Upon the revelation of Raiden's new design as a cyborg ninja, writers said he distanced himself from his previous appearance that imitated Solid Snake. Raiden's increasingly masculine redesigns following his debut were noted be a leaning to Western heroes in gaming despite Raiden retaining his original characterization by Todd Harper in the book "Queerness in Play". IGN also said Raiden becomes a different type of game hero with a new, direct fighting style. being instead compared with the lead characters from "Devil May Cry" and "God of War" favorably due to how they fight. Raiden finding conviction with his inner past persona during "Revengeance" was noted to go with the ideas of enjoying the hack and slash mechanics provided the developers as Raiden has kill enemies while also being able to face properly all of enemies who share values with him during cutscenes.