When we were talking at E3, we discussed the consequences of violence. The latest build has characters that run away from Ryu after seeing their friends fall at the hands of Ryu’s blade.
Yosuke Hayashi, Team Ninja Head: When we were thinking about what to do in Ninja Gaiden 3 and the future of action games, we didn’t think about having longer combos with more hits or adding more weapons. In order to make an action game that appeals to adults, we needed to have action and emotion. Something that would make a mature audience get out of the game and into the experience.
That’s an interesting decision because deciding not to kill enemies would lower a combo and perhaps a player’s score since you can’t use Ryu’s ultimate attack or the dragon transforming ninpo. Both attacks auto target enemies, even ones that are trying to run for their lives.
That was intentional. We’re presenting this story with Ryu Hayabusa as a dark hero and for players to feel it we need them to get blood on their hands. If you’re looking to play the easy way where you just use ninpo to clean up enemies without cutting anyone down that’s running away from the experience. We want players to feel a connection to Ryu and to do that they have to have blood on their hands too.
I think we haven’t seen or felt those yet since we’ve only seen the prologue stage and Team Ninja is known for creating challenging video games. What can you tell us about the tough parts? How are you going to make Ninja Gaiden 3 comparable to the other games in the series?
We’re definitely thinking about challenges and the difficulty level will be there for players that want a challenge. The way we’re thinking about difficulty is not just ranks, we want to work it into the game design. So, this title will play a little bit differently from past Ninja Gaidens.
For example, the ninpo we’re using now will heal you. Ryu Hayabusa turns into a dragon and eats an enemy, which restores health. That’s the first time we’ve done something like that in the series. If you don’t want to heal you’re not going to do the dragon transformation and if you don’t want to do that you can take on the challenge of not healing. Using those kinds of new gameplay elements where you feel a new challenge in Ninja Gaiden 3.
...
NG2 is far away than flawless & a big step back to the funniest prequel but not a single Itagaki fan 'screw' him for this. I bet my balls if Itagaki was the mind behind NG3, most of the criticism would became reason for enthusiastic claims.
