Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance

Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance is a game in the Metal Gear series. Originally announced at E3 2009 under the title Metal Gear Solid: Rising, the game went through a long development process at Kojima Productions, who struggled to fully develop the game. At the beginning of 2011, Hideo Kojima decided to hand the development of the game over to Platinum Games who revamped the entire game. This switch in developer was formally announced on December 10, 2011. The game was released for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, though Kojima Productions creative producer Yuji Korekado said that a PC version is possible. The Japanese Xbox 360 version of Metal Gear Rising was cancelled, though it was still released in other territories.

The game stars Raiden and it is set four years after the events of Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots. Kojima is the executive producer while Korekado from Kojima Productions and Atsushi Inaba from Platinum Games are the producers. Platinum Games' Kenji Saito is the director of the game.

A playable demo of Metal Gear Rising is included in Zone of the Enders: HD Collection, similar how the original Zone of the Enders contained a playable demo of Metal Gear Solid 2. The demo was also released in the Japanese PlayStation Store on December 13, 2012. It was released for the rest of the world on January 22. The demo was not released on Japanese Xbox Live. Due to the cancellation of the Japanese Xbox 360 version, the demo was not included in that console's Japanese version of Zone of the Enders: HD Collection.

Gameplay
Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance is a hack and slash beat 'em up in which Raiden faces off against cyborg soldiers and UGs (Unmanned Gears, drone vehicles) in a variety of environments. The primary feature of the game is Blade Mode and its associated cutting mechanics, allowing Raiden to make precise cuts to enemies and environmental props with a physics-based cutting system that splits objects exactly along the line they were cut. The iron sight-like Blade Mode allows the sword to be aimed, while outside this mode it is used for more typical combos. Blade Mode uses Fuel Cell (FC) energy, which can be built up using standard attacks or by performing special Zandatsu kills on enemies.

Levels are split into unranked and ranked sections; each ranked battle has a summary screen appear after it showing results and a letter rank from D to S. The game does not appear to log time outside ranked sections, but does note if Raiden dies or takes damage for purposes of the whole-stage ranking and no damage bonus.

While the game does not focus on either stealth mechanics or non-violent play, both are possible after a fashion; two stun weapons can be unlocked to gain a no-kill bonus in ranked battles, and the Ninja Kill mechanic allows for sections where enemies are not immediately alerted to be completed without raising the alarm; this is sometimes necessary to save civilians who have been taken hostage by PMC troops.

Raiden has four slots for set items, and as in most Metal Gear games bringing up the item menu pauses the game. The first slot is for Nanorepair Paste (the game's version of the Ration item) or FC-restoring Electrolyte Packs, the second for the Drum Can, cardboard box and a selection of grenades and rocket launchers, the third for Raiden's primary weapon, and the fourth for secondary weapons which are unlocked by defeating bosses.

Defeating enemies, completing ranked stages and picking up items provides Raiden with Battle Points (BP), which can be spent in the customisation menu accessed by the Codec screen. From here, BP can be spent on new weapons, upgrades to Raiden's cyborg body, new moves, and so on.

Plot
Four years after the events of Liquid Ocelot's Insurrection, Raiden has been contracted for VIP protection, military training, and other duties by a Private Military Company (PMC): Maverick Security Consulting, Inc., an American PMC based in Colorado, in a developing country piecing itself back together after a bloody civil war. Raiden largely did this to support his family without having to return to direct combat situations. Raiden is protecting a VIP, when they are attacked by a cyborg organization led by the Cyborg Ninja Samuel Rodrigues, which eventually leaves Raiden completely defeated. Raiden is reconstructed by his PMC, and his search for Sam and the company he's working for, Desperado Enforcement LLC., drives him into a quest for vengeance.

Original version and cancellation
Hideo Kojima officially announced Metal Gear Solid: Rising at Microsoft's E3 2009 press conference, after running various countdowns for the announcement on a Konami website. Originally set between the events of Metal Gear Solid 2 and Metal Gear Solid 4, Rising was going to explain how Raiden became the character that he did in Metal Gear Solid 4. Kojima stated that he became involved with Rising because "it's a completely different kind of action than what has appeared in the series so far" and also stated that he would be more involved in the development of the game than a normal video game producer would be. Kojima had specifically said that he would not be directing, as he wished to pursue other projects. Rising was actually not Kojima's idea. It was his staff. He said that if he were to choose between making a game with guns or katanas, he would probably choose guns.

