Kojima-Core: Exploring a Genre

It's odd to dedicate an entire blog post to trying to codify a genre? Or sub-genre, even? Whatever, it's noise in my head.

I really love what I've been referring to as KOJIMA-CORE, but I went with something so short and pretentious because it's a hell of a lot easier to say out loud than "tactical-aesthetic fiction with emphasis on questioning itself at every step of the way, propelled by a hefty does of barely-understood supernatural and conspiratorial elements, all wrapped up in a strange kind of simultaneously serious whimsy."

I decided to name the idea after Hideo Kojima because of all the fiction I'm going to be discussing, his works are by far the most relevant. The entire Metal Gear and Metal Gear Solid franchise are the obvious thing to point to, but Death Stranding fits right in. They all follow the same vague rules, and with MGS in particular it feels like watching a cult-classic 80s action film through the lens of anime; John Rambo explaining something and then saying "in other words," only to explain it again almost exactly the same way because the translators aren't doing an especially good job.

Obviously HK's works aren't the only things that come to mind, otherwise I wouldn't be talking about Kojima-core and instead I'd just be gushing about how great a writer the man is. But before I start outlining how this or that franchise entry fits, it would be good to establish some ground rules.

The first rule is primarily one of matching the aesthetic. Despite being inherently anti-war stories in the main, almost all the works I bring up here take the visuals of what we know as "operator culture," and make it not-obnoxious by hitting it with that peculiar simultaneous serious-whimsy. Top-tier drip and genuine accuracy and authenticity in the execution of props and tactics, but at the same time there's an entire multi-minute long section where Naked Snake pets his new handgun because he just loves it that much and one boss is just outright called Shoot-Gunner. The FEAR protagonist does round-house kicks as one of his melee options because the idea of a supernatural SWAT operative with slo-mo reflexes ALSO knowing kung-fu just outright kicks ass.

(I'd like to take this moment to have a brief aside: I genuinely cannot stand operator culture, and I even more despise its abusive drunkard cousin: blue line/swat culture. Every single kind of guy who comes from these social circles is almost always incredibly awful and half are LARPers who in the latter community's case likely couldn't hack it in the military when he was in the gung-ho phase a lot of us go through; the other half are genuinely dangerous and need to be locked up away from other people. Every single veteran I've had the pleasure of knowing well and personally wouldn't be caught dead with these goons, and you shouldn't give them the time of day either. Learn to defend yourself and your family, do what you can to ensure whatever training and equipment you feel you need, establish a cooperative community where people support each other when facing outside pressure, and like Uncle Marx says don't let the bosses take your guns away, and even appreciate just how fuckin cool some tactical stuff can look; but don't fall for Tier-One back-the-blue LARP garbage)

The next rule is that the setting should have either/both conspiratorial and supernatural elements. This aspect is a bit more difficult to outline because it doesn't really need both to work, just either/or. Sticking with Kojima examples for now, MGS is very heavy on conspiracy (I am incredibly smart) but how it handles supernatural elements is actually really neat for the most part. Certain character abilities and powers very much leave it up to interpretation how supernatural they are, often leaving it hanging for a while before telling us what's up; and even then it's not clear. Fortune's invulnerability to bullets and reality-defying luck is explained as a piece of tech she has on her but doesn't realize it, but then after it's forcibly deactivated we see her using the power one more time seemingly of her own volition. Yeah, Vamp's whole thing is explained away with nanomachines in MGS4 like most other stuff, but other aspects like MGS5's Child and Man on Fire certainly have less to do with nanomachines. Same with Psycho Mantis and all of Vulcan Raven's odd shamanic sorcery. There's a strong meme in the MGS community that "everything is parasites and nanomachines," but if you observe the fiction on more than a surface level that's clearly just not true. There's a lot of mystery to it. And then there's Death Stranding, where the entire setting goes incredibly heavy on the themed supernatural (it's supernatural in very specific ways, not a kitchen-sink fashion) but is relatively light on conspiracy.

The third major rule I like to include ties in with both rules one and two: guns must still be dangerous on the whole. This seems like an odd thing to specify, but bear with me; and this is finally where we'll get our first non-Kojima examples along with the man's work.

