Platinum thought offer to make Metal Gear Rising was a joke

By Oli Welsh Published 19 January, 2012

Director is Bayonetta programmer, Kenji Saito.

Platinum Games has revealed that it initially thought Kojima Productions' offer to take over development of Metal Gear Rising was a joke.

The game's director has also been identified as Kenji Saito, lead programmer on Platinum's acclaimed action game, Bayonetta.

The revelations were made by Metal Gear creator Hideo Kojima and Platinum bosses Tatsuya Minami and Atsushi Inaba in the latest issue of Japanese gaming mag Famitsu, as reported by Andriasang.

The three revealed that Kojima Productions first approached Platinum with the idea of taking Rising's reins in 2010. But Platinum initially thought the offer was just a joke.

Discussions only began in earnest this time last year, at the January event celebrating the announcement of PlayStation Vita.

Kojima said that the Kojima Productions version of the game - titled Metal Gear Solid: Rising, and first announced at E3 in June 2009 - was having design "difficulties" due to the incorporation of both stealth and high-octane action.

Platinum's version, titled Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance, was unveiled at the Spike Video Game Awards last December. It jettisons the stealth element in favour of a pure focus on over-the-top action, rendered at 60 frames per second. "This is it," thought Kojima on seeing Platinum's early work on the game; he now feels that it's close to what his team originally wanted to make.

Inaba announced Saito as as director, and once again confirmed that Bayonetta and Okami director Hideki Kamiya has no involvement in Metal Gear Rising. However, he pointed out that Saito and Kamiya have been working together since Viewtiful Joe days.

As recently reported, the same interview confirms that Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance will be playable at this year's E3.

Picture of Oli.

About Oli Welsh

Oli is Eurogamer's acting deputy editor and reviews editor and likes to take things one word at a time. He is among the best dressed people in South London.

Read more articles from Oli by visiting the Oli Welsh archive page.

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Comments (15) Latest comment 4 months ago

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  • menage #1 4 months ago

    Maybe Platinum will finally hit the big league with this. They deserve every bit of credit they can get.

  • gandhimaster #2 4 months ago

    Er, has nobody told him the truth yet....?

  • menschenfracht #3 4 months ago

    @menage As much as I would want it (bought every single Clover&Platinum game on release date, except for Madworld), it probably won't sell.

    It almost literally pains me to scroll through Okami and Infinite Space sales figures, because I think that Okami is a richer experience than Twilight Princess, and Infinite Space is just overall better game than, say, Mass Effect (though a bit more shonen).

  • Slipstream #4 4 months ago

    I'd really like a random Bayonetta reference in one of the conversations xD

  • captain_Carl #5 4 months ago

    It's okay, i thought it was a joke when i saw the trailer. A very poor joke.

  • AdamAsunder #6 4 months ago

    @menschenfracht

    Here's hoping that the Metal Gear name will mean extra sales.

    What happened to that other platinum game? Was it Anarchy Reigns or something? Thought that was due out last year but has since gone quiet.

  • menschenfracht #7 4 months ago

    @AdamAsunder SEGA understandably didn't want to release a mainly competitive brawler/shooter in a BF3/CODMW3 environment, so they set their sails for 'early 2012'.

    And, I'm afraid, 'Metal Gear' name means nothing without 'Solid' - 'Ac!d' series sold pretty bad, which is a shame, because the games aren't that bad. The 2nd game even had 3D-glasses in the box )

  • Doctor_What #8 4 months ago

    @menschenfracht It's not the only thing about the name that doesn't mean a thing: 'Revengance'? Seriously?

  • Lunatic4ever #9 4 months ago

    I sure hoped this was a joke...too bad it isn't

  • Brodie #10 4 months ago

    Platinum's involvement makes this the first MG game I've been interested in in years.

  • 32768Colours #11 4 months ago

    "This is it," thought Kojima on seeing Platinum's early work on the game; he now feels that it's close to what his team originally wanted to make.
    Well that's a lie!

    Eurogamer reported Konami's E3 conference in 2009:
    Matsuyama's designed the game to discourage players from deliberately carving at human opponents, and wants them to feel like they've made a big mistake if they do so accidentally.

    "I'm not saying this will be a game for children," Matsuyama insisted. "It's a game for adults. Therefore I didn't want to lie. If you make a mistake something will happen in order to make it real and make you feel it's real as well.
    Verticality will be a much bigger feature in Rising, he [Kimura] explained. "I also want to implement height stealth because of Raiden's acrobatic abilities, so we don't want to have that hiding on the ground like the hero we had in the past. I want to make this stealth different - almost like a hunting stealth," Kimura said."
    Concluding, Matsuyama said: "I assure you Metal Gear Solid: Rising will be somthing different, a totally new experience that you'll have with the sword. The actual stealth-ness of the katana, and the strength, not even losing to a gun.
    So in fact, what they originally wanted to make was a fast moving stealth game, where the hack and slash element was tempered by strategic and moral choices.

    What we have on our hands now sounds like a very different game indeed. Thankfully coming from Platinum, it'll no doubt be fantastic fun.

    The original concept was probably very difficult to implement; the balance between stealth and action proving difficult or perhaps unsatisfying to play. If they'd pulled it off though, I think we'd probably have a far more interesting game as a result, but a super-fast action game from Platinum is hardly likely to be a disappointment.

  • Lunastra78 #12 4 months ago

    What I'd really like to see is a sequel to Vanquish. The game wasn't perfect but has so much potential.

  • menschenfracht #13 4 months ago

    @Lunastra78
    Bwa-ha-ha, another Monster Hunter fan who plays weird Japanese game and wants a sequel. I see a pattern there.
    /brofist

  • Cobalt_Jackal #14 4 months ago

    I wish it was a joke, i really do.

  • Lunastra78 #15 4 months ago

    Just to know what you do, you have to be a weird-ass Jap fan too, so welcome to the club! /high-five tentacle