Considering Nastasha effectively single-handedly funded Philanthropy in MGS2, she has a strong case for being one of the most IMPORTANT members of Snake's crew, and it's entirely possible to never know who she is across the entire series. She gets briefly mentioned in MGS2, but if you spaced out or skipped it you would never know that Mei Ling, Otacon and Snake were financially supported by Nastasha for YEARS through sales of a book she wrote after MGS1 "In The Dark Of Shadow Moses: The Unofficial Truth". Even the name of her BOOK is a nod to the fact you can go the whole game never knowing she's there.

i loved calling nastasha when playing this game as a kid. I had learnt about chernobyl in school just recently and her mentioning an actual irl event in the game made the entire situation in shadow mosses extremely real for me.

theres one completely optional codec call between jack and rose in mgs2 (pretty sure its one you only hear if you save a lot) where she specifically mentions raiden "raising his hand against her" and its implied it happened repeatedly, to me that has to be the wildest moment in terms of something that radically changes how you view a character and really drives him how messed up jack really was from his traumatic past. I definitely don't remember hearing that one on any of my early playthroughs as a kid

I've been an MGS obsessive for 25 years and you still came up with multiple lines of dialogue I've never seen and interpretations I've never considered. Exceptional presentation.

I have played this game since the month it came out and at least 15 full playthrough and this is the first time I have EVER heard the Iditarod tape

"You're not the grow old fracefully type."

ironic, considering how he goes out in 4

22:02 Real liars don't lie all the time, that's kiddie stuff. The best liars tell 99 truths, and then slip in one good lie.

When I was a kid I learned that millers advice makes sense in a story/ gameplay sense because liquid wouldn’t want to help you defeat him, so giving you advice wouldn’t make sense. So when you call miller for advice on the codec he gives you advice that makes sense to you as a person but not as a video game character. Which is why you don’t question the advice he gives you during his calls. You’re literally being tricked by the game to believe he’s a good guy when he’s really only feeding you nothing burgers over the radio

This is why, at lease to me, MGS1 is a masterpiece.

I always loved the codecs, especially the optional ones

In MGS2 the Special Menu also has 3 huge in-game stories that completely change the context of MGS1. You get to see how Nastasha was kidnapped by James Johnson who has a former romantic relationship. The recorded the entire event secretly using Nastasha as cover. During the end of MGS1 when she figures they're going to kill her she makes a big escape and then declassified the entire Shadow Moses incident to the public and how she got to live comfortably breaking the story.

We also get to see an interview from a News group asking Nastasha in a separate smaller article.

The most dramatic one is how Otacon and Snake were using conspiracy theorist networks to spread their messages without being noticed. So we get a story about a paranoid Alien believer who had the files on the Shadow Moses incident. He then went there to investigate the aftermath of the event and risked his life. He almost got killed by some agents before Solid Snake in Stealth Camo appeared. The most oddly specific pattern is how he keeps relating his Alien encounters with what's happening with the Government and it's Secrets. Which has many implications but surprisingly "Aliens" is a very unexplored topic in MG as a whole. Despite the fact in "MG2: Solid Snake" we fight the first Ninja who was a former NASA scientist on extraterrestrials working under Big Boss...

23:43 - I like how this highlights both sides of the argument, emotional vs rational....but then Snake understands that he's got to sacrifice his empathy in order to save Meryl at all since he's basically unarmed and outmatched against a Sniper. God I love how MGS1 is written.

Played this game like 15 times through and I always find a new codec convo every game.

MGS1 touches me more deeply than I can rationalize, and this is something that I have also observed through other people...
I think that you are pointing out something really relevant here about why this game could be so touching, so subtly profound and human...
You did a great job!

I understand this is supposed to be an analysis video, but I got to admire a particular "Miller" call - there's this optional call around the time you are taking the cargo elevator down to fight Raven (not the M1 Tank but the man himself), where Miller and Snake discussed about Inuits being cousins to Japanese through the Mongolians, with Miller stating that Snake and Raven could in theory be distant relatives. Snake responded at first with what he thinks on this topic and then suddenly added a line saying (roughly) "Master, I don't recall ever telling you that I am half Japanese." and then Miller simply just responded "......" on the screen and cut the call. Then comes the more well known Miller call after you warmed the key, with Miller urging Snake to hurry and insert the key and Snake wonders why Master is so excited about it (and this particular line by Snake only comes up once).
Overall speaking, MGS1 is still my favourite action game, and the calls are exactly the reason for it. I know it sounds silly even to a teenager 20 years ago that you can pause for 5 minutes to talk on the codec while fighting Ocelot or a tank, but put that aside, the calls (both mandatory and optional) are what really build the feeling of despair and conspiracy, and to get the full taste, one must dive into the optional calls. What makes MGS1's cast stands out so much against the ones from later games was that every character has a story and a role to the overall plot, including minor characters like Decoy Octopus. The MGS2 radio and boss cast were a lot less interesting than before. While the MGS3 radio cast was an improvement from MGS2, half of the bosses are a disappointment. The Fear, The Pain, The Fury and argueably even The End were there simply to serve as bosses and could be swap around without affecting the overall plot, not unlike MGS1 and 2. The same goes for the MGS4 bosses and the further trimmed down radio cast. From hindsight, they really should have let us talk to Campbell and Meryl on their own channels in MGS4 and add the silly Octacon saving quotes back in.

Metal gear solid 1 blew my mind in 1998.

I was 12, and played the demo on one of those pizza hut demo discs over and over again.

The demo was the title screen, the first cutscene, and the first area with the elevator. It would end the moment you started going up.

I played it so much my mom bought it for me out of no where when i only got new games for my birthday ir christmas.

The codec was somthing that just blew me away. It seems so simple now, but the ability to call all these people any time, the hours of extra dialog you didnt need but was there.

Unlocking new frequences and new characters to get even more depth into the game.

I found myself calling every character, for every item, enemy, boss, until they would repeat.

I turn 40 next month and mgs1 is still one of my all time favorite games that i still play once a year or so.

Posing as Miller gave Liquid a chance (perhaps unbeknownst to him) to be a genuine brother to Snake with all the advice and care.

Till this day, I’m still finding new calls in this game. I always learn something new when I play Metal Gear game

Great video!
Love the way you break things down and actually show the dialogue

This is one of the most important mgs1 videos ever made. I truly believe it. So much of this is missed by a casual player, and you've really brought it into light. Thank you Probably Paz.