Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance

Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance is an upcoming 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 production 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 will be 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 has been cancelled, though it will still be released in other territories.

The game will star Raiden and it will be set four years after the events of Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots. Kojima will be acting as executive producer while Korekado from Kojima Productions and Atsushi Inaba from Platinum Games will be the producers. Platinum Games' Kenji Saito will be 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, and will be released for the rest of the world on January 22. The demo will not be 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.

Stance in the Metal Gear series
"We've only said that the period setting is several years after MGS4. Metal Gear Rising is not part of the Metal Gear Solid series. At present, we can't say more than this."

- Hideo Kojima on Twitter, Late 2011.

"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 should all resemble something very similar to what you'll have experienced in the past."

- Yuji Korekado, Late 2012.

Characters
"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."
 * Raiden, the protagonist of the game. Raidens blade is a different design to the one in Metal Gear Solid 4, being more curved as opposed to the straight, serrated blade, and he draws it from his back, similar to that in Metal Gear Solid 2.

- Hideo Kojima, January 2012.

"Had the pleasure of working with John Cygan, Benito Martinez & Christina Puccelli today under the direction of the esteemed Kris Zimmerman!"

- Quinton Flynn, Raiden's English voice actor on April 24, 2012
 * Sunny, Olga Gurlukovich's daughter. A pamphlet released during TGS 2012 confirms that she is going to be returning.
 * Solidus Snake, Raiden's foster father. Solidus appeared in several live-action trailers.
 * Samuel Rodriguez, a Cyborg Ninja who is a rival to Raiden.
 * LQ-84i, described as an “unmanned unit with learning AI and verbal interface”, a chainsaw-wielding android sent by Desperado Enforcement to kill Raiden.
 * Monsoon, Mistral and Sundowner, part of an antagonistic cyborg unit of Desperado Enforcement LLC.
 * Boris, group commander of Maverick PSMC and Raiden's mission controller.
 * Courtney Collins, data analyst of Maverick PSMC and Raiden's support on Codec.
 * Kevin Washington, military advisor of the Maverick PSMC and Raiden's support on Codec.
 * "Doktor", Raiden's science technology advisor of German background. Also authorized to upgrade Raiden's cyborg body.
 * Stephen Armstrong,  a Colorado Senator and presidential nominee, that would play a large role in the events of the game.

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 and Security Company (PMSC):  Maverick Security Consulting, Inc., an American PMSC 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 Rodriguez, that leaves Raiden with a broken body, completely defeated. Raiden is reconstructed by his PMC, and his search for Samuel and the campany he's working for, Desperado Enforcement LLC, drives him into a story of vengeance and revenge. Further trailers have shown that Raiden is, more likely, returning to his "Jack the Ripper" persona, with an elaboration of his past as a child soldier in Liberia, and his human weaknesses.

Regarding the location setting, the game will take place in several places: one was the aforementioned African country, and another was Abkhazia, among its locations were its capital, Sukhumi, as well as a processing plant that acted as Desperado's base of operations within the country. A key art for Metal Gear Rising as well as the TGS story trailer implied that Denver, Colorado and Mexico are part of the game. It is also implied that other part of the game will take place somewhere in Asia.

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 is 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
On 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 produced 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 reveals a new tagline and logo for the game; the new tagline being "Revenge with a Vengeance" which is cut to simply say "Revengeance." The new logo reveals the game is 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 will end up using the opportunity to create content based on their own ideas.

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.

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 wants "...everyone to be happy that Platinum Games got involved." He also said that his job is to take the concept and make something fun, and that he wants to meet Hideo Kojima's expectations, but he wants 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 will focus 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 is 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 will 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 will no longer be running on the Fox Engine. Hideki Kamiya, the director of Bayonetta has denied 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 is primarily the gameplay engine for cutting things up, and that story development and control is still done by Kojima Productions. In addition, the main writer for the story itself is Etsu Tamari, who had previously written the various Codec and Briefing file conversations in Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker.

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

On December 12, Korekado told Kotaku that Metal Gear Rising won't be released on the Wii U. According to Korekado, the reason is: "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 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 is working on a trailer, with a screencap that has recording stalls and a screen that says "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'll have to finish after New Year's.

Metal Gear Rising will be the first game since Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater to have the player save via Codec/radio.

On January 11, 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."

Metal Gear Rising decryption site
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Staff
Metal Gear Rising will be directed by Bayonetta 's main programmer, Kenji Saito.

Yuji Korakado will supervise the title for Kojima Productions alongside Platinum Games Atsushi Inaba as Platinum attempt to refocus the title to get it to the finish line.

Platinum will handle all the game design and coding duties working around the story, cutscenes and voice acting sessions put together by Kojima Productions and using 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 will 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 will now hide from the player in order to ambush the player.
 * Rising will have Codec conversations, and there may be more Codec conversations in Metal Gear Rising than in Metal Gear Solid 4.
 * Cutting up anything will 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.

Marketing
Metal Gear Rising: Revegeance is planned to be released on February 19, 2013 in North American and Europe, February 21, 2012 for Japan and February 22, 2013 for the UK and Ireland.

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: Revengeance 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 will be an announcement for it being a pre-order.

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 can add 3,000 yen to the total will also get the Raiden - White Armour ver. Play Arts KAI action figure added to the bundle. This offer is exclusive to KONAMISTYLE.jp.

Amazon.com has announced that players who pre-order Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance from their website will receive a Metal Gear Rising: Revegeance t-shirt as a pre-order gift.

Konami also announced DLC costumes for Japanese players who buy the game from certain stores. Players will 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 and the "Commando Suit Armour" allows Raiden to carry more missiles.

GameStop has announced that players who pre-order Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance from any of their stores will receive a pre-order DLC to unlock Grey 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 will be offered as standard release to all European copies of the game.

Konami Europe announced that European players who pre-ordered the game will receive a limited edition render steel book case, whilst UK retailer GAME will 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 when you pre-order from the store.

On October 31, Konami Europe announced the European Metal Gear Rising: Revegeance 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 will include the game, a limited edition 250GB PlayStation 3 and DualShock 3 controller, a t-shirt and White Armour skin DLC. It will cost 31,960 yen. The Cyborg Ninja skin DLC is also included in the bundle.

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

Besides the bonus armors, pre-ordering from select stores will 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 MGS4, 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. It is currently unknown whether it will see release internationally.

On January 13, 2013, it was announced that an event will occur in various Japanese stores where, if the player manages to beat Metal Gear RAY in the demo within 10 minutes (with 20 people participating per day), they will 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 will also be issued as well for pre-orders made to these stores. The event will run from January 19 and will happen every weekend up to its Japanese release.

On January 16, 2013, Konami of America and GameStop have announced that the Grey Fox skin DLC isn't the only thing North American players will get if they pre-order the game. They will be now a DLC to unlock the Fox Blade (Grey Fox's sword) and a Metal Gear Rising art book. The art book is the exact same one that comes with the Japanese Premium Package.