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Metal Gear Solid: Integral is a stealth-based game that was directed by Hideo Kojima and developed by Konami for the PlayStation. It was released only in Japan on June 24, 1999.
Integral is essentially an updated edition of the 1998 hit Metal Gear Solid, the third game in the Metal Gear series.
In actuality, it's a relocalized version of the original Metal Gear Solid made for a Japanese audience with all the added features from the America version of the game (adjustable difficulty settings, the Tuxedo costume for Snake, ect.) and the English-voiceovers from the American version replaced the original Japanese voice track (a choice between Japanese and English captions was added as well). A few more additions were made from the American version, most of them listed below, but essentially, the main game was mostly identical to the US version of the original game. Integral came with a third disc dubbed the "VR Disc", which added 300 new VR missions (including missions where you play as the "Ninja" character from the main game), along with bonus features such as trailers and photoshoots with Mei-Ling and Naomi (two of the game's female characters). The VR Disc was where most of Integral's new contents was stored and thus it was released in the US under the title of Metal Gear Solid: VR Missions as a stand-alone product.
New Features
Integral contains a number of new features that were not included in the original US version. Some of these are:
- The ability of the player to walk around in first-person view. Unfortunately, you still cannot use a gun when walking in first person (this feature wouldn't be added to the series until the release of Metal Gear Solid 2).
- A new difficulty level, called "Very Easy", which also included a new weapon (an MP5SD with infinite ammo).
- A new costume for Meryl that is unlocked after beating the game three times: she will be wearing Solid Snake's Sneaking Suit. This costume was inspired from a Japanese series of Metal Gear Solid Drama CDs which had Meryl wearing her own sneaking suit. Shinkawa included artwork in the booklet for these CDs which depicted the events narrated in the audio serials,
- A secret Codec frequency (140.07) which lets the player listen to some of the game's staff.
(Note: I am unsure if this list is complete; if you know of any other new features I missed, please don't hesitate to add them.)
VR Training Missions
Integral contains three discs. The first two contain the main game. The third, called the "VR-Disc", contains 300 VR training missions that can help the player perfect their stealth and weapons skills, solve interesting puzzles and mysteries, and play three missions as the fan-favorite Cyborg Ninja.
PocketStation
Integral is also one of the few games to utilize the Sony PocketStation. With it, the player can download a mini-game and also unlock certain playing modes.
Voice Acting
An interesting note about Integral is that, despite being exclusive to Japan, it uses the English voice acting featured in the North American version of Metal Gear Solid, replacing the Japanese voiceovers. This was done since Integral is essentially the "International Version" of Metal Gear Solid and needed to be set apart from the original Japanese version of the game. It also features English and Japanese subtitles.
Additional Info
In late 2000, a PC port of the original Metal Gear solid was made. This version of the game however, was made using the Integral version as a basis and thus it gave the casual North American and European gamers the chance to play the full version of Integral.
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