This isn't my sword
Sometimes all it takes is a good meme to bring us back to something that we love. And given the game in question today, that seems like a rather fitting sentiment: no? When first I happened upon Metal Gear Rising Revengence, it was in the deadly serious context of spin-off to my beloved Metal Gear franchise which looked like it would forsake everything which made the series a phenom. None of the ground-breaking stealth gameplay, none of the all encompassing game detail wrapped into every gnat of code by a passionate auteur director, and no Snake. Didn't we try this before? Removing Snake? It didn't go too well as I remember. And yet to say that MGR won me over is an understatement; I consider it one of the best action-adventure Hack'n'slash games to this day. I adore the game, love the characters, and that was my mindset back when I played this far too young to understand what the story was even about. (And too young to be playing a game so violent, probably.) So maybe I'll love it even more today!
My attention was turned back onto this title after the absolute deluge of memes around this game just from reposting bits of the cutscenes; because they carry enough gold material in them raw. Then there's the parody Youtube channels who make fantastic voice acted spoofs of moments in the game, and the rediscovery of the soundtrack which sounds typically rock-heavy for a game of this type but actually carries a smart edge behind the headbanging melodies. Basically the Internet has been rediscovering what an incredible little gem that Metal Gear Rising is and that encouraged me to renew my vows and pick up the high-frequency blade once more. Thus what is coming your way is not a fresh-faced review, but an old friend meeting with his buddy once more, and the observations I have to make will be coloured by that old fondness as well as the recent playthrough I snuck in during Halo 4 downtime, so keep that in mind. Also, I'm going to go full spoilers here so if you just want my thoughts without the spice, you can find them in the summary at the bottom of the page.
Raiden Returns
To this date, MGR remains the furthest along in the Metal Gear timeline out of any game in the franchise. Further than 'MGS 4: Guns of the Patriots', far beyond Kojima's last game 'MGS 5: Phantom Pain', and in a whole other universe than that abomination Konami turd 'Metal Gear Survive'. And of course, Platinum games, in their infinite wisdom, chose to expand the story of a well established former protagonist, Raiden: the undesignated Snake. All the way back in Metal Gear Solid 2, (2001) Hideo Kojima would pull one of the most successful bait-and-switches in history when he advertised a game featuring Snake through every level only for the actual game to feature Snake leaving after the prologue of MGS 2 and anime-blonde kid, Raiden, taking his place. Fan reaction was- negative would be putting it kindly. Fans hated Raiden, from his anime-school kid haircut, to his toothless youthful persona and just for the fact that he wasn't the gruff solider fans had come to love. They rejected Raiden. And Kojima took that personally.
Kojima really liked Raiden, so much so that when helming the first 'last game of the franchise' (Kojima made that promise a few times) MGS 4, he decided to do everything he could to make Raiden too cool to be ridiculed. He made Raiden a superpowered Ninja with a high-frequency sword capable of cutting through the Gecko UGs in the game like butter. He also had one of those cool automatic eye-visor things that slid over his face by itself and made the noise with the glowing red LED for effect. (So cool!) And Kojima didn't make the little twerp the surprise main character this time around, all of which helped fans get over themselves about Raiden and even somewhat like the white-haired punk with his inexplicable faux happy ending. So the image reform was complete and Raiden was finally an alright guy. "But that's not enough" I can only presume Kojima said when selling this Metal Gear Rising to Platinum Games. "Raiden might be likable now, but that's not going to cut it anymore, oh no! They made fun of my baby, and now... now they're going to worship him! We need to go... further." "But Mr Kojima sir; are we sure his character can handle anything else thrown at it? He had his happy ending off in the sunset with his wife and son." "He can be more, I feel it- don't you? We can rebuild him, make him- cool. We have the technology." And thus; Metal Gear Rising's Raiden was born.