Kojima affirmed that he would have preferred Gray Fox rather than Raiden as the main character during the pre-production of the game, but that the studio was more akin to Raiden. Kojima also said that he was looking for a production job, not a direction job, and that couldn't have been done if Gray Fox were the main character.

Rising was based around a concept known as "zan-datsu", literally "cut and take." The game's original director Mineshi Kimura explained in a Konami press conference that the "take" part revolved around Raiden literally taking power from enemies, a concept shown in the trailer as Raiden absorbed the power from a robotic soldier's intestinal battery. This concept of "taking" was not limited to power; intelligence essential for a mission objective might also be taken from enemies, as well as other components.

Sean Eyestone, the host of Kojima Productions' podcast, stated that Rising would feature an entirely new game engine, which was later revealed as being Kojima Productions' own Fox Engine. At E3 2010, the debut trailer for the game was shown, featuring Raiden facing off against a robotic soldier bearing a similar appearance to members of the Beauty and the Beast Unit, based on an unused concept by Yoji Shinkawa for Metal Gear Solid 4, which appears in the Master Art Works book. The robot that Raiden kills at the beginning of the trailer has the same footwear as Vamp and the FROGS, which suggests that these robots may have utilized the same technology to traverse walls and roofs. The trailer also featured the first gameplay footage, and a Peace Walker poster can be seen when Raiden destroys the building. An official site for the game was also unveiled, where the robot was later identified as a Mastiff, per recent blueprint artwork accessible via passcode. Kojima also stated that Rising would play like a mainstream European and North American-style game and as such he felt that "it doesn't matter if it lacks the message aspect of a MGS game I'd make."

A Dwarf Gekko made a brief appearance in the TGS 2010 tech demo, holding things for Raiden to slash, such as watermelons, bowling pins and even another Scarab. This particular droid was called "Kogekko."

In August 2011, it was revealed that Rising would be absent from the 2011 Tokyo Game Show. According to Eyestone, the reason for the game's absence was so that the development team could spend their time on the game itself rather than a trailer or creating a one-off for an event. Kojima reportedly became more involved, and replaced Shigenobu Matsuyama with veteran Kojima Productions staff member Yuji Korekado as the producer of the game.

However, believing the project would not get completed, Kojima secretly cancelled Rising. Prior to the cancellation, however, the boss concepts and the script was completed.

Platinum Games' involvement
December 10, 2011, Kojima unveiled a new trailer of the game at the 2011 Spike Video Game Awards. The new trailer unveiled the new look for the game, and formally announced to the world that the game was being developed by Platinum Games known for making more action oriented games like Bayonetta and Vanquish. The trailer featured a starkly different tone to previous Metal Gear trailers, featuring a more hard rock driven soundtrack and less emphasis on the stealth aspects with more focus on the newer, action orientated style of gameplay. One such aspect features Raiden fighting a Metal Gear RAY, grabbing a hold of one of its "arms" and throwing into the air. Another sequence showcased Raiden fighting an unknown enemy on a speeding train in a tunnel, with Raiden running along the walls of the tunnel to keep up with the train. The last seconds of the trailer revealed a new tagline and logo for the game; the new tagline being "Revenge with a Vengeance" which was cut to simply say "Revengeance." The new logo revealed the game was now simply titled Metal Gear Rising, with the subtitle Revengeance below it. In addition, the KojiPro Report also revealed that the plot setting had changed to be happening after the events of Metal Gear Solid 4, and that Platinum Games would end up using the opportunity to create content based on their own ideas.

On December 12, Kojima tweeted, "We're only said that the period setting is several years after MGS4. Metal Gear Rising is not part of the Metal Gear Solid series. At the present, we can't say more than this."

On December 13, Kojima and Platinum Games producer Atsushi Inaba attended a special Metal Gear Rising Q&A session. They talked about the reason behind Kojima Productions' absence in the development of the game. According to Kojima, by the time development started, he allowed his younger staff to develop the game by themselves and took a hands-off approach. That didn't turn out to well, as the less-experienced staff decided to develop a game in which Raiden could cut anything, including enemies, large vehicles and buildings. Although they weren't too clear on the timeline, Kojima said Platinum Games started work on the title in late 2010/early 2011.

