Konami: BIG BOSS…Maybe?

OK, so Konami’s newest countdown ended and this time, we have some concrete info. Namely, the image above. We all recognize that one-eyed and grizzled beret-wearing fellow: Big Boss.  Just going by first glance it seems safe to say the mystery game will indeed take place in the past as I had thought, with Big Boss as the possible protagonist again.  The last time we saw Big Boss was when he was codenamed Naked Snake in Metal Gear Solid 3:  Snake Eater.

Just judging by the rendering in the image, it seems safe to rule out the PSP as a possible platform, as well as the Xbox.  (Come on, Xbox wishes it could do that.)  The insignia on his hat, which reads “Soldiers without Borders” in French, is something we have never seen before.  Kojima himself says that this logo is something unique to this game.

After seeing a recent scan, it seems like there may be more than one protagonist though…  as many people have already guessed:

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That’s right: Raiden… and Big Boss…  together at last?  Sadly, this scan (which was sent to me by @geno and @elmikey) is pretty small so I can’t read most of it, but what I can read doesn’t help much.  As if that wasn’t enough, the interview portion of the page has characters redacted from it, which further serves to piss me off.

When asked directly if the person in the image is Big Boss, Kojima mentions that this person wears something differently (the item in question being redacted), possibly meaning he is not Big Boss.  Either that or he is just trying to throw us off.  However, by comparing this image of Big Boss to the one we know so well from FOXHOUND, we can see that his beret is either at an angle, or backwards.  What could this mean…

Considering the time gap between Big Boss as pictured here, and Raiden as pictured here, it brings someone’s identity into question.  How could they both look like this at the same time?  Unless this is the first MGS to feature time travel…  directed by J.J Abrams?

OK, last bit of cryptic info to sift through involved the new characters incorporated into the teaser site.  That would be the characters “P” and “R”.  These characters really threw me off, since the only Metal Gear title which has these letters in it is Portable Ops.  I have pretty much given up on trying to decipher these.

Well, at least we now know it is indeed a new Metal Gear title, now it’s just a matter of working out the details!  I will update this entry as more information becomes available… now, it’s time for bed.