Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance

• 1. Introduction

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  Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance, released in 2013 by PlatinumGames and Konami, carries a grudge in its very title. The final word was chosen because Kojima Productions wanted to get revenge on an earlier project that had failed. That earlier project had a different name and a different developer. What was it, and why did it fall apart? How does a series built on sneaking past guards end up with a hero who cuts vehicles to pieces in slow motion? And how did a spin-off without the series' famous lead become a source of internet jokes years after release?

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• 2. Lightning Bolt Action

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  After Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots came out, designer Hideo Kojima began coming up with ideas for another Metal Gear game. His first idea starred The Boss and her comrades in the Cobra Unit. Younger staff were put in charge and Kojima was barely involved, so that project was scrapped. Then a team member suggested a sidestory about Raiden, who had appeared in Guns of the Patriots, and the staff agreed. The result was Metal Gear Solid: Rising. It was meant to show the events that turned Raiden into his cyborg ninja self, in a cruder-looking body.

  The first public hint came at the 2009 Game Developers Conference in San Francisco. Kojima's keynote ended on the words "The Next MGS", with Raiden standing beside the title. Before the reveal, the Kojima Productions website ran a countdown timer. The series slogan "Tactical Espionage Action" was swapped for "Lightning Bolt Action", a pun on the fact that Raiden's name is Japanese for thunder and lightning.

  The game was officially announced at E3 2009, during the Microsoft press conference. Kojima released a teaser trailer but served only as executive producer, because his own attention was on Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker. The game was first announced for the Xbox 360 alone. The PS3 and Windows were confirmed later. It was to run on a brand new engine rather than the one built for Metal Gear Solid 4.

  On the 10th of June 2010, four days before E3, the original cover artwork leaked on Xbox Live. At Microsoft's press conference on the 14th of June, Kojima introduced the original lead designer, Mineshi Kimura. Kimura showed a new trailer with cutscene and gameplay footage. On the 16th of June, he and creative producer Shigenobu Matsuyama presented the trailer again at Konami's press conference.

  Kimura said Rising would continue the series tradition of letting players advance without killing. Matsuyama added that players would never be rewarded for killing human opponents, and would never be forced to. He called the planned approach "hunting stealth". Instead of hiding, players would stalk enemies quickly and use acrobatic moves to stay out of sight. Kimura said he wanted to 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."

  Trouble was already visible. Realistic dismemberment during player-controlled sequences ran into a hard limit set by Japan's Computer Entertainment Rating Organization. The E3 2010 trailer on the game's Japanese website had those scenes removed. At Tokyo Game Show 2010, Sony announced that the PS3 version would be playable in 3D.

  Behind the scenes, Kojima Productions had written stories and scenarios but could not design a game around the cutting concept. The project was quietly cancelled in late 2010. Even so, in January 2011 concept art was displayed at The Art of Yoji Shinkawa, a two-week exhibit at the Konami Style Shop in Tokyo. By late 2011, Matsuyama had moved to another division of Konami and Yuji Korekado had taken over as lead producer.

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• 3. Platinum Steps In

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  In early 2011, Kojima met Atsushi Inaba of PlatinumGames, who asked him how Metal Gear Solid: Rising was doing. Kojima had thought about sending the project to developers abroad. He felt a Japanese studio would suit a ninja action game better, and he later asked Inaba to take it on.

  The new version, titled Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance, was revealed in a trailer at the Spike Video Game Awards on the 10th of December 2011. PlatinumGames asked for a change of setting so it would face fewer restrictions. Soon after starting, the studio dropped stealth, and Kojima noted that the original staff had not felt it suited high-speed action. Stealth returned later because Inaba found the original game system too "dull".

  Kojima also asked for a smooth 60 frames per second. Inaba chose the PlayStation 3 as the lead platform to avoid a repeat of the performance problems that Bayonetta had suffered on that console. Konami's Martin Scheider promised the game was "in safe hands" with Korekado supervising and Inaba developing. Korekado said the aim was to make Raiden's action scenes from Metal Gear Solid 4 playable.

  Kojima Productions first planned to release the game in Japan without Japanese voices. In August 2012, it was revealed that Japanese audio would be included, with new and returning actors. Yoji Shinkawa designed only Raiden. Freelance artist Kenichirou Yoshimura designed the other characters, working to match Shinkawa's style.

  Promotion in April 2012 included a replica of Raiden's severed arm, sent to various video game publications. Inside was a small live-action teaser. In the following weeks, an official website launched with a longer version and new scenes. The game became playable for the first time at E3 2012, in early June.

