What Happened To Metal Gear Rising?

Welcome to the second edition of our “What Happened To” feature, in which we analyse games that have undergone drastic change, or have had a complex development period that our readers may not be fully sure about. The first feature covered Hitman: Absolution, and it also serves to inform you all about the reasons for the change as well as tell you about the new game. Right, let’s go!

The story of Metal Gear Solid: Rising, now called Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance, is perhaps one of the most interesting ones in recent times. It’s the story of how a game first emerged looking like one of the most exciting games some of us have seen in years, to turning into something that gave us mixed reactions and we’re not too sure about. But of course, we give everything a chance and will wait until the game releases to judge properly, but it’s still upsetting considering what we saw in the beginning.

Where It All Began

The game was first hinted at during Hideo Kojima’s keynote presentation at the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco back in 2009, and it was during a lengthy presentation that covered the entire development process of the Metal Gear franchise right up to Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots, but at the end there was a reveal for the future. The final mission title was “The Next MGS” and featured MGS4’s Cyborg Raiden standing next to the title. But that’s not when we first saw it.

Gamers got their first ever teaser for Metal Gear Solid: Rising at E3 2009, where it was officially announced to the public at the Microsoft Press Conference. The legendary series’ director Hideo Kojima revealed it himself, and the game was originally only announced for Xbox360 before it was later confirmed for both PC and PlayStation 3, marking the first fully multi-platform Metal Gear Solid game in the series’ history. According to the “Kojima Productions Report” podcast that surfaced at the time, the game was going to use a brand new engine instead of the one seen in MGS4, and it was also announced that Hideo Kojima would not have a big involvement with the game because he wanted to give the new bloods at the studio a chance, as well as focus 100% of his attention on the PSP’s Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker project. You can take a look at the game’s first teaser trailer down below.

Fans were very excited to see actual gameplay of Metal Gear Solid: Rising, because before the game was teased at E3 of 2009, it was hyped up on Kojima Productions’ website, and gamers took particular notice of the traditional MGS tagline of “Tactical Espionage Action” being replaced with “Lightning Bolt Action,” which was seen as a play on the fact that Raiden’s name means “thunder and lightning” in Japanese. However after E3 2009, the game pretty much disappeared, and it wasn’t until E3 of 2010, the next year, that we heard about it again, and this time it came packed with an exciting full reveal.

Again during Microsoft’s press conference at E3 2010 on June 14, Hideo Kojima made an appearance to introduce the game as well as Rising’s original lead designer, Mineshi Kimura, who unveiled the first ever trailer for the game that featured a cutscene as well as actual gameplay footage that caused MGS fans to lose their minds from the awesomeness on display. It was in this trailer that we were first introduced to the game’s zan-datsu concept, which means “cut and take” roughly translated.

Check out the fantastic trailer.

Shortly after, details exploded. First up were some great screenshots taken from the E3 trailer, and a few days later we got our hands on the first details for the game, which informed us that the game would be an interquel taking place somewhere between Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty and Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots. The story would follow Raiden’s journey and explain how he became the cyborg ninja we saw and loved in MGS4.  We were also told that the game aimed to raise Raiden’s popularity, and would feature a new type of predator stealth for the series titled “hunting stealth”, and focus heavily on the player’s freedom to “cut at will” with Raiden’s blade during combat.

We then found out that the game wouldn’t feature many returning characters, as the developers wanted “newcomers to the game to come in and play freely without needing to know and understand the background of the whole Metal Gear Solid universe.” The game was further hyped by lead designer Mineshi Kimura, who said that the game’s stealth elements would focus on Raiden’s heightened speed and agility, as the player would hunt their targets and be able to move like he did in the MGS4 trailers. The game would show “the stealth of the sword, and the strength of not even losing to the gun, and the fear and power you have with this blade.” Excitement was on the rise, excuse the pun, when the game’s producer, Shigenobu Matsuyama, told us that a “no-kill completion” could be achieved.

Later in the year at the 2010 Tokyo Game Show, we were treated to the “Free Cutting” trailer that showed off the game’s slicing mechanics. Here, Sony announced that the PlayStation 3 version of the game would be playable in 3D, which was exciting for fans. After that, the game completely dropped off the radar until January 2011 where we got some concept art, and November 2011 where we discovered, shortly before Rising was set to appear at 2011’s Spike VGAs, that the game’s producer had been replaced. Yuji Korekado was now at the helm, taking over from Shigenobu Matsuyama.

Finally, before we learned that Rising was in fact no more, we heard our last of it in November 2011, when we were informed that Hideo Kojima would be talking about Rising and Metal Gear Solid 5 in the next issue of the Official PlayStation Magazine. We didn’t know what to expect, but it was certainly exciting. Sadly, that was last we heard of Metal Gear Solid: Rising before the great change.

Why The Change?

The word is that Kojima Productions were struggling when it came to development of the game. Even though the team had thought out stories and scenarios for the game, the studio was allegedly finding it difficult to design Rising around the cutting concept. Perhaps there were many more reasons than that, but it came as devastating news to fans, including myself, when we learned that the project had been somewhat quietly cancelled late in 2010, baffling us since we had still been hearing about it here and there last year. However, we finally started learning the truth. Word is that Kojima had considered moving the project to developers abroad, but in the end he felt that a Japanese developer would be better suited to produce a ninja action game. We discovered that in early 2011, Kojima approached the president and CEO of Platinum Games, Tatsuya Minami, and spoke to him about restarting the cancelled Rising project with them. In case you’re wondering, Platinum Games are the guys who developed Bayonetta and Vanquish, which were both fast-paced, awesome action games.

