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[11] Champion
A year ago, during the last TGS, Ninja Gaiden 3 was announced. All we got was a promo pic showing Ryu's face and hand, covered in blood, so there wasn't much to talk about.
Well, now we know more. As I predicted (somewhere else, obviously), Yosuke Hayashi, who directed the 2 Ninja Gaiden Sigma remakes for the PS3, took over Team Ninja and the series after Itagaki left Tecmo to do his own thing. There's potential for light drama here, but not much more than that. Itagaki has always been candid about how much he didn't like Hayashi's interpretations of his games, but Devil's Third, Itagaki's original game, is not only being released a year later (and, strangely, on the ps3 and wii u), but is a multiplayer 3rd person shooter, not a singleplayer action game. They're not going to be competing with each other directly, though I'm sure Itagaki will have things to say when Ninja Gaiden 3 comes out.
Now we have some substantial, nearly completed -- the game is set to release Q1 2012 -- gameplay to talk about. Take a look:
First up, let's get the gameplay out of the way. Surely it's the most important part of an action game. From the gameplay demo, and the info now being released, we can see that Hayashi and his team have gutted a substantial amount of the past 2 game's elements in service of a new vision and setting.
While blood is still in the game, and plentiful, there is no more dismemberment. Enemies can be cut, and they will bleed and die, but heads and arms stay on. This promotes the more personal element they're trying to bring to the action: if you cut everyone's head off then they don't get a chance to beg for mercy. Instead, human enemies have 2 states of defeat. After taking a certain amount of damage they will become submissive and crawl around, bleeding and begging for their lives, or simply throw their weapons down to surrender. A player can either leave them like that, or finish them off. To facilitate further connection between the player and his victims they also never shut up.
Other basic parts of combat have been changed as well. From the new swallow dive, to the removal of both dodging and rolling. Ultimate Techniques, which used to rely on charging or defeated enemy essences, is now charged gradually by doing damage to enemies, and fuelled by a curse put on Ryu. When he's killed enough his arm will start to glow, and the Ultimate Technique can be performed (the actual attack is much different as well, with Ryu teleporting from enemy to enemy instead of attacking a few in a small range). The game also has a greater use for stealth, with what seems like regular stealth segments during which Ryu will slow his walking speed in order to sneak up on enemies. Ninpo, ninja magic, is no longer based on scrolls and a separate resource, it's instead a super move that can be used whenever the bar under Ryu's health is full.
Outside of combat things are also different. The shop and save systems are gone. Items are all found in chests or enemy bodies, weapon upgrades happen at set points during the game. Saving is now done at regular, set intervals by an eagle that swoops from the sky and lands on Ryu's arm. Ryu's new slide is often used as part of the between-action quick time events (with prompts that can be disabled), and he can now climb certain walls using his kunai.
There will be only katana swords in the game, though they should have some different moves between them. Curiously, there aren't any Fiends around. They may have been phased out to promote the theme of killing other humans.
This is an odd thing for an action game to focus on. The consequences of the main character's mass slaughter, of his killing people with his sword. The not-very-subtle in-game representation of this, besides the enemies who beg to not be killed, is Ryu's infected arm. This stuff will surely be the focus of the story. Will anything come of it? Probably not, though there are some interesting things in there, like this.
During this short interview Hayashi teases a competitive online multiplayer mode of some sort. This is being called the World of Ninjas, and is supposed to include both competitive and cooperative online modes for up to 8 players, during which they will be controlling fledgling ninjas who merely aspire to Ryu's level. Looks like there's some light character creation, and images of the multiplayer can be seen here.
According to Hayashi they want to keep the game hard for those who like Ninja Gaiden because it's hard, but they're adding a special option called Hero Mode that will allow new players to experience the story of the game without the difficulty, giving them things like auto-block and auto-evade. Supposedly the hard mode is still hard, though.
Well, now we know more. As I predicted (somewhere else, obviously), Yosuke Hayashi, who directed the 2 Ninja Gaiden Sigma remakes for the PS3, took over Team Ninja and the series after Itagaki left Tecmo to do his own thing. There's potential for light drama here, but not much more than that. Itagaki has always been candid about how much he didn't like Hayashi's interpretations of his games, but Devil's Third, Itagaki's original game, is not only being released a year later (and, strangely, on the ps3 and wii u), but is a multiplayer 3rd person shooter, not a singleplayer action game. They're not going to be competing with each other directly, though I'm sure Itagaki will have things to say when Ninja Gaiden 3 comes out.
Now we have some substantial, nearly completed -- the game is set to release Q1 2012 -- gameplay to talk about. Take a look:
First up, let's get the gameplay out of the way. Surely it's the most important part of an action game. From the gameplay demo, and the info now being released, we can see that Hayashi and his team have gutted a substantial amount of the past 2 game's elements in service of a new vision and setting.
While blood is still in the game, and plentiful, there is no more dismemberment. Enemies can be cut, and they will bleed and die, but heads and arms stay on. This promotes the more personal element they're trying to bring to the action: if you cut everyone's head off then they don't get a chance to beg for mercy. Instead, human enemies have 2 states of defeat. After taking a certain amount of damage they will become submissive and crawl around, bleeding and begging for their lives, or simply throw their weapons down to surrender. A player can either leave them like that, or finish them off. To facilitate further connection between the player and his victims they also never shut up.
Other basic parts of combat have been changed as well. From the new swallow dive, to the removal of both dodging and rolling. Ultimate Techniques, which used to rely on charging or defeated enemy essences, is now charged gradually by doing damage to enemies, and fuelled by a curse put on Ryu. When he's killed enough his arm will start to glow, and the Ultimate Technique can be performed (the actual attack is much different as well, with Ryu teleporting from enemy to enemy instead of attacking a few in a small range). The game also has a greater use for stealth, with what seems like regular stealth segments during which Ryu will slow his walking speed in order to sneak up on enemies. Ninpo, ninja magic, is no longer based on scrolls and a separate resource, it's instead a super move that can be used whenever the bar under Ryu's health is full.
Outside of combat things are also different. The shop and save systems are gone. Items are all found in chests or enemy bodies, weapon upgrades happen at set points during the game. Saving is now done at regular, set intervals by an eagle that swoops from the sky and lands on Ryu's arm. Ryu's new slide is often used as part of the between-action quick time events (with prompts that can be disabled), and he can now climb certain walls using his kunai.
There will be only katana swords in the game, though they should have some different moves between them. Curiously, there aren't any Fiends around. They may have been phased out to promote the theme of killing other humans.
This is an odd thing for an action game to focus on. The consequences of the main character's mass slaughter, of his killing people with his sword. The not-very-subtle in-game representation of this, besides the enemies who beg to not be killed, is Ryu's infected arm. This stuff will surely be the focus of the story. Will anything come of it? Probably not, though there are some interesting things in there, like this.
During this short interview Hayashi teases a competitive online multiplayer mode of some sort. This is being called the World of Ninjas, and is supposed to include both competitive and cooperative online modes for up to 8 players, during which they will be controlling fledgling ninjas who merely aspire to Ryu's level. Looks like there's some light character creation, and images of the multiplayer can be seen here.
According to Hayashi they want to keep the game hard for those who like Ninja Gaiden because it's hard, but they're adding a special option called Hero Mode that will allow new players to experience the story of the game without the difficulty, giving them things like auto-block and auto-evade. Supposedly the hard mode is still hard, though.