Kojima did consider many different developers, even Western ones. However, he thought that since the focus of the game was the katana, a Japanese developer would do it best. Kojima joked that if he let a Western developer work on the game, he might come back a year later and find out that they attached a gun to a chainsaw as the main weapon.

On January 5, 2012, Kojima told Game Rant, "Raiden in MGS4 was received very well, and I wanted to keep going with that direction in Rising. The people who liked him in 4 will like him in this, but it's a personal preference."

Leaked concept artwork for the game indicated that Raiden would have gotten into a car chase with a police car (presumably the vivisected Denver Police Department car seen in the key art). In the TGS 2012 story trailer for Metal Gear Rising, Raiden was briefly seen driving a car through a street in what was implied to be Mexico or another Latin American country.

Inaba stated that he wanted "...everyone to be happy that Platinum Games got involved." He also said that his job was to take the concept and make something fun, and that he wanted to meet Hideo Kojima's expectations, but he wanted to do what he wants to do. "If my team wasn't passionate about Metal Gear Solid, then we wouldn't have been able to start the project." Inaba said that he is aiming to make the game fun, and have depth and high speed action.

Since the shift in developer, the concept of zan-datsu has been downplayed, and the game focuses more of a "cutting feels good" mentality. The gameplay is less stealth oriented, and is more akin to Platinum Games' other projects (most notably Vanquish) where the player will take on large groups of enemies, ranging from cyborgs soldiers, Gekko, and a new look Metal Gear RAY with blades on its arms. One notable aspect of the game is that it features no human enemies. All the soldiers Raiden faces in the game are cyborgs, so as to avoid the game being banned in Japan. The stealth component was the first thing that was removed by Platinum. Kojima revealed that he had always been against stealth in the game as neither he, nor his staff, felt that stealth and high speed action would work together. The E3 2012 trailer does, however, show that the planned predator stealth system was retained to some degree, as one part of the trailer had Raiden being behind a pillar that a soldier is standing guard at and then promptly cutting it down and killing the unsuspecting soldier in the process. Similarly, both the trailer and the demo also had Raiden impaling a cyborg soldier from behind. The E3 2012 trailer features the song "Wrong" by Depeche Mode.

Kojima also confirmed Metal Gear Rising would run at 60 frames per second, something he personally requested. The original version of the game was to run at 30 frames per second. They also stated that the game would no longer be running on the Fox Engine. Hideki Kamiya, the director of Bayonetta denied having any involvement in the development of Metal Gear Rising.

In an interview with Famitsu, Kojima revealed that Metal Gear Rising would be playable at E3 2012. Kojima told CNN, "If this game becomes hugely successful and popular, then we might make it into a franchise."

In a podcast, it was revealed that Platinum Games' involvement in the game was primarily the gameplay engine for cutting things up, and that story development and control was still done by Kojima Productions. In addition, the main writer for the story itself was Etsu Tamari, who had previously written the various Codec and Briefing file conversations in Peace Walker.

On April 24, Quinton Flynn tweeted, "Had the pleasure of working with John Cygan, Benito Martinez & Christina Puccelli today under the direction of the esteemed Kris Zimmerman!" implying that Solidus Snake and Sunny was going to appear in the game. Although Sunny does appear in the game, Solidus himself does not actually appear in the game itself, although he is mentioned throughout the story. Instead, Solidus appears in the live action trailers leading up to the E3 2012 demonstration of Rising.

In an interview during PAX Prime 2012, Metal Gear Rising was confirmed to be canon.

On November 4, Korekado told Computer and Video Games, "It was obvious we had to go to Platinum, but it's still in the Metal Gear Solid timeline. The cutscenes are looked over by Kojima Productions and the script is written by us, so they resemble something very similar to what you'll have experienced in the past. And now we finally have something to show to the fans."

On December 12, Korekado told Kotaku that Metal Gear Rising wouldn't be released on the Wii U. According to Korekado, the reason was: "We really developed the game based on these two consoles [PS3, 360] and the Wii U, we think, is unique in a way that the controller is innovative and the entire console's pretty much not hand-in-hand with the consoles that we're making it for now. So if were [sic] going to make it for the Wii U we'd have to start from zero again and really design something for that console, so we could say 100% that it was a good game for this console."

When asked if the game's engine could run on the Wii U, Korekado responded, "I haven't really tried it, so I'm not quite sure."

