Last night, Konami released a new documentary about Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance, the game that debuted at E3 2009, resurfaced during E3 2010, and then sank into the shadows until the VGA reveal last week. The documentary outlines a troubled development for the game, revealing that the game was all but cancelled until Platinum Games stepped in to take the reins.
"Metal Gear Solid 4 wrapped up in 2008, and the dev team took post-project time off right after that. But, of course, we were in a situation where we had to start planning for MGS5. So I started coming up with several ideas,” said Metal Gear creator Hideo Kojima.
"At the time, I was working on a new project. It was during the planning phase of that project and I wanted the staff to take charge of the new title," Kojima continued. "There was resistance to that idea, though. It was then that someone proposed the idea for what would become Rising. It was a game based on Raiden's story, since MGS5 had too much weight to it.”
Unfortunately, things did not go as planned.
“At first, I was involved in the project as the lead programmer and project manager for the original Rising project,” said Kojima Productions producer Yuji Korekado, who replaced former prodcuer Shigenobu Matsuyama. “The concept was a game in which everything could be cut. This presented a great technical challenge. It was a chance for our new team to make a completely new game on our own without direct help from Mr. Kojima.”
Excitement gave way to worry as the game’s development dragged on, with mounting technical issues.
“At first, I feel like our progress was really slow. There were difficulties. It seemed like the game had a hard time finding its identity. So, it was hard to get the gameplay and story in sync,” said Kojima Productions lead writer Etsu Tamari.
“We were lost when it came to game design,” stated the project’s 3DCG advisor Hideki Sasaki. “We were struggling with the balance between stealth and action. We were at a point where these problems were causing major delays and we weren’t getting results.”
Finally, Kojima himself stepped in to shut down the project, feeling that it wasn’t going anywhere. He had been working on Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker and the studio’s new Fox Engine, so he had left the project alone previously. He looked at the project after finishing Peace Walker in 2010, to find it in shambles.
“Mr. Kojima told me the project would never be completed at this pace,” related Korekado. “I didn’t want the game to be canceled, so I told him about the good elements we had and tried to bargain for more time. But the problem, Mr. Kojima said, was that the team wasn’t working together. There wasn’t a strong director in place who could pull all of us together in a single direction. I really had nothing to say against this argument.”
Kojima was ready to cancel the project by the end of 2010, but he decided to shop the idea around a bit. He approached Platinum Games, who quickly turned around some workable plans for Rising.
“Early this year I contacted them and explained the situation of the game and how it was stopped,” said Kojima. “I wasn’t expecting for them to accept the project, but they did and within a week they showed me a work plan with elements that could be included to improve it and make it more interesting. It was a document with an easily understood idea and goals.”
“This is when I knew we could work with them. We signed a contract and gave them what we had done. A few months later they delivered an alpha version of the game with the improvements they implemented. The product they came up with was really good.”
“At first the game was working on the Fox Engine,” said Kojima in the documentary’s second half. “However as we kept talking with them, we noticed there were really good elements that were unique to Platinum Games which we wanted to include in the game. We really ended up remaking the game from the ground up.”
Metal Gear Rising’s story, which was supposed to take place between Metal Gear Solid 2 and Metal Gear Solid 4, got moved to after MGS4. The game also transitioned from Kojima Production’s more-realistic work to Platinum Games’ stylish action. Gone was the focus on balancing stealth, and in its place was an action game where you could really cut everything.
“Well, right now we are still in the creation process,” said Platinum Games president Tatsuya Minami. “This is not the old Rising, it’s a project that has been substantially rebooted. This is something I want to emphasize. I want there to be a notable change now that Platinum Games is involved.”
“Given that action games are what we do best, I am confident to say we are one of the best studios in the world. This is something we are showing and expressing in Rising,” stated the game’s new producer, Platinum Games’Atsushi Inaba. Inaba joined Kojima on the VGA stage to reveal the new title.
“Back in the day, ‘Made In Japan’ meant that you were getting the best gaming experiences possible. I want to revive that feeling again!” said Minami.
