Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker: Difference between revisions

[[File:peacewalker_543.gif|frame|[[Arc Words|Peace!]]]]

 

 

Ten years have passed since Operation Snake Eater and Big Boss has created his army, the Militaires Sans Frontières. He is approached by representatives from Costa Rica requesting they support their government and push out a mysterious armed force occupying the region. Kazuhira Miller encourages Big Boss to send the MSF to protect these clients; however, Big Boss is initially reluctant of this offer until one of the representatives presents Big Boss with a tape that contains a recording of interest to him, along with a complimentary Sony Walkman. Six days later, the MSF move into action.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Not to be confused with ''[[Metal Walker]]''.

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* [[A Father to His Men]]: An already known trait of Big Boss, but more evident in this game than in any other.

** Genderflipped with Amanda, but having a broken leg and the rebels not seeing her as a real replacement for her father (the real leader of the Sandanistas... before he got shot).

* [[Actor Allusion]]: This isn't the first time [[Mugihito]] ended up [[Mega Man X|causing a catastrophe involving nukes]].

** The AK here is [[Handwaved]] with being a variant, and the other weapons, you have to get blueprints for.

** Some weapons appear in this game before their [[Real Life]] counterparts did. For example, the Steyr AUG was not developed until 1977, yet the MSF has access to it in 1974. However, it should be noted that the game hints that they developed the weapons based on design specs, meaning they most likely developed them first in-universe.

* [[Arc Words]]: "Deterrence" and "Peace," of course.

* [[Awesome Yet Practical]]: The Rubber Slug Twin Barrel Shotgun. All the fun of using a shotgun with none of the rating-lowering kills! Invaluable during Base Defense/non-stealth Eliminate All Enemies missions.

*** It's even the only way to recruit AP soldiers (soldiers better than those that volunteer normally), especially with large groups of up to ten (or more), with a measly one minute time limit. Just keep pressing the fire button.

** The M47 will absolutely trash anything. The only problem is that it's only got three shots and isn't that great against vehicles that move a lot, but calling in a resupply is a trade off for normal grinding slug fests against vehicles - it takes significantly less to destroy vehicles with it.

** The accurized M37 - a SNIPER SHOTGUN! Knock down enemies from afar!

** The G11 and CAWS, weapons with special ammunition that got canceled due to the Cold War ending and fletchette rounds deemed too sucky, respectively. The G11 has a good ammo capacity, great firing rate, and decent damage, and the CAWS is a devastating full-auto shotgun.

** The Patriot, which has a bottomless magazine like the Gatling Gun. However, unlike the Gatling Gun, which has a pause in aiming, is heavy, and needs either the Bandanna or supply drops, this baby has by default infinite ammo, and is [[Captain Obvious|obviously]] lighter, though it is significantly weaker and has a lesser firing rate.

** Skills. Channeler allows one to find items on their map (useful during "find that item" missions), Green Beret raises critical chances (more damage) among other effects, and that's just combat alone. Some other passive skills are ''required'' to create weapons and items.

** Battle Cries provide varying effects that can help your team or yourself in some fashion, but using a Battle Cry means you won't get a S Rank. Ditto the Sidekick skill, though it applies only in CO-OPS play.

* [[Backstory]]: The Data Files provide large amounts of this, including two different retellings of the same sequence of events by different people. Unusually, most of these are revealed only after the A-Plot is resolved.

* [[Badass Normal]]: Played straighter here than any other point in the Metal Gear timeline; Peace Walker has a complete absence of supernaturally empowered human boss characters, and a random soldier or Big Boss must take down gigantic mecha... several times... by himself. Even lampshaded by Kaz during the fight with the Cocoon - "If anyone can do it, it's you, Boss!"

** In hindsight, this is almost a 'slap in the face' to the claim in ''Metal Gear Solid 4'' that Big Boss' reputation was wildly exaggerated, and exploited for the purpose of creating a hero for the masses. At the point where he {{spoiler|single-handedly storms...and defeats...the secret U.S. base in Nicaragua}}, and ''Heaven's Divide'' begins playing, [[Manly Tears]] threaten to flow.

* [[Blatant Lies]]: Whenever meeting someone new in the jungle of Costa Rica, Snake claims to be something other than the obvious soldier he appears to be. A photographer, an entomologist, an ornithologist, and so on. Everyone he tells this to immediately pokes holes in this claim with humorous results when it's clear he has no freaking clue what he's talking about. But they don't push it too far. He has a rifle.

** {{spoiler|Paz hates MSF and everyone in it! I'm just acting, I swear! [[Tsundere|Stupid!]]}}

* [[Big Damn Heroes]]: {{spoiler|The Sandinistas.}} See [[Crowning Moment of Awesome]] below.

* [[Bi the Way]]: {{spoiler|Strangelove at the end.}}

** {{spoiler|Paz doesn't mind getting molested by Strangelove... well, sort of. She catches on later.}}

* [[Bonus Boss]]: The upgraded versions of the Pupa, Chrysalis and Cocoon AI weapons. In addition, the other vehicles fought in Extra Ops missions could also count.

* [[Book Ends]]: Not the game itself, but the series of gameplay prerelease trailers (four in total) had the first showcasing the Missile base in Nicaragua in the fourth chapter, and the last showcasing that same location (as well as the Mine Base briefly).

* [[Boring but Practical]]: Want to level up your weapons fast? Find a dummy, get out your Bandanna, and start shooting. You pretty much have to [[Level Grind]] them this way if you don't want to replay mission after mission.

