There’s been a lot of controversy surrounding the outfit worn by Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain’s Quiet, the female assassin who inexplicably dons a poorly fitted bikini/ripped tights combo that looks pretty out of place on the battlefield.
After many criticized the objectification of one of the game’s only female characters, creator Hideo Kojima defended the decision and stated that there was a reason for her attire that would justify its inclusion in the game. Now that we’ve found out what that reasoning is, suffice to say that it’s a pretty poor excuse. Read the reason for Quiet fighting a war in a bikini below:
[Spoiler Warning]
At the start of the game Quiet attempts to kill Big Boss, but she fails after her plan is thwarted and she is sent hurtling out of a hospital window in a ball of flames. After her body was found, she was revived and experimented upon, and given superhuman powers in the process. However, her body was also filled with deadly parasites that she unleashes whenever she speaks, with her therefore remaining silent which therefore explains her name. Another downside of these parasites is that they have a severe impact upon her breathing, with the game’s story stating that she needs to have her skin exposed in order to do so. That’s it. That’s the explanation for her wearing a bikini.
[Spoilers End]
Quiet’s official figurine even has squishy boobs, in case you were going to argue that her costume was created for any kind of practical reason.
So yeah, pretty dumb.
Metal Gear Solid V is a great game and this shouldn’t discourage people from buying it, especially considering that Quiet is actually one of its more interesting characters (and that’s saying something considering this is an MGS game), but that she appears with so little clothing is disappointing, with the reasoning behind this decision only serving as a thinly veiled excuse to have her wandering around near-naked.
There are many who have stood up for Kojima and pointed to the culture differences between the Japanese and Western audience, with the former being hugely into cosplay and Quiet’s outfit apparently being created to cater specifically to that crowd, but it should be noted that just because this is deemed acceptable in one culture doesn’t necessarily mean that we all have to accept it, too. Quiet’s outfit stands to undermine her character, and considering she’s the most prominent of very few female characters in arguably the biggest game of the year, it’s more than a little disheartening.