In MGS 99% of the cast really doesn't want to get shot; being shot sucks. Many powers characters exhibit are ways to directly avoid or mitigate being shot: Fortune comes to mind immediately, as her entire power revolves around not being harmed; characters like the SKULLS Parasite Unit temporarily channel extreme resistance to bullets or use mist and ninja movement to avoid being shot. But, ultimately, for so many of these characters if you can get past their defenses they're still just people. And when a character doesn't work on that logic, they're treated as an incredible threat: the Man on Fire isn't something you really fight the first few times you face him, you use his specific weakness to water to stun him long enough for you to completely run away.

This holds true in a lot of other media I would include in this sub-genre. Valorant fits the bill in all three ways: it uses a lot of operator culture aesthetic (with its own cartoon-ish twist), certain characters like Phoenix and Jett are right out of an anime, there are conspiratorial AND supernatural elements regarding the Kingdom Corporation, Radianite, the Radiants and where they come from, and the whole "parallel worlds," thing the story is currently exploring. And, finally, no matter how crazy a character's powers are (Reyna is a literal soul-devouring South American vampire, for example; Phoenix can take on his namesake and literally come back from death to a limited degree) they still go down when you click on their heads with a rifle.

To borrow a second example to exhibit my point on rule three: in Captain America: the First Avenger and Captain America: the Winter Solder, you have multiple super-soldiers created by bio-tech and cybernetics, one of which has a literally unbreakable-except-when-the-plot-demands-for-drama shield. And boy oh boy, is that shield important! Without it, guns and explosives and melee combat are a real threat and Cap treats them as such. This stands out a lot compared to some other superhero/MCU media, because the "power level," of Winter Soldier feels so much more grounded than other entries like Guardians of the Galaxy, Doctor Strange, or Infinity War.

(Another aside: I absolutely love the French mercenary that Cap fights in the prologue of that film. The idea that there's a head mercenary doing a very dangerous operation and his gimmick is that he's really good at kicking people? Absolutely superb Kojima vibes. 10/10, zero notes)

This element of mortal danger is actually very important. Without it, a lot of the operator culture aesthetics break apart. One of the low-key best things about a lot of Kojima-core is that it tends to actually have really good tactical choreography and feels authentic when things start getting dangerous. It's that element of real genuine danger and tactical necessity that contrasts so well with when things get whimsy and fun and a mercenary captain is trying to kick a super-soldiers head off because he's really good at kicking dudes.

I feel now is a good time to talk about power levels, because that attaches directly to rule three. As I alluded to, other superhero media where guns are just background weapons and are no real threat just don't really qualify here. And there are a few other pieces of media that might qualify but don't because their power levels are a touch out of whack. The first thing that comes to mind is any Final Fantasy that takes place in a modern-inspired world, like VII. When Shinra troops level rifles at Cloud, there's zero sense of threat or urgency; he fights like an ex-SOLDIER First Class and that means he's on such a level that bullets just don't matter. This also, oddly enough, (nearly) disqualifies a really excellent game that has Metal Gear directly in the title! Metal Gear Rising is incredible, but for the specific sub-genre I'm talking about it barely fits in because its power level is just too high. I think it would be more accurate to call Metal Gear Rising a Final Fantasy action title wearing a Metal Gear skin and tackling Metal Gear themes. It straddles the line, and I certainly won't be the final judge; but the discussion bears bringing up.

Finally--and to be genuinely serious for a moment--is the final "rule zero," in that it is thematically really important but not a lot of media outlines it outright: war is bad. Killing people is bad, and blindly following a flag is bad. Anyone with even a tiny bit of basic media literacy who plays Metal Gear Solid will understand that Snake is not proud of what he does: the man knows he's a killer and that heaven has no true place for him. At times it even seems he outright regrets being a soldier, and regrets that it's the only thing he was ever any good at. A lot of media that fits in here either touches softly or leans heavily on forcing players to ask questions of what's right and what's wrong and what you're doing because you think it must be done and what you're doing because a flag is telling you to do it. This genre wants you to think. It asks questions like "can love bloom on a battlefield?" and I cannot emphasize enough just how important that is. It's not the flashy bits that catch the eye, but they're the bits that stay with us.

Now that I've laid out the rules it's one of the most fun parts of putting this blog post together: talking about non-Kojima media and how it fits into Kojima-core! What fun.