** Somewhat similar in spirit: When Kazuhira Miller is going to suggest implementing the mercenary business into MSF (Outer Ops), Naked Snake asks if Kazuhira's idea was MSF-brand rations. The player later can develop Curry, which are technically rations with the MSF logo in the International versions, at least.

** When meeting Cecile, Big Boss explains that he is carrying his assault rifle out of self defense when Cecile mistook him for a poacher for his having a gun. Sure enough, one of the few times he actually uses his rifle in a cutscene is when he {{spoiler|shot Zadornov when the latter attempted to gun him down shortly before the ZEKE battle.}}

* [[Calling Your Attacks]]: All of the AI weapons do this, even {{spoiler|the supposedly sentient Peace Walker}}; often musically, depending on the boss. In the Extra Ops missions, the "Custom" variants of the bosses change their quotes; instead of calling their attacks, they are apparently sentient and now say "Die!" and "I'll squash you like a bug!" (This doesn't change the fact that each attack has its own call, a call that does not change between fights.) The "mech unit" bosses call their attacks too. ("Take THIS!" "This one packs a punch!" etc). The soldiers do this too sometimes ("Grenade!").

** {{spoiler|In the case of Peace Walker it could count as [[Fridge Brilliance]]; the Mammal Pod that controls the [[Humongous Mecha|Mech]] is modeled after The Boss, and its only battles are against Naked Snake. When she fought him to the death, she telegraphed her attacks quite succinctly. The AI could conceivably be following her personality protocols.}}

** '''ULTIMATE CO-OP WEAPON... [[Fastball Special|HUMAN SLINGSHOT]].''' (and so forth for all the other co-op weapons.)

* [[Chekhov's Gun]]: Invoked twice in the game on two separate occasions, all for a single event. The first time is in the beginning of the game, when Snake arrives at the Colombian base to train with his soldiers, it focuses in on his snake-shaped scar for a few seconds, indicating that it would have some importance to the story, and was later commented on in regards to Strangelove, although Snake refuses to discuss why it is there. {{spoiler|Turns out that "scar" was actually a fake, used to smuggle in a jigsaw so he could cut open the lock in case he ended up captured, as he did in this mission.}} The second time was in the aftermath of Snake's failed escape after infiltrating the mine base. If the player manages to complete the QTE in the cutscene in question that cumulates in Snake snatching Strangelove's ID badge, the last few seconds of the ending cutscene focuses in on Snake holding onto the ID badge, suggesting that it is important. {{spoiler|That's because Snake can use it to simply unlock the lock shortly after capture.}}

** {{spoiler|Not quite. It's also very likely that, although he did manipulate some aspects, he did not know about Paz's orders about her launching a nuke at the United States to frame MSF.}}

** Hot Coldman qualifies. Aside from him being the guy Gene mentioned in Portable Ops, he also manipulated various factors to ensure that his goal would come close to succeeding: For starters, he had the false data programmed into Peace Walker, and it is also heavily implied that he also directly programmed the Mammal Pod with not only {{spoiler|leaking the Peace Walker data to NORAD without even his allies knowledge}}, but also the overall programming of the Mammal Pod (He mentioned being the only one to know the abort code, something that apparently even the Mammal Pod's creator didn't know). In addition, {{spoiler|when Coldman was dying and activated Peace Walker, Coldman claimed that he was the only one who knew the abort code, and was heavily implied to have intended to die before he gave out the abort code.}} In addition, it could be argued that he might have manipulated Zadornov into shooting him so he'd have the perfect excuse to do such an action (although he certainly didn't anticipate that Zadornov would actually change the target to Cuba).

* [[Cold-Blooded Torture]]: Strangelove electrocutes Big Boss in order to gain information on why he had to kill The Boss (either by lightning rods or by laughing rods, depending on whether you're talking about the English or Japanese version). It's also heavily implied that she did not like having to torture Big Boss at all, as future torture sessions have her becoming more reluctant to continue/kill Big Boss, and later she actually apologizes to Big Boss for her part (English version only, the Japanese version, for [[Executive Meddling|obvious reasons]], simply had her apologize without specifying why she is apologizing to Big Boss).

** It isn't quite that simple, Coldman's perspective is that the incident shows that protocols related to deterrence are flawed because, while the soldier took an action that was in everyone's best interest, he failed to carry out an order. The trope still applies though because this was with regards to starting a conflict, whereas Coldman's idea of an automated MAD(Mutually Assured Destruction) is by default a reactionary measure.

* [[Continuity Nod]]: {{spoiler|1=Galvez notes that if the Peace Sentinels kill Snake, the MSF and FSLN will make Snake a revolutionary icon, something discussed in MGS4.}}

** {{spoiler|Coldman sent the Boss to her death, alluded to in Portable Ops.}}

** Kaz mentions at the end that eventually the Cold War will end, and then the focus would shift from anti-Communism to anti-terrorism, which would make mercenary companies even more in demand, pointing all the way towards MGS4, though he was more talking about the various merc organizations Big Boss leads.

** The Surround Indicator from Portable Ops/Portable Ops Plus returns as a usable item.

* [[Creator Cameo]]: Hideo Kojima is hiding inside one of the trucks next to the one that carried nukes. You peek in, he's just STANDING there. He gives a little wave and you hear the Fulton Balloon sound effect, indicating he's heading to your base. Stat wise, he ranks among the best in intel and medicine, isn't too shabby at R&D, but is a mediocre cook, and has THE ABSOLUTE MINIMUM when it comes to combat stats.

