Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance



"One sword keeps another in the sheath. Sometimes the threat of violence alone is a deterrent. Sometimes by taking a life, others can be preserved. It's the code the Samurai lived by."

- Raiden, VGA 2011 trailer

"REBOOTED

REARMED

RECHARGED

REBUILT

RESURRECTED!"

Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance is an upcoming spin-off of the Metal Gear series starring a cybernetic Raiden (similar to his Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots appearance), and is being developed by Platinum Games (Bayonetta, Vanquish) & overseen by Kojima Productions. The game is scheduled to be released for the Xbox 360 and Play Station 3 making it the first multiplatform Metal Gear title since Metal Gear Solid 2: Substance. The game is an action-adventure title in the vein of titles such as Devil May Cry, heavily divergent from the franchises' stealthy roots, and focuses on Raiden's acrobatic swordplay, placing particular emphasis on cutting things apart.

The game started life some time after Metal Gear Solid 4 went gold, as a Kojima Productions title known as Metal Gear Solid: Rising, handled mostly by the younger staffers entrusted by Kojima himself. It originally intended to strike a balance between the series' trademark stealth action and a new combat system based around being able to cut almost everything in the game. However, this build was cancelled several months after being shown at E3 2010 due to a difficulties achieving a balance between the old and new gameplay concepts, and the project was handed over to Platinum in early 2011.

The story was initially intended to act as an interquel, taking place between Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty and Metal Gear Solid 4 and explaining what happened to Raiden during this time. This also changed with the switch to Platinum Games, now taking place 9 years after Metal Gear Solid 4 and having a less dark and gritty tone.

The game contains the following tropes:
"C.O.: Take him out, Raiden!
 * Absurdly Sharp Blade: Raiden's cut-anything sword returns. Early trailers showed it slicing straight through men, stone columns, and watermelons with equal ease. The Platinum Games build allows Raiden to hack up entire Metal Gears.
 * An Arm and A Leg: Various viral marketing materials imply that Raiden had his left arm amputated during a battle. A gameplay scene from the Pre-E3 show reveals that he lost it during the battle with Sam.
 * Axe Crazy: Raiden seems to have reverted to his ruthless "Jack the Ripper" persona. The reason for this is currently unknown.
 * Alien Blood: As seen in Metal Gear Solid 4, Raiden's blood is actually artificial and white in colour. This is due to his body being almost completely cybernetic; as such, the cyborg enemies in Rising also have white blood.
 * The VGA trailer shows off cyborgs who bleed a dark red oil. If the viral marketing materials as well as a brief gameplay clip shown during an interview with the staff at Rising is anything to go by, Raiden will also have used the same oil. Justified, as the game takes place nine years after Metal Gear Solid 4, so advancements in Cyborg Technology would be expected down to the "blood" used.
 * Blood Knight: This line from the VGA trailer pretty much synched it for Raiden (and is likely to be retained, given that the scene where Raiden says it is in the pre-E3 trailer and interview is shown):

Raiden: (readying his blade) Roger that. (closeup to his face) Let's have some fun! (Visor comes down)"


