in later versions) tells Snake that she once fell in love with a man named Frank Hunter; during the later fight with Fox, Snake's mercenary expert Kasler tells Snake that Fox's real name is Frank Jaeger, and that mercenaries knew him as the legendary Hunter because of his last name. In Metal Gear Solid, Fox's adopted sister is Naomi Hunter, and it is mentioned that her time at FOXHOUND was spent, like a hunter, lying in wait for Snake as her "prey" to appear so that she could kill him. Finally, Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops revealed the origin of this name: during his years in Mozambique, Gray Fox was known for his duplicitous "hunting": by acting as a frank boy, he would trick enemies into letting their guard down, letting him hunt them. This earned him the nickname "The Frank Hunter" by his enemies. Because the boy spoke some German, they used the German word for Hunter, Jäger (Jaeger in English spelling), giving him the name "Frank Jaeger."

Gray Fox, as Cyborg Ninja, will appear in Super Smash Bros. Brawl as an Assist Trophy which attacks the summoner`s enemies and reflects their projectiles.

Roy Campbell

Japanese voice actor	English voice actor
Takeshi Aono (old) Toshio Furukawa (young)	Paul Eiding (old) David Agranov (young) Michael McColl (Ape Escape 3)

Col. Roy Campbell (ロイ・キャンベル大佐, Roi Kyanberu Taisa, transliterated "Roy Kyanbel" in the MSX2 version of Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake), Solid Snake's commanding officer and close friend, is introduced in Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake and returns to provide his support in Metal Gear Solid.

In Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake, Col. Campbell is Solid Snake's new commanding officer. Under his supervision, Snake defeats the forces of Zanzibar Land and retrieves the OILIX formula. Colonel Campbell's speaking portrait in the MSX version is modeled after Richard Crenna.

In Metal Gear Solid, he comes out of retirement to command Solid Snake once again. Campbell has more of a personal stake in this mission, as his niece, Meryl Silverburgh, is held captive by the revolutionary force Snake is battling. While Campbell is initially forced to keep a number of secrets from Snake, he gradually reveals more and more of them as the story continues, until, finally, Campbell is briefly arrested. However, he is exonerated after Solid Snake defeats Liquid Snake.

In Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty, a man who appears to be Col. Campbell (but simply referred as "The Colonel" in dialogue) serves as Raiden's commanding officer, supporting him via radio. When a computer virus starts taking effect on Arsenal Gear, however, the Colonel begins acting erratically, revealing its true nature: "the Colonel" is, in fact, not an actual person, but an elaborate A.I. constructed by GW, a supercomputer, and based on Raiden's perceptions and expectations of the real Col. Campbell. The AI Colonel was initially going to begin giving Raiden false information similar to what Big Boss did to Solid Snake in the original Metal Gear.

In Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops, a young Roy Campbell appears as one of Naked Snake's (Big Boss) comrades in the game. When the story begins, Naked Snake finds himself imprisoned by the FOX unit in South America with Roy in the cell next to him. Roy is introduced as a captured Green Beret whose unit was wiped out in an ambush by FOX members. The two formulate an escape plan and realize that in order to stop the FOX unit's revolt, they must form their own team of specialists, leading to the foundation of FOXHOUND. A radio conversation triggered by calling Roy many times when the player is not on a mission and taking control of another character besides Snake reveals that Roy was once in the Marine Corps and that Roy and his younger brother (Matt) were in love with the same woman. Roy was dumped by the woman and Roy ended up letting his brother date her before joining the Green Berets.

An aged Campbell also appeared in a trailer for Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots. In the scene, he visits Solid Snake in a cemetery via helicopter and explains his next mission objective to Snake - eliminate Liquid. However, he does state that the mission comes from neither Washington nor the United Nations, but from himself, as a hired hit.

There are a trio of non-canonical spin-offs to Metal Gear Solid that feature Campbell prominently. The radio drama version of Metal Gear Solid is a continuation of the story of Metal Gear Solid and as such features Campbell. Similarly, "Confidential Legacy", one of the "Snake Tales" short stories included in Metal Gear Solid 2: Substance, fills in a bit more detail on the relationship between Meryl, Roy and Roy's brother, Matt. Campbell also reprises his role as Snake's reluctant commanding officer in Metal Gear: Ghost Babel for the Game Boy Color, although this story isn't a sequel to the original Metal Gear Solid, but instead a side-story.

Campbell makes a few very brief cameos in Metal Gear Solid 3: at the Game Over screen, where he laments the temporal paradox caused by the failure of Naked Snake (only when Snake makes a conflict that doesn't lead up events to all the other Metal Gear titles, such as killing Ocelot or shooting a C3 bomb). Also, he appears in the Snake vs. Monkey minigame, where he commands Solid Snake. He plays a role similar to the latter in Ape Escape 3, where Campbell commands Pipo Snake in the "Mesal Gear Solid: Snake Escape" [sic] minigame.

At the end of the first trailer for Super Smash Bros. Brawl, Col. Campbell initiates a Codec conversation with Solid Snake to inform him that he has been invited to the game, not knowing that Snake is in fact already doing recon on a fight involving the Nintendo characters Mario, Link, and Kirby, from within a cardboard box. It has also been revealed that Campbell will provide Snake with information about his foes just like Otacon and Mei Ling will do.

Otacon

Japanese voice actor	English voice actor
Hideyuki Tanaka	Christopher Randolph

Dr. Hal Emmerich (ハル・エメリッヒ博士, Haru Emerihhi Hakase), nicknamed Otacon (オタコン, Otakon), is an American weapons designer, computer hacker, and otaku who functions as a Q-like sidekick to Solid Snake, usually giving him support via codec.

Otacon is first introduced in Metal Gear Solid as the designer of Metal Gear REX, and is being held captive at the outset on Shadow Moses Island. After Snake rescues him, he joins Snake's support crew and guides Snake through the process of disarming and destroying Metal Gear. He also becomes infatuated with FOXHOUND member Sniper Wolf while in captivity and is devastated emotionally when she is later killed in battle by Solid Snake. During the cutscene where Snake reveals Metal Gear's true purpose, Otacon says nuclear weapons must be written into his genes. Genetics are a major theme of Metal Gear Solid. He then reveals that his grandfather worked on the Manhattan Project and his father was born on August 6 1945, the day Hiroshima was bombed.

In Metal Gear Solid 2, Otacon and Solid Snake work for Philanthropy, an anti-proliferation organization. Otacon supports Snake via the codec as he infiltrates a converted tanker to photograph Metal Gear RAY, and later, supports Snake and Raiden as they infiltrate the Big Shell in a bid to rescue his step sister, Emma, while attempting to destroy Arsenal Gear. Later on in the game, Emma is killed by Vamp. Lead character designer Yoji Shinkawa stated in an interview that Otacon is designed to look somewhat "tougher" than he did in Metal Gear Solid.

Though Otacon himself does not appear in Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater (the game being set in the 1960s), his grandfather (also a scientist) is mentioned in conversation between Naked Snake and Sigint and also appears in a photograph alongside Russian weapons designer Aleksandr Leonovitch Granin.

Otacon also appears in Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots trailers, still supporting Solid Snake as a member of Philanthropy. In early trailers, he's remote controlling a robot reminiscent of the Metal Gear Mk. II from an earlier Hideo Kojima-directed game, Snatcher.

In Super Smash Bros. Brawl, Otacon will provide information for Snake via codec in the Shadow Moses Island level.