** Did we mention that you also get to fight an organic version of Metal Gear Rex?

* [[Curb Stomp Battle]]: When Snake is caught by the Peace Sentinels, and they attempt to arrest him, he manages to easily defeat six soldiers, two of which he ended up forcing another soldier to shoot at his own allies and snatch Strangelove's ID badge before being restrained.

* [[Cutscene Incompetence]]: Subverted. Snake takes on all of the mechanical bosses with an M16. If there was no game between the starting and ending cutscenes, one would have to assume he won using only the M16. Also doubles as a CMOA.

* [[Defeat Means Friendship]]: Any enemy in the game, once knocked out, put to sleep, held up or incapacitated, can be attached to a Fulton Recovery System balloon (even when inside an underground base!) and will be lifted into the air to be indoctrinated into your private army. Some elite commandos and commanders take more convincing and need to stay in Mother Base's brig before being convinced to join, though.

* [[The Dev Team Thinks of Everything]]: If the player decided to redo the "Head to the Control Tower" mission and use the M47 Dragon on a Hind D, it will be shot down automatically, and Kazuhira Miller will call in saying "Nice shot, Boss."

** Similarly, if the player fires an M47 at one of the vehicles (specificaly the LAV-typeG at Bananal Fruta de Oro in Main Ops), the escorts will duck and cover and yell "We surrender!" as it is destroyed.

* [[Disney Villain Death]]: {{spoiler|After fighting Big Boss on top of Mother Base, Paz gets blown off Metal Gear Zeke into the ocean below. Only time can tell whether this turns into another [[Disney Death|Disney-related trope.]] Big Boss himself points out that she was wearing scuba equipment at the time she was thrown out of ZEKE when he comforts Chico in a post-game Briefing File.}}

** Then again, while not a direct reference to the events of Portable Ops, {{spoiler|Snake mentioned to Strangelove, when she apologized for the torture earlier, that "he's used to shock therapy"}} which indicates that he had electrocution-based torture more than once prior to Strangelove doing it, which is with Volgin and Cunningham (the latter of whom used a stun baton on Snake twice when interrogating Snake about the other half of the Legacy's location in the beginning of the game.)

** {{spoiler|At the very least, MSF gets started with some of the funds from Gene (Which might explain why their uniforms seemed to have the FOX logo on them despite the unit being disbanded), but aren't fully used until MSF has grown exponentially.}}

* [[Dissonant Serenity]]: Cocoon, Pupa and Chrysalis hum an eerily-somber tune while slaughtering/capturing innocent civilians or blowing stuff up.

** Players will most likely go through a cycle of [[Hell Is That Noise]], to [[Nightmare Fuel]], to [[Most Annoying Sound]], to [[Paranoia Fuel]] when the score ups the strains of it.

** Not to mention {{spoiler|Big Boss is going to be murdered by his own son, then rendered comatose and used as a immortal icon by Zero.}}

** Also {{spoiler|Miller will help said son, Solid Snake, take down Big Boss in the future and then be killed and impersonated by his other son, Liquid.}}

* [[Dummied Out]]: The product placement items in the North American version of the game, due to heightened trademark laws outside of Japan, are renamed as generic items, like "Good Curry," "Tortilla Chips," "Zero-Calorie Soda," etc., which makes their appearance somewhat puzzling for those unaware of their original purpose.

* [[Electric Torture]]: Staple of the games, used by {{spoiler|Strangelove to try and get the truth of the Boss's death out of Big Boss, who won't give it up.}}. It's one of the hardest bits in the game. Censored in the Japanese version to be ''laughing rods'' instead of electric rods.

* [[Enemy Scan]]: You also have an "analyzer" device which is very important for several reasons. Besides coming in handy for boss fights when fully developed, it lets you see if a soldier you're looking at has good enough skills to be worth recovering and adding to your own army. Once the population of Mother Base hits it limit, this is ''vital.''

** Although it's use is not completely mandatory. All you have to do is capture whoever you want in the mission, put the best soldiers in whatever teams you have and then throw away the worst of each team. That way you'll always be sure you got the best soldiers.

** The "Pupa" is effectively an upgraded, miniaturized Shagohod. Snake asks Huey about this and he admits that he saw some of Sokolov's designs for the Shagohod, which inspired him to create the Pupa.

** Gear Rex is basically a dinosaur version of [[Metal Gear Solid|Metal Gear REX]].

* [[Evil Laugh]]: {{spoiler|Hot Coldman, plus Paz, but her's is more creepy evil than evil evil.}}

* [[Eye Beams]]: In a bit of a literal [[Mythology Gag]], Peace Walker (often called "El Basilisko") is able to freeze you in place with its "Poison Beam" it shoots from its giant eye. In other words, Huey just threw in a basilisk's petrifying gaze.

** Enemy placement is ''never'' randomized, unlike Portable Ops and its expansion, which at least had the wonder of randomizing pre-set search patterns.

** You also need to repeat the same missions over and over while you wait for your R&D team to stop lounging around and work on your freaking '''weapon upgrades.''' Ditto if you're getting weapon details from Outer Ops.

** You thought fighting the AI weapons plus Peace Walker were fun? You won't after fighting them about a thousand times just to get their parts or all of their AI chips (which gets progressively more annoying to get when you have most of them and end up having to gain repeats).

