Kojima San’s tryst with western developers began with the end of Snake’s last outing. As he shifts his focus on Sony’s handheld machine instead to work on Big Boss’s ultimate platform of transition to becoming the villain in the series. He has let a younger group handle the reins of the next game in the series which is slated to appear on both the PS3 and Xbox 360. The plate is also full with Mercury Steam’s effort to reboot the Castlevania franchise, which is shaping up to be quite a contender to Santa Monica’s GOW series.
The new team, which is a part of Metal Gear Rising, has also hired Dennis Zopfi, the senior designer who worked on “the Playstation3 title Killzone 2 and was responsible for game design, level design, storyboards and communication between game and level design.” He is now working for Kojima Productions on Metal Gear Rising as a level designer.
This is a bold new step for Kojima Productions who are now working with ample amounts of western talents to incorporate a much western concepts of gameplay design. Killzone 2’s level design was dynamic and varied and consisted of a healthy mix between cathartic urban environments and fairly open-ended dust ridden platforms. So if you fall into the category who adored the design style of the game, Rising might hold a similar vein for you.