One of the first series that comes to mind is the Call of Duty Modern Warfare trilogy and a couple of that franchises other titles (In particular Black Ops 1 and the more recent Black Ops Cold War and Modern Warfare 2019; at time of writing the MW2 sequel to MW2019 isn't out yet, but I assume it will be another Kojima-core banger). These don't really do the supernatural elements at all, but otherwise they fit most of these rules to a T. We arguably have the MW franchise to thank for the massive popularization of operator culture in the first place; characters like Price and Soap, Gaz and Ghost are upheld as peak operator dude-bros. And when it comes to incredible set-pieces and big conspiracy moments, the trilogy is almost second to none. Speaking frankly, all that's missing is the Rogues Gallery boss-squad that so many Kojima games have; but between them Zakhaev and especially Makarov are rather effective foes, as are Kravchenko and his lot from BOPS. Finally (spoiler alert, I suppose) killing Soap and Mason (and all the other first-person characters who die over the course of the game) in the way the games do goes out of the way to point out that anyone genuinely can die; no one is truly safe when bullets start flying. The series doesn't really spend as much time as I would personally like on rule zero, unfortunately, but it's COD. What do you expect.

Another personal favorite that I simply must include is FEAR. The game is heavy in operator culture but also stacks on the fun times with conspiracy AND supernatural elements: the Point Man is a kung-fu master with slo-mo on top of being a tactical badass who can't help himself but listen to every bit of office gossip on phones he passes by! And he's fighting an army of clones being psychically led by a raving sociopath who devours his foes! Both of these men are the stolen and experimented-on children of the ghost-lady who spends the entire game harassing you, because she was abused and forcibly impregnated twice as a corporate experiment to produce a psionic powerful enough to lead an entire army of above-mentioned clones! This point in particular pays a ton of attention to rule zero, because it tackles questions of corporations and what they think they can get away with! Your super-soldier character is the point-man for the First Encounter Assault Recon team, which specializes in taking down supernatural threats but also has a hilarious and appropriate name! Some of your enemies are teleporting ninjas, or mechs and power armor troopers straight out of Masamune Shirow's sketch-book! Speaking frankly, of all the pieces of media I am going to list today, there is not a single fucking one outside of Hideo Kojima's personal works that comes nearly as close to being raw concentrated Kojima-core as FEAR does. It's just...perfect.

There is at least one game that does come kind of close though. Spec Ops: the Line. It eases off the pedal on conspiracy and supernatural elements (but uses a lot of supernatural imagery to portray the main character's slow mental breakdown), but goes probably the heaviest on rule zero of any title mentioned in this blog; maybe even more than some direct-Kojima titles, if that's possible. Part of the game's charm is that it actually weaponizes operator culture in video-games by effectively tricking the player themselves into thinking they're playing just another third-person action shooter in the desert at a time when that described every other videogame coming out. It's only when the player gets past the prologue that things start going off the rails and we are forced to fire on fellow American soldiers in self-defense; and things only get more fucked-up and complicated from there. The game is obviously yet another retelling of Heart of Darkness, but it does it in arguably the most Kojima-core way that particular type of story will ever be told. Next to FEAR, Spec Ops: the Line is by far the most important non-Kojima title for explaining Kojima-core that you should experience, if you have not done so already.

The entire Resident Evil series fits here as well. It's got its mechanical variety, but at its core there's a very healthy dose of conspiracy revolving around pharmaceutical companies and corporate interference in our lives, supernatural elements (though the game calls them bio-weapon shenanigans; speaking frankly the seemingly needless recategorization adds to the Kojima-core flavor), lots of tactical action in most of their titles but especially in 6 and 8, and just gobs of serious-whimsy flavor. The amount of memes that this franchise has given birth to alone is an excellent example of how it balances grim and fun.

