Explaining the bonkers mystery of Metal Gear Solid voice acting

Via a new Metal Gear Solid Delta promotional video, Konami just laid bare one of Metal Gear Solid’s greatest mysteries for all fans to see. After two decades of speculation, Metal Gear Solid fans all around the world recently received confirmation that the actress who played Eva in Metal Gear Solid 3 wasn’t really the actress Suzetta Miñet. Why? Well, because that person doesn’t even exist and was likely made up by the patriots (citation needed).

The real credit actually Jodi Benson, the same actress who’d voiced Ariel in Disney’s The Little Mermaid over 35 years ago. The explanation is rather simple. Benson built most of her career around family-friendly properties, so playing a highly sexualized role in a very violent game could jeopardize that.

That’s cool, especially as this piece of news comes just a little after we learned the identity of the actress who’d played Jill Valentine in the original Resident Evil — an even longer-standing mystery for fans. Still, there’s another really cool mystery few people even know about.

If you enjoy the series but don’t consider yourself a true fan, it’s possible you’ve witnessed the spectacular performances of James Flinders, Carren Learning, Mae Zadler, and wondered why they never did anything else after that game.

Well, that’s because even though the original Metal Gear Solid completely changed what voice acting meant for games, its actors originally forfeited real credit.

The original Metal Gear Solid was really cool for showing the voice actor’s name when introducing a character on screen, too bad those names were fake. Aside from David Hayter — who was mainly a screenwriter and not a voice actor before the game — few (if any) voice actor is given credit for their work in the game. That’s because all the real actors such as Cam Clarke and Debbie Mae West are union actors who feared the dangers of entering the then still-legally grey area of video game voice acting. Things had already changed by the time Metal Gear Solid 2 came out, and all of its actors are properly credited. Good, but I like to reminisce of a time when actors in a spy thriller went method to the point of even using silly-sounding fake identities.

Metal Gear Solid Delta: Snake Eater will release on February 27th, 2025, for the PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC.