Game of the Month #90 (July 2022) - Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance

Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance takes the renowned METAL GEAR franchise into exciting new territory by focusing on delivering an all-new action experience unlike anything that has come before. Combining world-class development teams at Kojima Productions and PlatinumGames, Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance brings two of the world's most respected teams together with a common goal of providing players with a fresh synergetic experience that combines the best elements of pure action and epic storytelling, all within the expansive MG universe. The game introduces Raiden as the central character; a child soldier transformed into a half-man, half-machine cyborg ninja, equipped with a high-frequency katana blade and a soul fueled by revenge.
When focusing on the main objectives, Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance is about 7 Hours in length. If you're a gamer that strives to see all aspects of the game, you are likely to spend around 33½ Hours to obtain 100% completion.

I'm going to check this game out when I'm home from holidays. I love a good hack n slash game. I've never played Metal Gear Solid, should I check out videos to understand the story?

Does anyone remember this demo?

Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance
Completion December 01, 2014
Main+Extras 11h 35m 20s
Notes Attempted on hard but it was too difficult for me so moved down to normal. Got to the start of the 3rd level
Review
This was quiet an enjoyable game to play through.

The parry system can take some getting use to but once you get the hang of it, it becomes very initiative to use and keeps you on your toes. I still which there was a dodge function but it no problem if there isn't.

There are certain points in the game where it can be cheat (esp monsoon) and the game could've been longer but still it was enjoyable ride to get through right to the end.

7/10

Looking forward to starting this today or tomorrow. I bought it really early on when I built my first PC in 2016, and proceeded to never play it till now. Which is weird considering I did a full metal gear series playthrough and just skipped over it.

Played this one back in 2014 and loved every minute of it - it's stupid and over the top, but that's exactly what I signed up for! Can definitely recommend to anyone who like s Platinum action games... it's a good time.

Does anyone remember this demo?

I totally remember this! Funny enough I remember trying out the demo back in the day but never actually got around to playing the game. That changes today though!

This game feels peak early 2010's. Brown colour palette, absurd action, ridiculous dialogue, and seemingly designed as a 13-year-old boy's wet dream haha. Don't get me wrong, it's an absolute blast thus far, just definitely feels like a game from another decade.

I never understood how to parry consistently and if my timing was off, but I've tried it on both keyboard and a 360 controller with no satisfying results so I pretty much stopped playing at the end of R01. I do feel inclined to reinstall and practice some more so I can finallly see through the rest of the game.

Never played this one! I'll give it a shot this month, though I'm usually not a huge fan of fast paced combo-y action games. I'll keep an open mind, but if it doesn't entertain me in the first few hours I'll retire it :>

I never understood how to parry consistently and if my timing was off, but I've tried it on both keyboard and a 360 controller with no satisfying results so I pretty much stopped playing at the end of R01. I do feel inclined to reinstall and practice some more so I can finallly see through the rest of the game.

Oof, yeah I'm struggling with the parry system for sure. Especially with the machine enemies. All the tutorial says is to press the left stick in the direction of the enemy's attack and press X at the perfect time, but I need more info. I assume that means towards the direction of the enemy attack, so if they're coming at you from above you press up, and that seems somewhat consistent. But what about lunging attacks? Neutral left stick? Also up, as in forward? And what's the perfect timing? Right when you get hit definitely doesn't work, it wants before you get hit. Then there's the camera not locking onto enemies at all, or maybe I'm missing something? How do I interpret an enemy's attack then? How is there no dodge roll?

Also important detail: You can't change difficulty once you pick it. Hate this in games. Normal is always too easy, and whether hard is the right difficulty for me is always a shot in the dark. I'll be replaying the first two missions because it got impossible, but thankfully it was pretty quick. Hopefully I don't get stuck on normal too, but that's unlikely.

Anyways I come off really negative but I'm still very much into the game. I just need to learn it, and then I can enjoy all the dumb platinum action like the rest of their work, which pairs perfectly with Metal Gear.

EDIT: Ok, I checked the "Help" in the pause menu. There's a movelist there, which includes a lock on! Really surprised they don't tutorialize that at all! Also, be sure to check "Customize" to buy moves, like hey, a dodge roll.

Oof, yeah I'm struggling with the parry system for sure. Especially with the machine enemies. All the tutorial says is to press the left stick in the direction of the enemy's attack and press X at the perfect time, but I need more info. I assume that means towards the direction of the enemy attack, so if they're coming at you from above you press up, and that seems somewhat consistent. But what about lunging attacks? Neutral left stick? Also up, as in forward? And what's the perfect timing? Right when you get hit definitely doesn't work, it wants before you get hit. Then there's the camera not locking onto enemies at all, or maybe I'm missing something? How do I interpret an enemy's attack then? How is there no dodge roll?

Also important detail: You can't change difficulty once you pick it. Hate this in games. Normal is always too easy, and whether hard is the right difficulty for me is always a shot in the dark. I'll be replaying the first two missions because it got impossible, but thankfully it was pretty quick. Hopefully I don't get stuck on normal too, but that's unlikely.