Kojima also implied on his Twitter account that he was working on a trailer, with a screencap that has recording stalls and a screen that said "cutting soon." He later confirmed that he was working on at least two trailers for Metal Gear Rising, the first of which he had already finished, and the second he'd have to finish after New Year's.

Metal Gear Rising is the first game since Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater to have the player save via Codec/radio. In addition, although Metal Gear Solid 3 and Metal Gear Solid 4 previously had one character saying "fuck" once (EVA and Laughing Octopus, respectively, the former being toned down to "Go to Hell" during localization), Metal Gear Rising has multiple characters using the word and related words more than once. Although various official materials, including the novelization for Metal Gear Solid and Metal Gear Solid 2, the Metal Gear Sagas DVD timeline, and the timeline included in the Metal Gear Solid 4 Database referenced the event, Rising is also the first Metal Gear game to directly refer to the events of the September 11th terrorist attacks on America since Metal Gear Solid 2 was released in the aftermath of the event. Similarly, it is also the first game to directly reference the subsequent War on Terror.

On January 11, 2013, a new trailer for Metal Gear Rising was announced for release at 5 PM Pacific Time on GameSpot on January 14.

On January 17, 2013, Kojima told IGN that "for the spin-off, we wanted to have variety, and I wanted to expand our reach to gamers who like hack-and-slash and hope to get accepted there as well." Kojima also told IGN, "Besides, if I had created the game and directed it, it wouldn't have been this game. I am very happy to see the growth in my team and how they have developed such an incredible game."

On February 5–6, 2013, Kojima posted on his Twitter account that he was producing a new trailer for Metal Gear Rising, where he claimed that he's saving up on time by listening to his iPod, and that it would take him 1–2 hours to finish the trailer. In addition, he also stated that the trailer won't have any lines. He also implied that he was going to use Hollywood to create the trailer due to global standards.

On February 2013, a screencap was leaked showing the results screen. It was debated as to whether the screencap was showing the final tally of the game or simply the results screen of the level. Inaba eventually gave his input, citing his disappointment that some people would use the screencap to react negatively to the game and make a commotion about it.

On February 22, 2013, Kojima told SPOnG, "Honestly, I've been making games for 25 years and the state that this game was in when it went to Platinum... was really a mess! The fact that they were able to pull it off is very impressive." He added, "Platinum makes excellent games, there's no arguing about that - but they're not very good at honouring schedules. I made it clear that in order to succeed on a worldwide scale, you not only have to make a good product, but you also have to keep a tight schedule. This time, they came through and delivered the product on time. I think even [Hideki] Kamiya-san was surprised!"

Theme
Kojima revealed that the theme for Metal Gear Rising is "REVENGE." Previous themes were  "GENE" ( Metal Gear Solid ), "MEME" ( Metal Gear Solid 2 ), "SCENE" ( Metal Gear Solid 3 ), "LINK" ( Portable Ops ), "SENSE" ( Metal Gear Solid 4 ), and "PEACE" (Peace Walker).

A lesser theme throughout the game also related to the use of child soldiers. Raiden's past as a child soldier was frequently mentioned, and even to some extent shown through Raiden's actions. Raiden's motives for trying to stop Desperado and World Marshal, and ensure the weak are protected was the direct result of having to be a child soldier in Liberia. Two of the members of Desperado were also former child soldiers. In addition, a major part of the antagonists' plot was to mass-produce cybernetic child soldiers via the Sears Program. Although prior Metal Gear games did mention a few times the use of child soldiers, they hadn't been into the forefront until this game.

Metal Gear Rising decryption site
See main article

Staff
Metal Gear Rising was directed by Bayonetta 's main programmer, Kenji Saito.

Yuji Korakado supervised the title for Kojima Productions alongside Platinum Games' Atsushi Inaba.

Platinum Games handled all the game design and coding duties working around the story, cutscenes and voice acting sessions put together by Kojima Productions. They used the extensive character design work carried out by Kojima Productions' Yoji Shinkawa.

Konami GM Martin Scheider explained: "Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance is a new direction. There was the urge for something new and thus Inaba-san's unrivalled knowledge of the action genre, and Korekado-san's knowledge of the Metal Gear Solid universe, combined with Kojima Productions' standard for excellence ensures Metal Gear Rising: Revenegeance is in safe hands."

