Raiden Returns: Metal Gear Rising Revengeance QA

On a somber Monday, we were ushered into an undisclosed location in Los Angeles to a QA session to discuss the newly rebooted Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance, which saw its re-debut at the 2011 Spike Video Game Awards. Rumors about another developer taking over the project was revealed via a leak on Saturday when the internet found out in advance that Platinum Games is developing the troubled Rising project. However, concerns about the game’s new direction and reboot were an issue to be addressed at the QA session to which Mr. Hideo Kojima and Mr. Atsushi Inaba clarified speculation on its development troubles and the newfound collaboration.

Metal Gear Solid: Rising was undertaken by the younger staff at Kojima Productions after the development of Metal Gear Solid 4. Kojima, at the time, pursued the role as producer and mainly a hands-off role in order to focus his attention on the FOX Engine and Peace Walker. The premise for Rising was ambitious. The overall direction was guided by one focus: cut everything and everything. This, of course, led to development troubles when the younger staff could not find a unified vision for the game design, instead focusing on their own personal assignments. Kojima cited the Rising in an identity crisis trying to merge stealth with action and it ultimately brought the game development down. Two years of development hell had passed and it was clear for Kojima that the team would be in that perpetual circle of finding that perfect balance that would not be possible.

Rising’s woes came to a head at E3 where Kojima realized that while the story and character elements were SOLID, the game design was not there, and the overall package was not a cohesive whole. Kojima quietly cancelled Rising at the end of 2010 and it looked like all was finished for the Rising project. However, the team at Kojima Productions felt adamantly about Rising’s continuation and Kojima looked at external developers to outsource the project to. However, for Kojima, the idea of creating a Metal Gear ninja action game had to come from the Japanese development culture itself, although western developers were considered. It was then, at a holiday party, that Kojima approached his long time friend Tatsuya Minami (president of PLATINUMGAMES) and proposed that PLATINUMGAMES work on Metal Gear Rising. At first, Minami took this as a joke, but when Kojima repeated in a serious tone, the collaboration had come to fruition.

The PLATINUMGAMES collaboration took the task of building Metal Gear Rising from the ground up and it was not an easy time as it had to manage its own internal projects while working on the new Rising project with the demanding Kojima Productions. Atsushi Inaba, Platinum Games producer, constantly reiterated in the QA session that Kojima has set tight deadlines and ambitious expectations for the project that has constantly kept the team on its toes. However, for PLATINUMGAMES, the fast and energetic studio culture has ultimately worked in favor for Kojima Productions and the collaboration has fostered in several ways. The work ethic of PLATINUMGAMES seems to be displayed in the trailer of Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance, the heavy emphasis on action demonstrated through Platinum’s in-game engine (running at 60fps) and the crazy, over-the-top moments such as Raiden countering a huge Metal Gear Ray was in part due to PLATINUMGAMES involvement in the game. This even came as a shock to the Kojima Productions developers who were not used to the level of intensity that the studio brought for the action game.

This is not to leave out Kojima Productions fully as the studio has direct control over the story, characters, and the cut scenes. Of course, some elements were taken liberally under PLATINUMGAMES as Inaba noted that it has worked to spinoff Rising after the timeline of Metal Gear Solid 4 as a separate story, instead of between the events of Metal Gear Solid 2 and 4. Creatively, this has allowed Rising to have a definite beginning but more opportunities to leverage branching directions that would lend to future installments, if the project does succeed. Both Kojima and Inaba felt there is a lot on the line for the Rising project not solely for the studios involved but for the collective future of Japanese game development. Kojima, noted, the Spike Video Game Awards “world exclusive” premieres were 90% Western development and the showcase of Rising was a testament to the amount of pressure the video game world has for Japanese game developers. Kojima wants to bring back the reputation that Japan makes the best games in the world and Minami is fully in agreement.

There is still a lot to do for Rising to realize its completion as the reboot, subsequently its development, started early this year. However, Kojima and Inaba stressed that its relationship since then as held and there is a true collaboration found in Rising’s new direction, or Revengeance. While the story will focus on Raiden getting his revenge, for Kojima and PLATINUMGAMES, it’s also about avenging the failed development of Rising.