Raiden of Metal Gear Rising Revengence undergoes your typical act 1 evolution after a crippling loss, turning from a retro-futuristic swordman into an actual cybernetically-enhanced metal-high-heel-pumps wearing ninja one-man-army. They redesigned him totally, and can anyone argue with the results? Focusing purely on the way he is framed in the cutscenes, Platinum Games fall over themselves to show you how cool this guy is, from the way that he picks up a freakin' Metal Gear by the arm, catches a molten-hot knife with a high heel, slices a flying air drone neatly in two, and reads one of the most epically stupid final boss lead-in lines of all time. In so many ways it could have come across like the team were trying too hard to make their protagonist badass, thus reversing all that hardwork into points against his cool, (like Sunset Overdrive does) but somehow in the earnest way they just kept piling on layer after layer of cool tech, visuals, actions and lines; they pushed past the contrived-feeling. Raiden is just super badass now, it's the way things are.
Which isn't to say they bungled him down into some impeccable images of coolness that could never be touched. An iconic 'hero character' who's too precious to undergo any real hardship and is attributed only likeable traits and favourable actions to the tune of what is most commonly known as 'the mary sue model'. No, they don't do things like that over in Platinum. Jack has actual substantial character growth, moral challengings and questionable path changes that make him a deep and fleshly little protagonist. He actually has a more believable transformation story over the course of this game than Venom Snake does in Metal Gear Solid V; but the Kojima fanboy in me absolutely can not let it be known to anyone that I said that; so that opinion stays between you and me, got it? Surprisingly great main character work in this game, Platinum, even for you this game surprised me.
Jack The Ripper
But this isn't a character study game, it's an action title, and thus the gameplay is of key 'make or break' importance to the package here. In that style that Platinum Games know so well, Metal Gear Rising is formed to be a typical Devil May Cry-style hack'n'slash game with battle zones, missions and boss fights at the end of every level. But there's a gimmick too. Back in this game's previous iteration (known just as 'Metal Gear Solid: Rising') the stand out feature was the ability to enter a special slow-motion 'blade mode' in which you could slash in any direction you so choose and cut something in any way you want. This carries over to the Revengence version of the game with added visual flair and a handy counter which announces how many pieces you've cut your assailant into. Oh and when I say 'cut any way you want', I am indeed talking about people. And Melons if you want. But the draw is people. So it's fair to say this is one extremely violent and bloody game.
And yet I wouldn't call it gory. Aside from one example right at the end, all the organs stay inside the neat human chunks you cut up, making this more of an cartoon-style anime blood fest, rather than a squelching gut-spewing massacre with actually disturbing carnage going on. At the heart of these games you're supposed to have a fun time, and enjoy cutting through things, so this fictionalised approach to ultra-violence does help keep the tone of everything up and the adrenaline pumping rather than leaking out of your body in cold sweats as you contemplate the virtual warcrime you've just performed. That sort of introspection needs to be reserved until the story bears it down upon you for key-character-arc-moment effect. Only be horrified at the cue card please.
The actual fighting itself, however, just feels so good. Raiden has your light attack, heavy attack two button spread with a bevy of cool combos spread between a mixture of those presses, a speedy agility to all of his actions which encourages players to whip around the battlefield at top speed and overwhelm their enemies and a super intuitive parry system where all you need to do is identify an attack coming your way, push the analogue towards the attacker and hit the attack button just before the attack connects; instant cool parry move. (And it's very important for that parry to be so intuitive and easy to pull off, because it becomes integral to the flow of the boss fights.) My only gripes are Raiden's lack of aerial options and substantial juggling, and his dodge move which needs to be unlocked and activated at the start of the second level of the game. Woe be on you if you buy it without realising that you needed to activate it too, otherwise you'll do what I did on my first playthrough and suffer throughout the entire game without realising there's a dodge button. (But I did beat it. Don't even ask me how I took down Armstrong without a dodge; I don't know.)
We're all Sons of the Patriots now!
