It's Saturday evening as I'm writing this. I woke up with an extremely sore shoulder this morning which limited the physical activity I could do today. Not a huge problem since Saturdays are typically my lazy days unless there's somewhere I want to do. Anyway, I decided to boot up Girls' Frontline 2: Exilium and play the new event centered around the character Centaureissi (G36).
Despite not playing the original Girls' Frontline as much as some of the veteran fans have, I couldn't help but feel nostalgic when reading through the event's story. The event stories in GFL2's global release fill in the narrative gaps in the main campaign. At this point in the campaign our character, the ex-commander of a PMC, is following the trail of an evil organization they failed to eradicate completely 10 years prior. On top of that, they left their former position at G&K, the PMC they worked as part of an agreement that allowed the tactical dolls (or T-Dolls), such as Centaureissi, to live as individuals and not mere tools.
It has been 10 years since the commander self-exiled themselves and they have been reluctant to contact any of his former subordinates. The last few events in the global version in Girls' Frontline 2 have focused on some of the former G&K T-Dolls rushing to the commander's aid during a specific part of the main campaign. Pleasantries are very short since they usually arrive mid-combat, but the T-Dolls have the same respect and fondness for their commander even after an entire decade has passed.
As I was wrapping up the event story, I couldn't help but feel nostalgic when the commander's former subordinates began to reunite. I was especially empathetic to the commander's situation. In a way, I also knew how it felt to lose the private army seemingly overnight.
Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker is a very unique game in the franchise. It's set about 10 years after the ending of Metal Gear Solid 3. Big Boss has left FOXHOUND and started his own PMC (Private Military Company). In the opening sequence, Big Boss is personally training a handful of soldiers during a heavy storm on a beach in South America. They're right outside the company HQ, a small wooden shack when Kazuhira Miller, Big Boss's second-in-command, informs him of a guest that's arrived. The game kicks off with Big Boss receiving a contract that pays generously. Up front, the PMC receives an abandoned research platform off the coast of the Caribbean to use as their new HQ.
Over the game, Big Boss can capture enemy soldiers during missions and they can be interrogated and convinced to join your PMC. You can also receive recruits as you successfully accomplish missions. The reason being that your successful exploits against the CIA attracts the attention of soldiers wanting to fight for the legendary Big Boss. As you befriend local revolutionary fighters from Nicaragua, scientists, and other essential personnel, your base grows and it kind of feels like you're building a home.
Many players who have poured hours into MGS:PW might have a beloved soldier that stuck out as their favorite. It might even be their best one. The code names for soldiers were randomly generated from a list of animals. For example, Boa, Gorilla, etc. You could even use these soldiers instead of Snake/Big Boss for most missions. My best soldier was Raccoon Dog, she had maximum stats and made the game very easy to play eventually, lol.
The video above is from Metal Gear Solid: Ground Zeroes. It was more or less a prologue/tech-demo that was released in anticipation of Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain. Ground Zeroes only had a single story mission and the video above is the final cutscene from the game. When I first saw it, I was absolutely crushed. I assume many Metal Gear fans who pours hundreds of hours into Peace Walker felt the same way. Mother Base, the research facility in the Caribbean that grew and became home to your soldiers in the previous game, is under attack by a paramilitary group called XOF. The cutscene is not pretty and it still cuts pretty deep.
RIP Racoon Dog.
Nine years later, you begin to rebuild your base again in MGSV. Honestly, the second time around wasn't as interesting. Peace Walker had a lot more interactions between characters in the form of secret tapes that you could unlock. One that comes to mind is Big Boss's rant about Santa Claus being real. Or Kazuhira Miller getting in trouble for being a womanizer. MGSV is a game about revenge and I think Kojima wanted to make sure that point was clear.
I've always been drawn to this type of storytelling/gameplay combination. It actually is what motivated me to lead a Free Company (guild) in Final Fantasy XIV for a few years. However, like Big Boss, I lost half of my members seemingly overnight when they decided to split up the servers into a new data center. Many of my members did not want to be in the "casual/RP" servers and transferred to the one that had the "raiding" servers. After that, I didn't have the motivation to lead anymore and I slowly let what remained of the group die.It's really hard to lose a second family like that in a blink of an eye!
I think that's why I really enjoyed the event in Girls' Frontline 2. Even though the commander lost a lot of friends, eventually they came back. Or they still remember them fondly. It's the good ending that I wish I had gotten all those years back, haha.