Metal Gear Rising Revengeance: you can sell limbs for upgrades

Metal Gear Rising Revengeance will have a strong focus on the player upgrading themselves and their weapons, according to Kojima Productions producer Yuji Korekado.

Speaking at a roundtable at Konami's Gamers' Night, Korekado said that players will be able to access certain upgrades by trading in hands. Players can slice off people's left hands and sell them to a doctor, who rewards the player with upgrades. Players can also access upgrades by defeating bosses.

"[In the Tokyo Game Show demo] there were some upgrades provided to Raiden, but not too many. We wanted to have the players and fans enjoy Raiden not just as the character you start out with but with the character and cyborg powers that you gain throughout the game," Korekado said.

"The doctor is a key person in the game," he said. "Throughout the game, if you cut enemies' left hands and take them back to the doctor, he'll buy them off you. What happens is you use those as collectibles, as well as items to trade."

Korekado explained that the doctor character in Metal Gear is a mad scientist who is constantly after information about cyborgs and how they interact, so when Raiden brings him his victims' left hands, he rewards Raiden with upgrades –both to his cyborg parts and his weapons.

Victories in boss battles will also unlock weapons that Raiden can buy.

"Throughout the game, you bump into many bosses, and these bosses have very unique weapons and different kinds of styles and different attack methods," Korekado said. "Now these weapons, as you attack the bosses and move forward, you can buy these weapons from the doctor and use them as your own."

Korekado says the upgrades allow players to define their own play style by deciding which weapons to use and upgrade.

Metal Gear Rising Revengeance is due to be released February 19th on Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.

With contribution from Matt Leone