Not all games need to be first-person shooters, though! XCOM (Enemy Unknown/Within, XCOM 2/War of the Chosen, and Chimera Squad) is actually quite a good example; in particular in the early game. The games focus heavily on realistic tactical execution to defeat an overwhelming alien force, with the exception of Chimera Squad where you head a multi-species experimental SWAT team in one of the world's biggest cities and have to deal with the various criminal aspects of a post-XCOM victory world where the aliens left integrate into earthling society instead of continuing a needless war. For that purpose I personally think Chimera Squad is actually the most Kojima-core of the bunch: a lot of your time isn't spent against an overwhelming and totally inhuman alien menace, you're trying to stop different factions with genuine beliefs that are maybe understandable from a certain perspective. A lot of your down-time you have characters from utterly different backgrounds (in some cases backgrounds literally light-years apart!) trying to work together for what they feel is the greater good. And the game even goes out of its way to challenge a player's perspective on what is and is not "local." A couple of the "alien," characters were born on Earth, for example, and claim is as a genuine home--referring to themselves completely seriously as Earthlings--just as much as the human characters do.

Max Payne is very fun and interesting to talk about, especially in the context of the main character not actually being military or active-duty police; so far a novelty in this discussion. It does have precedent, however: Death Stranding is told from the perspective of a distinctly non-military and non-police character, a literal mail-man who is drafted against his will to join the main quest on behalf of the defunct post-apocalyptic American government. Like Sam Porter Bridges, Max is a man with a mission, nerves, some vague experience handling weapons, and a will to survive. Max Payne feels like it fits this sub-sub-genre in part because of the emphasis on conspiracy, anime-tier tactical action, and rule zero. All three Max Paynes are heavy on the rule zero especially, as we go from corporate conspiracy and what corporate American can get away with, to how far a man is willing to go and how far he'll bend his badge's authority before he's just as bad as who he's hunting down, to how far a man can push himself to do the right thing when the right thing involves so much damn killing and it's starting to wear on his already shredded soul. All the while you're shooting your way through action galleries that would fit into a Hong Kong cop drama, experiencing drug withdrawals and occasional visions that give the games a barely-supernatural quality.

I'd like to stop talking about video-games for a little bit and discuss some TV. One of the aspects that comes to mind is Wellington Paranormal and how its emphasis on being a comedy means that it just misses the mark...maybe. I think it's easily the most comedic title that could qualify, and there are times when its scenarios get serious enough to contrast the constant laughs rather well; but I'm not sure those contrasting moments come often enough. Maybe there's a timeline with a slightly more serious take on Wellington Paranormal--maybe a SWAT-focused spin-off?--and I feel that doesn't toe the line the way WP does and instead jumps feet-first into the genre.

Patlabor is the other TV show I wanted to discuss here. It's excellent and fits really well in a lot of ways (especially the films!), absolutely embodying rule one (+mechs!) and rule three as baseline elements; the movies go out of their way to include rules two and zero and bake them deep, deep into the medium. Patlabor 2 does this best, I'd argue, with a villain who feels betrayed by his government and whos plots almost entirely seem to revolve around exposing just how much that government has let everyone down without them realizing it. All the while you have a young woman who wants to be an elite Tokyo Metro Police mecha-operator because she grew up being a mecha-show nerd as a kid, a laid-back police captain who couldn't be bothered to take his job any more seriously than is absolutely necessary to get through the day, and an American liaison officer who, when asked if she's traveled to Tokyo for business or pleasure, takes a moment to consider before lowering her sunglasses and answering "combat."

I think I want to wrap up examples by talking about a tabletop RPG: Delta Green. Based primarily on Call of Cthulhu, the game is such that if you wanted to play a FEAR-style pen-and-paper campaign you'd use DG. It tackles incredibly similar story beats and themes, but with an added element of rule zero: characters have to manage relationships with their friends and families as they secretly fight against the forces of supernatural darkness and evil conspiracy, and you actively spend the strength of your personal contacts to reduce mental damage taken, representing your relationships fraying and falling apart as you sacrifice more and more of yourself to hold the end of everything at bay. I don't think my description really does DG credit, if you're at all interested in tabletop RPGs it's worth checking out.

It's difficult to know how to wrap this up except to gush about it a bit. I love this relatively unexplored and unexplained genre. I adore the Hideo Kojima titles that paved the way, just as I adore the media that's seemingly gone out of its way to emulate and expand on what they can do and mean. I love media that makes me question things around me and question myself, all while being fun to play and watch. I hope that this post helps bring the general vibes to your attention, and I hope that you comment and tell me what you think fits that I haven't brought up!