After he started working for Konami, Merceron was really surprised by how much of the work Kojima actually does himself, and how much expertise he has. DualShockers reports:
Merceron didn’t really know what to expect from Hideo Kojima, as he knew him just as a friend. Since he did a lot of public relations and marketing, Merceron thought that maybe he was like a figurehead, with a lot of underlings doing everything from him, like game design and narrative design.
When they started to work together, Merceron was absolutely amazed. Kojima-san takes care of everything himself. He does marketing, Creativity on P.T “from A to Z,” the same with Metal Gear, he worked on the game design and on the story. Something not many know is that after Metal Gear Solid 4 was finished and work on Fox Engine started Kojima-san was among those who designed the technology. He’s a true technology enthusiast, and he wanted an engine that could represent him and that allowed him to deliver the experiences he aspired to create.
At first Merceron thought he would have to talk to Kojima-san in very simple terms, but that wasn’t the case at all. Kojima-san was beyond his expectations in everything: in the ideas he had, in his passion for his work, in his knowledge of technology, and even more so in his mastery of his vision. According to Merceron, he has never met anyone else who knows exactly how his game is going to look like before even seeing it.