Liquid Snake

Japanese voice actor	English voice actor
Banjo Ginga	Cam Clarke

Liquid Snake (リキッド・スネーク, Rikiddo Sunēku, commonly referred to as Liquid) is Solid Snake's Doppelgänger and archnemesis, and also the field commander of FOXHOUND and the Genome Soldiers. Alongside Solid and Solidus, he is one of the three "brothers" genetically engineered from cell samples taken from Big Boss in the Les Enfants Terribles project. Liquid believes himself to be inferior to Solid, as he is under the impression that he is the recipient of Big Boss's "flawed" recessive genes, despite actually being superior to Solid Snake. Because of this belief, he harbors strong resentment towards Solid Snake, who has supposedly inherited Big Boss's dominant genes, and wishes to defeat him in combat to reclaim his "birthright." In the briefing featured in Metal Gear Solid, Colonel Campbell states that Solid and Liquid are exact duplicates of one another, with the only difference being skin tone. In Metal Gear Solid Liquid serves as the game's primary antagonist. He initially poses as Snake's former survival instructor, Master Miller, and, using an elaborate plot, tricks Snake into activating Metal Gear REX. After doing this, the final act of the game involves Snake and Liquid fighting, first with Liquid piloting Metal Gear, secondly in a bare handed fist fight and, finally, a car chase before Liquid is eventually killed by the FOXDIE virus. Following his appearance in Metal Gear Solid Liquid was named the "Greatest Villain of all TIME" (PlayStation only) by IGN.

In Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty, Liquid possesses his former ally Revolver Ocelot, via an arm transplant. In the game's cutscenes, Liquid is shown to take control of Ocelot when Snake is in close proximity, first inside the cargo hold of the disguised Marine shipping freighter, second inside Shell 1's core when Raiden is with Ames and listening in on the conversation between Ocelot and Solidus, and once again later atop Arsenal Gear, where Liquid then steals the Metal Gear RAY prototype and disappears off to defeat the Patriots.

In Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots, Liquid Snake appears to have taken complete control of Revolver Ocelot's mind and body; the two becoming a new entity known as Liquid Ocelot (リキッド・オセロット, Rikiddo Oserotto). Liquid once again attempts to resurrect Outer Heaven in his conflict with the Patriots, establishing a dummy corporation that runs the five largest PMCs that exist in the game. In the E3 2007 trailer, it was revealed that Liquid's goal is to seize control of SOP.

Revolver Ocelot

Japanese voice actor	English voice actor
Kōji Totani (as Revolver Ocelot) Banjō Ginga (as Liquid Ocelot) Takumi Yamazaki (as young Ocelot)	Patric Zimmerman (as Revolver Ocelot/Liquid Ocelot) Joshua Keaton (as young Ocelot)

Revolver Ocelot (リボルバー・オセロット, Riborubā Oserotto), also known as a Shalashaska (シャラシャーシカ, Sharashāshika, Шалашаска in Russian, a Russian slang word for prison) and whose real name is Adamska (アダムスカ, Adamusuka, Адамска), is a recurring antagonist in the Metal Gear series who was originally introduced in Metal Gear Solid as a gunslinger-themed member of FOXHOUND from the former Soviet Union, but evolved into an agent of an Illuminati-like group known as The Patriots in following games. He is normally clothed in a duster, spurs and gunbelts, the traditional garb of gunslingers in spaghetti westerns, and wields dual Colt Single Action Army in battle. His appearance is based on that of veteran Western film actor Lee Van Cleef.

In Metal Gear Solid, he is one of the FOXHOUND terrorists involved with the hostile takeover of Shadow Moses island. He is Liquid Snake's right-hand man and one of the bosses Solid Snake confronts in the game. He is the sole surviving FOXHOUND member by the end of the game, losing only his right arm during an encounter with the Cyborg Ninja. After the ending credits, it is revealed that Ocelot is in league with "Solidus", the third surviving offspring of the Les Enfants Terribles project and the current US President in the game.

