What’s Next For Team Ninja? The Short Answer Is Ni-Oh

Our Ninja Gaiden 3 interview continues with discussion about the game’s difficulty level before moving on to Team Ninja’s other titles. Yesterday, Yosuke Hayashi, lead designer of Ninja Gaiden 3 and the head of Team Ninja, talked about Ryu’s character and katana. Catch up here if you missed it.

Ninja Gaiden games are known for being extremely challenging. Is the difficultly level for Ninja Gaiden 3 on par?

Yosuke Hayashi, Team Ninja Head: The Ninja Gaiden series has a history for being difficult even for masters of Ninja Gaiden games. We know there are some fans that gave up playing our Ninja Gaiden games at some point and there is another group of action game beginners. For all of those people, what we need to do is create a gateway, an entrance into Ninja Gaiden. We want players to be able to clear the game’s levels.

For core fans, we will prepare the same challenge level they expect from a Ninja Gaiden title.

How are you going to balance two very different groups of players?

What I meant by entrance is each type of player should have their own way of enjoying this game. One player might want a challenging action game while another person may want to experience other elements of Ninja Gaiden 3. We’re not just going to prepare different difficulty levels, it’s not something like that.

If you make players select "very easy" mode to complete they game you also make them feel bad. You make them feel like they are not good at playing this game. We don’t want people to feel like that, so we don’t want to draw lines for difficulty in that sense this way each person can enjoy playing Ninja Gaiden in their own way. This what I’m thinking about implementing. You may be able to imagine what I’m talking about…

You’re also working on Ninja Gaiden 3: Razor’s Edge for Wii. What can you tell us about this project?

Ninja Gaiden 3: Razor’s Edge is still Ninja Gaiden 3, but we plan to utilize the new controller for the Wii U to do new things. You may remember Ninja Gaiden: Dragon Sword for the Nintendo DS, we’re thinking implementing that kind of action and gameplay in an enhanced way for Wii U using the controller’s touch screen.

I see, so what will you do for the Nintendo 3DS version of Ninja Gaiden, then?

Right now, we are concentrating on Ninja Gaiden 3. To be honest with you, Ninja Gaiden for 3DS is still in very early in development.

Team Ninja is also working on Ni-Oh, originally one of Koei’s titles, how is that game progressing?

We ran lots of tests and trials for Ni-Oh. After we ran through these we found a style that fits this title. At Team Ninja, we want you to experience the feel of action in our games. Ni-Oh is set with during the samurai era and we want you to feel what it’s like to be a samurai.

Ni-Oh from when it was last seen in 2006 before Team Ninja’s involvement.

Aside from Dead or Alive: Dimensions on the 3DS, what other plans do you have for the series?

Dimensions was designed to show the history of the series. If you play through the game you’ll see a message from Team Ninja that says the Dead or Alive series will continue. We’re not ready now, but when we can we will show you the next game.

Are you actively designing the next Dead or Alive? You also have Ninja Gaiden and Ni-Oh on the table too.

Team Ninja grew and is quite large now. We can handle multiple projects simultaneously. The order of the titles that will be released goes something like this Ninja Gaiden 3, Ni-Oh, and Dead or Alive. But, we won’t make fans wait long for Dead or Alive!