  Rewriting the script took Kojima Productions two months, compared with ten months for the original. The writer was Etsu Tamari, who discussed differences of opinion with director Kenji Saito whenever the two studios disagreed. The plot was written so that people who had never played a Metal Gear game could follow it. Cutscenes were shortened to balance against play time, though no part of the script was cut. Human soldiers were removed to avoid censorship trouble in Japan.

  Tamari wanted a more mature Raiden who hoped to follow in Snake's footsteps. A darker design led the staff to call him "Black Raiden". He also needed a companion, which became the dog-like robot Bladewolf. Just as Snake guides Raiden in Sons of Liberty, the mature Raiden acts as mentor to Bladewolf. Senator Armstrong, the final villain, was loosely based on Raiden's old rival Vamp, since both contrast with the cybernetic bodies explored in the games.

  Kenyu Horiuchi, the Japanese voice of Raiden, was acting as the lead for the first time. He felt his thirty years of experience suited the role. Quinton Flynn, the English voice, felt honored to return. He recorded each line in three different ways, and he enjoyed the series' humor when Raiden dresses as a mariachi in Mexico.

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• 4. Blades and Beats

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  Raiden's high-frequency blade is his main weapon, but the cutting system that gives the game its identity is called Blade Mode. Activating it produces a transparent blue plane that the player can move and rotate freely. Orange holographic lines trace across the target to show exactly where a cut will fall. It also triggers a bullet time state, so a player can slice an airborne target several times before it lands.

  Virtually any object can be cut, including vehicles and enemies. Elements of the environment were deliberately limited to structures such as pillars and walls to suit the mechanic. Players can sever support columns to drop ceilings onto enemies, find gaps in armor, deflect gunfire, or cut away enemy cover. The cost is energy. Blade Mode drains Raiden's energy, and when it falls too low the mode cannot be used.

  Zandatsu is the move that makes slicing worthwhile. When the player cuts a dismembered cyborg through a small red box during Blade Mode, parts, energy, ammunition, items and sometimes data are taken from the body. The move fully restores Raiden's health and energy. Ripper Mode, gained during the story, greatly enhances his power for a limited time while quickly consuming energy.

  A parry works even when Raiden's back is turned, which opens the way to counterattacks and long combos. Ninja Run drastically increases his speed, lets him deflect bullets and allows him to climb certain areas for ambushes. After each mission, the player earns points and a grade, with "S" the highest. Points buy upgrades for his equipment.

  Raiden's sub-weapons include two kinds of rocket launchers and four kinds of grenades. Other tools are stranger: the iconic cardboard box, an empty oil drum, and a 3D photo frame. Hiding in the box or the drum hides the player from enemies. Reconnaissance uses Raiden's visor, which highlights enemies through walls, and Blade Wolf scouts and gathers intel.

  The soundtrack followed the same turn away from stealth. Director Kenji Saito proposed heavy, fast music with lyrics, and Kojima Productions accepted. Jamie Christopherson composed the score and wrote thirteen vocal songs, with additional music by Graeme Cornies, Brian Pickett, James Chapple and David Kelly. Singers included John Bush, Tyson Yen, Free Dominguez, Jason C. Miller and Jimmy Gnecco. A 29-track album, Metal Gear Rising Revengeance Vocal Tracks, was released on the 20th of February 2013.

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• 5. War Economy

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  The story takes place in 2018, four years after Metal Gear Solid 4. The Patriots, a deep state that ran the world's war economy, have been destroyed, and private military companies have splintered into many factions. Raiden, a former Liberian child soldier turned cyborg, now works for Maverick Security Consulting. His colleagues are Russian pointman Boris Popov, military advisor Kevin Washington, computer specialist Courtney Collins and cybernetics expert Wilhelm "Doktor" Voigt. Sunny Emmerich, a child prodigy and friend of Raiden, returns from Metal Gear Solid 4.

  The antagonist is a rival company, Desperado Enforcement. It aims to destabilize peaceful nations and keep conflict alive, so it can profit from the war economy. Its operative Samuel Rodrigues, known as Jetstream Sam, becomes Raiden's rival. He works with an elite team of cyborg assassins called the Winds of Destruction.

  Sundowner is the de facto leader. He wields machetes that join into a large pair of pincers and wears reactive armor shields. Mistral, the only woman on the team, has a frame that supports extra arms, some of which combine into a staff she can use as a whip. Monsoon fights with dual sai, uses magnetism to move large objects, and can separate his body into parts while keeping control of each one. Colorado Senator Steven Armstrong is involved in Desperado's activities.

