Back in 2009 Kojima announced a brand new title being developed called Metal Gear Solid Rising. MGSR was going to be a MGS game that followed the story of Raiden before the events of Metal Gear Solid 4, and it showed show us how he became the cyborg ninja that he is today. Well, that isn't all there is to the story.
It turns out that Kojima was actually hoping to either make Metal Gear Solid 5, or a game that followed The Boss's story before the events of Metal Gear Solid 3; however at the time Kojima also had a new team, and he felt that they weren't ready for something that big; so he gave them a different project instead. Since he didn't want to be involved with it directly, as in directing the entire game, he decided to give the team a game based around the character Raiden. He felt that by giving them Raiden, the team would be free to do what they wanted with the project, and he knew they wouldn't be able to mess it up; well... They did.
Metal Gear Solid Rising was silently canceled behind the scenes, and Kojima started looking at the other options. Fans had been looking forward to the game for the past few years, and he knew that something had to be done. It turns out that his new team was unable to create a stealth game that blended Raiden's sword mechanics with the standard mechanics found in a MGS game. So, Kojima decided at the game would be best as an action game, and he turned to Platinum games for help.
Jump ahead a few years, and here we are! The game is coming out in less than a month, and a lot of fans are either excited/already hate it! Still that's all decide the point. The thing is, Kojima has stated that he would rather have the game about Gray Fox instead of Raiden.
Gray Fox was sort of Snake's cyborg ninja rival from Metal Gear Solid 1, and he also played a key role in the overall store. Even so, since Kojima isn't directly working with this game, he felt that it would be best to keep Raiden in the spot light, and keep Gray Fox out of it; HOWEVER there is some good news! If you preorder the game at GameStop you will actually get a Gray Fox skin to use instead of Raiden! So in a way Gray Fox still did make it into the game, but the story is still about Raiden.
So anyway, what do you guys think? Think the game would have been better with Gray Fox? Or are you glad that Raiden is the main character? As for myself... I'm glad Raiden is the main character.
Despite all of the hate for him, I actually like Raiden. He's an interesting character with a dark past as a child soldier, and I really enjoyed seeing his cutscenes in Metal Gear Solid 4. Back then I always wished I could have been playing as him as he fought them mechs, so really, Metal Gear Rising is a dream come true! Although I would like to see a game about Gray Fox one day...
