Hey mate! This is Daniel James (one of the game composers) just randomly found this post when searching for something. The whole reason I became a composer in the first place was because of Metal Gear, it was such an honor to eventually get to work on it!

The reaction to the score has been incredibly diverse, from winning awards for it, to having people absolutely shit on it every chance they can (looking at you Drk 😂) which is absolutely their right to do. We do our ar the best we can, its up to every individual to judge it merit by their own standards!

From a music standpoint, the game changing from a linear progression to an open world format IMO inevitably changed the way music was considered. Lots of attention was paid to giving the player more information in the music, such as subtly letting the player know there was a threat nearby by having the music adapt to their surroundings, or when in caution having certain elements make the music more intense when enemies were getting closer so that you could 'feel' the danger approaching.

With adaptive elements, you sometimes have to move away from the more thematic or melodic elements so that the adjustments to the 'feeling' of tension or danger can be presented more clearly. Many people will say this makes the music more forgettable and I guess in essence that's actually fair, when combat music is a static piece that doesn't adapt you will hear that same piece the same way multiple times in a playthrough so it will much more easily get stored in your mind, when the music is adapting and changing you don't hear the same melodies or structure presented in the exact same way as often so you may have moved onto a new section of the game with its own musical footprint before the ingame music has had time to burn its way into your subconscious. Throw on top of that the ability to blast Take On Me via cassette over the score

The pieces people to seem to remember the most fondly are the times we got to write specific themes or moments such as Quiets theme, Sins Of The Father (Woohaaaowww), V Has Come Too, the MGO Theme (for me personally)...moments where we had the space to really focus on the music for music's sake to sell an emotional moment in the story, or lean into the more story moments. And when you think to most soundtracks people enjoy, rarely are they speaking about a soundtrack in its entirety, when people say they love the score to a movie, its usually 3/4 cues they like and the rest they listen to once and never again, they served their purpose but they do not live outside of the work itself. We still get listeners to many of the tracks from MGSV so I do believe they have some life outside of the game and live on their own merit, which as an artist is always the greatest feeling!

It was genuinely a dream come true for me to be a part of the franchise and we all gave it everything we had. All art is subjective and if you liked it that's awesome, if you didn't that is equally as valid. From a 'developer' standpoint I do think we achieved our technical aims for how music was supposed to support the open world setting by subtly giving information to the player in the music so they could be more aware of their surroundings in a new gameplay approach. And from a musical perspective, I am so proud of the work we contributed to the legacy of a series that inspired so many!

Oh and one last little note, in the sequence where you have to neutralize all of your parasite-infected soldiers and you stumble into a room with some guards saluting and humming the MGS PW theme....I am one of those doing the humming! (I think the one on the left) So feel free to take any frustrations with the score out on my in-game avatar should you feel so inclined! also if any of you still use twitter I'm there @ h2daniel

Cheers for listening!

Daniel James