sequel which involved Jehuty surviving to an addiction to Metatron, the game's energy. Producer Hideo Kojima liked this idea so much that he appointed Murata as the sequel's director. However, no elements from Murata's plan were used in the game. Kojima stated that most of the game's credit is owed to Murata. 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." Most mecha were designed by Yoji Shinkawa, the character and mechanical designer for the Metal Gear series who had previously worked in the prequel. For the previous, Shinkawa had made rough sketches of a coffin-shape mech. As Murata liked the designed, he requested Shinkawa to develop it as Ken's Frame. Leo's new mech, Vic Viper, was based on the space ship with the same name from the Gradius scrolling shooter games. Shinkawa had the idea of making Vic Viper being Leo's mech and that it would be able to transform which Murata was approved. Additionally, the character Lloyd and the Frame Inhert were designed by Kazuma Kaneko of Megami Tensei fame. The character illustrations and select mecha illustrations were created by Tsubasa Masao. The character designs were made by Nobuyoshi Nishimura who advised the team in doing the special