New Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance trailer shows off Raiden's moves

Konami has released a new video that shows off some gameplay from Platinum Games' Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance. While the text in the video is in Japanese, the video looks like a showcase of the moves Raiden can pull off in the hack-and-slash installment of the Metal Gear series.

One of the standout features of Revengeance is the ability to slow down time and pick the angle of attacks. This can let you slice and dice up enemies and objects like pillars of a building.

Back in November, Konami revealed the pre-order bonuses and the limited edition version of Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance. The Limited Edition comes with a 30 cm figurine of the main protagonist of the game—Raiden—in his cyborg ninja form. The pre-order bonus has a steelbook cover and a DLC that unlocks Raiden's Inferno Armour, which increases the number of throwing weapons he can carry.

Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance is set in the near future, where cyborg technology has become commonplace throughout society. Three years have passed since the collapse of the Patriots system that had been secretly controlling the global power balance from the shadows. However, peace remains elusive. The dissemination of cybernetic technology has triggered instability and conflict as those who control the trade gain increasing power. Furthermore, large ‘Private Military Companies’, or PMCs that had been supported and controlled by the Patriots have collapsed, spawning countless rogue entities with origins to larger criminal organisations. These renegade PMCs employing cyborg technology have become increasingly more disruptive, shifting policy and power at will. As a member of the peace-keeping PMC ‘Maverick Security’, Raiden lives by the mantra of protecting and saving lives. But as the world plunges further into asymmetric warfare, the only path that leads him forward is rooted in resolving his past and carving through anything that stands in his way.

It's time for Jack to let 'er rip

The game marks a big change in the Metal Gear franchise. Instead of the stealth gameplay and badass protagonist the series is famous for, Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance is more of a spectacle action game with big, flashy combos and intense fights, much like games like Devil May Cry, God of War and Platinum’s own Bayonetta. As for the protagonist, the game is forgoing anyone named Snake and instead has choosen Raiden.

Raiden first made his debut in Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty. Solid Snake was as a decoy protagonist for the first couple of hours of the game, which then switched the focus to Raiden until the end. Raiden was widely hated for being an extremely whiny character as opposed to the extremely badass Solid Snake, who is the main protagonist of the series. Not much is known about what happened to Raiden between the events of Metal Gear Solid 2 and Metal Gear Solid 4, where he returns halfway through the game as a cyborg ninja.

During the events of Metal Gear Solid 4, Raiden helps Solid Snake defeat the Patriot system, that has taken over the world and is spreading war and panic to drive the new 'War Economy', which would be run by mercenaries and soldiers buying weapons.

Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance will be released in February, 2013.