* [[Fake Nationality]]: British-born [[Robin Atkin Downes]] voices the Japanese Kazuhira Miller.

** Big Boss has traded in his knife for a stun rod since the last game; no more throat-slitting for him! That didn't stop the Peace Sentinels or KGB soldiers from using knives in close quarters when Big Boss or an MSF soldier is caught/raised an alert, however...

* [[Femme Fatale]]: Strangelove (pre-Chapter 4) was evidentially of this trope. However, {{spoiler|Paz/Pacifica Ocean}} qualifies for the entire game, in a way that would shock a lot of players when this is found out.

* [[Flashback Echo]]: {{spoiler|The Boss's horse must be euthanised by the player in a manner similar to that of The Boss.}}

* [[Flash Step]]: The flying "Chrysalis" weapon is able to dodge missiles while in attack mode. If you don't have something that can lock on, you're not going to hit it very much.

* [[Foreshadowing]]: Well, okay, it's more like "back-shadowing", but if Snake calls Huey on the Codec while near the river, Huey will remark that he has always dreaded being near the water. [[Driven to Suicide|Two guesses as to what happened to him by the time of Metal Gear Solid 2]].

** Also, notice how despite the fact that Paz didn't do any evil by the end of Chapter 4, her introduction had her name highlighted in red as if she were a villain? {{spoiler|Let's just say that there's [[Double Agent|a very good reason for why such is the case]].}}

** {{spoiler|Paz strips down to her undies when she pilots ZEKE during the [[True Final Boss]] fight. This is either because she's gone a little crazy or because ZEKE's pilot pod fills with water when it goes into battle mode.}}

** {{spoiler|She takes off the clothing because it's technically symbolic of her shedding her skin, and revealing her true identity, which is not a school girl, but a 21 year old woman. And [[Fan Service]], ofcourse.}}

** Averted in the case of your own group, the Militaires Sans Frontieres. They actually proved themselves to be quite capable soldiers, and when Zadornov escaped custody the first time and was recaptured the first time, they immediately removed his prosthetic hand in order to ensure that he doesn't try to use it to escape again. It didn't quite work, but then again, that's mainly because of {{spoiler|Paz's}} actions, a person who not even Big Boss suspected as being a spy.

* [[Guide Dang It]]: Good luck finding out everything there is to find out about this game on your own. You need to beat certain missions to unlock other missions (ones with highly desirable weapon schematics, like a railgun) but the official strategy guide doesn't explain which unlocks which. Some missions also must be defeated with an "S" rank (meaning no kills, no alerts, and pretty much speeding through as fast as possible) to unlock a few weapon schematics, and the Extra Ops where you collect weapon schematics actually don't unlock them. On that note, good luck trying to get any codenames for yourself, as the game does not tally the amount of weapons one uses or even weapon range, and the guide doesn't elaborate further on exactly how to unlock them.

* [[Hand Cannon]]: The M19, which [[Blown Across the Room|knocks enemies down enemies]]. Bonus points for the second and third levels of it, adding a longer barrel and a massive laser sight. Also, the Kampfpistol, a converted Nazi flare gun that shoots grenades.

* [[Heroic Sacrifice]] / [[Redemption Equals Death]]: The Peace Walker's Mammal Pod, after fighting Big Boss twice, decided to not carry out Coldman's final will in regards to leaking the NORAD data (especially when it was going to cause a nuclear war), and allowed Big Boss in so he could remove all the uplink drives in the Mammal Pod, and when that didn't work, decided instead to drown itself in order to short-circuit the transmission of the false data, and it is also implied that because of these actions, The Boss was cleared of all charges of treason.

** In the Japanese dub, Paz is voiced by [[Nana Mizuki]], and she had the honor of singing the first image song for [[Metal Gear]].

*** In the English dub, Paz is voiced by... [[Tara Strong]], who also voiced Rikku from ''[[Final Fantasy X]]'' (whom coincidentially Paz shares a similar face model with).

*** In English, Miller's voiced by... no, not Cam Clarke, but Robin Atkin Downes, aka [[No More Heroes|Travis Touchdown]]. His delivery is pretty darn similar to Cam Clarke's Miller, though. There's also some [[Fridge Brilliance]] in not casting Cam Clarke: {{spoiler|Cam Clarke never voiced Miller himself, but an imposter ''posing'' as Miller.}}

** Strangelove is voiced the same voice actress ''and'' model of Raging Raven, Yumi Kikuchi, in ''Guns of Patriots''.

*** On a related note, Strangelove is also voiced by Vanessa Marshall, who voiced Olga Gurlukovich in Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty (who she bears a slight resemblance to), and EVA in Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops.

** And [[Romi Paku|Amanda]] sounding like [[Naruto|Temari]] or [[Nana|Nana Osaki]].

** Ramon Galvez Mena/{{spoiler|Vladimir Alexandrovich Zadornov}} is voiced in the Japanese version by [[The Matrix|Agent Smith]].

* [[Historical In-Joke]]: Probably not that surprising given one of the things MGS is rather infamous for, but in one of the briefing tapes, specifically the rather [[Crowning Moment of Funny|infamous one]] involving Big Boss mentioning that he believes in Santa Claus, the conversation had him mentioning that he thought NORAD tracked Santa Claus, referring to a real life event in the early fifties where, due to a mistake in printing phone numbers, a tracking Santa phone number intended for a Sears Department Store was mixed up with the phone number for NORAD, which spawned a tradition called "NORAD tracks Santa."

