How stealth came back into Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance

Platinum's Atsushi Inaba revealed that the team had to add stealth back into MGR: Revengeance because it would have become "very dull" if it was all-action all the time.

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Something I found surprising in my time with the Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance was the greater emphasis on stealth. Sure, the game offers plenty of Platinum's unique brand of action, but it still retains a good deal of MGS-style sneaking around. After the game proved me wrong, I asked if the addition of stealth mechanics was the intention from the beginning or whether it was tossed in later to address fan concerns.

"In the beginning, we wrapped around the core concept of just having Raiden moving forward," Platinum's Atsushi Inaba answered, speaking through a translator. "It was based on sole action. But looking back, it would have been very dull and very centered around just cutting."

"We think that players would just give up on it," Inaba added, admitting that the cutting gimmick couldn't sustain an entire game. "So we needed to have more options and variety and that's when we decided to include a lot more stealth and different routes where players can really flex on their play style."

The idea of Raiden constantly moving forward also leads into Revengeance's parry system. When enemies move in, Raiden can parry their blows and go on the offensive. This acts as a replacement to a more traditional blocking scheme, leading me to ask what led to the omission of blocking.

"This connects to having Raiden moving forward," Inaba replied. "We never want him blocking or moving sideways in order to defend himself. We always want him on the offensive. So when he moves and parries something, it connects to his next combo. As a character and as the concept, we wanted to keep in line with that."

Senior Editor

Ozzie has been playing video games since picking up his first NES controller at age 5. He has been into games ever since, only briefly stepping away during his college years. But he was pulled back in after spending years in QA circles for both THQ and Activision, mostly spending time helping to push forward the Guitar Hero series at its peak. Ozzie has become a big fan of platformers, puzzle games, shooters, and RPGs, just to name a few genres, but he’s also a huge sucker for anything with a good, compelling narrative behind it. Because what are video games if you can't enjoy a good story with a fresh Cherry Coke?

From The Chatty
  • reply
    December 11, 2012 11:05 AM

    Ozzie Mejia posted a new article, How stealth came back into Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance.

    Platinum's Atsushi Inaba revealed that the team had to add stealth back into MGR: Revengeance because it would have become "very dull" if it was all-action all the time.

    • reply
      December 11, 2012 11:19 AM

      Revengeance? Really?

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        December 11, 2012 12:10 PM

        Is this actually the first time you've seen the name for this game?

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      December 11, 2012 11:27 AM

      Cool, great read, I was wondering what the deal was in the last video with the box, this is great news, I am ready.

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        December 11, 2012 11:59 AM

        The cardboard box is definitely back!

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          December 11, 2012 3:14 PM

          Cool, hey Ozzie can you verify what the deal is with the PC version? Is it happening or canceled? Thanks

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            December 11, 2012 3:19 PM

            There was no word on a PC version, as we were all on PS3's for the event. I wouldn't hold out hope for it, at least not anytime soon.

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            December 11, 2012 3:40 PM

            There is no PC version. It was actually never announced, but we have it listed incorrectly in our database.

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      December 11, 2012 3:26 PM

      Playing the demo, the blocking mechanic is actually incredibly annoying especially on the dog boss.

      It's incredibly unforgiving and a lot of the time the cues to parry are way too easy to miss. Good idea but not a good implementation. Turns out it's just better and safer to just run around avoiding attacks until there is an opening. Really ruins the flow of the game.

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      December 12, 2012 5:58 AM

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