by alienjesus Sun May 23, 2021 2:26 pm
I finished up my playthrough of Metal Gear Rising today. I picked up just before the boss of stage 4, and actually it was probably the easiest boss in the game. He uses 2 swords and a holw bunch of exploding shield panels. The game really wants you to use the sword to slice pieces off of the shields where it's safe - but I found using the dodge move to shift behind him and slice his back every time his sheilds lowered much more effective and way quicker. Stage 5 which followed was honestly crap - you fight through some recycled assets from stage 3 in reverse, but only a small section - there's 4 fights here to most stages 16 or so, and it only took me 10 minutes as opposed to most stages 60.
Stage 6 was a boss fight against a fellow swordfighter named Jetstream Sam, who was also rather easy, and then it was on to stage 7 where after a short intro I got into a boss fight vs a giant Metal Gear followed by a super buff US senator. Raiden obviously has it in for US politicians, considering the ending of MGS2 as well.
The final battle was really frustrating, as it has a section where you must slice rubble being thrown at you in precise lines - but the game doesn't explain how to do this really. I restarted the boss fight a good 10 times before I sussed it out and I'm still not entirely sure I had it down perfectly. I was almost dead when I finally took down the boss, but I did it.
Overall, I thought the game was OK. The plot is pretty meh and I've heard this is because it went through a lot of changes from being a serious prequel to a totally over the top sequel to MGS4. I actually think the plot weakens some of the ending moments of MGS4 so I wouldn't recommend playing it for that. The action is decent stuff as is the platinum games way - but it also isn't as good as the likes of Bayonetta. It's a pretty short game too. I bought it for £4 though, and it was definitely worth that.
And in keeping with the theme - I got the 'Samurai' award for beating the game exclusively with the Sword, as opposed to the subweapons you can you as you progress.