Anyways I come off really negative but I'm still very much into the game. I just need to learn it, and then I can enjoy all the dumb platinum action like the rest of their work, which pairs perfectly with Metal Gear.

EDIT: Ok, I checked the "Help" in the pause menu. There's a movelist there, which includes a lock on! Really surprised they don't tutorialize that at all! Also, be sure to check "Customize" to buy moves, like hey, a dodge roll.

I was in the exact position you were in when I faced the two robots in the street on the first mission. Before that point I received an S mark for all combats, at that point I kept dying over and over again.

The offensive defensive skill has helped me with robots like you mentioned in the edit.

I then had a learning curve with the parry when I faced Blade Wolf halfway through the first mission. I died and died and died until I figured out how to parry his attacks.

I didn't know you couldn't change difficulty mid-game. In my head that was my last resort if the game turns out to be too tough and frustrating (I'm playing on Normal now), but I guess I'll have to persist.

All that having been said, I do absolutely love the story that is presented and the carnage that ensued from the get-go. I'm hooked and I want to reach the conclusion.

I ended up just sneaking past the two MG’s in mission 1😅

I ended up just sneaking past the two MG’s in mission 1😅

No way! That works? I always see a barrier that blocks me from progressing until I kill everyone, is that because I've been spotted?

I definitely feel for all of you having trouble getting used to blocking and that. It took me til around the Monsoon fight to finally get used to the feeling of it. I would also recommend going from running into a heavy attack to block some moves, which helped me a lot near later bosses in the game. I would jump in for another playthrough, but I have already done 3 playthroughs so far this year since March/April so I think it's best to not return to the game for a bit.

So I've decided to ditch the save on Revengeance difficulty as I should have realised sooner it was a terrible idea to start the game on that mode with no experience whatsoever (and not being the best hack'n slash player to begin with), sometimes it's better to find a middle ground by tackling a more balanced setting first and thus I've restarted on Hard. It appears my parry game has gotten a lot better and I can take all the time to study each enemy instead of getting one-shotted on every encounter as it was the case on my Revengeance file lol, THAT alone should have been a red flag and I wouldn't have wasted 7-9 hours trying to complete the first 2 missions. Because of all the codec conversations (and there is a whole fuckton of those, but they can be amusing and you get to learn about the characters that assist you throughout the game as well as gather some intel on regular enemies / bosses), I'm going at a snail pace, though the subsequent playthroughs will obviously be more combat-focused. I'm at the start of R02 after parrying Mistral's ass a great deal and I definitely feel optimistic about this run, Hard mode strikes just the right balance without being a complete pushover and "tutorial setting" to do both enjoy the story and prep me for Very Hard / Revengeance modes as well as the VR missions, so glad I gave it another chance.

I had this for the longest time on my backlog, finally an excuse to beat it. What a great game! The Zandatsu thing never got old throughout the gameplay.

I've played it on normal and it felt pretty easy to me, except maybe for the last boss (almost out of healing items). I'm somewhat surprised by seeing other folks having trouble with the parry system, it felt like second nature from the get-go. It's pretty forgivable about the timing, it's more about getting the direction right. There is a dodge skill to be unlocked, but it's really unfair that is hidden as a purchasable skill, it's the only way that I've found for avoiding those 'yellow flash' attacks that you can't parry.

Finishing up the enemies to heal it's an incredible idea to encourage the player to play aggressively. What a surprise to see this on a 2013 game, before DOOM from 2016.

I like how insane and over-the-top the ending is, and I didn't mind the political message (which I might not have fully understood), but it's just too long.

I'll try this one later it looks pretty good imho, later I'll write a little review

I finished it today.

Time: 9:34
Notes: Normal Difficulty; C Rank; 64 Continues; 6:24 IGT; 18% Xbox Achievements
Rating: 8/10

My thoughts:
I had a lot of fun. The cutscenes are over-the-top and bring all the elements I need in an outrageous hack-n-slash game. The story is about Raiden who is an ex-child soldier and who now fights political and warmongering baddies as a kick-ass cyborg ninja.

What I liked:
* Combat takes some getting used to but it's a lot of fun.
* The cutscenes are fun, gory and hilarious.
* The upgrades actually make you feel strong with extra combos and extra weapons.
* The music especially during boss fights.
* I never played a Metal Gear Solid game, and I think I may have missed some easter eggs but overall I could enjoy the story without feeling like I missed out.
* QTE's never felt frustrating
* An abundance of checkpoints

What I didn't like:
* I can't stealth. This mean I had to fight almost every single person in the game. I don't like that stealth is a mechanic in hack-n-slash.
* The parry is hit and miss, especially if you're executing a combo yourself. Some bosses require you to get good at it, but for those encounters it did feel much easier for me.
* The Offensive Defense move (aka the dodge) does not feel great.
* Facing a boss without any repair paste because you've used them all up. I encountered this only at the last boss, and it made the fight a bit of a pain (even though there are moments when you can replenish, but it's hard.)

