Raiden (Metal Gear)
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Raiden is a fictional character in the Metal Gear series. He is the protagonist of the Plant Chapter, the main act of ', and a character in '.
His role as the protagonist of Metal Gear Solid 2 was a controversial twist, both for the unexpected substitution of the established hero, Solid Snake, and for his effeminate appearance, the latter so much that the ridiculing of his effeminate appearance became a recurring joke in and several early Metal Gear Solid 4 promotional videos. In Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots, Raiden returns with an appearance different from his previous Metal Gear Solid 2 character design.
Sons of Liberty
Big Shell
In , Raiden is initially introduced in the Big Shell chapter as "Snake", serving as a member of what appears to be a newly-reinstated FOXHOUND. His features are concealed under a diver's mask. This deception is short-lived, as Jack removes the mask, revealing a youthful appearance completely unlike Solid Snake's. After his true identity is revealed, he is assigned the new codename, "Raiden", and infiltrates the Big Shell. His mission is to rescue President James Johnson from a terrorist group known as the "Sons of Liberty." In this mission, he is supported over his CODEC radio by the Colonel, his commanding officer, and Rose, who is an experienced data analyst for the military and Raiden's girlfriend.Raiden goes on to team up with Solid Snake (masquerading as a U.S. Navy SEAL named "Iroquois Pliskin" a reference to the movie character "Snake Plissken") and "Mr. X" (a disguised Olga Gurlukovich wearing an artificial powered exoskeleton), and discovers that the Big Shell is actually a front for "Arsenal Gear", a mobile battle fortress with an AI that controls the flow of information on the Internet (to protect the interests of an Illuminati-like group known as the Patriots), and that the Sons of Liberty were not mere terrorists, but instead trying to prevent its completion.
Early life and career
In the course of this mission, Raiden's forgotten past is revealed. As a child, he was adopted by Solidus Snake, who (unbeknownst to him) had killed his parents. Raiden became a child soldier from as young as the age of six, in Solidus' "Army of the Devil" as part of a "small boys unit" during the first Liberian Civil War. He later left Liberia for the United States and forgot his past. There he joined the Force XXI Corps, and trained in over 300 VR training missions (in Metal Gear Solid: VR Missions), as well as simulations of Solid Snake's missions on Shadow Moses island (in Metal Gear Solid) and in the tanker incident (the introductory chapter of Metal Gear Solid 2).
Arsenal Gear
Raiden learns that if he perishes or fails his mission, which is to eliminate the Sons of Liberty, Olga's baby will die. After disabling Arsenal Gear and the Metal Gear RAYs, Raiden confronts Solidus, discovers that the entire scenario was orchestrated by the Patriots for their S3 simulation, and that his commanding officer is actually just a digital construct created by GW, the Arsenal Gear's AI. He then completes his mission by confronting and killing Solidus, and is subsequently reunited with Rose, who is pregnant with his child.Guns of the Patriots
In the E3 2006 trailer for , Raiden appears wearing an exoskeleton similar to ones worn by the previous Cyborg Ninjas (Gray Fox and Olga Gurlukovich). He is shown fighting against a dozen Gekkō units on the streets. He effortlessly dodges their attacks, disabling them all single-handedly with a high frequency blade.
Appearing on his helmet is the name "TOKUGAWA HEAVY INDUSTORY" (sic), a reference to the developers of the EMPS mecha and various other hi-tech equipment in Policenauts. This is not the first reference to Tokugawa in the Metal Gear series. MGS2 also featured cardboard boxes with the Tokugawa logo and the original Game Plan featured in The Document of Metal Gear Solid 2 made mention of Emma Emmerich being employed by Tokugawa. This suggests that the Tokugawa Group also exists in the Metal Gear universe and that they designed Raiden's exoskeleton.