In a Kojima Productions podcast, the staff confirmed the following:
 * The disparity of Raiden between Metal Gear Solid 4 and Metal Gear Rising would be explained.
 * There is a new zan-datsu system, having been tweaked and rebalanced for quick gameplay.
 * Instead of the player hiding from enemies, enemies would hide from the player in order to ambush them.
 * Metal Gear Rising would have Codec conversations, and there might be more Codec conversations in the game than in Metal Gear Solid 4.
 * Cutting up anything would still be part of the game.
 * There are two methods of cutting: a quick cut and a more strategic cutting method, the latter allowing the player to cut through specific areas of the enemies' body.

Music
See Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance Vocal Tracks.

In stark contrast to prior Metal Gear games, Metal Gear Rising has several vocalized music pieces playing throughout various points of the game, mostly in major boss battles. During boss battles, when the player has whittled down most of the bosses health, a vocalized piece of the boss battle will play during the remainder of the battle. The boss music and its lyrics also ties in to some aspects to their characters: For example, LQ-84i's boss theme, "I Am My Own Master Now," refers to his forced servitude to Desperado and his desire to be free from their command and harness his full capabilities. Note that, with the exception of the RAY boss theme "Rule of Nature" (which is a remix of "Locked and Loaded"). Jamie Christopherson composed the soundtrack and score for the game featuring vocals by artists including John Bush, Tyson Yen, Free Dominguez with Contributions by Logan Mader, The Maniac Agenda, and Ferry Corsten.

Demos
There were several demos released during the development process.

The E3 demo depicted a VR simulation that utilized the Abkhazia environment at the beginning of the game. It then supplied a new mission upon completion to defeat cyborgs, and also track down a terminal and access it before fighting a Gekko upon getting the terminal, and eventually doing a ninja run by fleeing from several Hammerhead choppers in pursuit of Raiden and bombarding a bridge, before he eventually faces them in a square ruined area. This demo was in fact the first build of Metal Gear Rising, developed for internal testing purposes.

The next demo, initially released as part of Zone of the Enders: HD Collection, and then released on January 22 as part of the PlayStation Network, allowed for the player to undergo a VR training session before doing the main demo. It was largely similar to how the E3 demo had done it, although the environment was closer to how previous Metal Gear games handled VR missions. In the main demo, there is a brief description recapping what happened before the events of the demo. The main demo takes place shortly after the prologue, where Raiden is deployed to Abkhazia to quell as coup getting his mission briefing from Boris, Kevin and Courtney as well as cyborg information from Doktor asking Raiden to collect the left hands of cyborgs as they contain battle and field data. After arrival, he then has to take out several cyborgs who ambushed him via stealth camouflage, eventually cumulating in a cut scene where Raiden, Kevin and Courtney discuss the presence of cyborgs at Abkhazia. Raiden successful makes it to a mansion where Boris contacts Raiden informing and cautioning him about heavily armed cyborgs roaming the area. As well as Mistral. After rescuing a civilian, Raiden gets ambush by more cyborgs and a Gekko. After defeating them, Raiden gets pass the heavily armed forces roaming the area and makes it to his destination The demo then ends with a boss battle against LQ-84i. While dying and malfunctioning, LQ-84i contacts Raiden via codec muttering about there being no freedom. Raiden questions himself to how an AI can know what freedom is. Although the demo ends with the LQ-84i boss fight, the player can exploit a glitch to get over a high area to reach some ruins and a bridge, as well as the surface-to-air missile powerup, indicating that the demo was originally going to stop at the Hammerhead boss battle.

A second demo was also released, so far only in Japan. This demo takes place during the prologue featuring Raiden taking on a Metal Gear RAY unit.

Marketing
Metal Gear Rising: Revegeance was released on February 19, 2013 in North American and Europe, February 21, 2013 in Japan, and February 22, 2013 in the UK and Ireland, and on February 26, 2013 in Australia.

On September 12, 2012, it was announced that Japanese Xbox 360 version of Metal Gear Rising had been cancelled. No reason was given for the cancellation. Kojima then told Eurogamer that the Xbox 360 version will be an exclusive to the West. Due to the cancellation, the demo of the game was not included in the Japanese Xbox 360 version of Zone of the Enders: HD Collection.

