Ever the one to tease his audience with cryptic messages, Hideo Kojima has unveiled a series of low-res images for Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain, which showcase a very weary Big Boss.
Aside from the caption “taking a break,” the esteemed Metal Gear designer didn’t share any new information regarding the upcoming sequel. Nevertheless, there’s no doubting the visual fidelity on display, and it looks to be the case that The Phantom Pain will only iterate on the excellent aesthetic of last year’s prologue, Ground Zeroes.
For the first time in the franchise, it’s understood that Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain will take the tactical espionage action and situate it in a massive open-world environment, kicking the linear gameplay to the curb. But fear not, the upcoming installment will still harbor all of the wacky humor that has become synonymous with the series throughout the course of its prestigious history.
Though The Phantom Pain is still without a release date at the time of going to press, before the turn of the year, Kojima did seem to indicate that the sequel would make its bow on June 22, 2015. In typical fashion, the developer donned a t-shirt during The Game Awards that sported the line “tjugoandra den sjätte,” which translates from Swedish as twenty-two the sixth. The reason that Kojima would reference a Scandinavian country comes down to the fact that Moby Dick Studios — the company that precluded the deceptive reveal trailer for MGS V — was of Swedish origin.
Whether or not Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain will indeed make its debut on June 22 remains to be seen. But for now, you can sate your appetite with the new-fangled, slightly blurry images below.