** The Football War was briefly referenced by Paz/{{spoiler|Pacifica Ocean}} in one of her briefing tapes.

* [[Humongous Mecha]]: Even by [[Metal Gear]] standards this game is saturated. {{spoiler|"Huey" Emmerich has developed four prototypes for the Peace Walker deterrent system, each designed with a significantly different motor-control systems and armaments. He also develops a fifth for Big Boss, bringing the total to five.}}

* [[Idiot Ball]]: Big Boss finds himself holding it when first meeting Dr. Strangelove, who emotionally gets a rise out of him. He even admits it later that "she played <nowiki>[him]</nowiki> like a piano."

* [[Intergenerational Friendship]]: Listen to some of the tapes with Paz. You can definitely tell there's some of this between Snake and her.

* [[It Got Worse]]: The entire climax of Chapter 4.

* [[Irony]]: {{spoiler|A KGB agent named Vladimir Zadornov, AKA Ramon Galvez Mena, as well as his entire KGB unit, were taken down by FSLN Members who were originally organized by them behind the scenes, similar to how Zadornov betrayed Coldman and his Peace Sentinel unit.}}

** Also, {{spoiler|you build your own final boss, ZEKE. How powerful it is is directly influenced by how well you've built it.}}

** As noted by IGN in their review, it is quite ironic that Peace Walker, easily the biggest [[Metal Gear]] game in terms of content, is on the PSP, Sony's smallest device.

** {{spoiler|Pacifica/Paz's dedication to the mission is extremely similar to The Boss's dedication to the mission. Though, Paz was scared out of her mind of what would happen if she betrayed Zero, compared to The Boss's total dedication to the US despite knowing what would happen to her, and kept denying she hated the MSF, and eventually gets her ass kicked with little fanfare (besides Chico's grieving and what-ifs and Miller's grumbling about her betrayal - which he caused).}}

** Later on {{spoiler|Coldman exposits most of his plan to Big Boss ''twice'', both on occasions where Big Boss was at Coldman's complete mercy and Coldman had nothing to gain from either keeping him alive or letting him know what his plans were (excluding his false data/NORAD gambit, which would probably have been unnecessary had Big Boss known nothing at all). Indeed, if Coldman had kept his mouth shut and/or [[Why Don't You Just Shoot Him?|double-tapped Big Boss on sight]], MSF would have had no idea that a large nuclear bomb was about to fall on them until it was too late.}}

** {{spoiler|Then Vladimir bursts in and exposits about how he's going to kill Big Boss and let him act as a martyr as Che did, buying MSF enough time to kick the doors in and stop their collective scheming. And Vlad [[Sanity Has Advantages|didn't even have the insanity excuse that Coldman had]].}}

* [[Lightning Bruiser]]: All of the AI Weapons (with the exception of the Cocoon) qualify in one way or another; some of them are capable of jumping around, and they are some of the most agile ones seen in the Metal Gear franchise. Unless you've got a homing missile launcher, which makes things a lot easier.

** With enough grinding of AI boards and the right custom AI parts you can make Zeke become a '''VERY''' deadly unit in Outer Ops. {{spoiler|And the better you build it, the faster and deadlier it is during its own boss fight.}}

* [[Manipulative Bastard]]: Zadornov manipulated the Militaires Sans Frontieres into taking the mission and training the Sandinistas so he could essentially hijack Peace Walker without needing to dirty his hands as an intelligence operative for the KGB. Likewise, Coldman was heavily implied to have manipulated most of the factors of the mission for him to have the perfect excuse to use Peace Walker and nearly cause a nuclear holocaust. Paz, or rather, {{spoiler|Pacifica Ocean}} actually tops them all (and that's even assuming Zadornov's plan on MSF was separate of Paz's), {{spoiler|as she, under orders from Cipher/Zero/The Patriots, manipulated everything in the mission so that they could either recruit Big Boss back into the fold or eliminate him/frame MSF.}}

* [[Meaningful Name]]: It's a Metal Gear Solid game, so it's expected.

** Paz's name means 'peace' in Spanish. {{spoiler|Her (alleged) real name, "Pacifica," means "peaceful" and the full name is blatant pun on the Pacific Ocean.}}

** Huey's name is actually a nickname given him by Strangelove, which she claims to be taken from the drone in ''Silent Running''.

** "Dr. Strangelove" refers to the film of the same name; which was about nuclear deterrence gone horribly wrong involving an automatic doomsday device (guess what this game's about!). However, she says that the other reason she's nicknamed this is because her colleagues derided her for her "strange love." She liked it though, because "being strange means you have a unique perspective."

*** Peace Walker is also unflatteringly analogued to an infamous historical figure, William Walker, a 19th century American mercenary who became President of Nicaragua.

** Zadornov mentions that his first name, "Vladimir," translates to "ruler of peace." He appreciates the irony.

** Although Miller was on Snake's side pretty much the entire time, he also briefly worked with Cipher as a neutral business partner only under the promise that MSF is allowed to expand as a result. However, after {{spoiler|Paz hijacked ZEKE and then proceeded to, under their orders, prepare a nuclear strike against the East Coast of America}}, its implied that Miller quit working with Cipher afterwards, especially considering that the {{spoiler|nuclear strike}} would jeporadize any chances of MSF expanding.

