Interview: Team Ninja Boss Yosuke Hayashi

Our first chat with the new leader of Team Ninja, on Itagaki, Sigma 2, the Koei Tecmo merger and Ninja Gaiden 3.

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Kikizo: What about other Team Ninja projects which Itagaki had for a long time mentioned, but as yet never materialized, like Code Cronus and Project Progressive?

Hayashi: I think the mission that we've been given as game creators and content providers is that we don't do it just because it's a business, we do it because it will provide entertainment to our fans. It's not just something that applies to Ninja Gaiden, or any of our other franchises, and it is my duty to continue things in this direction - it's the role I've been given, and it's what fits my talent best.

Kikizo: Let's discuss the Koei Tecmo merger. Koei has a lot of IP that's very popular in Japan such as Dynasty Warriors. Is there any worry on the Tecmo side about competing against the Koei unit?

Hayashi: I have more of a positive outlook on the merger. It's not something directly within my control, obviously. But the more resources, the more pooling of our respective assets, the better the situation. When out teams put ideas on the table, we're now able to look at Team Ninja's resources and see where we could be, and look at Koei's teams individually and even see if there's a chance of working together. Rather that compete, we can work alongside Koei's individual teams, so I don't necessarily see it as competition, but more of a positive outlook for us and Team Ninja.

Kikizo: So, Sigma 2, are you making any major changes?

Hayashi: Essentially the game itself has not changed; apart from some extra content and possibilities which I can't share just yet, this is still about Ryu Hayabusa in the single player mode. The online co op mode is entirely separate from that, and there you can team up with Ayane from the Dead or Alive series, or with Kunoichi Momiji who I introduced in Ninja Gaiden: Dragon Sword. Going from the DS to a next gen system we were able to really bring her to life, so I hope the fans will like her very much.

Kikizo: In Ninja Gaiden II the AI sometimes had an issue dealing with just the one player, so it must be a challenge for you to make enemies work perfectly in co-op play?

Hayashi: That point has been brought up before internally at Team Ninja as well. We actually worked very hard on the AI for Sigma 2; in terms of fine-tuning it, the engine used for Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2 is quite an upgrade from Ninja Gaiden II, and in bringing the online co-operative mode into play, obviously we have taken into account a lot of the flaws that were seen in Ninja Gaiden II - a lot of manpower and research has gone into fixing a lot of the problems. So we do touch on the AI, and how we have been able to bring it to the level where it's not going to be a flaw within the game anymore.

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