Metal Wolf Chaos was actually the very first game I played in Japanese, and despite not knowing a lick of it I went through it just fine, so it’s very import-friendly for those people who, for some reason, don’t feel like studying Japanese for five years.

As for why it was passed over for import/localization…well, I’m sure the reasons list would be a mile and a half long.

A good example of this in action is when Happai-tai released the “Yatta!” single. It portrayed blithely idiotic salarymen who had lost everything, including the shirt on their back. Yet they still remained stupidly upbeat. This was made to show the utter hypocrisy of such a stupid lifestyle, by portraying it in kind. Unfortunately, it was taken at face value abroad and the Western populace thought it was a ridiculous paean to the Japanese work ethic.

Metal Wolf Chaos is purposefully ridiculous in its satire, as the denigration of hubris deserves nothing less.

“In truth, it was actually quite clever satire as much of the game purposefully exaggerates the selfish arrogance and insecurity of those in power, as Michael Wilson ultimately destroys half the nation he is trying to take back, including a memorable section where you attack an armored version of the White House (shrewdly called the “Fight House”). As far as he is concerned, Wilson still thinks it’s “his” country and screw the Republic. It’s just that the way Japanese satire displays this obvious hypocrisy as being overtly silly, rather than through acerbic wit, meant that many took the whole setup literally.”

I think readers without the context of the actual game might take this more strongly than perhaps it should be. While Wilson does indeed show a certain about of bloodthirstiness for literally stomping on the men and women still working for the US Army, the game is always very careful to say “coup d’etat forces” rather than “US Army.” There’s never any attempt to portray the Vice President’s rebellion as anything but an illegitimate grab at power, and as the game goes on it’s fairly clear that anyone still working for the Vice President are clearly insane. Building Alcatraz Prison into an “anti-terrorist” wave motion gun? Maybe. But gassing Detroit? Selling Florida into slavery? Public executions via guillotine? Having a giant robot spider with a microwave beam terrorize Times Square? Crushing the Statue of Liberty with a giant tank? All of the above for literally no reason whatsoever? Anyone in the US Army who thinks knocking down the Statue of Liberty is OK while setting a giant robotic spider to chase down any remaining populace of New York probably doesn’t deserve to be in the armed forces anymore. They’re Cobra Commander style villains at that point.

While President Wilson does get rewarded for collateral damage, and everything in the game blows up really nice, I don’t think it’s a sense of entitlement because he’s the President of the United States, so much as the fact that the Vice President is literally just so evil that collateral damage no longer really matters. Blowing up 50% of New York to save the other 50% makes a certain amount of sense, it’s just the fact that he’s not concerned about the 50% he personally destroys that makes it odd.

I think President Wilson is more a parody of the kind of US President you see on movies and the huge disconnect that has with reality. Just like the President in, say, Independence Day, he has some vague military background so that we’re informed that he’s a badass, and we see him almost-but-not-quite grasping moral decisions before going into Action Movie Mode and just destroying everything in the name of justice, because the other side is so definitely worse that any huge explosions caused by the Good Guys really don’t register on the scale of devastation. No one likes an action movie where the badass hero mopes about the swathe of destruction he just caused.

Honestly though, my favorite part of the game is the President’s secretary. She is just hilariously insane.