His outfit (the Skull Suit) was difficult to design until the staff decided on a "bonelike" concept.
Shinkawa further noted that Raiden ended up with an overall feminine appearance. Because Raiden was a new character the staff designed him carefully, giving him white hair to symbolize his introduction. Designer Yoji Shinkawa noted that he and the other character designers took a great deal of inspiration for Raiden's appearance from the bishōnen archetype. He took this into consideration he and his team designed a character more appealing to women, resulting in Raiden's appearance. Kojima received much fan mail one letter was from a girl who stated she did not want to play a game with an old man. Raiden in Metal Gear Solid 2 is considered to be a representation of the player through the experiences between the player and the character during the game. The relationship between Raiden and Rosemary was inspired by Kojima's own experiences their names, Jack and Rose, are a reference to characters in the film Titanic. It was initially planned to be written in katakana as "ライデン", but was changed to the kanji form "雷電" because of the original resemblance to Bin Laden's "Laden" in katanana, "ラーディン". The codename "Raiden" was based on a historical combat aircraft of the Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service, the Mitsubishi J2M Raiden. Yoshikazu Matsuhana, assistant director for the project, was uncertain about this decision he considered Raiden a "weak-looking character", but decided to follow Kojima. Kojima affirmed that Snake was the game's protagonist instead of Raiden. The idea of having a second main character was inspired by the Sherlock Holmes short stories and novels in which the narrator was not the title character, but his friend Dr. Kojima also stated that Raiden's character and its perception by the audience were important to the overall feel of the story.
Despite this mixed reception, Raiden has been highly praised for his role and Metal Gear Solid 4 redesign and even more in his role and design in Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance.Īccording to series creator Hideo Kojima, the decision to make a new character replace Solid Snake for most of Metal Gear Solid 2 stemmed from the developer's desire to develop Snake from a third-person perspective instead. Some critics have defended the character, stating that fans were merely angered by the former's removal and that the latter was appealing. Raiden's debut role as the protagonist of Metal Gear Solid 2 became controversial for two reasons: the unexpected substitution of the established hero Solid Snake and Raiden's androgynous appearance. Raiden's inclusion remained a secret to gamers before his debut despite some players' reactions, the staff liked his character. The idea of creating Raiden originated from Hideo Kojima's desire to view the Metal Gear series protagonist Solid Snake from a different point of view, inspired by the Sherlock Holmes stories. Raiden reappears as a supporting character in Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots and returns as the main character of Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance dealing both with his past and his present life as a combatant. Despite coming across as rookie, he is a young soldier who is later revealed to have been a Liberian child soldier. special operations unit FOXHOUND, participating in his first mission. In Metal Gear Solid 2, he appears to be a member of the U.S. Created by Hideo Kojima and designed by Yoji Shinkawa, Raiden was introduced in the series as the main player character of Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty. Raiden is a fictional character from Konami's Metal Gear series. Pseudo-FOXHOUND operative unknowingly employed by The Patriots ( MGS2)Ĭyborg private military contractor ( MGRR) Takeshi Yoshioka ( Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots)
Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty (2001) Raiden's original Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty design as illustrated by Yoji Shinkawa.