the konami staff worked in the game's graphics to make it stand out within other games released for the playstation 2. several staff members from the "metal gear" series worked in the special effects. in order to give it an "anime feel," the team implemented a "quasi-toon-shade" to the explosions. the action was improved so that the player could fight several enemies at the same time unlike in the prequel where fights were one-on-one. in order to the deliver this action feature properly, the team spent a year working on a new 3d camera. in response to criticism, the team avoided backtracking and went through a more linear game design. the variety of enemies also were increased to avoid monotonous gameplay. the game offers several missions in which the player is assisted by non-playable characters in the form of levs. this feature was originally intended to be used in the prequel but it only appeared in the form of cutscenes. for "the 2nd runner" the team managed to implement this feature during gameplay. the new main character dingo egret was made a former soldier in order to contrast with the previous games protagonist leo stenbuck who was a reluctant hero. kojima referred to theme of the game as "awakening."