About

Dr. Hal Emmerich (ハル・エメリッヒ博士?), nicknamed Otacon (オタコン?) due to his fondness of anime, first appears in Metal Gear Solid as an ArmsTech employee who designed Metal Gear REX.[5] He is also a highly accomplished hacker. After being rescued by Snake from the Ninja(Grey Fox), and after wetting his pants, he begins to assist him after he realizes that REX is being used by the terrorists to launch a new type of nuclear warhead. His assistance is instrumental to Snake's victory, but at a cost: he is forced to watch Snake execute Sniper Wolf, a woman he had developed a crush on. Otacon's family has a rather dark history with nuclear weapons: his grandfather was part of the Manhattan Project, and his father was born on the same day as the Hiroshima bomb. Kojima states that he created Otacon as his way of glorifying the otaku stereotype by having a character who fights the terrorists with his intellect rather than his brawn.[11] According to Kojima, the original idea of Otacon was to make him "heavier, wearing a cap, and programming while eating a chocolate bar". However, the design Shinkawa did for the character was a slender one instead.[12]

In Metal Gear Solid 2, Otacon and Solid Snake form Philanthropy, an anti-proliferation organization dedicated to the eradication of all Metal Gears. During the Tanker chapter, Otacon once again supports Snake via the codec and is in charge of saving the player's progress. He later appears in the Plant chapter, having infiltrated the Big Shell facility with Snake to save his stepsister Emma, who is among the hostages. Tragically, Emma is grievously wounded by Vamp and later, Otacon is forced to watch Emma die in his arms. He later transports the surviving hostages to safety and then provides support to Raiden via codec for the remainder of the game. Lead character designer Yoji Shinkawa stated in an interview that Otacon was designed to look somewhat "tougher" than he did in Metal Gear Solid.[13]

Though Otacon himself does not appear in Metal Gear Solid 3 (the game being set in the 1960s), his grandfather (who was part of the Manhattan project) is mentioned in a radio call between Naked Snake and Sigint (although Sigint is unable to remember his name correctly) and he appears in a photograph alongside Russian weapons designer Aleksandr Leonovitch Granin.[14]

Otacon appears in Metal Gear Solid 4, still lending his support to Snake. He and Sunny (Olga's daughter) build a robotic companion to Snake called Metal Gear Mk. II, which he controls remotely. The Mk. II is taken from a robotic character of the same name in Snatcher.[1] He becomes romantically involved with Naomi Hunter through the course of the story although he once again loses her to circumstances beyond his control, thus forcing him yet again to witness the death of a woman he cared about. In the codec of MGS4, Otacon tells Snake that he and Sunny will live with Snake for the remainder of his life, to serve as witnesses of his existence.