Metal Gear Devs Discuss Customization and DLC at the Tokyo Game Show

Regarding the recently announced DLC, will it be free or paid, and is there a chance there will be extra characters available for download? We are still in the process of planning it, so we can't say what form it will take, but we can say it will be fairly deep download content and will include a sub-story that we think users will enjoy. We hope you'll look forward to it, and we'll announce later on whether it will be free or paid DLC. Is there any sort of multiplayer in Rising? There are numerous cyborgs in the game, and we are wondering if there's any way users can compete in head-to-head battles, either locally or online? Currently, there are no plans. Regarding Rising in Japan, it has been announced for the PlayStation 3 only, so are there plans to do anything with the PlayStation Vita and transfarring functionality? Regarding whether or not it will be released on PlayStation Vita, there are two concerns. One is the major selling point of this game, the free-cutting mechanic, and there are some concerns of whether or not this could be accomplished on the Vita hardware. And the other is whether or not this game would actually sell on the Vita. We have those two concerns. Will Raiden be able to augment parts from other cyborgs as he progresses through the game to enhance his abilities? First of all, there will be customization in the game, where you'll be able to customize your character, but it won't necessarily be with parts from other cyborgs. Will customization also be a part of the DLC? That's a very good idea. The DLC is still in production, so we haven't decided yet, but we will take these ideas into consideration. Historically, Metal Gear has always had a lot of collaborations and partnerships with famous people or products. Now that Platinum Games is collaborating on Rising, will we see crossover characters or other collaborations within the game? That hasn't been decided yet. There may or may not be. In the past, we've done collaborations with UNIQLO and Metal Gear Solid. Metal Gear Rising also has a line of shirts from UNIQLO, but we also collaborated with Seiko for a Rising watch. That watch will actually appear in the game. Is it fair to say that there is a definitive good or evil side within Rising, or is that affinity tied to Raiden's work with the PMC? From the player's perspective, it will be fairly clear who's good and who's evil, but each person has their own motivation for what they're doing. So even if someone is "evil," they'll have their own things they are trying to accomplish. So there's not a simple distinction. For example, some of the characters' motivations might lead them to accomplish something different from other people, so when people look at it from the outside, it may look evil, but they have their own motivations, which will be explained in the story. Will we get to use the Zandatsu (free-cutting system) on larger opponents, such as Metal Gear Ray? No, we don't have that system in place right now for that particular enemy, but other enemies like the gecko and those of a similar size, we do have the Zandatsu system in place for them. Aside from Metal Gear, there are a lot of huge mechanized weapons in Metal Gear, traditionally. Will we be able to freely cut all those weapons? Yes. In the E3 demo, there was a helicopter, and you were able to freely cut that up into small, tiny little pieces. Will you be able to control the dog-shaped robot? First of all, the name of that dog-shaped robot is "Wolf." You'll see in the demo that we have here in TGS that you start off fighting Wolf as an enemy. Later on in the story he becomes an ally and will assist you on your mission. However, you won't be controlling him directly; he'll support you as a support character. In a previous interview, it was mentioned that Wolf has a relationship with another cyborg, and he (Wolf) ties Raiden and the other cyborg together. Once Wolf becomes an ally to Raiden, does that create a conflict between Wolf and his original master? Basically, the other character is Sam. Sam's position in the story is that he's a rival to Raiden and his ideals. We also want to make the distinction that Wolf is AI, and he operates very logically. As an AI character, he has a lot of questions. He doesn't understand human behavior, such as freedom and free will. Through Raiden and Sam, he's trying to get those answers, so the relationship between those three will be very important to the story. It was previously announced that Rising would be an extension of the story of Metal Gear Solid 4, and you know the SOP system was a big part of that, and there were a lot of major characters who were a big part of that. Will any other characters from Metal Gear Solid 4, other than Sunny, appear in Rising? First of all, we want to clarify exactly what happens in the story of Rising, what the setting is like. So the SOP system is not being carried over into Rising. Basically, Rising is a story about what happens after SOP is eliminated. In Metal Gear Solid 4, Snake and Raiden destroy SOP, so what happens to the world once SOP is gone, once the control system is gone, and that's what the story of Rising is about. Whether or not other characters from Metal Gear Solid 4 appear in Rising, that's a question that we can't answer at this time. But this isn't a parallel world. It's directly connected to the story; it continues the story.

Metal Gear Devs Discuss Customization and DLC at the Tokyo Game Show

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