  The opening takes place in an unnamed African country, where Raiden's team guards its prime minister, N'Mani. Desperado attacks, and Sundowner kidnaps and assassinates N'Mani. In a duel with Sam, Raiden loses his left eye and arm. Boris saves him, and Doktor later rebuilds him with a more capable cyborg body.

  Three weeks later, Raiden infiltrates the breakaway Georgian statelet of Abkhazia. Desperado is leading a military coup there, and Raiden plans to capture the Chechen extremist Andrey Dolzaev. Desperado sends a prototype AI robot designated LQ-84i to stop him. Raiden wins, has Doktor rebuild the robot as an ally, and names it Blade Wolf.

  In Guadalajara, Mexico, Raiden meets an orphan named George at a research facility. The children there were to have their brains surgically removed and shipped to the United States. Sundowner had inspected the facility with Armstrong, which revealed an alliance between Desperado and the large PMC World Marshal. The plan was to condition the children into killers through constant VR training and place them in cybernetic bodies.

  Furious that Maverick will not act against World Marshal, Raiden resigns and assaults its headquarters in Denver, Colorado, alone except for Blade Wolf. Sam and Monsoon use technology to force him to hear the thoughts of the police officers and soldiers he kills. The strain unleashes a repressed personality, "Jack The Ripper", which formed because of the Sears Program he underwent as a boy.

  Raiden kills Monsoon and then Sundowner. He learns that Armstrong has used Desperado as a distraction while preparing "Operation Tecumseh", a plan to assassinate the President of the United States during peace talks with Pakistan. After a final duel with Sam, Raiden travels to Shabhazabad Air Base in Pakistan, where Armstrong attacks him in the hexapedal mecha Metal Gear EXCELSUS.

  Armstrong reveals that the assassination plot was a false flag. He would frame Desperado for killing American troops, turn the public toward World Marshal, and win the presidency in a landslide. His goal was a social Darwinist society in which the strong thrive and the weak are purged. Nanomachines harden his body and destroy Raiden's blade. Blade Wolf then hands Raiden Sam's sword, and Raiden kills Armstrong with it.

  Doktor gets approval to start a cyborg staffing firm that can shelter the orphans' brains. George and Blade Wolf go to live at Solis with Sunny. World Marshal remains in business, and Raiden decides against rejoining Maverick, choosing to fight his own war.

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• 6. Release and Extras

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  A demo reached players before the game did. It came as a bonus in the Zone of the Enders HD Collection on the 30th of October 2012. A public demo appeared in Japan on the PlayStation Store on the 13th of December 2012. North America received its demo on the 22nd of January 2013.

  The full game arrived in North America on the 19th of February 2013 and in Europe on the 21st of February. Australia was planned for the 21st of February too, but shipping issues pushed it to the 26th. In Japan it launched on the 21st of February for the PS3 only, and the Xbox 360 release there was cancelled. The PS3 version joined PlayStation Plus in November 2013.

  Konami issued two collectors' editions in Japan. The Premium Package includes an artbook by Yoji Shinkawa and a soundtrack album. The Premium Package Special Edition adds an action figure of Raiden. The English collector's edition includes a soundtrack, a steel case, and a lamp containing a small replica of Raiden's sword. An Ultimate Edition with all downloadable content reached the PlayStation Network on the 21st of May 2013.

  The downloadable content covers five cyborg body types, a set of VR Missions, and two story campaigns. Pre-order bonuses varied by retailer and region. One body, Cyborg Ninja, dresses Raiden like Gray Fox from the original Metal Gear Solid and adds a weapon called the Fox Blade. The VR Missions pack, released on the 2nd of April 2013, adds 30 missions. In Japan it also included the Hebidamashi, a wooden sword that talks with Solid Snake's voice, performed by Akio Otsuka.

  The Jetstream campaign, released on the 9th of April 2013, follows Samuel Rodrigues and shows how he joined Desperado. The Bladewolf campaign followed on the 9th of May 2013. It shows the robot's work with Desperado before meeting Raiden, and introduces an original antagonist named Khamsin, a fifth member of the Winds of Destruction.

  The Windows version, announced in May 2013, launched on the 9th of January 2014. It briefly required an online connection until a fix on the 10th of January 2014, and the requirement was claimed to be an accidental bug. Region locks made the game unavailable in India and Japan, and it was briefly unavailable in Ireland. It was also absent from Steam in Indonesia and Malaysia, though the PS3 disc remained available there.

  In March 2015, a version for the Nvidia Shield Console was confirmed. In January 2017, the OS X version stopped working because of a DRM problem after its porting company, Transgaming, went out of business. In July 2024, a DRM-free version appeared on GOG.