** It is heavily implied that most of the American operatives of the Peace Sentinels (and possibly some members of the FSLN) had joined the Peace Sentinels / FSLN and the Militaires Sans Frontieres later on because they had nowhere else to go, because the American government apparently abandoned them shortly after they returned from Vietnam.

** In one of EVA's tapes regarding The Boss's secret mission that resulted in her abandoning Snake (which, prior to the release of ''Peace Walker'', [[Noodle Incident|had not been elaborated on]]), she mentioned that one of her moles for America that was within the Soviet Union ended up falsifying documents for NASA which The Boss noticed. It's later revealed he defected to the Soviet Union, although what shocked The Boss more was why he defected: The CIA pocketed a majority of his paycheck and giving him a tiny percent despite risking his ''life'' trying to get the intel, and so defected completely to the Soviet Union.

* [[My Name Is Not Durwood]]: Source of the "controversial" "Vic Boss" "joke".

* [[Nice Job Breaking It, Hero]] / [[Gone Horribly Right]]: Big Boss fires some rounds at Peace Walker's direction to prevent it from going through the Nicaraguan border. It worked, as it aborted the previous command temporarily. Unfortunately, it also replaced its command with entering small-scale threat suppression threat mode, meaning that Big Boss, as a result of his actions, just got himself into a fight with Peace Walker.

* [[No Body Left Behind]]: Subverted and played straight; dying, unconscious or stunned guard soldiers remain on the ground so the player can use the [[Enemy Mine|Fulton Surface-To-Air Recovery System]] on them, while dead soldiers disappear after a few seconds, presumably so the player doesn't accidentally use a balloon on them. On alert or elimination missions, stunned or sleeping enemies disappear after a few moments with a non-lethal blue version of the "near death" skull.

* [[No Fourth Wall]]: It wouldn't be a Metal Gear Solid game otherwise. This one gets down to business immediately; we start off with a drill instructor angrily shouting at the troops (and the player, since Big Boss is joining the training exercise) that we need to press the X button to change stances, tap the X button to crouch, and keep it held to lie down. "DON'T FORGET IT!"

** However it does undermine the [[Running Gag]] of MSF soldiers referring to Big Boss as "Vic Boss", as some interpret this joke infers that they are mispronouncing the first "B" in his name due to their having South American accents. Which they don't have. Whether this joke is inferred to be due to translation convention, a joke on the part of BB's men or something else entirely [[Your Mileage May Vary|is quite contested among fans.]]

** Many think it's short for "Victory Boss". He still doesn't like being called Big Boss at this point, and prefers that if they insist on calling him something besides Snake it be this. Think about the dialogue at the beginning, it makes it pretty obvious:

Snake(BB): "Listen up, for us there is no victory..." }}

*** Snake directly acknowledges what it's supposed to stand for.

** Also, with Paz, for unknown reasons, despite her diary tapes explaining that she was actually raised in America (and also implied that she is of Latino descent), she seems to speak with a distinctly Russian accent when unveiling her true colors to him.

* [[Not So Different]]: Inverted in one of the Briefing Tapes: Big Boss expresses concern about Huey allowing him to place a nuclear warhead on ZEKE, as he thought this was no different than what the CIA Peace Sentinels did with Peace Walker. Huey then explains the fundamental difference between the CIA and Big Boss: The CIA charms people into helping them, yet as soon as things get hairy, they stab them in the back, whereas Big Boss is honest about his intentions, hence why Huey was willing to do so in the present.

* [[Nuke'Em]]: Coldman's favourite policy. {{spoiler|How do you assure world peace? Prove you are insane enough to irradiate Central America and the Caribbean Sea! How do you deal with a poorly organized mercenary force with barely over a hundred soliders based in an easily-destroyed sea plant? Drop an IRBM on their faces!}}

* [[Oh Crap]]: Big Boss' [[Start of Darkness]]. {{spoiler|Not only does he denounce the Boss as a fraud because she put down her gun and wanted to embrace peace, Peace Walker also sees the rise of Outer Heaven, thanks in part to Zero trying to screw around with him yet again.}}

*** This speech has [[Tear Jerker|torn]] some people, due to the changes Big Boss underwent. It helps that [[David Hayter]] puts more of a gruff and bitter voice on Snake during this speech.

The Player: ''Oh crap oh crap oh crap!!'' }}

*** Hope you're fast enough to do enough damage to Peace Walker in time. If you're not, and the nuke launches, Snake will have this ''exact'' expression on his face.

* [[Omniglot]]: Big Boss, aside from knowing Russian and English, is shown to be fluent in French (he says a phrase in French to attempt to calm Cecile Cosima Caminandes down when meeting her), and both Big Boss and Kazuhira Miller are implied to be, if not fluent, at least knowledgeable in Spanish (Big Boss uses various spanish phrases when communicating with the Nicaraguans, he also mentioned that Miller was gifted in Spanish in a briefing tape regarding how they met, and the motto for Militaires Sans Frontieres during their operations in Colombia was "Liberte O Muerte", which is Spanish for "[Give me] liberty, or [give me] death"), and the latter of the two is good at speaking both Japanese and English (the former being his native tongue). Big Boss, in a briefing tape with Chico regarding Trenya, also implies that he subconsciously learned how to speak cat. Aside from knowing Russian and presumably English, Vladimir Zadornov is also implied to know Spanish, as well (he uses various spanish words when talking, and it is implied that he was the one who directly recruited the FSLN), as is Paz/{{spoiler|Pacifica}}, who spoke with various spanish phrases and English, and it is implied that she is capable of speaking Russian as well (when {{spoiler|unveiling her true colors}}, Paz is speaking in a distinctly Russian accent).

