Despite combat-focused trailers, Metal Gear Rising designed for players to "flex on their play style"

Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance producer Atsushi Inaba reflected on the what sort of game he was making with Shacknews recently. Promotional material for the game has been, in large part, focused on the action and combat of Rising, but that's not entirely representative of the game. Stealth mechanics play a large part in Rising, but that was not always the case.

"In the beginning, we wrapped around the core concept of just having Raiden moving forward. It was based on sole action. But looking back, it would have been very dull and very centered around just cutting."

Whether players would have loved or hated an experience based entirely around Rising's unique "zan-datsu" mechanics may be unclear, but it's evident that the folk at Platinum Games decided the game needed more depth. So cardboard boxes will return, but don't let that make you think that you can't play the game with an action focus.

"We think that players would just give up on it. So we needed to have more options and variety and that's when we decided to include a lot more stealth and different routes where players can really flex on their play style."

While Metal Gear Rising certainly seems promising, there's definitely some confusion as to just exactly what sort of game it is. After all, it's a Metal Gear game being made by Platinum Games. The developer isn't exactly know for any sort of stealth mechanics. 

It's good to hear that the team is giving plenty of though to the game's development. There were many people, including myself, who were curious if perhaps Rising was the wrong direction for a Metal Gear game. As the title's release date approaches, however, I find myself more anticipating more information with each day.

Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance is scheduled for release on February 19, 2013 for the Xbox 360, and PlayStation 3.