Hideo Kojma says Metal Gear Solid 3's iconic sniper fight was originally much bigger

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The End's boss fight was meant to take place across a vast map with multiple areas

Metal Gear Solid 3
(Image credit: Konami)

Metal Gear Solid 3's fight against The End was originally going to be much grander in scale.

Earlier today, Hideo Kojima - he who loves a tweet or three - revealed some new intriguing details surrounding Metal Gear Solid 3 after watching another episode of a current playthrough on YouTube. The director revealed Metal Gear Solid 3's boss fight against The End was originally going to be much bigger, taking place over multiple map areas.

This would apparently be a "huge map with multiple areas to go back and forth," Kojima writes in the first tweet above. However, Kojima then found the idea to be "unbalanced" when it came to playtesting the fight against The End, and so the climactic sniper shootout was reduced to taking place on merely one map in the final game.

Despite this setback though, it's fair to say the fight against The End ended up working out just fine. The sniper shootout is one of the more memorable moments in Metal Gear Solid 3, a game chock full of iconic scenes, and if you don't feel like fighting the ancient man, you can just leave your save unused for long enough so that he keels over from old age.

In the comments underneath Kojima's second tweet, there's dozens of messages praising the change. "You were right to do it it’s the best part of any mgs game," one Metal Gear Solid fan writes, with another chiming in with "The End fight left a lasting impact on me. I think about it often."

This is just Kojima's latest reminiscing on Metal Gear Solid 3. Last month in March, the director revealed the CQC sequence for the title screen left one actor in physical pain, and the CQC in itself came about after Kojima consulted military personnel to get an idea about fighting in a post-9/11 world. 

Meanwhile, a Metal Gear Solid 3 vocalist shot down remake speculation after fans went rampant over a song recording.

Hirun Cryer
Hirun Cryer
Freelance Writer

Hirun Cryer is a freelance reporter and writer with Gamesradar+ based out of U.K. After earning a degree in American History specializing in journalism, cinema, literature, and history, he stepped into the games writing world, with a focus on shooters, indie games, and RPGs, and has since been the recipient of the MCV 30 Under 30 award for 2021. In his spare time he freelances with other outlets around the industry, practices Japanese, and enjoys contemporary manga and anime.