* [[On Site Procurement]]: Surprisingly averted in regards to the weapons and most of your equipment, considering the fact that the [[Metal Gear]] series was the [[Trope Namer]]. You actually have to gain design specs and create weapons and most of your equipment from scratch after gaining the design specs (some of which [[Guide Dang It|are also extremely]] [[Fake Longevity|annoying to get]]). Rations and ammo (sometimes ammo that belongs to weapons you have yet to develop [IE, Railgun Ammo]) are played straight, however.

* [[One-Woman Wail]]: The AI Weapons in ''Peace Walker'' all ''sing'' an eerie, haunting song even as they attack you. Cecile also implies that the AI Weapons (barring Peace Walker) used Strangelove's voice.

* [[Pacifist Run]]: A heck of a lot easier to attempt than in previous MGS games, simply because the game is broken up into bite-sized missions. So you can S-Rank one or two missions here or there, and get back to the ones where you were forced to take lethal action later, aided by non-lethal weapons you've collected and developed since the last time.

* [[Power Floats]]: Sort of. Chrysalis was designed to be a VTOL, but it rarely, if ever, lands (although Negishi revealed that it was originally intended to land in-game), making the only way for it to meet ground is to forcibly introduce Chrysalis to it.

* [[Press X to Not Die]]: Some of the cutscenes include quick-time events; however, this will not result in a [[Game Over]] and will simply replay that part of the cutscene over again.

* [[Private Military Contractors]]: How Outer Heaven came to be from Militaires Sans Frontières.

* [[Quirky Miniboss Squad]]: While there isn't a cohesive unit to provide the MGS-staple of batshit insane bosses, the nearest thing would be the unmanned AI weapons. They come bristling with [[More Dakka]] and [[Calling Your Attacks|chirp out]] their attacks in either an increasingly calm female computer voice ( {{spoiler|which takes on an angry tone when facing the Custom models}}) or an eerie tune.

* [[Real Men Wear Pink]]: Invoked with a DLC uniform called the Pink Uniform. Invoked ''twice'' in the Japanese version, with the [[Arakawa Under the Bridge|Maria]] t-shirt.

* [[Reality Is Unrealistic]]: A flaregun that fires miniature grenades as its primary ammo couldn't possibly be real...wait, such a weapon existed in World War II?

* [[Refuge in Vulgarity]]: One of Paz's diary tapes indicated that the MSF, when holding birthday parties every month, often had very crude behavior at the parties. For one thing, when Kazuhira Miller attempted to do shield Paz from the crude atmosphere at the party, he ended up getting drunk enough to moon the attendees of the party and claiming that they should see the real Kazuhira Miller, causing them to laugh quite a bit.

* [[Rocket Punch]]: {{spoiler|Vladamir/Galvez}} tries this in the endgame. It's not very effective, but it does give Big Boss a free cigarette lighter, which he's been looking for the whole game.

* [[Rubber Band AI]]: A form of it: The better you've built Metal Gear ZEKE, {{spoiler|the more formidable it is as an opponent}}.

* [[Serial Escalation]]: {{spoiler|The sheer scale of The Boss's trials and tribulations, as revealed by EVA and Strangelove. Hideo might have taken it too far.}}

** "2001: A Space Oddysey" is referenced numerous times, both by Huey and Dr. Strangelove. In fact, how you defeat the AI weapons is a direct reference to how HAL was dismantled in that movie; you climb into the weapon's brain, a cramped red room, and start yanking out circuit boards. {{spoiler|In the final battle, both start spewing gibberish as the boards are yanked out.}}

** Multiple ones to Che Guevara, considering this game takes place in the 1970's in Latin America. Snake's camera is the same kind Che used, they make mention of his drinking mate tea, and his final words, "Shoot, coward! You are only going to kill a man!" are uttered by Snake himself. When it looks like Snake's number is up, the villain remarks, "Dead at 39. Just like El Che."

** Snake and his soldiers can perform the Leap of Faith from [[Assassin's Creed]], with purposefully inaccurate history lessons over the radio telling of how piles of straw were used by assassins of the Third Crusade.

** Gear Rex's origin story is a blatant reference to how Godzilla was created. Minus the necromancy bit.

** Coldman basically forcing the US Government/Military to decide whether to retaliate or not with the intention of proving that Humanity is too weak willed to go through with retaliation even when nukes are launched, only for them to prove his theory wrong, is very similar to [[The Joker|The Joker's]] "social experiment" in the climax of [[The Dark Knight]].

** What do some of the MSF soldiers want to do with the money they made in MSF for after leaving? [[Forrest Gump|become a Shrimper and have him and his friends buy themselves a big boat.]]

* [[Smoking Is Cool]]: Oh, yes. Wouldn't be a Metal Gear game without it. However, this is the second time you don't actually get to ''use'' cigarettes or a cigar in gameplay, the first being Portable Ops, where there was only one mention of a Cigar in the whole game.

** Subverted with Chico. He always wants to smoke, but is denied it by Amanda. Big Boss gives him a cigar... for him to light and snatch away.

