Honestly how much ayahuasca did this dude take? The ending is the equivalent of being strapped to a chair while kojima forcefully injects his entire being into the veins of the player. As far as his story telling tradition goes he nearly checked every box.
The entire journey from start to finish basically being pointless? Check
The main character being cloned relentlessly? Check
A focal character not even f***ing existing? Check
A 1v1 slug fest with fighting game style health bars? Check
This is “Luke I am your father” taken to ethereal levels. He didn’t just break the 4th wall I daresay he sexually assaulted it.
He made you walk all the way to the west coast, told you the purpose of it was essentially all bullshit And then he f***ing made you walk back. The final boss was a floating black bt whale for the purpose of Jack s***. I have so many questions surely this will be a franchise. So lou will basically grow up to be Sam. Will he be solid Sam? Will there be a liquid Sam? Is the original Sam basically big boss? Will liquid sam try to kill solid Sam? This is mgs on f***ing meth bruh. I honestly don’t even know how to feel. The journey was great there’s obvious spiritual undertones to the whole thing but tbh I’m kinda f***ing lost. Great game tho

Did you avoid reviews?
iirc one or two reviews with spoilers said that the story essentially had no pay off it was for nothing.

I felt it had pay off but honestly I wouldn’t be mad at someone for having that perspective especially if they didn’t like the gameplay through and through