| Metal Gear Solid Rising - Lara? |
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You'll have to excuse the rather ambiguous and misleading headline to this article but bear with us for a moment because there's a point here, somewhere amongst all the ker-fuffle, speculation and theories that have been tossed around since the game was announced at E3 this year.
Hideo Kojima is a joker, and although his involvement with Metal Gear Solid Rising might be less than with previous games, his humour most certainly will play a part somewhere and undoubtedly will have rubbed off on those undertaking the task of producing this new game.
So we present to you the new hero or should we say heroine of Kojima Productions' new Metal Gear Solid game...none other than Ms Lara Croft herself. That's right, the British aristocratic adventurer was in need of a facelift after her last outing in Underworld, and therefore becoming a ninja and joining an entirely new franchise (for her anyway) seems like the perfect way to re-invent the character.
Joking aside, and perhaps putting Lara to rest for now the image does make one ponder some possibilities with the actual real hero of Metal Gear Solid Rising, Raiden. The white haired super soldier from Metal Gear Solid 2 and one whose very appearance caused an uproar amongst fans of the series. Kojima did well to keep him a secret and much to the amazement of gamers came as a shock (keeping with the electricity theme there). Most of Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty was played as this new character and whether you loved or loathed him, the exercise was to showcase the main character Solid Snake from an outside perspective without losing too much of the 'cool'. Whether that worked or not isn't why we're here.
Metal Gear Solid 4 introduced to us a new character amongst the familiar, and after the rather long hiatus from the plot line with Kojima embarking on 'Snakeeater' which focused on the Big Boss character, a lot of questions remained unanswered from the end of Metal Gear Solid 2. Raiden appeared in Metal Gear Solid 4 but not as a playable character and looking somewhat different to how we'd seen him before. However, the arrival of the cute Sunny character (the daughter of Olga Gurlukavich from Metal Gear Solid 2 - who was also a ninja suit wearing warrior) raised questions as to what happened during her moments from being kidnapped by the shadowy group known as the Patriots. Raiden rescued her and things looked like they turned out well all things considered. But what of her future? Would she follow in her mother's footsteps, would she follow in Raiden's footsteps. What motives does she have and perhaps is this leading to the possibility of an entirely new story arc for the series?
A number of people placing theories on Rising's main character have pondered whether the image we see is that of Raiden; different coloured eyes (brown instead of blue) indicate that all we see is not necessarily the entire truth. Is it possible that Raiden is in fact Sunny, or another female character? Looking at the images side by side of Lara and Raiden, you can clearly see the feminine looks and similarities in design. Sure, Raiden has been drawn to have feminine features on PS2 but this was less pronounced in Metal Gear Solid 4.
Is Kojima playing tricks on us as to who the character is, considering if you'd have said prior to the release of Metal Gear Solid 2 that we'd be playing as a feminine looking ninja wannabe new character instead of Snake, you would have been laughed at? Maybe Raiden is just too girly looking for his own good and is an art direction Kojima and co. are sticking with. But still, having a strong female lead for a new Metal Gear Solid game would certainly spice things up for the series.
Posted By: Robert Cram
Date: 2009-08-02
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