Releases
On September 27, during Konami Gamer's Night, the North American Collector's Edition of Metal Gear Rising was announced. It includes the game, a steel book case, a soundtrack, and a high-frequency plasma lamp that contained a scale model of Raiden's high frequency blade from the game. The next day, the Metal Gear Solid Facebook page, reporting on this at 2:43 PM, also implied that there would be an announcement for it being a pre-order. This was later confirmed, with it being distributed from Amazon, Best Buy, and GameStop.

Konami also announced DLC costumes for Japanese players who bought the game from certain stores. Players would receive the "White Battle Armour" DLC if brought from LAWSON and KONAMISTYLE, the "Inferno Red Armour" DLC if brought from GameTSUTAYA and the "Commando Suit Armour" DLC if brought from GEO.
 * The "White Battle Armour" allows Raiden to carry more health items.
 * The "Inferno Red Armour" allows Raiden to carry more grenades (i.e., it increases his grenade carrying limit by five).
 * The "Commando Suit Armour" allows Raiden to carry more missiles.

A Japanese Premium Package was announced on Konami's online store KONAMISTYLE. The bundle contains the game with a different cover art, a steel book, the soundtrack, an art book and 2 Dwarf Gekko magnet figures. Players who add 3,000 yen to the total would also get the Raiden - White Armour ver. Play Arts KAI action figure added to the bundle. This offer is exclusive to KONAMISTYLE.

Amazon.com announced that players who pre-ordered Metal Gear Rising from their website would receive a Metal Gear Rising T-shirt and the Inferno Red Armour skin DLC as a pre-order gifts. This offer is only available in North America. Similarly, Best Buy announced that players who pre-ordered Metal Gear Rising from retailers or their site would receive a White Battle Armour skin DLC as a pre-order gift.

GameStop announced that players who pre-ordered Metal Gear Rising from any of their stores would receive a pre-order DLC to unlock Gray Fox's Cyborg Ninja skin for Raiden. The same DLC offer was also announced by KONAMISTYLE to players who pre-order the game or the Premium Package from the website. Konami UK announced via Twitter that the Cyborg Ninja DLC would be offered as standard release to all European copies of the game.

Konami Europe announced that European players who pre-ordered the game would receive a limited edition render steel book case, whilst UK retailer GAME would give out a steel book with Yoji Shinkawa's artwork exclusively to players who pre-ordered from their store. The Inferno Red armour skin DLC is also included in the pre-order.

On October 31, Konami Europe announced the European Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance Limited Edition. The bundle will be sold by UK retailer Zavvi exclusively and is limited edition to 25,000 worldwide. The contains are the game, White Armour skin DLC and the Raiden - White Armour ver. Play Arts KAI action figure. The Limited Edition is set to be released on February 22, 2013 for the price of £99.99. The Cyborg Ninja DLC is also included.

On December 3, Sony Computer Entertainment Japan and Konami announced the Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance Zan Datsu Package. The package includes the game, a limited edition 250GB PlayStation 3 and DualShock 3 controller, a T-shirt and White Armour skin DLC. It cost 31,960 yen. The Cyborg Ninja skin DLC is also included in the bundle. In addition, it contains six wallpaper themes based on Metal Gear Rising.

Zavvi announced that the "White Battle Armour" DLC would be included with all purchases of Metal Gear Rising from their website.

Besides the bonus armours, pre-ordering from select stores would also result in the buyer getting a set of five limited edition Metal Gear Rising trading cards meant for the app game Metal Gear Solid: Social Ops. The set includes White (MGS4) armor Raiden, Black Raiden, Black Raiden w/ Mariachi outfit, Commando Suit Armor Raiden, and Inferno Red Armor Raiden.

On the official Metal Gear Rising website, it was also announced that a downloadable skin of MGS4-era Raiden (i.e., how he actually appeared in Metal Gear Solid 4, not the suit he wore in the prologue of Metal Gear Rising) was going to be issued to Japanese players from some Metal Gear Rising trials starting on January 18, 2013. A trailer released on February 7, 2013 confirmed it would be released internationally as DLC.

On January 13, 2013, it was announced that an event would occur in various Japanese stores where, if the player managed to beat Metal Gear RAY in the demo within 10 minutes (with 20 people participating per day), they would walk home with one of two double-sided posters: One for Metal Gear Rising depicting Raiden with his mask on one side, and one with Raiden without his mask, and another depicting a Metal Gear Solid: Ground Zeroes poster on one side, and a Metal Gear 25th Anniversary poster on the other. A special T-shirt would also be issued as well for pre-orders made to these stores. The event began January 19 and happened every weekend up to its Japanese release.

