It shouldn't work. Honestly, by every metric of game development logic in 2013, Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance should have been a high-profile disaster that ended in a cancellation notice and a very awkward press release. You had Kojima Productions—a studio known for twenty-minute cutscenes about nuclear proliferation and nanomachines—handing their precious IP over to PlatinumGames, the studio that thinks a "slow moment" is only doing three backflips instead of five.
The result? A masterpiece of high-speed absurdity.
It’s been over a decade since we first heard Raiden scream about his "ripper" persona, and yet the game is more relevant now than it was at launch. It’s not just the memes. It’s not just Senator Armstrong yelling about omelets. It’s the fact that Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance captured a specific kind of mechanical purity that modern AAA games are too scared to touch. It’s a game where you can cut a watermelon into 400 pieces, and then do the same thing to a giant bipedal tank.
The Development Hell That birthed a Legend
The story of how we actually got this game is almost as chaotic as the combat. Originally, it was Metal Gear Solid: Rising. It was supposed to be a bridge between MGS2 and MGS4, showing how Raiden became a cyborg. Kojima’s team at the time was struggling with the "Zandatsu" mechanic—the "cut and take" system. They could make things look cool in a tech demo, but they couldn't make it a game.
The project was effectively dead.
Then, Hideo Kojima met with PlatinumGames. He basically asked them, "Can you save this?" Platinum looked at the stealth-heavy focus and threw it out the window. They changed the title from Solid to Rising to signal that this wasn't your father's tactical espionage action. It was "Lightning Bolt Action." They moved the timeline forward, past the events of MGS4, giving them a blank slate where they didn't have to worry about breaking the series' complex canon too much.
This move saved the game but alienated some hardcore fans. People wanted Snake. They got a guy who runs up walls and parries chainsaws with a sword held in his feet. If you look back at the early trailers, the shift in tone is jarring. But Platinum knew something Kojima’s team didn't: if you give a player a sword that can cut anything, the last thing they want to do is hide in a cardboard box.
Why the Combat Still Feels Better Than Most Modern Action Games
Let’s talk about the parry.
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In most games, you press a "block" button. In Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance, you parry by flicking the analog stick toward the enemy and attacking at the same time. It is aggressive. It is risky. It forces you to lean into the danger rather than backing away. This single design choice defines the entire experience. You aren't defending; you're countering.
The "Blade Mode" is the other half of that soul. By consuming fuel cells—which you get by ripping the spines out of your enemies, obviously—you slow down time. A grid appears. You use the right stick to aim your slashes. It’s tactile. When you hit that sweet spot and see the "Zandatsu" prompt, Raiden reaches in, grabs a glowing blue electrolyte core, and crushes it. Health restored. Meter filled.
It’s a perfect gameplay loop. It rewards aggression with resources.
Most modern action games, even the good ones like God of War Ragnarok or Elden Ring, have a certain weight and "correctness" to them. They want you to learn patterns. Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance wants you to break the patterns. It wants you to feel like a god of physics. The sheer technical feat of the procedural cutting engine still holds up today. If you slash an enemy diagonally, they fall apart exactly along that line. That's hard to program. It’s even harder to make it feel fluid at 60 frames per second.
The Politics of Memes and Senator Armstrong
It is impossible to discuss this game without talking about its prophetic, bizarre, and utterly loud political commentary. At the time, critics thought the story was a bit too "over the top."
Fast forward to today.
Senator Steven Armstrong, the final boss, has become a permanent fixture of internet culture. Not just because he's a "nanomachine-infused" football player who wants to "Make America Great Again" (a phrase the game used years before it became a real-world campaign slogan), but because he represents the ultimate Metal Gear villain. He is the logical extreme of the series' themes.
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The game tackles:
- The privatization of the military-industrial complex.
- The use of "memes" (in the original Richard Dawkins sense) to control public opinion.
- The ethics of cybernetic enhancement and the literal "harvesting" of the poor to fuel the desires of the elite.
Raiden starts the game as a "hero" working for a private security firm. By the end, he realizes that the system is so fundamentally broken that he has to embrace his own inner darkness to actually change anything. It’s cynical. It’s loud. It’s incredibly "Metal Gear."
Director Kenji Saito and writer Etsu Tamari managed to thread a needle here. They kept the philosophical rambling of a Kojima game but delivered it with the punchy, Saturday-morning-cartoon energy of a Platinum production. When Armstrong starts his monologue, you want to roll your eyes, but the music—oh man, the music—makes you want to run through a brick wall instead.
That Soundtrack Is Doing Heavy Lifting
Jamie Christopherson deserves a trophy for the OST. The way the music functions in Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance is a masterclass in dynamic audio design.
Take the fight against Metal Gear RAY in the opening level. The track "Rules of Nature" starts as a low-key instrumental. As the fight progresses, the intensity builds. The moment you parry a giant robot's blade and suplex the entire machine into the air, the vocals kick in.
“RULES OF NATURE!”
It creates a biological response in the player. It’s a shot of adrenaline. Every boss has a theme that reflects their philosophy. Mistral’s "A Stranger I Remain" talks about her lack of identity. Monsoon’s "The Stains of Time" is about the inevitability of fate and the washing away of memory. These aren't just background tracks; they are the narrative's heartbeat.
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Common Misconceptions: Is it actually short?
You’ll hear people say this game is only five hours long.
Technically, if you sprint through on Easy and don't care about the combat, sure. But that’s like buying a steak just to smell it. The real game is in the difficulty scaling. "Revengeance" difficulty isn't just "enemies have more health." It changes enemy placements. It rewards perfect parries with massive damage multipliers. It turns the game into a high-stakes rhythm section where one mistake is death, but one perfect move is a massacre.
The DLCs, featuring Jetstream Sam and Blade Wolf, add significant depth too. Sam’s campaign is particularly interesting because he doesn't have Raiden’s cyborg enhancements. He’s just a guy with a sword and a jet-powered sheath. Playing as him requires a completely different sense of timing and spacing.
How to play it in 2026
If you’re looking to dive in now, the PC version on Steam is still the gold standard. It runs at high resolutions easily and supports modern controllers. While there have been rumors of a "Master Collection Vol. 2" including Rising, nothing beats the stability of the current PC port.
A few tips for the uninitiated:
- Learn the parry immediately. Do not try to dodge-roll. The dodge (Offensive Defense) is an unlockable skill you have to buy in the shop. Get it early, but use it sparingly.
- Don't ignore the sub-weapons. Tactical grenades and the pincer blades from Sundowner can trivialized some of the harder mob encounters.
- Watch the boss's hands. Platinum loves visual cues. If something glows yellow, you can't parry it—you have to move.
Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance is a lightning-in-a-bottle moment. It’s what happens when two different philosophies of game design collide and, instead of shattering, they fuse into something stronger. It’s messy, it’s loud, and it’s arguably the most "fun" the Metal Gear franchise has ever been.
Actionable Next Steps for Fans
- Check your PC settings: If you're on Windows 11, ensure you've disabled "Full Screen Optimizations" in the .exe properties if you experience flickering; it's a common legacy issue for this port.
- Dive into the VR Missions: Most people skip these, but they are the best way to master the "Cutting" mechanic for the S-rank runs.
- Listen to the "Codecs": Much like the mainline MGS games, there are hours of optional dialogue. Press the codec button during different phases of boss fights to hear Raiden and his team discuss the actual physics and politics of what’s happening. It adds a ton of flavor you'd otherwise miss.
The legacy of Raiden's solo outing isn't just about the memes. It's a reminder that sometimes, the best thing a franchise can do is let go of the "way things have always been" and try something completely insane. Cut at will.
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