Ninja Gaiden: The Essential Interview

We visit Team Ninja to meet once again with one of our fave game creators, Tomonobu Itagaki, and members of his team Yoshifuru Okamoto and Yutaka Saito, to discuss Ninja Gaiden 2 AND Ninja Gaiden Dragon Sword for DS.

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Kikizo: You've also shown off the Ninpo arts. Some players underused these abilities in the first game, and just focused on weapons combat. Is this something you are looking to influence or change in NG2?

Okamoto: Obviously in the demo we're using a lot of Ninpo just to show it off. I think it's going to be a somewhat similar situation as you have in the first game, where you have limited usage, so you really have to wait until you're in a difficult situation and then use it to break out. That being said, I do think that the goal with the Ninpo in this game is to make it more effective and more impressive, so I think people will want to use it more.

Kikizo: Have you decided what you would like to do with Xbox Live beyond the original or the features seen in Sigma for PS3 at this stage?

Okamoto: I think we're going to talk about things like downloadable content after release. But obviously with still plenty of time left until we ship, we're going to be going through our options and seeing what's the best way to incorporate Xbox Live features. Since we're on 360, we know that it has to be a big part of the title. It's just about going in and saying, what features sit well with the Ninja Gaiden franchise.

Kikizo: Have you played God of War? Would you say its violence is encouraging NG2 to go even more violent, or influencing any other ideas for NG2?

Okamoto: I have played it, and lately God of War 2, and I have to say it is one of my favourite games that I have played, but that doesn't mean that it has directly affected anything. Team Ninja's philosophy is not that game A or game B on the market is doing such and such, and therefore we must do the same or better. It's more, what does Ninja Gaiden 2 need to be the best game in the market. And then we just look at each of those needs, and build on those, and we think that's working well for us.

Kikizo: Why is Microsoft publishing the game instead of Tecmo, and does this change the commercial importance of the game to your company?

Okamoto: From a developer standpoint, I think it's very simple; we want to get as many people in the world as possible to play our game. And we felt that partnering with Microsoft as a publisher was the most awesome way to do that, considering how much we enjoy working on this hardware. I think it's a big challenge for us to be developing a game and working with Microsoft as a publisher, but so far it's been really exciting and fun working with them.

Kikizo: Thanks for your time, and we can't wait to see more of the game.

Interview by Adam Doree, Daniel Markiewicz and Sharan Dev Jain. Thanks to Tecmo, Team Ninja and Microsoft for making it all happen.

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