After destroying the Gekkō units, he utters the words, "It's my turn to protect you, Snake." The trailer ends with the tagline "Raiden's Return!" followed by the date of release in 2007. Raiden will not be a playable character in the game, but he might still help Snake during gameplay (similar to how Snake helped Raiden in Metal Gear Solid 2 during the battle with the Tengus).Show Maybe?, promotional pamphlet distributed at E3. However, he will still be playable in the next version of Metal Gear Online, which will be included as a bonus in MGS4. PSM Magazine, July 2006 issue.
In an earlier interview, Hideo Kojima announced that once fans finish playing Metal Gear Solid 4, they are going to like Raiden very much.[Kojima's interview] with [Official Playstation Magazine] Raiden is also shown holding a young child in an early promotional flyer of the game.
Hideo Kojima confirms that Raiden is on Snake's side as his backup. When asked about his palor, and the possiblity of him being a cyborg, Kojima revealed that Raiden's blood is no longer red; his blood is white and artificial, which gives him a deathly pale color (a possible reference to the artificial "white blood" in Policenauts). This is not the same kind of artificial blood used by Raiden in MGS2.PSM, August 2006 issue
Whether or not Kojima is going to follow up with the tradition of killing off this version of the Cyborg Ninja, which has been followed up in the previous games in the series, remains unclear.
Other appearances
In , an updated version of Sons of Liberty, the Cyborg Ninja's exoskeleton is available as an alternate outfit for Raiden in the game's Missions mode, which most likely served as the inspiration for Raiden's new look in Guns of the Patriots. This version of Raiden only uses the high-frequency blade as a weapon. The regular Raiden, as well as the nude Raiden from the Arsenal Gear portion of Sons of Liberty are playable as well.While Raiden doesn't appear in , several references are made to him in that game. Major Ivan Raidenovitch Raikov, an eccentric, homosexual Soviet major, is a dead ringer for Raiden (and has a name which, when translated to English, means "Son of Raiden", but is also a Japanese pun on the phrase "raiden no bitch" or "Thunderbolt's Bitch", a reference to his relationship with Colonel Volgin), and by answering a question at the beginning of the game with "I like MGS2", Naked Snake spends most of the opening sequence wearing a Raiden-like facemask during the initial HALO jump which spoofs Raiden's brief use of the Snake codename while wearing the scuba gear in Metal Gear Solid 2. The fact that Snake is referred by the name Jack (which also happens to be Raiden's given name), before being given his codename adds further to the joke.
Raiden also appears in several early Metal Gear Solid 4 promotional videos. In one, he is seen fighting with Solid Snake over the "main character" seat. In another, titled "Metal Gear Raiden: Snake Eraser", he makes a comically ineffective trip through time, attempting to kill Naked Snake and Solid Snake, so that he can be the star of Metal Gear Solid 4. Both trailers are included as a bonus feature in . Raiden's model was actually a modified model of Raikov with re-worked outfit.
Behind the scenes
Character development
According to the series' creator, Hideo Kojima, the decision of using Raiden instead of Snake as the main playable character was done in order to develop Snake from a third-person perspective, as well as to avoid treating Snake like a rookie again (considering the fact that Snake was already acquainted with most of the gadgets and weapons in earlier Metal Gear titles).[The Final Hours of Metal Gear Solid 2.] Featured article at GameSpot Hideo Kojima has also stated that Raiden's character and its perception by the audience were important for the overall feel of the story (i.e. they contribute to a sense of lack of control, being subjected to major manipulation by unknown, deceptive and/or mysterious persons, and a general lack of knowledge about the conditions and motives of several characters as well as the twists and turns of the plot).Raiden was originally designed to be more appealing to female fansMetal Gear Saga Vol. 1 DVD, and in The Making of Metal Gear Solid 2, designer Yoji Shinkawa mentions that he designed Raiden in reference to what a "beautiful man" (bishonen)looked like.
