In my head this game started out as a parody of the mid-2000s trend of western studios bastardizing beloved japanese franchises, but along the way they just couldn't help but make the game Actually Good. Like, I imagine there was a planning meeting where somebody joked, "If an American studio made a Metal Gear Solid game, there probably wouldn't even be any stealth. You'd just run around smoking cigarettes and shooting robots... wait a minute, that's sick as hell"