Platinum must have been intrigued by the concept of Rising, because they accepted the project and took over development with Atsushi Inaba as the producer. The entire game was reworked from scratch, and would now use Platinum Games’ own engine. While the gameplay would be developed by them, Kojima Productions would be handling the game’s cutscenes and story elements. The story had been completely revised so that it now takes place after Metal Gear Solid 4 in order to reflect the new development style. This meant that Rising was no longer an interquel, and neither was it canon to the MGS story. It was now a spin-off project, and was no longer part of the main MGS series.

At the Spike Video Game Awards in December 2011, we finally learned that Metal Gear Solid: Rising was no more, and the game was now Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance. We got to see the first gameplay footage of it, and reactions to it were extremely mixed, because the game was entirely different, and had even changed genres, as it was now a hack and slash game. On top of that, it seemed to resemble some wild anime when it came to style, and had become fully action orientated and, well, cheesy. Check out the trailer below, and see for yourself how much Rising changed.

Well, what do you think?

Whatever our opinions towards it now may be, the fact remains that it is what it is, and there’s nothing we can do about it. Personally I’m sad to see what was originally an extremely awesome and interesting concept turn into something like this, but I can’t deny that Platinum Games have delivered the goods with Bayonetta and Vanquish, so perhaps we’re in for another great experience.

Time will tell, that’s for sure, but for now let’s end this off by talking about what we actually know about Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance. In all honesty, it’s not a whole lot, but that’s understandable considering that the game was only officially unveiled early last month. Let’s take a look.

What Do We Know?

For starters, around the time of the unveiling, in December’s Official PlayStation Magazine UK, Kojima revealed that Metal Gear Solid: Rising was “moving forward”, and that it was still significantly different other games in the series. But he assured fans that he still had an element of control over the project and would not let it stray too far away from the series’ roots. He said that “If somebody thinks ‘I love Snake’ and just really wants traditional stealth gameplay and that experience, then it may be hard to get into Rising, but for people who are more open and willing to try new things, it shouldn’t be a problem.”

It was revealed that Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance would be releasing in 2012 on PlayStation 3 and Xbox360, but unfortunately it was confirmed that there will be no PC version of the game. Hideo Kojima is now the executive producer of the project, and will be overseeing the game’s story and world. The trailer confirmed that the character of Raiden will once again be voiced by Quinton Flynn, who featured in previous MGS games. There was speculation that Bayonetta’s director Hideki Kamiya would be involved in the project, but he himself confirmed that he wasn’t part of the game’s development. The reasons for the game’s new title were also explained, and we were told that the change was made in order to reflect that the game isn’t part of the main series. Kojima confirmed that Revengeance will run at 60 frames per second, which was apparently a requirement he personally requested to Platinum Games. Finally, producer Atsushi Inaba stated that the PlayStation 3 would be the lead platform for the game, and this decision was made due to performance issues of Bayonetta on Sony’s console.

It may come of interest to you that Inaba acknowledged the mixed reactions to the unveiling of Revengeance, and used Twitter to address fans’ concern over the project. He said that even though he is aware of the mixed reactions, he hopes gamers will spot “a glimpse of the future” in the game’s first trailer. The producer also promised that its “love and respect will shine through” Revengeance.

Let’s conclude this long article with some information about the game from the development team.

The official story description for the game reads as follows:

The main character, Raiden, was once feared as the child soldier “Jack the Ripper” on the front lines of the First Liberian Civil War. Now, his combat mastery is channeled through a cyborg body as the strikes from his high-frequency blade slice even massive assault drones in two.

Raiden is contracted for VIP protection, military training and other duties by PMSCs (Private Military and Security Companies) in a developing country piecing itself back together after a bloody civil war. Little does he know that the stage is set for a clash with an enigmatic force of countless cyborgs. Reborn at the hands of PlatinumGames, METAL GEAR RISING: REVENGEANCE pits cyborg against cyborg in battle that blazes past every human limit!

And here is a extract from the game’s official website, briefly elaborating on the development process:

METAL GEAR SOLID: RISING was a spin-off intended to feature the actions and transformation of Raiden, one of METAL GEAR SOLID 2: SONS OF LIBERTY’s main characters, in the lead-up to METAL GEAR SOLID 4: GUNS OF THE PATRIOTS. However, after PlatinumGames came on board, the story was changed to take place several years after METAL GEAR SOLID 4 to give them more of an opportunity to show off what they can bring to the series. Cyborgs are spreading at a rapid pace in the game’s world, resulting in earth-shattering superhuman action at every turn! The original aim for a combination of stealth and action has also been enhanced, for a more aggressive new focus on pure, exhilarating action.

Naturally, Kojima Productions is still overseeing the game’s story and its world, and is also providing visual direction to ensure METAL GEAR RISING: REVENGEANCE retains the characteristic look of the METAL GEAR series. Though its exact identity is a step apart from the METAL GEAR SOLID games, the blood of the series still flows within this new METAL GEAR. Kojima Productions and PlatinumGames: Two world-class powerhouses among Japanese studios join forces to bring you METAL GEAR RISING: REVENGEANCE .

Lastly, an interview titled “The Truth Behind Rising” was released, with its aim being to allow fans to “get the facts straight from Hideo Kojima as well as PlatinumGames and Kojima Productions members! The truth that has been under wraps for so long is finally revealed!” Check it out below.

That wraps up the story of Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance. Personally, I’m a bit sad to see what happened to the original concept of this game, because I definitely took interest to the unique and exciting premise, but I guess I can’t pass judgement at this point in time, and should perhaps give Platinum Games some more credit since they recently brought us Bayonetta and Vanquish.

We’ll be watching this one closely in the future, so stay tuned for what’s to come.

Name: Azhar Lorgat
Location: Cape Town
Position: Potato

Azhar has published 3571 posts. Read all of Azhar's posts.

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