Metal Gear Solid 6: 10 Ways To Make It Work Without Kojima

8. Delve Into Raiden's Switch From Human To Cyborg

The narrative throughline across all Metal Gears (which is a very impressive thing, considering there was never a grand plan) revolves around the idea of identity, memories and influence. What are you, really? What can you pass on; is it flesh, digital or something else? What do you owe to your forefathers and what can you create yourself? MGS explored every aspect of these questions in its 28 year history, but something that was entirely glossed over was Raiden's jump from rookie soldier to full-on cyborg ninja badass.

It was initially done just to please the fans after the hatred towards his character was so massive Kojima had to address it, but there's a very interesting story there. Metal Gear Rising treats him like a Japanese anime character spewing occasional one-liners ("It's time for Jack... to LET 'ER RIP!"), but with the right care and attention, you could spin a great tale on the nature of humanity and making the transition from flesh to synthetic.

Everything from Raiden's limbs to his blood are replaced, yet we don't get any insight into what that makes him feel like, especially in stark contrast to his history as a child soldier, ironically raised to be a nameless weapon that you could argue he essentially turns into anyway.

His body is built for war, and it'd be extremely interesting to explore that.