I do not know if you follow pro wrestling, but is Kojima then like Vince Russo? Who was a part of the most successful era in WWF during the late 90s, because he had a filter, a guy who would nix his dumbest ideas in Vince McMahon? This allowed Russo to shine, but when given free reigns (WCW, TNA later on) you would realize just how stupid his storylines were
Perhaps that is why MGS feels so restrained and "normal" compared to everything afterwords, after that game and the success it achieved, it seems Kojima became the king over at Konami and nobody could tell him no. Who knows what MGS2 would have been like if there was a guy who outranked Kojima and told him 'no' on several occasions?
Obviously i am just speculating, i do not know the inner workings at Konami, but i do know that there is a huge difference between the original MGS and basically everything that followed it