The story of MGR picks up after the events of 'Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots' now that the Patriots legacy have been destroyed and the world is carrying on with it's war business as usual. Okay, I guess things aren't as bad as they were under the Patriots, but it's very clear that the world they built hasn't just disappeared overnight. Raiden stars in a tale that delves into the aftermath of this world shift and, in typical Kojima fashion, delves into the psychology of those who believe in extremism for the good of their own ends. The difference between this and usual MGS games, is that at it's heart Metal Gear Rising is an action slasher game, which means the story is relegated to tiny cutscenes here and there rather than full hour long speeches. Of course, a 'tiny' cutscene by Kojima standards is pretty much the industry standard length- so you're still getting a total full narrative playing out before you, just with the involved characterisation of a normal Metal Gear to spruce things up. 
The first time I played through I'll admit to having absolutely no idea what was going on or what the game was about, and I still had a total blast. Now I can see that the whole game was following the set-up of a conspiracy to cause an international incident in order to change the world precedent, a purpose neatly embodied in the names of the various co-conspirators who are identified as 'The Winds of Change'. That's literal, by the way. You have one boss called Mistral, the southern French wind from over the alps, another entitled Minuano (Aka Jetstream Sam), a cold wind that blows over the Rio Grande, and then there's Monsoon, who's pretty self explanatory. Of course each one of these characters has their own world views and goals which they're more than happy to chat about before your deathly duel, once more highlighting the levels of detail and love that always goes into scripts like these from Kojima. He never does a half hearted job, does he?
Of course, at it's heart the purpose of the narrative on a grandscale is to have Raiden confront his upbringing as a child soldier and question if the influence that has had on him as an adult made him a good person. There's no real consensus and Kojima is far too smart to land on one definitive decided for the audience, but instead we're treated to a buffet of ideologies and world views that assault our sponge, Raiden, until one manages to worm it's way past their moral split and lay seed, even whilst they've duelling under the setting sun. Characters like Sunny retain their faith in Raiden being a hero, however those lingering final few post-credits scenes paint a delightfully ambiguous picture for whatever could be next in our platinum kid's adventure. Really solid character work here, similar to how RGG Studio built up the iconic image of Kiryu Kazama through the narrative of Yakuza 0.
Nanomachines, Son!
But I can't feasibly give an entire review to Metal Gear Rising without dedicating a whole section just to the big bad, now can I? (It wouldn't be right.) So can we just put our hands together for MGR, the game that managed to take something as boring sounding as 'a US Senator in a suit was the man behind it all', and turn that premise into one of the most iconic villains of the entire genre. Senator Armstrong is a confidant, totally self-absorbed, larger than life character bubbling with so much glee and anger that you can genuinely see this man being the cult-like head of the extremist cell he created. There's this utter unshakeable belief behind his ideals that's just infectious, even when the 'dream' he's laying out to you is, in stark reality, that of a brutalist hellhole. In his dream and performance alone this character is unforgettable and the internet has memed about him endlessly, but he can back up his grand talk too.
"Don't F*** with this Senator" as the iconic line goes; because our man has the brawn and technology to stand up as a human tank all on his own! We get to see our protagonist, who up until now has been able to hold himself to a decent degree against the various deathly robotic terror's that have come his way, get tossed around like an American football, literally. The physical aspect of their one-on-one cutscene is just as entertaining as their dialogue, as they have what amounts to a political debate whilst tearing into each other in hyper-silly violent action. (Armstrong even gets an flurry barrage in on Raiden, Star Platinum style.) All of this legendary scene is only made sweeter with Raiden's final declaration, a summation of his moral dilemma summed up in a handful of lines that would be cheesy coming out of anyone else's mouth. "ARMSTRONG! I said my sword was a tool of Justice. Not used for anger. Not used for Vengeance. But now I'm not so sure. And besides, this isn't my Sword!" How do you say lines like that and make them badass? 'Quinton Flynn' is how.