I hope Kojima and PlatinumGames would decide to make another installment because I can't wait to find out what challenges our protagonist will face next.

Finished this yesterday and overall really enjoyed it. It definitely feels a bit unfinished and rushed (the last three chapters in particular just feel kind of empty) but the core mechanics are really engaging. It's a shame this was a one-and-done because I feel like they could've really pushed things further in a sequel. It looked gorgeous on PC as well. Was hard to believe that it was a game from 2013.

The parry system wasn't my favourite thing in the world. I mostly was able to get it to work but sometimes it wouldn't work and I just couldn't figure out what I was doing wrong. I love the Zandatsu stuff though. Ripping their repair modules out is soooooo satisfying.

Story was...a thing. I liked the themes of what it means to be a soldier but my god did it go wild at the very end hahaha.

Playing with easy and disabled the parry system. Still having a hard time getting used to the controls 3 hours in, so I am glad I could disable it.

I have been going in full blazing and the other characters keep getting annoyed that I am not stealthing through it. There was one time I had to be stealthing for a bit and I hated it.

Still having a lot of fun with the hack and slash elements.

I’m looking forward to starting this game this weekend! It has been on my backlog for awhile and I bought it while it was on sale. Hoping to start it this weekend after finishing carrion,

I beat the game today and I thought it was really good! I had some gripes like the camera, the parry system, and the fact that the mouse has motion controls in free blade mode which screwed me over several times but other than that it was great! I want to go back and play MGS 4 now

The gameplay was fun (though frustrating at times, why did I choose Hard difficulty), but boy the story is weird.

Keep in mind the plot is not the game's focus (and it was not written by Kojima), but I will still ramble about it for longer than it deserves.

For starters, the game suffers from ludonarrative dissonance. MGS's Snake is an interesting character because he says he likes being a soldier yet he prefers stealth over killing. MGR's Raiden is all like "I fight for justice, I do not kill" and then obliterates thousands of cyborgs without even the option for stealth* lmao. I guess he is meant to be a bit immature but this is way beyond that, made it hard for me to root for him. The game addresses Raiden's stupidity at some point but that came way too late and, well, he only gets edgier after that point, so Raiden is just cemented in my mind as an absolute dumbass.**

Then there's Senator Armstrong, ouch... I've seen the fight before I started playing and it felt awesome, but his speech was just incoherent. I was hoping that the game would provide some context for it but it did not, and it would be very difficult to pull off anyway since the antagonist comes out of nowhere in the last portions of the game.

"I will use the war economy to end the war economy", well, okay, how??? You've said nothing about what you're actually going to do once your plan gets rolling.

It would be interesting if Armstrong was proposing to start selling military cyborg enhancements and his own nanomachines to the public, anarcho-capitalism style, which would absolutely be the way to create his free-for-all utopia. Would be an interesting thing to think about, but the game doesn't go there at all. Alternatively, it would make sense if he was just a regular far-right maniac, but then he says "fuck American pride" semingly very earnestly so I guess that's not the idea either. So what's his plan for purging the weak, if it's not the free market and not a strong state? That contradiction could be interesting to address, Raiden could ask "wtf, do you like freedom or do you like ''''uncle Sam'''', pick one?", but nope.

Then there's the ending... Jesus, why can't you put up those children for adoption? Or at the very least George? Are we seriously going to celebrate child labor? "Imperfect solutions for an imperfect world" my ass, you clearly had a better option but the writer intentionally chose the fucked up option just to say... that? The game's theme is revenge, and revenge itself is arguably an "imperfect solution" since it involves violence. You could have left it at that and made your point. Why child labor? Ughhh

I did listen to some Codec conversations after I finished playing and those were cool, there definitely was a lot of thought put into this story, but it just... didn't work for me.

* EDIT: technically you can do stealth in this game, I saw there was an achievement for doing the final chapter without being noticed and I went for it. Stealth sucks, it's common sense to not try to play stealthily in this type of game and MGR is usually well-aware of that, but still tempts you with that achievement, do not fall for it.

** EDIT: don't wanna be too negative here, Raiden is a well-intentioned and kinda lovable dumbass, but still a dumbass

P.S. Thinking about this a tiny bit more, I think in a way Senator Armstrong's meme status might've made the game a disservice: the character is just far too epic even though he's not at all the focus of the story and is therefore underdeveloped. The game's main theme is revenge, it's saying "violence may be justified if it's against a bad guy", at the end of the day, it doesn't really matter what the bad guy says or does as long as it's bad.

And it feels like that might've been the writer's attitude, too. If they actually cared about Armstrong as a character they would not make him silent until the final fight, and they would've thought more about his motivations and goals. But then it would be difficult to write this epic story with escalating bosses and a surprise out-of-nowhere finale like that.

TL;DR Armstrong serves the game just fine, but the memes overhyped him and I (foolishly) expected more from his character.

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