He returns in Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty, where he gains a new surgically attached right arm that belonged to his former boss, Liquid Snake. This results in Revolver Ocelot developing a dormant personality in which Liquid's persona takes over Ocelot's mind during certain moments. Events in MGS3 reveal that Ocelot's father is the spirit medium The Sorrow, which could be the cause of this ability. This time he is under the employ of his old friend Sergei Gurlukovich during the introductory Tanker Chapter and later forms part of the terrorist group "Sons of Liberty" during the Plant Chapter with Solidus Snake. He ends up betraying both and reveals his allegiance with the Patriots. By the end of the game, Ocelot is taken over by Liquid and escapes once again, this time with the Metal Gear RAY prototype. According to an interview with Yoji Shinkawa, Ocelot was originally going to have a mechanical arm, but others thought that having Liquid's arm was a good concept.

Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater, a prequel to the entire Metal Gear series, features a young Ocelot (having not attained the "Revolver" moniker yet) as a GRU Major under the command of Colonel Volgin and leader of his own elite unit within Spetsnaz. He acquires his preferences for revolvers as a result of his rivalry with Naked Snake (the future Big Boss). He is revealed to be a triple agent at the end of the story through a phone call, working not only for the KGB under the codename ADAM (Adamska), but under the direct orders of the DCI as well. It is heavily implied that Ocelot is the biological son of The Boss and The Sorrow, a fact which Kojima later confirmed in interviews.

Ocelot plays a minor, but prominent role in the plot of Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops. He is in league with Gene and near the end of the game, he assassinates his former employer, the DCI. His true employer is referred only as "the man with the same codename as Null".

He is set to return in Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots, presumably as the game's antagonist. Liquid Snake and Revolver Ocelot have now merged into one entity known as Liquid Ocelot, and he no longer wears his full cowboy attire, now sporting eyeglasses instead. Kōji Totani, the original Japanese voice of Ocelot, died during the production of the game, and Banjo Ginga (the voice of Liquid Snake) will take over the full role. However, the English dub will use Patric Zimmerman's (Ocelot's established English voice actor) voice for Liquid Ocelot rather than Cam Clarke (Liquid Snake's voice).

Meryl Silverburgh

Japanese voice actor	English voice actor
Kyoko Terase	Debi Mae West

Meryl Silverburgh (メリル・シルバーバーグ, Meriru Shirubābāgu) is introduced as the niece of Solid Snake's commander, Roy Campbell, in Metal Gear Solid, where she serves as the rookie sidekick and love interest of Snake. During the events of the game, she gets assigned to Shadow Moses, but refuses to join the rebellion led by Liquid Snake and is imprisoned. Snake rescues her first from her cell and then from Psycho Mantis's mind control, but she is later shot and captured by Sniper Wolf. Her ultimate fate depends on the ending of the game; if Solid Snake gives in under Ocelot's torture, she dies later in the game. In this ending, Campbell reveals that Meryl is actually his daughter, conceived from an affair between Roy and his sister-in-law, his deceased brother's wife. If Snake resists, she escapes Shadow Moses with Snake, after being subjected to torture and "things even worse than that". The ending where Meryl lives is canonical, as evident in Nastasha Romanenko's autobiography titled In the Darkness of Shadow Moses: The Unofficial Truth, and Meryl's appearance in preview trailers of Metal Gear Solid 4.

She later appears in both volumes of the Japan-only Metal Gear Solid Drama CD audio drama and in one of the "Snake Tales" short stories included with Metal Gear Solid 2: Substance in which she replaces Olga as boss of the Tanker Stage of Sons of Liberty. She also appears in one of the VR missions of Substance, in which the player must protect a wounded Meryl from incoming enemy soldiers. She also appears in the E3 2006 and E3 2007 trailers for Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots, as the leader of a newly-reinstated FOXHOUND unit.

Meryl is based on a Policenauts character of the same name, who is also a former member of FOXHOUND. Further likening the connection between the two games, Meryl's partner in the game is named Dave, which happens to be Solid Snake's unspoken given name as revealed in the end of Metal Gear Solid. The orange vest Meryl wears in the end of Metal Gear Solid is also the same one as the one worn by Dave in Policenauts. In Metal Gear Solid 4, Meryl is also seen wearing a bullet-shaped earring similar to her Policenauts counterpart. In Metal Gear Solid 4, two of her soldiers, Jonathan and Ed, share their names with the protagonists of Policenauts.

Mei Ling

Japanese voice actor	English voice actor
Houko Kuwashima	Kim Mai Guest

Mei Ling (メイ・リン, Mei Rin) is the data analyst in charge of saving Solid Snake's (and by extension, the player's) mission data in Metal Gear Solid. She is the one who invented Snake's wireless communication equipment, the Codec, as well the Soliton Radar, which detects the positions and field of vision of nearby enemy soldiers. Every time Snake saves his data, Mei Ling provides him with advice through Chinese proverbs (as well as quotations from Western authors). In the game it is revealed that she loved fighter jets in movies she saw as a child and dreamed of becoming a jet pilot. However, because of her bad eyesight, she instead specialized in BDA (battle damage assessment). Unfortunately, there was no such thing as a pilot who only did BDAs, and by the time she found out about that, she was already an expert in her field. Snake shows surprise towards her after she reveals this prompting her to comment that he could tell she was wearing contacts over CODEC.

In Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty, Mei Ling becomes part of Philanthropy, an anti-Metal Gear organization. She assists Snake and Otacon from behind-the-scenes, attempting to steal equipment from the U.S. Army Soldier Systems Centre. If the player saves their game 13 times during the Tanker Chapter, Mei Ling will make a (voice-over only) cameo in which she corrects Otacon on one of his proverbs.

In addition to the first two MGS games, Mei Ling has also appeared in various spin-offs of the series. She is a focal character in the Japanese only Metal Gear Solid Drama CD, where she infiltrates the Cuba-like Neo-Communist nation of San Chago with Snake in order to procure evidence of Chemical Weapons production in the second half of Vol. 1 and goes along with Snake and Meryl to rescue Campbell in Vol. 2. She also appears in the Game Boy Color game, Metal Gear: Ghost Babel, her role in that game being identical to that of Metal Gear Solid. In Metal Gear Solid 2: Substance, Mei Ling "appears" (in narration only) in the Snake Tale "External Gazer", where she seems to be quite aggressive in personality, and reads tabloids.

Houko Kuwashima (the Japanese voice of Mei Ling) confirmed in an interview conducted in Hidechan! Radio, that her character will indeed return in Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots, although she has yet to be seen in any of the released preview materials so far. She makes a cameo appearance in Super Smash Bros. Brawl where she, like the Colonel and Otacon, gives information to Snake about the characters in the battle.

Master Miller

Japanese voice actor	English voice actor
Banjo Ginga	Cam Clarke

McDonell Benedict Miller (マクドネル・ベネディクト・ミラー, Makudoneru Benedikuto Mirā), better known as Master Miller (マスター・ミラー, Masutā Mirā), is a minor character that has appeared in two different Metal Gear games.

Miller made his first appearance as a FOXHOUND drill instructor in Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake, where he is one of Solid Snake's initial radio contacts along with Campbell and Kasler. In the game, he provides psychological advice and survival tips, as well as hints and ideas to overcome certain obstacles. Prior to the events of Metal Gear 2, Miller served the SAS, Green Berets and the U.S. Marine Corp as a drill instructor.

Miller reappears in Metal Gear Solid once again as one of Snake's radio support. His character design is a radical change from his looks in the MSX2 version of Metal Gear 2. Whereas the original Miller had a distinctively Asian appearance, the new Miller is white-looking, with blond hair and sunglasses (Miller's appearance was changed in the 2004 Mobile Phone version of Metal Gear 2 and the later PlayStation 2 version to reflect his new look in Metal Gear Solid). The character appearing in this game is not the real Miller at all, but a disguised Liquid Snake. He tricks Snake into activating Metal Gear REX, before Campbell reveals that the real Miller was murdered in his home three days prior to the Shadow Moses island takeover.

