# Metal Gear Solid 4 / Fallout -- Deliberate allusion, or just a coincidence? **URL:** \ **Category:** The Game Room\ **Created:** [January 6, 2014, 8:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/metal-gear-solid-4-fallout-deliberate-allusion-or-just-a-coincidence/678064 "2014-01-06T20:58:55Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![LawMonkey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/d6d6ee/32.png) [@LawMonkey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LawMonkey)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2014, 8:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/metal-gear-solid-4-fallout-deliberate-allusion-or-just-a-coincidence/678064/1 "2014-01-06T20:58:55Z")
Fallout famously opens with the line, “War never changes.” In Metal Gear Solid 4, the game opens with a soliloquy from Solid Snake that starts with the lines, “War. War has changed.” (Incidentally, that was one bad-ass soliloquy.) So, simple question: Was MGS deliberately tipping their [del]bandanna[/del] hat to Fallout, or was it just a (rather remarkable) coincidence? ---
**Author:** ![cckerberos](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f0a364/32.png) [@cckerberos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cckerberos)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2014, 9:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/metal-gear-solid-4-fallout-deliberate-allusion-or-just-a-coincidence/678064/2 "2014-01-06T21:32:56Z")
The original Japanese is the same as the English localization. Fallout never made much of a splash in Japan, so I’m inclined to chalk it up to a coincidence, especially since they didn’t use the double “war”. ---
**Author:** ![LawMonkey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/d6d6ee/32.png) [@LawMonkey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LawMonkey)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2014, 9:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/metal-gear-solid-4-fallout-deliberate-allusion-or-just-a-coincidence/678064/3 "2014-01-06T21:54:27Z")
Ah ha–I got the doubled “war” backwards (and just confirmed by watching a little bit of the MGS4 opener on youtube). Fair enough–one hell of a coincidence. I think I’m going to have to watch the MGS4 opener in full when I get home. Was not hugely impressed w/ the game overall, but goddamn that was one badass soliloquy. ---
**Author:** ![thelurkinghorror](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7c8e57/32.png) [@thelurkinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelurkinghorror)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2014, 11:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/metal-gear-solid-4-fallout-deliberate-allusion-or-just-a-coincidence/678064/4 "2014-01-06T23:39:32Z")
> [@cckerberos](#): > > The original Japanese is the same as the English localization. Fallout never made much of a splash in Japan, so I’m inclined to chalk it up to a coincidence, especially since they didn’t use the double “war”. Hideo Kojima isn’t your typical Japanese person, though. Nobody can accuse the series of being realistic, science-wise, but he seems to have a pretty good grasp of Western culture and Hollywood movies. That said, he mentions his influences, and I’m not aware of him enjoying the Fallout series. ---
**Author:** ![smiling\_bandit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9a140/32.png) [@smiling\_bandit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/smiling_bandit)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2014, 2:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/metal-gear-solid-4-fallout-deliberate-allusion-or-just-a-coincidence/678064/5 "2014-01-07T02:51:00Z")
To echo **lurkinghorror** , Hideo Kojima is a bit odd, but definitely aware of many non-Japanese cultural ideas. It’s hard to say what he might or might not have been intending. However, Fallout 3 and New Vegas were been released in Japan. ---
**Author:** ![Jragon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e19b73/32.png) [@Jragon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jragon)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2014, 2:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/metal-gear-solid-4-fallout-deliberate-allusion-or-just-a-coincidence/678064/6 "2014-01-07T02:53:59Z")
Snake (and his codename in MGS2: Plissken) was named after Snake Plissken; aa deliberate reference to Escape from L.A. and Escape from New York. Did those do well in Japan? If not, I suspect that it’s a Fallout reference. Kojima seems pretty familiar with Western media.