His given name, Jack, was derived from Leonardo DiCaprio's character in the movie Titanic, while his love interest in the game (Rosemary) was named after Kate Winslet's character from the same film.[#endnote_Making] His name also pertains to the Jack in a deck of playing cards, with Fortune being the Queen, Solidus Snake being the King, and SEAL Team 10 being the expendable "spot" cards (Solid Snake infiltrates the Big Shell posing as a SEAL Team 10 member, thus being the "ace in the hole" himself).[[Citing sources citation needed]] In the fictional context, the codename Raiden is a reference to the Mitsubishi J2M "Raiden" fighter plane, which was nicknamed "Jack" by the Allied forces, and so the Patriots selected this name for Jack due to his role as a "living weapon".
Konami kept Raiden's presence in Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty a well-guarded secret prior to its release, even to the point of editing pre-release footage of the game. (Scenes that featured Raiden were reprogrammed to have Snake in his place.[#endnote_Making]) Although the game was leaked by pirates prior to its release, this secret was still unknown to the majority of fans.
Fan reaction
When many Western fans of Metal Gear Solid found themselves playing as Raiden for most of Metal Gear Solid 2, they reacted negatively to this unexpected twist in the storyline. This was partly due to the fact that Raiden's character was a secret until the game's release; people just assumed that they would be playing as Solid Snake. Other areas of contention included Raiden's appearance, his naivety and inexperience, a sentimental and sometimes "whiny" personality, and a vulnerable position throughout the game; many perceived the character to be a weak-minded "prettyboy." It should be noted though that these were just the perceptions of the fan base and naturally there were an abundance of western Raiden fans despite the perceived general opinion.
In contrast to the American reception, Raiden was more well-received in Japan.[#endnote_Interview] However, Raiden's negative reaction among Western players prompted Kojima Productions to alter his character design for Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots. The Metal Gear series producer Hideo Kojima felt that Raiden was disliked for the wrong reason; that Raiden was blamed by players for the frustration of not being able to play as Snake. In the Metal Gear Solid 4 trailer at E3 2006, he wanted to prove to Western players that they "can look at Raiden from a different angle and see that he's really cool." He is now depicted as a cyborg wielding a sword with lightning fast moves and attacks. Whether or not he is a cyborg by choice is still unknown. He also said the general feedback to Raiden's new appearance in the Guns of the Patriots trailer has surprisingly been positive. [#endnote_Interview]
Many people, even those who used to dislike Raiden in MGS2, have given a warm welcome after seeing him in his new MGS4 suit, reminiscent of Gray Fox and "Mr. X".[[Citing sources citation needed]]
References
- ↑ The Making of Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty DVD packaged with European version of
- ↑ [Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots Interview] at GameSpot
| Main series | Metal Gear | ' | Metal Gear Solid | ' ' | ' | |
| Supplemental titles | ' | The Document of MGS2 | ' | ' | ' | MG Saga | |
| Side stories | Snake's Revenge | | Acid | Acid 2 | Metal Gear Solid (film) |
|---|---|
| Characters | Metal Gears | Solid Snake | Big Boss | Raiden | Gray Fox | Roy Campbell | Revolver Ocelot | Hal Emmerich | Meryl Silverburgh Recurring characters | Metal Gear 1 & 2 | Metal Gear Solid | Metal Gear Solid 2 | Metal Gear Solid 3 | Metal Gear Acid series |
| Locations | Outer Heaven | Zanzibar Land | Shadow Moses | Big Shell |
| Organizations | Philosophers | Cobra unit | Patriots | FOXHOUND | Genome Soldiers | Philanthropy | Dead Cell | Sons of Liberty | Outer Heaven (PMC) |
| Creators | Konami | Kojima Productions | Hideo Kojima Yoji Shinkawa | Shuyo Murata | Shinta Nojiri | Norihiko Hibino | Akio Otsuka | David Hayter |
| Timelines | Metal Gear timeline | Metal Gear timeline compared to reality |
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