On January 16, 2013, Konami of America and GameStop announced that the Gray Fox skin DLC wasn't the only thing North American players would get if they pre-ordered the game. They would also received DLC to unlock the Fox Blade (Gray Fox's sword) and a Metal Gear Rising art book. The art book is exactly the same one that comes with the Japanese Premium Package.

On January 24, 2013, Konami Europe announced that the Fox Blade DLC would also be included too along with the Cyborg Ninja skin DLC with every standard release of the European copy.

North American mega store Walmart announced that those who pre-ordered Metal Gear Rising on either PS3 or 360 from their stores would receive an exclusive instrumental soundtrack. The soundtrack is the same soundtrack from the Limited Edition.

On February 8, Kojima and Shinkawa, during their GAME tour in Europe, announced that anyone who pre-ordered at select retailers before GAME would receive a limited edition GAME-exclusive steelbook cover with artwork from Shinkawa, as well as a DLC code for the Inferno armor.

At Liverpool, UK, an apartment complex had a painting of Raiden on the side as part of a promotional gimmick for Metal Gear Rising.

Downloadable content
Metal Gear Rising, like Peace Walker and Metal Gear Solid 4 before it, will also feature its fair share of DLC. On World Tours 2013's announcement of the game, series creator Hideo Kojima and Akio Otsuka announced a DLC weapon called the Snake's Soul Wooden Sword, which states various sayings by Solid Snake whenever Raiden swings it, with April of the same year acting as a tentative release date. Besides the Snake's Soul weapon, other DLC announced included two sidestories for the characters Sam and Bladewolf, then known as LQ-84i and their backstory prior to the events of the game. The MGS4 Raiden skin was also announced on both the Metal Gear Solid and the Metal Gear Rising Facebook pages. It is unknown whether the pre-order bonuses White/Medical Armor, the Inferno Armor, the Commando Armor, Cyborg Ninja skin or the Fox Blade will be issued as DLC in the future. Thirty extra VR missions will also be released exclusively for the PS3 version of Metal Gear Rising at a future date (or in the case of the North American releases, PS3 only).



Reception
Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance was well received by critics. Metacritic gave the PS3 version a metascore of 80, while the Xbox 360 version got a metascore of 82. GameRankings gave the PS3 version an average of 78.27%, while the Xbox 360 version got an average of 83.19%.

GameSpot gave Metal Gear Rising a 8.5 saying, "Revengeance may not play like a typical Metal Gear game, but Raiden's character arc justifies almost every change to the old formula. It's a beneficial dynamic, and the game's biggest success overall. It ultimately test the hypothesis that there's more to the series than just Snakes and sneaking behind enemy lines, and for the most part, it passes the test." Eurogamer gave the game a 9 saying, "As things stands it's still brilliant, staking out new territory in the genre and adapting certain Metal Gear characterisitics so well that it makes the competition look outrageously bad. This is the ultimate one-man show, worth its ticket price many times over, an experience that improves exponentially as it gets faster and as you get better." IGN gave it an 8.5 saying, "Despite its best efforts, developer Platinum Games sometimes gets in the way of its own pace -- especially for those who aren't into the franchise. However, Rising's troubles are rarely enough to derail the incredible momentum of an always-entertaining, action-oriented Metal Gear spinoff." EGM gave it a 8.0 saying, "After a protracted development process, Platinum Games and Kojima Productions have made good on their promise to make Raiden an acrobatic, ass-kicking action hero. It's an enjoyable, fast-paced thrill ride, but given the track record of these two giants of Japanese game development, you can't help but think that Rising isn't quite all it could've been." Game Informer gave it a 7.75 saying, "However, this title isn't Bayonetta wearing a Metal Gear skin; whether you were hoping for a meaningful expansion of the Metal Gear universe or a gratifying action experience, Revengeance falls short. Brutalizing cyborgs and hacking giant mechs to pieces is fun, but the restrictive design and lack of precision keep Raiden from capturing the best of both worlds."

Potential sequel
On February 22, 2013, Kojima told SPOnG that he would like to make a sequel of Metal Gear Rising. He said that if it does happen, he would like Platinum Games to develop it.