Ninja Gaiden 3 Shows How Team Ninja Redefined Itself After Itagaki, says HayashiFormer Team Ninja leader Tomonobu Itagaki is a tough act to follow. The Ninja Gaiden and Dead or Alive creator, who left the studio and publisher Tecmo Koei in 2008, was the epitome of a “rock star” game designer, with long flowing black hair, dark sunglasses and leather jacket.
Not only did Itagaki look the part, but he also talked the talk, routinely criticizing the competition (particularly Namco Bandai’s Tekken series) while heavily praising his own work; he once told Joystiq “Tekken sucks” in a 2007 interview, by no means a shocking outburst. For Itagaki, this was par for the course.
That said, his shocking departure and subsequent lawsuit against Tecmo Koei for unpaid bonus money left many wondering who would fill the void at Team Ninja. More importantly, would this controversial identity created by Itagaki transfer to his successor?
Upon meeting his replacement, Yosuke Hayashi, that answer was a resounding no. Instead of wearing Itagaki’s rocker attire, he dresses in a suit jacket and dress slacks. In favor of headline grabbing arrogance, he expresses humility and respect for his peers.
Oddly enough, this is the same man hard at work prepping Ninja Gaiden 3 for a spring Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 release. Odd, simply because of the extreme violence that’s sure to be one of the game’s selling points; hero Ryu Hayabusa gets splattered with blood from punctured adversaries. You would too, if you inserted a razor sharp sword into the abdomen of a machine gun toting bozo and then twisted the blade.
Then there’s Dead or Alive 5, also starring Ryu, among other series favorites. Although it lacks the gore of its counterpart, Hayashi delights in watching the characters slam each other’s bodies into walls and off a rooftop hundreds of feet to the ground below.
Such disturbing imagery, made possible from such a nice guy.
“The game industry changed quite a lot,” said Hayashi, as he watched interested journalists enjoy Ninja Gaiden 3’s carnage. “After Itagaki left, we felt the games we made were not ideal today.”
“Our new titles, Ninja Gaiden 3 and Dead or Alive 5, prove how the team redefined itself. You’ll see what Team Ninja is about, the personal philosophy, particularly with Ninja Gaiden 3 in terms of story.”
Indeed, Ninja Gaiden 3’s narrative appears more complex than in games past. While viewing the action packed demo, we frequently heard chatter between the sword slashing warrior and other characters in the game, such as fellow ninja, Ayane.
Hayashi even instructed Team Ninja to loosen the reigns a bit in regard to the game’s difficulty. With this title, and the Vita launch game, Ninja Gaiden Sigma Plus, fans of all skill levels will have multiple difficulties to choose from.
“Before we started developing the game, we looked at how many players completed it versus those who gave up. We found the majority bought the game and stopped somewhere around the middle. We wanted less capable or casual players to enjoy it from beginning to end. The philosophy of Ninja Gaiden 3 is alive in Sigma Plus, so you have multiple difficulties that apply to many gamers.”
While on the subject of PlayStation Vita, Hayashi feels the system will rise above its sales woes in Japan, and has thus far received negative criticism in part because the games don’t take full advantage of its capabilities.
“The specs have been established, but no game pushes those specs. It’s too early in the hardware’s life.”
As for critics who complain Sigma Plus is just a port, he had this to say:
“We wanted players to enjoy the console experience on the hardware, since they can have that on the Vita.”
With portables in mind, we switched gears to iOS and Namco Bandai. The company just released a handheld version of the Dreamcast hit, Soul Calibur, to rave reviews. Would Hayashi seek to compete against Team Ninja’s fighting rival?
“We’ve seen the actual game running. From a developer standpoint, it’s an impressive port, but it’s also a button oriented game. It doesn’t have the same feel on the touch screen. Not only that, but it looks a bit strange having buttons on the corners of the iPad screen. It makes the game appear less attractive. It ruins the experience.”
That seemed to kill our hopes of seeing Dead or Alive on smartphones.
“Putting [Dead or Alive] on an iPad would probably not be much fun without a traditional controller,” he said.
This doesn’t mean, however, that players won’t see Team Ninja developed games on mobile devices.
“When you look at consoles versus iOS, the main difference is the depth of the game being made. For the console, you make a deeper experience, whereas on iPhone, you need something simple and addictive befitting the hardware. Team Ninja makes games that feel simple in design. We have that characteristic in our games, so we could bring that over to the iPad if we were to make something that matches the interface. We are interested and thinking about doing something like that.”
To that we asked, what about Ninja Gaiden: Dragon Sword, the 2008 DS adventure with a heavy emphasis on touch controls? Certainly, this would be a great fit for a tablet.
Not necessarily, said Hayashi.
“It’s a little bit different since that game was on DS. With iPad, you’d have to change it quite a bit.”
While on the subject of change, we turned our attention to Wii U, Nintendo’s upcoming console, slated to arrive during the second half of 2012. Ninja Gaiden 3 should appear on the system, but Team Ninja faces yet another challenge in making this edition, debuting several months after the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 SKUs, appealing to gamers who own all consoles.
“Right now, we want to develop for Wii U, but we need to take some time to figure out how to make Ninja Gaiden 3 innovative and fit the hardware. We’ll think about Wii U and see how we can implement new features instead of rushing it.”
Before finishing the interview, we couldn’t resist mentioning the competition. Capcom and Namco Bandai, fighting opponents for years, plan to bring Street Fighter X Tekken to the masses. In fact, you can watch a friendly video starring Street Fighter producer Yoshinori Ono and Tekken producer Katsuhiro Harada, where the two exchange comical blows.
What does Team Ninja think of this?
“Those two titles [Street Fighter and Tekken] are obviously our seniors in fighting game circles. We’re looking forward to seeing how Street Fighter X Tekken plays out. With Dead or Alive 5, we want to do something that hasn’t been done before. We’d rather redefine the fighting genre as opposed to collaborations.”
“It’s a challenge,” Hayashi finished, “we’re looking forward to.”