** {{spoiler|She was obviously enjoying herself more than she cared to admit at Mother Base, and her petty "GRRR Stupid cat! Stupid soldiers! Bwahahaha!" kinda makes her endearing in oh god what a mustache twirling villain kinda way.}}

* [[Soundtrack Dissonance]]: Sing" by The Carpenters, a song originally created for [[Sesame Street]], plays in the background as Strangelove prepares to interrogate Snake.

* [[Sword of Damocles]]: Peace Walker, built on the idea that since humans don't have the will to wipe out humanity themselves, will launch nuclear retaliation automatically. The "perfect deterrent".

* [[Take That]]: Big Boss gives a subtle one towards the student movements in Japan and the Hippie movement in America when talking with Cecile about the success of France's student movement.

** That's not all Peace Walker does, either. For instance, as its second-most dangerous ability (barring the aforementioned NORAD thing), and its most dangerous physical weapon, the titular mechanoid was mentioned in the briefing tapes to have a hydrogen bomb equipped on it (specifically that huge, death-star esque sphere that acts as its "head") that has a vastly higher explosive yield than even the Tsar Bomba (the biggest nuke in existence). The reason why it has it? It is so that, if it is required to go into enemy territory and if needs be, it can simply waltz into the enemy nation and self destruct.

** It also borderlines Fridge Horror and High Octane Nightmare Fuel when you take both this and Coldman's plan of mass producing Peace Walker and placing them all over Central America: If he or some other madman sees fit, he could easily blow away Central America from the face of the Earth by having the various models self-destruct.

* [[Teasing Creator]]: The only possible explanation for the two "date" missions. Hideo Kojima is laughing at all of us. Fortunately, we can laugh along with him.

* [[Theme Naming]]: Much like the game itself, several characters are named after the concept of peace in other languages, including Paz (Spanish), Miller (Kazuhira, which is Japanese), and even {{spoiler|Gálvez and Paz' true names, Galvez' real name being Vladimir, meaning "Ruler of Peace" in Russian, and Paz' being Pacifica, which is derived from Pax, the latin word for Peace.}}

* [[Title Drop]]: {{spoiler|Peace Walker is used as one of the mechs of the game, and the game's (first) final boss.}}

* [[Trojan Prisoner]]: Both played straight and inverted: {{spoiler|Zadornov, when arrested, frequently escapes. His being arrested in itself wasn't a large factor in Cipher's plot. Rather, the escapes were one of, if not the most important part of their plot, as Paz released him from the brig seven times so MSF can be distracted long enough for her to finish making the necessary modifications to Metal Gear ZEKE.}}

* [[Suspiciously Similar Substitute]]: Kaz, just like Roy in ''MPO'', is a blond-haired womanizing combat buddy of Naked Snake who becomes his second-in-command throughout the course of the game.

* [[The Mutiny]]: {{spoiler|What ended up happening when the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, under Naked Snake's advice, decided to call off the retaliatory strike due to the realization that the nukes are fake.}}

* [[Updated Rerelease]]: The console release as part of ''Metal Gear Solid HD Collection'' in the United States, as well as the Japanese-only ''Peace Walker HD'', both of which feature redone controls with extremely minor graphics changes.

* [[Unwitting Pawn]]: Big Boss. While most games had the player being manipulated by at least one organization, this one takes the cake with Big Boss, and several of the characters in some way or another, being manipulated by ''three'' organizations.

* [[What Measure Is a Mook?]]: The Metal Gear Solid games of the past averted this, but this one averts it harder than all those before it. Paz pleads with you to try to spare the lives of the enemies gunning for you, and your rank goes down if you kill an enemy or leave an injured enemy to die. A mortally wounded enemy may be rescued by another one who injects him with life-saving medicine and gratefully says "You saved my life!" Not to mention, every enemy you spare is a potential recruit.

** They've also got their own hopes and dreams... or arguments about Santa existing... or bug catching... or trying to hit on Big Boss... or being creepy...

** It's implied in Paz's diary tapes that she was working on Mother Base as a chef. In addition, she also had a somewhat strained relationship with Kazuhira Miller, apparently reaching its breaking point when Miller, trying to emulate French customs in what is evidentially a method to impress Cecile, obliviously picked the absolute worst year of French wine to stock Mother Base with. Also, one of Cecile's briefing files (specifically the one relating to her role on Mother Base) heavily implied that Big Boss assigned her to be a scout due to her experience as a birdwatcher being very similar to the standard operating procedure of scouts.

* [[What Do You Mean Its Not Symbolic]]: {{spoiler|Mammal Pod is full of butterflies! Which become the pale petals of Rokovoj Bereg! The final butterfly becomes a peace symbol upon contact with water! Hideo Kojima is a genius stop looking confused!}}

* [[With This Herring]]: Some Extra Ops missions require you to hold up and immobilize entire patrols armed only with a banana.

* [[You're Insane!]]: Miller's reaction to Coldman when {{spoiler|the latter managed to activate Peace Walker and nearly drove the world into an all-out nuclear war in his attempt to make retaliation inevitable}}.

** Amanda also has this reaction when she realizes that the Peace Sentinels are actually continuing the drug trafficking route they originally used and were turning their own country, America, into junkies.

* [[Vocaloid]]: Used to voice all the first-stage Cypher bosses. Players could, with a lot of effort, make their own songs and sayings for the Cyphers to say during battles.

* [[You Killed My Father]]: It is heavily implied that Amanda and Chico's father, the former leader of the Sandinistas, ended up killed by the Peace Sentinels when the latter infiltrated Costa Rica.

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Video Game]]