 * Bloodier and Gorier: Judging from what information has been released, a large part of the game's concept is cutting the player's enemies apart at angles they choose.
 * Cranked Up to Eleven with Platinum Games's build, which is even more gratuitously gory than the KojiPro prototype. To give you an idea, a shot of the trailer consists of Raiden slashing a soldier's body for five seconds, each cut leaving a visible mark, before a final cut up and bursts the poor fellow into a hundred bloody bits. Comepletely unnecessary after the first cut? Perhaps. Incredibly cool? Hell. Yes.
 * Clean Cut: Just about anything Raiden's sword slices will be cut through with a perfectly straight slice.
 * Corrupt Politician/Well-Intentioned Extremist: A leaked conversation from Colorado Senator and current 2020 Presidential candidate Steven Armstrong with his speech writer has him basically talking about the boost in his approval rating in such a way that implied that he conned the populace by putting a "spin" on things. On the other hand, the speech also implies that he genuinely wants to restore America as the sole world superpower, albeit by instigating a new American Revolutionary War.
 * Eyepatch of Power: Raiden's design is a little different than his Metal Gear Solid 4 design. He's got some sort of eye-covering piece strapped around his head and one eye. Its presence might be explained on April 30th, if the site's teaser medical report (which has redactions) is anything to go by.
 * Eye Scream: It's strongly implied that he lost his left eye in a fight with Sam.
 * Engineered Public Confession: Assuming that the conversation on http://waronourshores.com/ from Senator Steven Armstrong was actually leaked as the video description implies, this trope might play a part in the game for the Senator.
 * Genre Shift: The first installment of the Metal Gear series to be an Action Game rather than a Stealth Based Game; and to top it off Platinum Games seem to have taken some cues from the Devil May Cry games.
 * Taking cues? It is pretty much a true Spiritual Successor to the series since the head of the game created the series to begin with.
 * Gory Deadly Overkill Title of Fatal Death: Revenge with a Vengeance. Revengeance.
 * Hot Blooded: Raiden, of all people, has become this.
 * Here We Go Again: The Demo for Revengeance will be bundled, once again, with the Zone of The Enders HD Collection.
 * In Soviet Russia, Trope Mocks You: In previous Metal Gear installments, the player has to hide from the enemy. In this game, enemies actually hide from the player, although namely because they intend to ambush the player, according to a podcast.
 * Before Metal Gear Solid 2 was released, Zone of Enders came with a demo of MGS2. The Zone of Enders HD Collection comes with a demo of Rising.
 * Katanas Are Just Better: The Men in Black wield them, and Metal Gear RAY's "arms" have been equipped with them.
 * Large Ham: From Raiden of all people. "MY SWORD IS A TOOL OF JUSTICE!" *80s guitar riff* "I think it's time for Jack... to LET 'ER RIP!". Seems like they listened to the complaints of him being emo in Metal Gear Solid 4 and just winged it.
 * Lensman Arms Race: According to the first trailer for the Platinum Games version, troops outfitted with cyborg parts have been on the rise in the global community.
 * Lightning Bruiser: Raiden seems to be this in every conceivable way, figuratively and literally.
 * Liquid Assets: "Yes, enemy cyborgs should have plenty of electrolytes once you... 'extract' their fluids."
 * Not Me This Time: Variation: when Sam (the Vamp-lookalike cyborg ninja) attacks Maverick, one of the soldiers wonders if Sam was a member of one of their competing PMS Cs. A female analyst then stated that the data access on Sam came up, and he was apparently unaffiliated with any of their competitors.
 * Pacifist Run: Averted for the first time since Metal Gear Solid. A major departure from what many consider to be a tradition for the franchise, this installment will be all about one concept: "Cutting things feels good".
 * President Evil: Possibly, Steven Armstrong, kind of. He was a senator at the time that speech was leaked, and recent presidential posters plastered over various schools in real life hinting at the game imply that he was a candidate for the 2020 Presidency. It's also implied that he's involved in the activities of the enemy group, Desperado Enforcement LLC.
 * Private Military Contractor: Desperado is the more traditional use of the trope (ie, supporting terrorists and criminals, and overall being evil). Maverick (the group Raiden is a member of), is a more beneficial and protagonistic use of the trope, similar to the Militaires Sans Frontieres in Metal Gear Solid Peace Walker.
 * Red Eyes Take Warning: Raiden's eye turns red in the initial teaser trailer after killing a robot and draining its battery. In the trailer for Platinum Games' build, it happens again, just before Raiden dons a featureless mask reminiscent of Olga's.
