Because Kojima had such a little role in his titles, the next game created without him, "Metal Gear Survive", was a full success.

Metal Gear Survive received a generally negative response ... selling 85% fewer copies than Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance, and 95% fewer copies than Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain.

That's bit harsh to say that all his great works are not his.

I do share the sentiment that Kojima's writing has been in downhill for quite sometime and he really in need of a good editor. I actually think that his stories are more coherent or at least entertaining in his earlier works, e.g.

• Snatcher
• Policenauts
• MGS 1
• Some like MGS 2, but I think the boring oil rig setting broke me, and the constant chatter with 'Colonel' didn't help
• MGS 3
• Peacewalker
• MGS Rising

What I actually like is his obsessive attention to details that barely matters when it comes to gameplay, e.g. melting ice cubes, aiming at enemy's crotch to get dog tags, etc.

Kojima games started clicking for me when he introduced the 'R&D system' in Peacewalker, where it's actually a RPG progression system but the rewards are absurd equipments. As the matter of fact, I like the 'walking and R&D' parts of Death Stranding a lot, but really dislike the enemy encounters and the story in that game.

And it's okay, not every games are for everyone, I'm glad that someone is giving him blank cheques for his absurd ideas that are not the norms.

Can you elaborate further on this? It's not a take I'm familiar with when it comes to Kojima.

He definitely wants his games to be movies without having much of an idea how to direct a movie, but they still have more of an unique identity than a lot of games out there.

I'm not sure I can fully agree with this, but he does seem like somebody who is at his best when he has people who can rein in his excesses a bit. He reminds me of George Lucas in that way. He badly needs a good editor.

Considering how weirdly prescient the first one was, I'm looking forward to it.