Metal Gear Solid: Rising director Mineshi Kimura has said that their upcoming spin-off will please both core fans of the Metal Gear Solid series and newcomers alike.

“We’re not really trying to concentrate on just pleasing the Metal Gear Solid-core fans,” Kimura told GamePro during an interview at E3. “So for the new comers that never played the Metal Gear Solid series, we’re trying to make Rising more easily accessible in terms of content and storyline.

“However, we do know that there are core Metal Gear fans waiting for this title as well, meaning we want to please them too. So to a certain extent we will have elements that will please these users but we’re trying to hit both audiences.”

The director has been coy on sharing whether or not Metal Gear Solid star Solid Snake will make an appearance in the game, though.

“Basically, the story is focusing on Raiden from Metal Gear Solid 2-4, and of course ‘Snake’ exists in that period as well, so he might appear, he might not, we cannot announce that today but that storyline is in the same time-frame.”

Either way, the game will tell the story of how Raiden became how we saw him in Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots.

“We have the story leading up to the point of the Raiden we know in Metal Gear Solid 4,” Kimura said. “Also, you see in the trailer that we put some dark essence to Raiden and also you see Raiden cutting people in pieces, it almost seems insane. We would like to tell the story of what happened to Raiden to make him like that.”

As we’ve clearly seen in the trailer, Metal Gear Solid: Rising has different mechanics than your standard, stealthy Metal Gear Solid game.

“The image that Mr. Kimura has is to keep the same stealth feeling of Metal Gear Solid,” creative producer Shigenobu Matsuyama said. “Since we’re using Raiden the scale will be bigger in terms of stealth.”

“The katana, the blade itself, is not your big loud weapon, it’s more considered as a stealth weapon. It’s a high frequency blade, so it’s not just a normal blade.”

He went on to talk about he energy scale that Raiden rips out of a robot in the E3 trailer.

“It’s part of the game system, it’s not just a game where you cut and cut, then proceed. You have to accurately aim so that you can take the battery and absorb it to yourself. That’s the whole game system and gameplay this time, so this will be in the mechanics.”

Metal Gear Solid: Rising is still TBA for PS3, 360, and PC. Hopefully, we’ll get a date soon.