With Metal Gear Solid: Rising set to gets its big coming out party at next month's VGAs, series creator Hideo Kojima has told Official PlayStation Magazine that series veterans might not initially fall in love with the game's new direction

“If somebody thinks ‘I love Snake’ and just really wants traditional stealth gameplay and that experience, then it may be hard to get into Rising,” he told the magazine as part of its upcoming cover-story.

“But for people who are more open and willing to try new things, it shouldn’t be a problem.”

Metal Gear Solid: Rising features MGS2 protagonist Raiden in the lead role. Fans of the series were tangibly furious back in 2001 when Kojima Productions introduced the character in one of the greatest bait and switches of all time. But according to Kojima, Raiden's role in the more recent Metal Gear Solid 4 put the character back in fans' good books.

“Raiden in MGS4 was received very well, and I wanted to keep going with that direction in Rising. The people who liked him in 4 will like him in this, but it’s a personal preference," he continued.

“The character in the game is supposed to equal the player, so if you want to introduce things to a new recruit, you have to learn how to interact with that world along with the character. If we had Snake [in MGS 2] he was this old, experienced veteran and there would’ve been a disconnect with the [new] players. So that’s why we brought in Raiden.”

Metal Gear Solid: Rising has looked stunning in all of its most recent outings, and so we can't wait to get our next glimpse of the game in action.

[Thanks Official PlayStation Magazine]