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• 7. Critics and Sales

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  Atsushi Inaba took to Twitter before release to calm fans who had reacted poorly to the reveal. The complaints came from the switch to a hack and slash genre. He hoped players would see "a glimpse of the future" in the trailer. He was dismayed when fans compared the game to Ninja Gaiden 3, which he had criticized. At Games Convention 2012, Kojima Productions noted that many attendees wanted to try the demo, and feedback was positive. In September 2012, the game won at the Japan Game Awards run by the Computer Entertainment Supplier's Association.

  When reviews arrived, Metacritic described them as "generally favorable". Famitsu gave a near-perfect 39 out of 40. GamesTM called it "almost certainly the best Metal Gear game released this generation". Eurogamer's Rich Stanton welcomed the spin-off, and the game was said to have come close to a perfect 10 except for camera trouble. Other sites reported that the camera could not keep up with the fast action.

  Critics praised the cutting system and the way it reached beyond enemies to the environment. IGN's Mitch Dyer liked the variety of sub-weapons, though switching between them lacked flow. Boss fights were singled out as a high point for their cutscenes and music. Bob Mackey enjoyed the game but felt it still had the mark of a "rescued product", with PlatinumGames making the best of a bad situation.

  Joe Juba of Game Informer was cooler. He found combat the only real highlight and judged that "'style over substance' is the defining theme". Matt Gilman of Computer and Video Games agreed, pointing to the lack of a defense action other than parrying. Videogamer.com praised the opening level but described scenery that obscured both Raiden and his opponents. Game Informer also called the new characters "uninteresting and poorly developed".

  The length of the campaign drew complaints as well. Inaba noted that many Western players had called the game too short after seeing a results screen with a clear time of five-and-a-half hours. He explained that the screen excluded cutscenes and failed attempts, and that PlatinumGames had used the same system since Bayonetta. The Escapist's Miguel Concepción argued that several challenging difficulty levels encourage replays.

  Raiden himself won praise. GameSpot's Peter Brown called his violent attitude outstanding for an anti-hero. GameTrailers noted a contrast with his Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty persona, which had been criticized in 2001. Eurogamer called him "the ultimate cyborg and also the ultimate killer". Critics also liked the rivalry with Samuel.

  PlatinumGames president Tatsuya Minami expected good sales from strong marketing and the Metal Gear name. Kojima said he was pleased with worldwide sales but gave no numbers. In its first week, the game topped Japan's charts, selling 308,681 units by Media Create's count and 335,791 by Enterbrain's. The PS3 version ranked 11th among Japanese retail sales for 2013, with 470,597 physical copies.

  The PS3 version won a Gold Prize at the 2013 PlayStation Awards for selling more than 500,000 units in Asia. In the United Kingdom, it debuted as the second-best-selling game, behind Crysis 3. As of 2024, Steam Spy estimated that it had sold more than 2 million units on Steam.

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• 8. Memes and Sequels

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  In January 2012, Kojima said that depending on popularity, the staff might build a franchise from the game. After release, he said he would approve a sequel only if PlatinumGames developed it, because "no one else could do it". He was impressed by the studio's work and noted that the franchise has "a lot of hugely, insanely critical fans". He also wanted to revisit the original concept, a prequel to Metal Gear Solid 4, though he worried an "interquel" would be hard for PlatinumGames.

  On the 22nd of February 2013, Kojima told SPOnG he wanted a sequel starring Gray Fox, who would battle "nano machine-powered zombies". He had offered to write the story himself, but PlatinumGames did not seem interested. Etsu Tamari, who wrote both the finished game and the cancelled original, said he would like to reuse the original idea.

  In August 2013, Konami posted a survey on its official site asking whether fans wanted a sequel. On the 31st of January 2015, a trailer for PS4 games at the Taipei Game Show briefly showed a number 2 in a font like that of Revengeance. Kojima Productions later said the 2 was unrelated to Metal Gear.

  Quinton Flynn said he would like a sequel with Raiden as the lead. He was worried about its future because of the dispute between Konami and Kojima Productions. Tamari also expected the team could make another game about Raiden.

  Years later, several video game publications noticed how Senator Armstrong anticipated American politics. They compared him to US President Donald Trump, as did Armstrong's own voice actor, Alastair Duncan. Armstrong uses reactionary, anti-establishment rhetoric and the slogan "Make America Great Again", which Ronald Reagan had also used. The game came out years before Trump's 2016 presidential campaign.

  Internet memes brought the game new attention. Players joked about its handling of politics, characters reacting in comic fashion to set pieces and dialogue, and above all Armstrong and Jetstream Sam. The narrative, characters and soundtrack all contributed. In 2022, concurrent players are believed to have risen tenfold in a single month.

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