The Winds of Change
The bosses of MGR are really the secret ingredient that keep this relatively lean hacker engaging from start to finish. The enemy compositions throughout the levels are fun, although I personally think it starts to feel like every enemy is a miniboss by the late game, (and so can be more frustrating than fun at times) but the bosses form the real set-piece moments of this experience and that's because they are just wild. You know this game means business when the boss of the prologue is a Metal Gear Ray! That giant aquatic weapon platform gets itself absolutely torn to sheds by Raiden, and from there the pace doesn't slow down. Mistral's fight is somewhat disturbing (What, with all the synthetic-armed dwarf geckos) but feels like a very traditional arena battle with straightforward gimmicks, Monsoon's is disorienting, bizarre, and has brief flashes of an endurance bout during his smoke bomb barrage, Sundowner is all-precision to a frankly annoying degree, Sam is a quintessential samurai-meets-samurai no tricks death battle, and Armstrong... Well, he's a special level of explosive. All of these people are personable enough to be enjoyable outside of the gameplay, and versatile enough to be challenging and memorable inside of the gameplay. This here is the best of both worlds.
And for me, I think a huge part of that comes down to the music tracks cleverly weaved in to tell the story whilst pumping the adrenaline. Stains of Time and the only thing I know for real seem like your stereotypical head-bangers, but they're all written to be sang from the perspective of the boss in question, so that when you get to the lyrics (which for some fights are dynamic depending on the progression of the battle) there's an extra little shade of understanding imbued relating to their mindset. Even if it's subliminally imparted. This comes to it's head, obviously, in the incredible final fight with the song It has to be this way, in which the team managed to circumvent the typically trite 'we're the same, you and I' trope by having the song say it instead. Using song lyrics to compliment the story- man that's going to get extra marks from me and you know it. 
Clever dog
Fans were lucky enough to receive two small DLC campaigns to compliment this package before the game was shelved by Platinum, and they both feature different characters with their own movesets that feel different but are similar enough for you to be able to ease into them without having to go through endless basic tutorials. (Although such tutorials are an option if you prefer.) Blade Wolf's campaign takes a different approach to the main game, having a mission and boss that caters to the stealthy approach more than direct carnage most of the time. (With a rather creative sneaking-minigame crafted into the boss' attack pattern.) Jetstream Sam's mission is much more traditional to Raiden's battle-orgy, to the point where Sam doesn't even have a stealth takedown move. I see Sam's mission more as a gauntlet of tough enemies crowned with three tough boss fights, even though each are recycled from the main game unlike Wolf's one unique boss. There's not much of a story to either of these two DLCs, but the different-enough gameplay warrants their existence and makes their short playtime stand out.
Summary
Metal Gear Rising Revengence is the Metal Gear Hack'n'Slash game that we never deserved, but I am so glad that we got it anyway. With great slashing gameplay, a free-cutting gimmick which is still impressive and unique all these years later and a stellar cast of villains to slice through during this story; this package is already solid enough. But throw in the somewhat intelligent character work with the protagonist, the typically solid Kojima writing for each boss and the subtly clever music tracks in the mix and this game become nothing short of legendary. Some have found it's rather short length to be an issue, but with the replay value here I think the lean narrative is totally reasonable and fine for no other reason than so that the game doesn't out-stay it's welcome; it's hard to note any significant blunder this hack'n'slash game is guilty of. Seeing if this game lived up to my memory only reinforced this title as one of the best of it's genre, easily worthy of a A Grade in my rating scale. Oh, and I recommend it to literally everyone, because of course I do. Just bear in mind that this is a violent and bloody game, and enjoy an incredibly exhilarating adventure that probably ranks as Metal Gear's most accessible entry. Now if only the stars would align for a sequel somewhere along the line, because our beleaguered industry really needs it around about now. "A little Revengence can do the gaming economy good, Trust me!"
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