Lets Talk Some Metal Gear Rising

The new trailer for Metal Gear Rising debuted at the Spike TV VGA awards this weekend, and I have to say I’m a little surprised by the high amount of negativity floating around the response to the trailer. Now while I haven’t looked extensively into the responses about the trailer (I’m still playing Skyrim after all) I have to say that there are some people out there who are saying this that, quite honestly, make me think they have their head somewhere up their ass. Why? Because they’re saying things that really don’t make much sense when you think about them more in depth.



There’s one item I want to get out of the way as fast as I can. There are people who are trying to draw parallels to Metal Gear Rising and DmC. To all of you people doing this: Stop it, you don’t understand what you’re talking about. The only comparisons that really exist here are that the game is being made by a different developer and that its “different”. Remember that Rising is not a reboot of the Metal Gear franchise like DmC, it’s a spin-off title featuring a different character in the franchise’s universe. So don’t feel like everything you know and love about Metal Gear is going to get swept under the rug. In fact, considering there were mums about Metal Gear Solid 5 floating around (yes, this hasn't been confirmed) and the fact that Kojima in the past has said he’s done with Metal Gear and then another title pops up (see: Peace Walker) I’d say the standard Metal Gear games are perfectly fine and will continue on. Assuming Rising is some sort of replacement to the games we know and love is a little foolish.

The other thing that factors into why this Rising/DmC parallel is stupid is by examining the developers involved. Platinum Games isn’t some western developer who may be out of touch with the Japanese styles that go into a Metal Gear game. Platinum Games is very Japan based, like Kojjima Productions, and is a lot more likely to properly recreate some of the core aspects of a Metal Gear game (at least in storytelling) then, say, Ninja Theory with DmC. Heck, I don’t know if I’m the only person who felt this but while playing Vanquish I felt like there some (albeit very exaggerated) Metal Gear stylings in there. Plus, you haven’t seen Platinum Games come out and basically rail on its own main character prior to making a new game.



Alright, now that I’m done ranting on why that stupid comparison is foolish let me move on to something else. People for some reason seem to be upset with how over the top the action in this trailer was, claiming it was apparently “Not Metal Gear”. I have to ask if anybody remembers some of Raiden’s achievements in previous games, because there’s already been some plenty over the top shit he’s already done. Remember when Raiden fought 20 Rays in Sons of Liberty, without any of his cyborg-ninja shit he got later, and won? How about when he appears in Guns of the Patriots fighting a bunch of those mooing Metal Gears and winning (seriously, whats with the cow noises)? Or later on in MGS4 when he cuts off his own arm and stops a giant ship from crushing Solid Snake by himself, gets pretty much crushed doing so, and still lives to fight again later in the game carrying a sword with only his teeth? So you’re telling me that lifting a single Ray is too much? Don’t complain about this being over the top, because Metal Gear is filled to the teeth with silly and/or over the top crap. This is the same franchise that used possession-via-the-arm as a plot device at one point (before thankfully being retconned).

The response to the hack-and-slash nature of this game seems to be raising my eyebrows a bit too. I saw one user comment that said “Metal Gear is dead now” regarding this trailer now being a totally different thing from the games of the past. Um... the moment this game was announced it had the subtitle of “lightning bolt action” under it, did this get ignored somehow or did people seriously expect Raiden (with this list of accolades mentioned above) to do all of his crazy robot ninja shit in a total stealth game? It’s been firmly established that Rising was going to be of a different genre since pretty much the moment it was announced. And hey this isn’t even the first time such a thing has appeared in a Metal Gear game, anybody remember the Ninja Missions from Metal Gear Solid: VR Missions? Genre switches in the Metal Gear franchise aren’t entirely foreign either, the only reason nobody made a stink about Metal Gear Ac!d is because the game was on the PSP.



In short, cool your jets peeps. Rising isn’t here to replace the games we know and love, its a spin-off game (and possibly series) that’s trying to do different things with the franchise and the comparison between it and DmC is ridiculous and stupid. Plus, even though he’s not a developer for this game, Hideo Kojima had to give some sort of “okay” to all of this and is still one of the brain childs of this game and I think he has a bit more credibility than some of the talking suits you see littered all over the industry right now.