Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance

So why did Armstrong bother with the Metal Gear if he could handle Raiden on his own?

I mean, when you have a giant robot spider tank you can't just not use it.

He pretty much has to sacrifice EXCELSUS in order to power up his nanomachines (son), so he might as well try to kill him with it first to see if he can avoid wasting trillions of dollars.

A Metal Gear Rising Retrospective by Foxcade. It's 44 minutes long and talks about the history of the game's development and the pros and cons of the gameplay and how it compares to other Platinum games like Bayonetta.

Edited by windleopard on Feb 26th 2020 at 1:44:00 AM

~windleopard: Weblinks Are Not Examples.

So, lately I've seen a few fanvids which have MGR songs "covered" by Spongebob characters. My favourite thus far has to be Red Sun as song by Patrick Starr.

The internet is truly an amazing thing at times.

I wonder if the meme boom for MGR might make Konami take interest in a sequel. Would have to check charts to see if it's resulted in an uptick in sales, I wouldn't be surprised if so.

It's still on Steam last I checked and it's apparently a good PC port. Wouldn't be surprised if it had some respectable numbers by now.

I don't remember specifically where I saw it but apparently with all the recent memes (particularly Max0r's video) MGR recently hit a peak playerbase that was the highest since launch. The game is definitely doing numbers to back up its resurgence in memes.

What I like about MGR is that they told us the story without trying to back out. Platinum games literally tells 100% goofy and serious story without saying "Ha ha, look at us how goofy and quirky this game is.". They tell us the aftermath of war economy of MGS 4 with Cyborg ninja throwing 100t blade and it's soooo good.

The blending of over-the-top ridiculousness delivered with complete sincerity is hard to pull off. I wouldn't say MGR's story is especially good, but it's told without a shred of self-consciousness or irony and is all the better for it. And the characters are memorable as hell, too.

I think one youtuber that analysed MGR mentioned that the honesty of Revengeance is part of its appeal. Even though the plot doesn't shy away from tearing down Raiden's previous Black-and-White Morality view on PMC's and war in general, the fact that all of the Winds and ultimately Armstrong make their stance clear on what are their personnal stakes on the matter and that also allowed the players to actually connect with them.

Mistral doesn't shy away from saying she's half-French and half-Algerian, which means she had to live in the middle of the Algerian war of independence; Monsoon is a survivor of Pol Pot's insane Khmer Rouge regime, which explains his nihilism; Sundowner is a straight up warhawk criminal who enjoys warfare but also is right to point out that there's more to war in the Metal Gear mythos than just the web of the Patriots; Khamsin is a crazed soldier who thinks he's doing the right thing but has renounced any semblance of self-reflection to keep his self-image of being the typical usonian hero.

Also, the soundtrack is not just awesome, but it's integral to the story, kind of like in theatre. That's something not many games manage to pull off.

Sundowner actually had perhaps the most sympathetic motivation to me once I sat down and thought about it.

"I grew up dirt poor and war got me out of poverty as well as lots of people like me. And I'm from a first world nation."

It's perhaps the most "cut through the bullshit" answer for why so people eagerly join up for the meatgrinder.

It also helps that plot of the game is absurd... but also plausible?

Yes, swinging nano blade and drinking spine juice to regain health is absurd but after patriots are gone in MGS 4, war economy will not be gone overnight. Armstrong and Sundowner points out this by saying Patriots may be gone, but the idea of war economy is already implemented in masses and it will go on until something drastic happens.

Very cool game especially continuing and explaining some MGS 4 after story.

And to think, all of these cyborgs are only a thing because some doctor really liked cheesy ninja action flicks.

I think Revengeance is oddly the most "grounded" Metal Gear Solid sequel since the original. There's a lot of war profiteering going on, assassinations of world leaders, and so on but it's fairly straight forward plotwise.

World Marshall wants to make a lot of conflict to profit from.

It's only Senator Armstrong who wants to enact PLAN: LIBERTARIAN.

Speaking of Armstrong's plan, it's sort of fitting how his ideal echoes the Boss' wish for a world where no soldiers kills each other for no cause but attempts to fulfill it in the worst way possible. One can even argue that Raiden at the end of Revengeance is one of the few who understood the Boss' final wish without even knowing about her.

Edited by raziel365 on Jul 5th 2022 at 9:09:12 AM

Armstrong seems to share the same obsession with LIBERTY that Solidus Snake had. Heck, World Marshal in general seems to be based on the legacy Solidus left behind raising child soldiers.

It's fitting that the Big Bad of Revengeance would be something of a spiritual successor to the Big Bad of MGS 2 — Raiden was the player character in both.

Shit, Armstrong even planned to become President just like Solidus once was.

Edited by M84 on Jul 6th 2022 at 12:23:54 AM

I think Armstrong has more utilitarian goal then Solidus. Yes, Solidus talks big games about dismantling Patriots, but in the deeper ends what he wants is a legacy. That outlives his life and continues on. Meanwhile Armstrong don't care if masses recognize or not, he just want EVERYONE to fight for themselves, not for any other ideology.

Raiden even ends up agreeing with both of them to an extent. He acknowledged that Solidus was right all along about the threat posed by the Patriots, and he comes to sympathize with Armstrong’s disgust over people fighting for causes they do not understand or believe.

Raiden ends up being the living legacy of both Solidus and Armstrong.

Edited by M84 on Jul 6th 2022 at 12:39:18 AM

I took an Alternate Character Interpretation that Raiden's story ends as a tragedy. He had a peaceful life that was given to him by Solid Snake and it turned into something he couldn't shake the addiction of killing people for. The fact he's working against World Marshall like the Punisher is a bad thing.

Because let's face it, divorced of how "badass" he is, he's abandoning his wife and child to feed his addiction.

Which I think is deliberate by Kojima.

Edited by CharlesPhipps on Jul 5th 2022 at 9:48:05 AM

It's also crazy how Solidus and Armstrong doesn't hold grudge to raiden at all. Solidus laments his nature and his unavailability to save the nation, but he never blames raiden for that. On the contrast, Armstrong dies with satisfaction, both knowing his principle works (both fighting for their own ideals) and he left successor who partially inherits his ideals.

It's a bit undersold, IMHO, but Solidus does consider Raiden his son even if he did murder their parents.

Armstrong notably doesn't miss the contradiction of Might Makes Right. If the Mightiest says to be good to everyone else, it's still coherent to the philosophy. He lost to Raiden so whatever Raiden says goes.

Edited by CharlesPhipps on Jul 5th 2022 at 9:52:36 AM

Ideologically consistent social darwinists are the best social darwinists.

I kind of wonder if it would've changed anything in MGS 2 if before the final fight, Raiden had said "WAIT! You're right, the Patriots have been in contact with me... And they want us to fight to the death, because they want you dead. So how about we DON'T do that?"