Characters of the Metal Gear series
This is a list of recurring characters appearing in the Metal Gear series.
Major recurring characters
Gray Fox
| Japanese voice actor | English voice actor |
|---|---|
| Kaneto Shiozawa (MGS) Jun Fukuyama (MGS: Portable Ops) |
Greg Eagles (MGS) Rob Paulsen (MGS: Twin Snakes) Larc Spies (MGS: Portable Ops) |
Gray Fox (Frank Jaeger or Null) is a FOXHOUND agent and a friend of Solid Snake, introduced in Metal Gear.
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 superweapon, 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 modeled after the likeness of actor Tom Berenger. In later rereleases 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 Katana), 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 instead later gives his life to help Solid Snake destroy Metal Gear REX.
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.
Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops, set in 1970, expands on Gray Fox's past (integrating elements of the Cyborg Ninja into it), featuring a teenaged Frank Jaeger as a masked machete-wielding member of the FOX unit codenamed 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 center, 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.
Other characters besides Gray Fox have donned the Cyborg Ninja 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". 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.[1] 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."[2]
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, 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 Meryl 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.[3] 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.[4]
In Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater, he does not appear physically. Rather, he has a small speaking role. When Snake or a key character dies, the game is over and he will say things like "Snake! You've created a time paradox! The future must not be changed! You must know the future!".
In Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops, a young Roy Campbell appears as one of Naked Snake's 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. The woman may be Matt's future wife and the mother of Meryl.
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.
There are a trio of non-canonical spinoffs 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 pair of very brief cameos in Metal Gear Solid 3: once, 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), and once 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 observing a fight involving the Nintendo characters Mario, Link, and Kirby, from within a cardboard box.
Otacon
| Japanese voice actor | English voice actor |
|---|---|
| Hideyuki Tanaka | Christopher Randolph |
Dr. Hal Emmerich, nicknamed Otacon, is an American weapons designer and computer hacker 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 the FOXHOUND team 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 crushed 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 being 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 form Philanthropy, an anti-proliferation organization. Otacon supports Snake via the radio 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.[5]
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.
Liquid Snake
| Japanese voice actor | English voice actor |
|---|---|
| Banjo Ginga | Cam Clarke |
Liquid Snake (commonly referred to as Liquid) is Solid Snake's Doppelgänger and archnemesis, and also the field commander of FOXHOUND and the Genome Soldiers. Along with Snake and Solidus, he is one of the three "brothers" genetically engineered from cell samples taken from Big Boss in the Les Enfants Terribles project, and believes himself to be inferior to Solid Snake, as the recipient of all of Big Boss's "flawed" recessive genes, despite being the superior of the two brothers. Because he believes he has Big Boss's "flawed" genes, he holds a strong resentment towards Solid Snake, who supposedly has inherited the better genetics, and wishes to defeat him in combat to reclaim his "birthright".
In Metal Gear Solid Liquid serves as the main antagonist against Solid Snake. In the game Liquid poses as Snake's former survival coach Master Miller and tricks Snake into activating the new version of Metal Gear, REX. After this the entire 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 in a car chase before Liquid is killed by the FOXDIE virus. Following his appearance in Metal Gear Solid Liquid was named the "Greatest Villain of TIME" (PlayStation only) by IGN.[6]
In Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty, Liquid possesses his former ally Revolver Ocelot, via an arm transplant. In the game Liquid is only shown to take control of Ocelot when Snake is in close proximity, first in the hull of the Marine vessel and later on the top of Arsenal Gear, where Liquid then steals a Metal Gear RAY 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 will, the two becoming a new entity known as Liquid Ocelot. Liquid once again amasses his own new Outer Heaven to fight against the Patriots and establishes a new base of operations in the Middle East.
Meryl Silverburgh
| Japanese voice actor | English voice actor |
|---|---|
| Kyoko Terase | Debi Mae West |
In Metal Gear Solid, Meryl is a rookie soldier and the niece of Snake's commander, Roy Campbell, who gets assigned to Shadow Moses. She refuses to join the rebellion led by Liquid Snake and is imprisoned. Solid 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 torture, she dies later in the game, however, it is revealed that she is actually Campbell's daughter (conceived from an affair between Roy and his sister-in-law). If Snake resists, she escapes Shadow Moses with Snake, though she was subjected to torture and "things even worse than that". The ending where Meryl survives is canonical, as evident in Nastasha Romanenko's autobiography titled In the Darkness of Shadow Moses: The Unofficial Truth and preview trailers of Metal Gear Solid 4.
She later appears in both volumes of the Metal Gear Solid Drama CD series and 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 the E3 2006 trailer for Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots, as the leader of a newly-reinstated FOXHOUND unit.[7]
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 is 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.
