It should come as no surprise by now that Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain, was an unfinished product. It’s shipment was not the same as something like Cyberpunk 2077 which was filled with bugs. That is a different sort of launch problem.
For all intents and purposes the shipped product did have an ending and ran well. There is just a lot of cut content Hideo Kojima wanted in the game. Whether he promised it or not, there is quite a bit on the cutting room floor. How the game shipped then can be tied back the falling out Kojima and Konami had ending with him leaving after Konami also canceled Silent Hills. That, of course, is a whole other story.
7 Episode 51
This is the biggest and most well-known example of cut content comes in the form of Episode 51. There was supposed to be a mission after the end wherein Snake goes after Eli once he takes the Metal Gear. If one got the special edition of this game they could see this content through sketches and alpha footage. It looked far into production but due to bad blood between Kojima and Konami, this game had to be shipped as it was. Most of this footage can be found online now like on YouTube.
6 Battle Gear
When it comes to this series, fans have always wanted to pilot a Metal Gear mech. They got their wish in Metal Gear Solid 4 after many years of waiting. Fans were also supposed to be able to pilot the smaller Metal Gear in this game, the Boss’ Battle Gear. There is proof found within cut dialogue in the game’s code with some audio prompts. It is not known if D-Walker then was the substitution for Battle Gear, or if both were planned from the beginning.
5 Bridging The Gap
This is more like a theory than something Kojima specifically promised. However, in an interview with Game Informer in 2014, they asked if Metal Gear Solid V would bridge the gap between Big Boss and Solid Snake. Kojima’s response was vague but it sort of hinted at the end fans got.
That is to say a tape recorder message indicated that Venom Snake is gearing up for the events of the first Metal Gear. Would this been have expanded if he had more time like for DLC or a new game? It’s hard to say, but it does seem like he planned for more.
4 Dogs Of War
In early concepts of art, D-Dog is shown as a Rhodesian Ridgeback and not a wolf. This was also shown with in-engine footage from the Fox Engine before the game was even announced. While the symbol of the Diamond Dogs is still that of a Rhodesian Ridgeback, the idea of D-Dog got switched out for the wolf pup for whatever reason.
There were also plans for guard dogs to actually be in the game as enemies. Assets can still be found in the game’s code. For example, there are voice samples of guards talking to dogs that aren’t there giving various commands. They were apparently even play tested although footage doesn’t exist. This would seem then that these guard dog enemies were cut late into production. For some extra trivia, there were guard dogs in Snake Eater as well as other games in the series so this would not have been the first.
3 D-Dog Costumes
D-Dog was going to have some costume changes in the game. There would have been one set up to look like Ocelot and one based on Miller. There is in-game text that reads as the following. “Now you can finally go into battle with Miller… or the next best thing.”
That readout also exists for the Ocelot costume as well. While this text is in the game it is unknown if these canceled costumes would make D-Dog behave differently. Would he get a revolver for Ocelot as one example? While that may sound crazy, this is Metal Gear after all.
2 Skull Face’s Gun
There is one other piece of gear found in the game’s code. Apparently players would have been able to obtain Skull Face’s gun. It exists in the game for him, which is a shotgun pistol. There is placeholder data for it in the game as an item. There is unfortunately no footage in the game showing how the gun would work for Snake. Based on this, one can assume then this idea didn’t make it far into development and was canceled.
1 Chapter 3: Peace
There is an unused title card in the game’s code which simply reads “Chapter 3: Peace.” This may have been tied into episode 51, but this was actually probably more of a mission based after that. Paz’s, the character that died in Ground Zeroes, name translates to Peace in Spanish. One can presume then that this chapter could have focused on her. Maybe her ghost would have haunted Snake in some form or perhaps it would have been a flashback of some sort. Since it is only a title card there isn’t much else to theorize here after its cancelation.
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