Johnny Sasaki

Japanese voice actor	English voice actor
Naoki Imamura (MGS, MGS2, MGS3) Jun Fukuyama (MGS4)	Dean Scofield (MGS, MGS2, MGS TTS) Beng Spies (MGS4) Michael Gough (Johnny's grandfather MGS3)

Johnny Sasaki (ジョニー佐々木, Jonī Sasaki) is a recurring joke character in the series who usually appears as an incompetent enemy soldier. He serves as a comic relief, as he is a coward and suffers from diarrhea, hence his name "Johnny", referring to the toilet, who ends up in embarrassing situations. He was named after Hideki Sasaki, the character model designer of the Metal Gear Solid series. His presence in an otherwise serious dramatic environment is consistent with Hideo Kojima's idiosyncratic, somewhat bizarre style of direction.

He first appears as an enemy guard in Metal Gear Solid, whose uniform is stolen by Meryl, and again later in the game whilst Snake is being held in between torture sessions with Revolver Ocelot. He returns for a pair of voice-over cameos in Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty. In an early version of the Metal Gear Solid 2 story, his full name is revealed to be Johnny Sasaki Slater (ジョニー・佐々木・スレイター, Jonī Sasaki Sureitā) and originally had a minor role in the story of which he would end up being killed off.

His grandfather (who suffers from constipation as opposed to diarrhea) makes an appearance in Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater, who is significantly more friendly (even to the point where he tells Naked Snake that he doesn't want any part in the Cold War and even shows a photograph of his family and gives Snake his "cigarettes", although he didn't know they were actually knockout gas "cigarettes").

Johnny appears once again in the Metal Gear Solid series, this time as a member of Meryl Silverburgh's FOXHOUND unit in Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots. He remains, apparently, comic relief; Johnny is seen in trailers as being incompetent much like in earlier episodes of the series. His nickname within the unit is Akiba, shortened from Akihabara, a popular electronics district in Tokyo made famous for it's otaku culture.

The Patriots

The Patriots (愛国者達, Aikokusha-tachi), also known as the La-li-lu-le-lo (ら･り･る･れ･ろ, Ra Ri Ru Re Ro) are a secret group, revealed in Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty, that control the United States of America. The group is led by inner circle consisting of twelve people known as the The Wisemen's Committee (賢人会議, Kenjin Kaigi).

The Patriots were, in fact, the American branch of a secretive group known as the The Philosophers, a group which was formed after the end of World War I when leaders of major Allied Powers, China and Bolshevik Russia entered a secret pact for unknown reasons; but broke away decades later as a result of turmoil following death of the group's original leaders in the 1930's, renaming themselves The Patriots.

The Patriots are dedicated to creating a new world order through acts of blackmail and manipulation on an untold scale, unknown to most of the world. Such an example is the Y2K bug invented by The Patriots in the run up to the new Millennium. This was a cover up to install monitoring software on every computer in America through electronic security patches.

The Patriots' first appearance in the series is in Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty, and their origins are further revealed in Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater. Through covert and deceptive agents, such as Revolver Ocelot, The Patriots control and manipulate the characters and events of the Metal Gear Solid series. The Patriots will play a large role in Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots, in which they are involved in the uprising of Liquid Ocelot. However, at the end of MGS2, Otacon reveals that The Patriots were killed about one hundred years ago (at the beginning of the 20th Century).

Other recurring characters

• Dr. Drago Pettrovich Madnar - appears in both Metal Gear and Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake.
• Kyle Schneider - appears in both Metal Gear and Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake.
• Many of the characters from Metal Gear Solid 3 reappear in its sequel Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops.