"Great" is subjective but I agree that while it used to have a certain high bar in the past the quality dropped consistently, first with MGS4, then games after that, which is not to discredit how the more systematized approach of MGSV was very well executed. It's just, the qualities that attracts me to these games were clearly taking a backseat in that game, maybe not by intent but that was the result.
It's natural that over time development teams change, some people leave, others join, and the fallacy of Kojima is that he's the sole reason why his games are good, an auteur, but just like "BioWare Magic" isn't real, Hideo Kojima's godly vision also isn't the reason why MGS3 was amazing. It was a different time, the industry had other trends, Kojima Productions was a different shape and size then, Konami was different, and most importantly (I think) Kojima's trusty partners in crime, particularly that co-writer Fukushima-san, were responsible for great work. Their replacements, or perhaps the remainders when they left couldn't fill in the gap in the same way.
Personally as a guy who considers himself a good critic of writing, there's certain things to Shuyo Murata's writing style that makes it less impactful than the parts I know Fukushima wrote and over an entire game that just adds up to less in general. Kojima is a guy with a vision and he's a very smart guy, but as good as a director like James Gunn is, he also wouldn't be worth as much if he didn't have strong companionship of photographers or storyboard artists.
I think in many cases directors are managers and vision-holders. They're able to guide a team to do the right things but at the end of the day the real "talent" still comes down to the team itself and who it consists of, and Kojima going through Shuyo's filter for writing just gets different results than Fukushima's, and the same goes for practically anything where there was a change of staff between MGS3 and MGS4.
It's natural that over time development teams change, some people leave, others join, and the fallacy of Kojima is that he's the sole reason why his games are good, an auteur, but just like "BioWare Magic" isn't real, Hideo Kojima's godly vision also isn't the reason why MGS3 was amazing. It was a different time, the industry had other trends, Kojima Productions was a different shape and size then, Konami was different, and most importantly (I think) Kojima's trusty partners in crime, particularly that co-writer Fukushima-san, were responsible for great work. Their replacements, or perhaps the remainders when they left couldn't fill in the gap in the same way.
Personally as a guy who considers himself a good critic of writing, there's certain things to Shuyo Murata's writing style that makes it less impactful than the parts I know Fukushima wrote and over an entire game that just adds up to less in general. Kojima is a guy with a vision and he's a very smart guy, but as good as a director like James Gunn is, he also wouldn't be worth as much if he didn't have strong companionship of photographers or storyboard artists.
I think in many cases directors are managers and vision-holders. They're able to guide a team to do the right things but at the end of the day the real "talent" still comes down to the team itself and who it consists of, and Kojima going through Shuyo's filter for writing just gets different results than Fukushima's, and the same goes for practically anything where there was a change of staff between MGS3 and MGS4.
