Inaba: Revengeance "would have been very dull" without stealth
"We think that players would just give up on it."
Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance producer Atsushi Inaba said the upcoming slice-and-dice action spin-off "would have been very dull" had it simply stuck to combat.
When asked if stealth was a late addition based on player feedback or had been part of Revengeance's DNA for awhile, Inaba told Shack News (via a translator), "In the beginning, we wrapped around the core concept of just having Raiden moving forward... 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 admitted. "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."
This may not bode well for the game's core combat system, but I like the sound of these multiple routes, as the E3 demo's aggressively linear path brought back unpleasant memories of Final Fantasy 13's tepid level design.
Later n the interview Inaba addressed concerns about there being no dodge maneuver. "This connects to having Raiden moving forward," Inaba explained. "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."