Why did Metal Gear Solid 2 replace Snake with Raiden?
Start with what Kojima actually said he wanted. The decision to build Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty (2001) around a new playable character came, in his account, from a desire to develop Solid Snake from a third person perspective: to watch the hero instead of wearing him. His stated model was the Sherlock Holmes stories, which are narrated by Dr. Watson, not by Holmes. Raiden is the Watson. Kojima has been consistent that Snake remained the game's true protagonist, even though the player spends most of it holding Raiden's controller.
There was also a practical problem a legend cannot solve. Kojima put it plainly in a later interview: "At the end of Metal Gear Solid 1, Snake becomes this legendary hero. It just didn't make sense to have this 'legendary hero' start from scratch, with players getting all these codec calls telling this hero how to perform basic actions." A rookie can be taught on the radio without breaking the fiction. Raiden's combat background was virtual reality training, which made him the player's stand-in as well: new to the field, briefed step by step, exactly like the person playing.
The game's own design document, quoted in GameSpot's Final Hours reporting, adds the audience reason, in writing: "We will have the player control a different character from Snake, so that they can enjoy the game's story even if they have not played the previous game. With Raiden (someone appealing to women), instead of Snake, as the main character, we will have a character in which women can more easily empathize. He is the antithesis of the older, hard-boiled image of Snake." Designer Yoji Shinkawa drew him young and handsome on that brief, after the team heard women on the debugging staff say the grizzled Snake did nothing for them.
Not everyone on the team was sure. Assistant director Yoshikazu Matsuhana, in the same Final Hours reporting: "I wasn't sure this weak-looking guy was going to be well received by the fans. But we all trust Mr. Kojima because he has so many hits under his belt."
THE COVER THAT KEPT THE SECRET
North America, 2001
HOW THE SECRET WAS KEPT
Trailers, a demo, and a borrowed twistTHE DOCTRINE, AND THE BILL
What it cost, honestlyKojima stated the doctrine behind it himself: "In a sequel you have to meet people's expectations, but you also sort of have to go against them and deceive them I think. This is my Metal Gear, and I can destroy it if I want to." He later admitted the communication failed in one respect: Raiden was never supposed to be the focus of the storyline, and he said he did not do a good enough job of conveying that to the player.
The bill is part of the record too. Many fans felt deceived rather than surprised, Raiden drew real backlash, and critics were divided on the new lead even as they praised the game around him. Commercially, it did not matter: Metal Gear Solid 2 sold seven million copies by 2004. The swap that looked like sabotage became the series' most debated design decision, and the character who was booed in 2001 was later rebuilt, in Metal Gear Solid 4 and Rising, into a lead players asked for.