When Does the Novel "Metal Gear Solid: The Phantom Pain" (2015) Take Place?
"Metal Gear Solid: The Phantom Pain" (it has never been officially translated for English-speaking audiences) is a spy science fiction novel written by Kenji Yano a.k.a. Hitori Nojima [adapting "Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain" (2015) by Hideo Kojima with Shuyo Murata, Hidenari Inamura, and Etsu Tamari] that released October 25th, 2015. So when is "The Phantom Pain" set?
It takes place on an alternate timeline of the fictional Metal Gear universe in the year:
We know this because in chapter one the narrator tells us, "They called the parents to the boy, who was staying at an institute in Czechoslovakia, and reunited them there." The country of Czechoslovakia was a European dual-ethnic nation country that was formed on October 18th, 1918 AD and split into the separate nations of the Czech Republic and Slovakia on December 31st, 1992 AD. So it must be after October of 1918 AD but before January of 1993 AD.
1984 AD
We know this because in chapter one the narrator tells us, "They called the parents to the boy, who was staying at an institute in Czechoslovakia, and reunited them there." The country of Czechoslovakia was a European dual-ethnic nation country that was formed on October 18th, 1918 AD and split into the separate nations of the Czech Republic and Slovakia on December 31st, 1992 AD. So it must be after October of 1918 AD but before January of 1993 AD.
More specifically, during chapter two a radio disc jockey says, 'That song was "Walk Out to Winter" from Aztec Camera's debut album "High Land, Hard Rain," which was released last year, 1983.'
1983 + 1 = 1984.
It is a chronologically early novel in the Metal Gear universe and can be read at its timeline point before "Metal Gear" (1990).
