Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance — The Full Story

Following the reveal of Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance at the 2011 Spike Video Game Awards, many followers of the game went from thinking “just what the hell is going on” to “how the fuck did that happen?” To recap: after being announced at E3 2009, Metal Gear Rising has been fully canceled, and the game is now being developed in partnership with Platinum Games, and has switched titles to Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance.

Rather than let us all twist in the wind as to what went down, Konami held a Q&A session with Konami Executive Producer Hideo Kojima and Platinum Games Producer Atsushi Inaba. Here’s the story as they tell it.

The Development of Metal Gear Rising

Rising as a game concept was born by circumstance, and not from the direct intent of series creator Hideo Kojima. As Kojima was working on Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker, he wanted to entrust the development of a full sequel of the franchise — Metal Gear Solid 5 – to some of the younger staff at Konami. His goal was to use this as a rite of passage of sorts to allow the younger staff to develop, gain leadership skills, and work independently of his direction.

As you might expect, a group of fresh developers found the idea of developing a full-on sequel to the Metal Gear Solid series a very intimidating prospect. Because of this, they requested to do a side-story or a spin-off instead. This is where the idea of a Raiden-based game came from. The concept was well-received all around as it would allow the new team to develop a game separate from all the expectations of the main series.

Unfortunately the new project didn’t have a clear sense of identity. The developers latched on to the idea of “cut everything” as a design mantra, and they achieved that technical feat. In the early gameplay demos at Konami, you could slice through anything — buildings, cars, opponents… only problem was that completely destroyed any sense of guidance or level design. Furthermore the development staff was dedicated to the idea of stealth, and they just couldn’t figure out how to make that jive with a cyborg samurai that could cut through anything in the game.

“Under that situation, I usually have to step in and collaborate with the game design, but I’ve done that with many games. Whenever I do that, the young staff never develops, so I didn’t want to do that, and I decided not to go back to Metal Gear Rising,” Kojima said.

And so, while Kojima plugged away on Peace Walker, development of Rising stalled as the development staff tried to build up and tear down game ideas around the concepts that fundamentally clashed. Once Peace Walker wrapped around the end of 2010, Kojima decided to take a peek at the production of Rising. He decided that the project couldn’t be saved, and decided to outright cancel the game in late 2010.

Platinum Games Takes Over

Despite canceling the game, Kojima still felt there was a lot of content (motion capture, story) created for Rising that could be utilized somehow. While he entertained the idea of contacting unnamed Western developers, he approached Platinum Games for the project. Rather than use an e-mail or a phone call, he actually asked Platinum Games President Tatsuya Minami to develop the game at a party.

“At first I thought it was a joke,” Minami said.

Given Kojima’s proclivity for pranks, I can see why, but Kojima was actually completely convinced that Platinum Games would be the best choice to develop the game. Why? Because Japan.

“The katana is one of our main concepts for this game, and that is very difficult to explain,” Kojima said. “There are many production teams around the world that I love. For example, there are a lot of very good production teams in North America, but I thought if I take this project to them, in one year I will come back and it won’t be a katana. It will be a gun with a chainsaw or something.”

Of course it takes two to tango, and while it’s surprising that Konami would share development of their principle property with an outside studio, it’s equally as exciting that Platinum Games decided to take the project on. While the North American mentality tends to get clouded with concepts of property and ownership, Platinum Games Executive Director Atsushi Inaba is very direct about why they took the project.

“If I’m not excited about a game, we will never work on that,” Inaba said. “About Metal Gear Rising, when they proposed this project I was really, really excited about it. At that point I think I’d already lost the battle. I didn’t care about how much my staff was going to have a hard time. I didn’t even consider it being someone else’s IP, but just me being excited about it.”

Within a week Platinum Games delivered a work plan to Kojima Productions. Four months later, they had a working alpha. Of course, they made a few changes to the game. First off, stealth was dropped immediately. Second, instead of running on the FOX engine developed at Konami, the game is now being developed on Platinum Games’ internal engine as that’s what all the developers are mastered on.

Current State of the Game

Going from nothing to working alpha in four months is a feat, regardless of the game and the atmosphere. Given that Platinum Games could give shape to someone else’s vision is something else entirely.

“The game is high-speed action, but the development is also high-speed development. If we are successful with this, we’ll make huge changes in the games industry,” Kojima said.

Hearing Kojima and Inaba discuss the game’s development conveys this sense of urgency, activity, and slight antagonism. It’s clear that everyone involved is very passionate about this game, and are nearly at each others’ throats to see it through. For Kojima Productions and Platinum Games, Revegeance has meaning beyond making a game about a robot ninja cutting dudes.

“If you saw the VGA world premiers, like 90% of the trailers included guns which reflects the society and the way they make games,” Kojima said. “I wanted to give more power to Japanese developers, so we can team up. We’re coming into the gaming world with a katana and challenging the guns.”

Rather than challenging Western ideas, Inaba’s motivations are much more direct, but no less passionate.

“At Platinum, we already had people that loved and really cared about Metal Gear Solid, those people are the central people in our development,” Inaba said. “We’re working with a lot of love and respect towards this title.”

Of course, Platinum Games has less to prove to the industry at large. Games like Bayonetta and Vanquish have achieved critical acclaim all over the world, while Konami only managed a handful of releases in 2011 including Pro Evolution Soccer 2012 and the Metal Gear Solid HD Collection. That’s why Kojima’s staking the reputation of his company and his country on this game.

“We want to prove that there’s still life in the Japanese games industry,” Kojima said.

SHARE THIS POST WITH YOUR IDIOT FRIENDS: