Looking back, for benchmarking purposes, I was somewhat surprised to realise that Metal Gear Solid really hasn't featured that much within my trophy collection. This is only the third Platinum trophy I've acquired for this entire series, after Metal Gear Solid 2 : Sons of Liberty and Metal Gear Solid V : The Phantom Pain.
I've passed up on alot of Metal Gear Solid through the years, though this is mainly down to the fact that I'd already beaten many of these games way before trophies made them relevant again, and my desire to re-visit them has been practically non-existent.
However, Metal Gear Rising : Revengeance, was completely brand new, no Remaster required, and therefore makes it into the collection.
Set 4 years after Metal Gear Solid 4 : Guns of the Patriots, you control Raiden, the now main protagonist, transformed into a killer cyborg after years of playing second-fiddle to Solid Snake, as the plot revolves around stopping a private military company from making war profits via the destabilisation of world peace.
As the plot thickens, you uncover another dark secret. The same group are also harvesting the organs of children in order to develop their own cyborgs ready to fight within wars. It then becomes a matter of Raiden simply stopping this group from executing their plan.
This is still Metal Gear Solid, but not as you know it. The gameplay focus has shifted from traditional stealth and tactical combat, to a pure, bloody, action-packed hack 'n' slash that plays at 100MPH and never apologises for it. Eerie and slower-paced environments have been ditched for heavy rock music that booms over the top of fast-paced battles and boss fights, to specifically amplify the intensity of the combat. Solid Snake is nowhere to be seen, and instead Raiden is thrust into the limelight, given a cyborg makeover, and equipped with a plethora of weapons that can be used to dissect enemies into hundreds of different pieces, shapes and ways. If it looks like a spin-off...
The changes and major step outside the comfort zone might be too dramatic of a shift for some, but I thought it was brilliant. The combat is fast-paced, fun and engaging, and it's also great to be able to use a ton of different weapons to slice enemies up in such brutally different ways. The characters, especially the main bosses, are full of personality, and this has always been a strong suit of the Metal Gear Solid series, so it's good to see this continue to be a key trademark.
Key fights and boss battles are punctuated with appropriately fitting rock music to match the high-tempo gameplay. Dialogue with other key characters who you don't see as much, through the codec conversations, does well to pad out various elements of the story with solid context and expansion, even if it did end up becoming a bit of a thorn in the side. It's also a very intuitive game in that, "easy to learn, hard to master" kind of way - and that becomes very relevant when we move onto the trophies.
Speaking of which, this game contains 51 trophies in total, including the Platinum, spanning across 2 main game modes. This is purely a Single Player experience, and the vast majority of this list focuses on the Main Story. There are just 2 other trophies to earn outside the story, both related to the VR Missions.
The story is broken down into 8 individual chapters (called "Files"), and whilst there is technically no requirement to play through the game more than once, I would personally strongly recommend an initial run to get used to the game, enjoy the story and pick up whatever you can along the way as you naturally progress through.
There are a range of 6 different difficulty modes, from Very Easy right up to Revengeance, and you'll need to beat each of the games 8 files on Revengeance difficulty, whilst obtaining an S-Rank for every file along the way.
Throughout the story, there are a wide variance of trophies included for beating each file for the first time, completing specific tasks within each file and killing a number of different enemies a certain number of times cumulatively across the game, all of which will come fairly naturally, but at the very worst, can just be picked up later on, either via Chapter Select, or a secondary playthrough. This is the one of the reasons I would personally recommend a soft run to begin with. You won't want to be juggling all of these additional trophies along with the levels of focus required to beat this game with S-Ranks on it's most challenging difficulty.
There are also a selection of collectible-based trophies too, though these are both fairly easy to come across, as well as relatively low in volume. In some instances, they're directly linked to unlocking other content. For example, you'll need to find 20 laptops that correspond to the 20 VR Missions, and you'll only be able to play the relative VR mission once you find the corresponding laptop in the story.
The "Stormbringer" trophy, awarded for Completing story mode on Revengeance difficulty with all S Rankings, is the hardest trophy in this list. I know that will split opinion, and many people will feel the VR missions are tougher, but I felt like this was where the greater challenge overall lay.
The game has a steep learning curve. If you're not looking to beat this game for it's trophies, you won't need to master it. However, beating this game on it's most challenging difficulty setting, as well as obtaining an S Rank simultaneously, requires acknowledgement to a number of things.
Firstly, Revengeance difficulty. Enemies will mostly kill you in 1 or 2 hits, but for the purpose of this trophy, it's important to realise that your best approach actually involves ensuring that you don't take any damage during combat whatsoever. This will tie back into the S Rank element of this task. Enemy awareness is also sharper, and attack patterns are way more frequent, meaning you'll have to master the counter/parry mechanic - This part in particular, is integral to success. Similiary, enemies will also be dealt more damage on Revengeance difficulty, so there is at least something working in your favour, but it still presents a solid challenge.
Secondly, S Ranks. Each file contains a certain number of fights, which are graded and award you a ranking based on performance. Your performance is scored at the end, and you must meet a certain criteria of points to be awarded an S Rank. These include measures such as time taken to clear the fight, highest combo and total number of kills. There are also bonus points awarded for every fight you pass without taking any damage, and in most instances, this is the difference between an A Rank and an S Rank. This is why it's important to focus on beating each battle without taking any damage, because these bonus points will end up being the difference.
You'll know the rank awarded on the summary screen at the end of each fight, and if you haven't achieved an S Rank, you'll need to quickly restart the last checkpoint before the game saves your progress, otherwise you'll have to restart the entire file from the beginning. Each file contains a specific number of ranked fights, and the overall file score is not actually based on an overall average like you think it would be. For example, in file R-01, there are 10 ranked fights. If you obtained an S Rank in 9 of them, but an A Rank in 1, you may be forgiven for thinking that your overall score would still be an S Rank, based on the statistical nature of averages. However, you would still get an overall A Rank. In other words, every single battle that scores you needs to be an S Rank and therefore, there is zero margin for error.
It is important to note, many of these battles are fairly easy, and you're allowed to carry through any customisation upgrades you've acquired along the way, which is also another key reason you should playthrough the game on a soft run first - To unlock some new weapons and earn enough Battle Points to upgrade them. Infinite Wig B will allow you to stay in Ripper Mode without having to refuel, and obtaining secondary weapons like the Sai, Pincer Blades and Polearm are all necessary to this task and how you approach certain fights. The Fox Blade is also meant to be the recommended primary weapon of choice, but this was inaccessible to me as a pre-order bonus, and I had to use the High Frequency Blade, which was still fine for the most part.
Despite the right equipment and set-ups, this will still significantly challenge you though. A small handful of the ranked battles are tough, and will require a bit of persistence, but one thing this game showed time and time again, was the fact that it would just throw up a massive barrier to progression, seemingly out of nowhere most of the time. Within this particular challenge, this comes via the boss fights.
Each file contains a boss at some point, and getting through these fights within the S Rank parameters is the hardest challenge within this trophy. The reality is, you won't achieve the no damage bonuses if you can't block, parry and counter your opponents, and this increases the required skill level, as it forces you to be great at the hardest element of this game. Memorising bosses attack patterns, dodging when you can't block and perfectly timing a parry to open up a counter attack are all high level skills that you'll need to perfect to a flawless standard.
During boss fights, these come thick and fast, and at speed, so your reflexes and quickness will also be tested. I don't think the game design does you any favours either. You have to hold the left analogue stick in the direction of which the attack is coming from, and press square at the right moment to block/parry an attack, which I personally feel is awkward and counter-intuitive.
Some of the bosses weren't too bad, but I really struggled on others, such as Monsoon, Sam and Senator Armstrong. Monsoon alone, the most challenging boss by general consensus, took me 3 days to defeat to an S Rank standard. It's also worth noting that the trophy list awards individual trophies for beating each key boss in the game without taking any damage, and whilst you only need to do this on hard difficulty, I felt it made more sense to tandem this alongside this trophy. It made the requirements of the task more difficult, but given the fact most bosses require the no damage bonus to achieve an S Rank, it just made more sense.
It's a classic case of practice makes perfect, and you'll need to develop some strong levels of resistance to failure, as some of these bosses will strip away hours of your time. It's one of the hardest Story-based difficulty feats I've tackled in some time. Upon reflection, I'm certain I wouldn't have been able to fly into this challenge straight away, and a soft run in order to get to grips with the combat basics, understand the enemy attack patterns, study boss behaviour and master blocks, parries and counters, were all necessary to my own success. I'm not a stranger to going into Story driven games at the highest difficulty where I feel I can do so, but this was not one of those games.
The good news is, once you've finished this, and providing you've done at least one prior run, you'll have almost reached the conclusion - At least in terms of trophy volume anyway. However, the bad news is, the remaining few trophies focus on the VR Missions.
The "Virtually Flawless" trophy, awarded for Setting the highest score on every VR Mission, will bring back some ghosts of the past for those who have played Metal Gear Solid 2 : Sons of the Patriots, and it's ludicrous requirement to beat all 511 VR Missions. Thankfully, there are only 20 to beat on this occasion, but don't be lured in by this seriously lighter number.
You will need to unlock the capacity to take these missions on. As previously mentioned, there are 20 laptops scattered across the landscape within the main story, and accessing these will unlock a respective VR Mission. The trophy then requires you to achieve the first place target score on all 20 of these VR Missions.
For maximum clarity, the majority of these aren't too bad to get through, and will only take a handful of attempts at best. I did mention above, that this game specialises in throwing barriers up in front of you seemingly out of nowhere, and this is a theme that runs through every aspect of this game. The VR Missions are another prime example of this.
VR Missions 18 and 19 give this trophy a valid case for being the hardest in this list, and whilst I personally don't agree with that, I don't object to any difference in opinion here. VR Mission 18 requires you to beat 4 waves of enemies where the difficulty is set to Revengeance, meaning everything kills you in 1 hit. You'll face Fenirs, Mastiffs, Berserkers and a GRAD too, and asking you to beat all this within 10 minutes in order to earn a first place finish means you'll have to find the perfect balance between speed and efficiency. Rushing will cause you to take risks, and more often than not, becomes a necessary evil. I don't know how many attempts it took me, but it was the hardest VR mission and required alot of trial and error to beat.
VR Mission 19 requires you to beat 3 waves of enemies via Zandatsu, which is the slow motion slicing mechanism that allows you to drain the health of an enemy if you execute a cut across a specified hit box. It's a cool game mechanic, but you control the slice with the analogue stick, and I found it be very fiddly and inconsistent at times. You'll need to pull off a string of Zandatsu's, which can be tough, and if you kill an enemy via a non-execution move, you'll fail the mission. I didn't spend anywhere near as much time on this mission, but it was still long enough, and combined with VR Mission 18, it made for a rocky experience.
Even with the benefit of mastering the block, parry and counter to a relatively strong level, I still struggled. I did start to suffer a bit of mental exhaustion at this point too. Beating the story on Revengeance had taken it out of me, and slogging through these missions over and over just continued to weigh down heavily on my progress. Having the mental resilience to refocus and continue with repeat attempts is an underrated trait when trophy hunting difficult lists.
One final thing; The camera in this game is awful, but it becomes blatantly obvious within these VR Missions. When you get too close to a wall within an arena, it will completely flip your perspective, and this will hurt your timing on blocks, parries and counters. These are always executed based on the input of where you direct your analogue stick, so when the camera flips your perspective suddenly, you'll be blocking in a different direction, and won't be able to counter attacks. It ended many a mission here, and it's a very frustrating aspect of the game they overlooked that works against you in something that doesn't need bad game design to conspire against you on top of everything else.
Finally, the "Amateur Radio Operator" trophy, awarded for Listening to most of the codec conversations, also deserves a subtle mention, just for it's absurdity alone.
Throughout the story, you'll be able to interact with your team, who will be available for codec conversations on a variety of different subject matters. Some of these are triggered by specific events, such as facing a certain enemy or boss, picking up a certain piece of weaponry or equipment or performing certain unique actions, like saving a civilian or hiding in a box. The rest of the conversations outside of these special actions are just available organically as you progress.
There are a couple of challenges with this trophy though. Notice how the description is purposely vague - "most of the codec conversations". I hate trophies that are never quantified properly enough for you to reasonably track your progress on them. There's never any clear indication about how much you need to hear, so you're forced to just keep opening the codec and checking for new lines of dialogue every 5 minutes. It's repetitive, disrupts the flow of the game horribly and just feels like a silly exercise.
It was made even worse that I played through both a soft run, and a Revengeance run - the second of which I was fully conscious to this trophy - and religiously stuck to the task of ensuring I was pulling up the codec as frequently as possible, and STILL didn't have the trophy by the end of it. I don't mind trophies with a basis of trial and error attached to them, but the end goal has to be at least clear to the player, and not make you feel like you're just taking aimless stabs in the dark.
I eventually just began the game again from the very beginning and looked for potential unique dialogue options that I didn't think I had heard yet, in the hope this was enough to trigger the trophy. I managed to unlock it during file R-02, so I didn't need to go that deep, but it was still frustrating that I had get part-way through a third playthrough, purely because of the vague rules around the trophy description.
Metal Gear Rising : Revengeance has the perfect blend for what makes a trophy list difficult. A genuinely high skill threshold, a varying degree of challenges that will test the skills you've acquired to their limits and a necessity for never giving up. It also has some reasonable longevity - My save file clocked in at 57 hours, but you can perhaps add a handful more due to some save game trickery along the way. This is a bit complicated to explain, but it acts as a safety net when jumping between ranked battles in story mode to ensure you can continue from where you left off if you mess up, but you've managed to hold a spare save file, rather than repeat entire chapters over from the beginning. I won't deep it at this point though.
It doesn't quite top the dizzying 10/10 heights of Metal Solid 2 : The Sons of Liberty, and it almost feels like a bit of a disservice to suggest that this still isn't the toughest Metal Gear Solid game in my collection. However, it's certainly on the doorstep at the very least, and one that feels good to add to the collection after such a long time.
Notable Trophies -
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| Stormbringer - Complete story mode on Revengeance difficulty with all S Rankings. Virtually Impossible - Set the highest score on every VR Mission. Amateur Radio Operator - Listen to most of the codec conversations. |
Hardest Trophy -
