I don't particularly understand the supposed "real ending" that happens between Mission 45 & Mission 46.
Big Boss is shown to die, but it is shown that we are somehow the medic the entire time. This is supposedly different from the fake ending that shows Skullface.
Could someone explain the real ending of MGS:V Phantom Pain to me? How do we know which one is the true ending, and how does it tie up with the other games (as this supposedly predates MGS 3 and the other games).
Best Answer
To my understanding the entire thing is a plan orchestrated by Big Boss.
He wakes up from his coma, and people find out wanting him dead. He disguises himself as Ishmael, and has the medic that took the brunt of the helicopter crash in "Ground Zero" "transformed" into a look alike or decoy. Ironically the medic was also in a coma for nine years.
He then takes it a step farther and has everyone convince this decoy or "phantom" as the game calls him, that he is in fact the real Big Boss. The reasoning is because Big Boss wants Outer Heaven to be a nation, and can acquire this goal with a "phantom" easier...
The Phantom goes on to making an Outer Heaven base in Africa (the setting of the original Metal Gear game for MSX) while the real Big Boss creates a base in Zanzibar (the setting of Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake). The Phantom is the Big Boss that Solid Snake fights and I guess kills in the first game, explaining why Big Boss was alive in Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake.