In April 2012, to promote the game prior to its first playable appearance at E3, Konami created an alternate reality game (ARG) entitled "Make It Right" which primarily involved fans performing instructions revealed on the official Metal Gear Solid and Metal Gear Rising Facebook pages and websites weekly leading up to E3. The campaign started on April 25th, when Konami released a new teaser for the game hinting at news to be revealed five days later. In addition, Konami manufactured two replicas of Raiden's severed left arm and sent them to Game Informer and Electronic Gaming Monthly. Connected to each of the arms was a USB drive that contained several cryptic images related to the game's plot, as well as the first in a series of short, live-action trailers promoted as secret video files found in Raiden's arm which were released by Konami over the course of the ARG. These videos depicted flashbacks to Raiden (voiced by Quinton Flynn) undergoing surgical procedures initiated by Maverick Security Counseling, Inc. that ultimately turn him into a Cyborg Ninja, as well as flashbacks to his time training as a child soldier under Solidus Snake (voiced by John Cygan). The last flashback trailer depicting Solidus killing a hostage, released on May 17th, ended with a binary code message "01000101 00110011" which translates to "E3", and the final trailer released during the ARG was a short clip of the title screen to the game's E3 2012 demo. The events in the videos were meant to hint at what would be shown in the story to Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance, but these events would end up only being mentioned in an optional codec call between Raiden and Doktor about left arm data.

Two other recognized actors featured in the videos include an interrogator played by Noah Nelson, the voice of Cunningham from Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops, and a surgeon played by James Horan, who would later voice Skull Face in Metal Gear Solid V.

The game was first announced under the title Metal Gear Solid: Rising at E3 2009. The title also had the words "Lightning Bolt Action" instead of MGS's usual "Tactical Espionage Action".

Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance has a final boss character by the name of Armstrong. During the 2016 U.S. presidential election cycle, several bloggers and gamers noticed a strong similarity between Armstrong and Republican Presidential Candidate Donald J. Trump. Like Trump, Armstrong is a wealthy businessman who seeks to become the U.S. president. At one point in the game, Armstrong even says that he will 'make America great again', the exact slogan used by the Trump campaign.

Oddly enough, Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance was released in 2013, a full two years before Donald Trump announced in candidacy in 2015.

Jetstream Sam was primarily designed by Kenichirou Yoshimura who had initially planned on leaving ##Platinum Games## early in the development process of the game after it was handed over to them. However, three days before he was scheduled to leave, Yoshimura had stumbled onto what some of the concept artists were working on, asking if they needed any suggestions. He was enraged that they weren't taking the Metal Gear concept seriously in the development process and that they "cannot place this in a Metal Gear game!" He decided to stay for half a year beyond schedule until he was certain that it was up to the standards of Metal Gear.

The Japanese release of the VR Missions DLC includes a wooden sword called the 蛇魂‚ (Snake Spirit). The sword will speak in Snake's voice, and comment on Raiden's actions and situation.

The sword was not included in international releases, for unknown reasons.

There are several groups of Dwarf Gekkos in the game that stand on top of each other to form the shape of a human. Whenever Raiden counters their attacks, they perform Old Snake's taunt from Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots.

Metal Gear Rising was originally developed as an open world game set in the time period between Metal Gear Solid 2 and 4. Hampered by their own preconceptions about what a Metal Gear game should be like, and given little direction by Hideo Kojima, the team assigned to the project was struggling to make a coherent game due to the different directions the developers thought they should take. Eventually, Kojima asked Platinum Games to develop the game. Platinum became the game's developer, but the game's cutscenes, story, and setting were still heavily supervised by Kojima Productions.

In Mission 3, you can find two posters of women covered in caution tape. Slicing the caution tape in blade mode will reveal them to be wearing bikinis. In the same mission, there is also a cardboard cutout of a woman, and slicing it will change it into a different one wearing a leather outfit.

When rescuing a civilian, it's possible to catch up to them and slash them, resulting in their clothes being ripped off, leaving them in just their underwear. Raiden will then receive a codec call, scolding him. Calling people using the codec immediately afterwards will result in more negative comments being made.

In the demo released prior to the game's retail launch, a cardboard box was hidden on a ledge in a tutorial VR mission. The only way up to access the box is to cut down a pillar, causing part of the ledge to fall and form a makeshift ramp.

In VR mission #5, you are supposed to blow up Dwarf Gekkos with grenades. On the last wave, you are supposed to kill the Dwarf Gekkos as they run around the arena. However, if you wait they will spell out a "P", the symbol for Platinum Games, the developer.

In the Spanish version of the game, among other errors, there are multiple instances of untranslated German text left between Spanish sentences.

The music that plays inside the Japanese Garden in the World Marshal Building is a remix of the Edo Castle music from Goemon.

There is a white cat that appears twice during the game. The cat appears first in File 1 at the beach. If Raiden attempts to attack the cat, it will dodge the attack and can even be forced into the ocean until it's completely underwater. The cat appears later during File 3. During Monsoon's pre-battle monologue, if Raiden looks to the right the cat will appear again and one of the assassins accompanying Monsoon will pet and play with the cat.

When you first meet George, the boy in the sewer, he makes a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle reference by saying "A ninja? Cowabunga!" and quoting Vanilla Ice's Ninja Rap. The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles lived in the sewers, and Cowabunga was Michelangelo's catch phrase.

On the title screen, before clicking start, inputting the Konami Code(↑↑↓↓←→←→BA) will make Raiden say the title of the game, and all difficulties will be unlocked.

Kojima initially wanted Gray Fox to play the main role in the game, but made the decision to have Raiden take the main role instead. This was to allow the younger members of his team to take control of the game.