During TGS, I had many interviews with foreign media. The most frequently asked question was: "Why is Snake old?" I was also asked many times: "Why did Hideo return for MGS4?"

The theme of the Metal Gear Solid series is: "What should we pass on to future generations?" I addressed GENE in MGS1, MEME in MGS2, and SCENE in MGS3. I have drawn a chain of lives and linked each life together with the passing of a baton: "With the foundation of history (SCENE), we are forced to accept certain GENES and MEMES."

These are the three Metal Gear Solid games. Because of this, the Metal Gear Solid series finished with the third game.

In the meantime, I have passed the soul of MGS on to gamers. I have passed on the way of making MGS to the production staff. The younger generation with whom I struggled to make three MGS games was supposed to launch into a new battlefield, MGS4, without me.

However neither the soul nor the will of the experience were passed on to them, either to gamers or my staff. I seem to have forgotten something in the MGS series: I have forgotten to pass along the will (SENSE).

Only I can pass this on; I must show it by myself. Therein lies the reason for a forty-two year old game designer to return to direct production. To reveal the soul that continues to change and to grow, even if we grow to old age – this is the final thing that I must pass on to the next generation.

The creators who support the game industry are "salary men", which includes me, too. In the video game industry, as soon as a creator produces a best-seller he is assigned to a position of leadership within the organization. Implicitly, the creators leave the production teams. Alternatively, some creators may establish their own company. But this also removes them from the production team's struggles. At the end of their success, they have begun a business which is nothing more than a side-effect of the creative experience.

I enjoy creating games. I want to hang on to the creative experience. I only have to prove that I have the willpower to do so. The image of Grandpa Snake is a reflection of the determination of this middle-aged man.

Around lunch time I found a book that I haven't seen around for a long time: Andre Norton's Sargasso of Space. It was reissued to celebrate the Hayakawa Publishing Corporation's 60th Anniversary Revival Fair.

The illustrations on the cover and inside the book are the same as the original edition. I feel nostalgic when I flip through the pages.

I was in the seventh grade when I first encountered the book. I bought the book because I was a huge fan of Mr. Reiji Matsumoto, the creator and illustrator of many famous anime such as Captain Harlock and Galaxy Express 999. Matsumoto drew the cover illustration as well as those inside the book. Back then I read anything with illustrations by Mr. Matsumoto – even volumes of hard science like Bluebacks. After having read Sargasso of Space, I discovered a new world of science fiction.

The story was good, too. The book was the start of my reading in science fiction, which mostly involved books published by Hayakawa Publishing Company. Until then I had been reading mostly mystery novels. In short, Sargasso of Space changed my fate.

Andre Norton wrote the Space Queen series, in honor of the name of the space ship
where the story takes place. The first four of the books were written by Ms. Norton
herself, from 1955 to 1969; the fifth was co-written with P. M. Griffin in 1993; and then the sixth and seventh were co-written by Sherwood Smith in 1996 and 1997. However, only the first two books in the series were translated and published in Japan: Sargasso of Space and Plague Ship. (Of course, Mr. Matsumoto illustrated the Japanese editions.) I remember sending many letters to the publishing company requesting the translation of the rest of the series. I was merely was a junior high school student then.

I bought Sargasso of Space and Plague Ship at a shop where a friend guided me in Jinbocho two years ago. My guide was Ichiro Kurume, the king of used books. At the Revival Fair, I had a commemorative reprint edition right in my hands, so I bought it. I also bought three volumes of the reprinted Complete Cobra by Terasawa Buichi.

Even after all this time, good books are respected – and they deserve that respect.

Today I interviewed some job applicants. We distributed flyers at TGS that read, "Talented people wanted." I suspect that busy days lie ahead. Easily half of the creativity in a project is determined by the influences brought by encountering others.

I wonder what sorts of people I will meet. I look forward to it.

I checked the sound on Subsistence's third disc, which will be included in the first edition set. I started with the first and second chapters. Balancing out the sound, dialogue, and music. It’s difficult connecting the cut-scenes and the other parts of the game.

The normal processing method runs from the game to the cut-scene, and back to the game. Because of the placement of a game sequence between the cut-scenes, or a cut-scene between game sequences, the visual transition between scenes of the same type is made easily. However, when we must remove the gameplay sequences we must make sensible transitions between the cut-scenes to maintain the flow of the story. Without the context of the gameplay sequences, the meaning of the scenes change.

We need to work on editing the flow between action scenes, story scenes, and the transition scenes that stitch the whole work together. We also need to decide what to do with the dialogue-intensive scenes over the radio. We will watch everything from start to finish and then make that decision.

I am still proofing and debugging the game at the office, even though it is around midnight. The end is still far off.