 * Robot Buddy: In the original concept (and possibly in the Platinum Games version), Raiden is teamed up with Kogekko, a Fun Size version of the Metal Gear Solid 4 Dwarf Gekkos (ak.a. Scarabs).
 * Rule of Cool: In the VGA trailer, Raiden blocks the strike of a Metal Gear RAY and then somehow lifts and throws the entire thing into the air.
 * Let's not forget to mention that after he throws it, he jumps up on it as it is falling, runs along its wing as he slices it with his sword, and then jumps up and slices it in half. Yeah.
 * The title itself - "Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance." One would assume that means the rise of the Metal Gear army, but there's nothing on the surface that could justify the word "Revengance" other than it sounds bloody awesome when you say it!
 * Saved From Development Hell: The game was cancelled before Platinum Games got involved.
 * Set Right What Once Went Wrong: Seems to be the main theme of the game.
 * Scary Black Man: The african soldier in the trailers, especially the "Sword" trailer, qualifies. Of patticular note is his particularly brutal interrogation of a soldier regarding leaked information to the enemy, to which he threatens to kill his family if he doesn't admit to it, and also implies to planning to rape the interrogated soldier's wife before killing her.
 * Shock and Awe: Electricity can be seen coursing around Raiden's blade and body.
 * Shout Out: Shortly after Raiden kicked a soldier into a black car hard enough to nearly flip the car over and set off the car alarm in the VGA 2011 trailer, Raiden says "Too easy!" in a voice that sounded very similar to Sonic, shortly before cutting the soldier up into salami.
 * Spiritual Successor: The combat has a strong resemblance to Platinum Games' Bayonetta.
 * X Meets Y: It looks a lot like a combination of Bayonetta and Vanquish.
 * Stock Subtitle: Rising, at least initially. The 2011 VGA trailer appears to indicate that Rising has replaced Solid in the title, with the game now using Revengeance as the subtitle.
 * The Stool Pigeon: Going by the comments made by the black soldier when he was torturing a soldier in the "Sword" trailer, apparently the soldier the black guy was interrogating that soldier because the latter was suspected of leaking their strategic information to the enemy.
 * Super Speed: Raiden has the ability to run extremely quickly, as well as to slow down his perception of time so he can chop one target a hundred times in a second. Basically, he's like a sword-based version of Sam Gideon from Platinum's previous release, Vanquish.
 * Take That: Armstrong gives one to the Tea Party Movement in the leaked conversation on http://waronourshores.com/.
 * That Poor Car: At one point in the VGA 2011 trailer, Raiden kicked an enemy soldier so hard, it triggered a car alarm on the black car behind them upon impact.
 * Video Game Cruelty Potential: In the Platinum Games build, after slicing open a box to find an enemy and his access code, you have the option of leaving the man where he kneels, or slicing his head off.
 * What Could Have Been: A very notable recent example; the initial Kojima Productions version of the game was to be a combination of stealth and action, deviating somewhat from the Metal Gear Solid formula but still staying similar enough to be part of the series (hence why it still had the Metal Gear Solid name). However, the development team were constantly changing the way the play mechanics worked, as well as finding stage design difficult, and ultimately it was cancelled in late 2010. Kojima originally considered offering the project to several Western studios, before settling on Platinum Games.
 * It was also originally slated to be an Interquel set in between the events of Metal Gear Solid 2 and Metal Gear Solid 4. As it turns out, it's now set years after Metal Gear Solid 4.
 * The stealth of the original version of the game was pitched as being "predatory." In other words, had it been done (and done well) it would have been like the stealth sequences in Batman Arkham Asylum, where the player would hunt down enemies relentlessly but need to stay out of sight. Unfortunately they just couldn't figure out a way to make it work. Where as Batman is a mere human with a bullet proof vest, a cyborg like Raiden is capable of enduring insane amounts of damage up to and including voluntary limb removal.
 * Actually, If the pre E3 Konami press conference is anything to go by, the Predatory stealth is still in there. It's just a little more on the aggressive side (like slicing through a pillar to get the unsuspecting soldier behind, backflipping off a building for a foot stab stealthkill or dropping a ferris wheel on them)
 * You Look Familiar: The designs for the Mastiff enemies (the hulking cyborgs with the cannon attached to their right arm) were reused from concept artwork from Metal Gear Solid 4 Guns of the Patriots that was originally meant to be the designs for the Beauty and the Beast Unit.
 * Also, Sam, the cyborg ninja that Raiden fights, resembles Vamp. Word of God states that this is purely a coincidence, and that Sam is not Vamp.