Zan Datsu. “‘Zan’ meants to cut, and ‘datsu’ means to take.”
That’s what creative producer Shigenobu Matsuyama told everyone at the Microsoft press conference, with the hopes of giving the audience an idea of what Metal Gear Solid: Rising will be about. And boy, did it.
The trailer opens with a large mech searching a warehouse for something. A shadow — presumably Raiden — is seen jumping across the ceiling and strikes down the robot with his sword. We see the kanji for “zan,” and the kanji for “datsu” as he reaches into the robot’s body to grab what appears to be a glowing, blue spinal cord. One could probably guess that collecting these from enemies will be a major aspect of the gameplay.
But this mechanic won’t be what makes the game. The reason why people will be at attracted to the game is the “zan” — the cutting.
In Metal Gear Solid: Rising,players will be able to cut almost anything they want — and with style. The rest of the trailer showed off in-game footage of Raiden slicing through his enemies, buildings, vans, and even watermelon. The mechanic shown in the trailer could be described as aiming down the sights with a katana. The camera shifts directly behind Raiden and a line-shaped cursor appears on the cursor. The cursor indicates where the cut will be made, and it’s free to rotate about its mid-point.
Combine this precision-cutting with bullet-time (sword-time?), and you really can’t go wrong. Although it wasn’t apparent how the slow-motion would be activated, the trailer showed Raiden tripping an attacker, sending him into the air — and the game into slow-motion. The player would be free to make multiple cuts into an object while the slow motion is activated — a combination of mechanics that is similar to Red Dead Redemption’s Dead Eye.
The crowd reaction did a lot to highlight how delightful playing this title would be. It looked like Metal Gear Solid: Rising would be taking a step back from stealth and move towards more action-oriented gameplay (hence the Lightning Bolt Action in the title). And judging by the cheers in the audience during the trailer, no one really seemed to mind.
Check out the trailer from Kojima Productions here.
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