Metal Gear Solid V's own lightning storm of controversy, the sniper Quiet, is joining a number of other characters of the framed franchise to come with karate chop action and kung-fu grip. Series creator Hideo Kojima tweeted a picture of the scantily clad marksman's very own action figure.
The figure comes courtesy of Play Arts Kai, a company that's made some pretty impressive MGS figurines in the past, including Raiden, Liquid, Solidus, Meryl, as well as characters from other games like Final Fantasy, Street Fighter, Devil May Cry, Resident Evil, and more.
Much like her outfit, the figure itself, seen above, is a work in progress, and if it's anything like the company's other figures, expect a nice range of attachable parts.
Kojima unveiled the mute sniper in September and her apparent lack-of-an-ensemble was quick to catch the attention of gamers, franchise fans, developers, and everyone in between.
Little is known about the character, save that her name is derived from her speech, and a scene cited and described by the ESRB in its reason for giving Ground Zeroes a "M" for "mature" rating may explain why.
While criticized by many, the character's obvious sex appeal was intended by design on orders from Kojima himself. Speaking during a Q&A session, Kojima explained, "What I'm really trying to do is create unique characters. One of those is, of course, Quiet. She's a really unique character; I wanted to add that sexiness to her. It wasn't really supposed to be erotic, but sexy."
It should be noted that the MGS series has a bit of a tradition of its characters showing a bit more skin than is perhaps necessary for a battlefield, and for both sexes. But in my recent memory, I can't recall causing them causing this much of a stink in the past. The original MGS had some Merryl moments, her in or underwear, Snake noticing her "walk;" Raiden cartwheeling around naked in Sons of Liberty; topless torture scenes in the first three games, the use of girlie mags used to distract soldiers; etc.
Ultimately, this is par for the course when it comes to Metal Gear. The main baddies in the previous game in the series, Metal Gear Solid 4: Sons of Liberty, the Beauty and the Beast unit, all of their appearances under the mask were based on models: Screaming Mantis was Scarlett Chorvat, Laughing Octopus was Lyndall Jarvis, Raging Raven was Yumi Kikuchi, and Crying Wolf was Mieko Rye. This is no different for Metal Gear Solid V's Quiet, whose voice (or lack thereof) and appearance are performed by Dutch model Stefanie Joosten.
Joosten supported the design as well, having said said, "Mr. Kojima has his reasons for deciding why Quiet [is] wearing what she's wearing. Players will just have to look forward to that."
The first part of Metal Gear Solid V, Ground Zeroes, acts as a prologue to The Phantom Pain, and takes place in 1975, shortly after the events of Peace Walker, but nine years before Pain. Expect it to work as something of an expanded tutorial, helping to show newcomers the ups and downs, as well as feature "Side-Op" sub-missions, and a few challenge trials with ranking and leaderboards if you're feeling competitive. The game will take place at a U.S. black site facility in Cuba dubbed Camp Omega. Fans were introduced to the camp (as well as a mysterious disfigured mess of a man) in a trailer shown during an event celebrating the 25th anniversary of the series.
The game is expected to release this March for PlayStation 3 and 4, and Xbox 360 and One. The Phantom Pain will arrive on the same systems sometime in 2014.