Mei Ling
| Japanese voice actor | English voice actor |
|---|---|
| Houko Kuwashima | Kim Mai Guest |
Mei Ling 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 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 Center. 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 spinoffs of the series. She is a focal character in the Japanese only radio drama version of Metal Gear Solid, where she infiltrates the Cuba-like Neo-Communist nation of San Chago with Snake in order to procure evidence of Chemical Weapons production in second scenario and goes along with Snake and Meryl to rescue Campbell in the third. 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.
Master Miller
| Japanese voice actor | English voice actor |
|---|---|
| Banjo Ginga | Cam Clarke |
McDonell Benedict Miller, better known as Master Miller, is a minor character that has appeared in two different Metal Gear games.
Miller made his first appearance in Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake as 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.
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 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.
Miller's frequency number (141.80) in Metal Gear Solid has been reused twice in the sequels. In Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty, it is the frequency number used by Iroquois Pliskin, who ironically enough is revealed to be a disguised Solid Snake. In Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater, it is the frequency number used by The Boss, who reveals herself to be working with GRU Colonel Volgin, It is interesting to note that these three characters are all mentors to the main character of the games they appear in (Master Miller instructed Solid Snake; "Iroquois Pliskin" instructed Raiden; The Boss instructed Naked Snake); also, these three characters are more than meets the eye ("Master Miller" was in fact Liquid Snake, Iroquois Pliskin was in fact Solid Snake, and The Boss turned out to be a traitor and betraying Naked Snake, although it was all under orders from the Pentagon). The character Weasel from the uncanonical Metal Gear: Ghost Babel also used this frequency number and also guided Snake with survival tips, weapon info and the like. He is a would-be traitor but changes his mind and stays loyal to Snake and his allies.
Johnny Sasaki
| Japanese voice actor | English voice actor |
|---|---|
| Naoki Imamura | Dean Scofield (Johnny Sasaki), Michael Gough (Johnny's grandfather) |
Johnny Sasaki (ジョニー佐々木) 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 diarrhetic, hence his name "Johnny", referring to the toilet, who ends up in embarrassing situations.
He first appears as an enemy guard in Metal Gear Solid, whose uniform is stolen by Meryl. 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 and originally had a minor role in the story of which he would end up being killed off.[4]
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"). He was named after Hideki Sasaki, the character model designer of the Metal Gear Solid series. Johnny Sasaki will return in Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots[citation needed].
The Patriots
The Patriots (愛国者達, Aikokusha-tachi), also known as the La-li-lu-le-lo and The Wisemen's Committee are a secret group, revealed in Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty, that control the United States of America. They 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.
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. Liquid Snake is seen by some fans of the series to be the main antagonist, while the Patriots' role remains that of observers and overseers. Even though they had a hand in the events of most of the games in the series, they were not responsible for Operation Snake Eater or the events on Shadow Moses, even though they did play a part in each incident. In the trailer presented at E3 2006, an aged Colonel Roy Campbell says to Snake that The Patriots are involved in the uprising of Liquid Ocelot.
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.
References
- ^ Kasler: Gray Fox... Real name, Frank Jaeger. Former member of FOXHOUND. He was the last man to hold the title of Fox in the Big Boss era. Decorated fives times...
Snake: Yeah, I know all about how good he is... Better than anyone else. I fought with him. He's a cold-blooded hunter. He never let's his prey escape. Everybody in the unit respected him. Looked up to him.
Kasler: That may be, Snake... but do you know about his past? It might help you out... 10 years ago, we in the mercenary trade knew him as Hunter. That's what Jaeger means in German. Back then, he was involved with some woman from the Eastern bloc. He tried to get her to come over the fence, but it fell through. Apparently the West wasn't interested in taking her. That's when Frank started to hate the politics.
Snake: What was the woman's name?
Kasler: She was an Olympic skater. Name was Gustava Heffner... Real fine woman. Movie-star type.
Snake: G... Gustava...Heffner?!
Kasler: Snake! If you mange to beat Fox.. I'll tell everyone that Solid Snake is the greatest mercenary in the world....Over and out. (Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake) - ^ "MPO17 (17th cutscene in Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops)".
- ^ Otacon: "The Colonel probably isn't GW per se. GW was most likely stimulating cortical activity in the dormant part of your brain through signal manipulation of your own nanomachines. The Colonel is in part your own creation, cobbled together from expectations and experience..." (Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty)
- ^ a b Hideo Kojima. "MGS2 translated original game plan" (PDF). Retrieved November 28.
{{cite web}}: Check date values in:|accessdate=(help); Unknown parameter|accessyear=ignored (|access-date=suggested) (help) - ^ Colin Williamson (12 December 2000). "Yoji Shinkawa interview". Retrieved 1 January.
{{cite web}}: Check date values in:|accessdate=(help); Unknown parameter|accessyear=ignored (|access-date=suggested) (help) - ^ "IGN 25 Greatest List". Retrieved 23 November.
{{cite web}}: Check date values in:|accessdate=(help); Unknown parameter|accessyear=ignored (|access-date=suggested) (help) - ^ Show Maybe, promotional pamphlet distributed by Kojima Productions during E3.
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