Ninja Gaiden Series

[Foggle]

I was shocked to find out how long Ni-Oh has been in development, that it's based on an unfinished Kurosawa film, and that Team Ninja Dog is behind it! It's definitely one of the coolest-looking "new" IPs I've seen recently, and my second most anticipated game from yesterday's Sony conference after the Yakuza 1 remake.

[gunswordfist]

I knew you'd be excited about the Yakuza remake.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

It's funny to think that I first heard about it as a PS3 launch title.

Also, Foggle, did you know that this game was originally going to be a movie tie-in? The movie was going to be directed by Kurosawa's son, but it got scrapped in pre-production.

Back then Omega Force was supposed to develop the game, and it was going to be more like a Musou game. The project was put on hold for still unspecified reasons.

When Koei merged with Tecmo back in 2009, they announced the game again and said that Team Ninja would be developing it. But then we literally didn't hear anything more about it until just recently.

I still need to see more gameplay, but the game just looks so legit even from the short trailer. I really hope that Team Ninja can finally redeem themselves with this. I feel like the actual team itself is still full of talented people, but lacked compotent directing when they made some of their previous games after NG2 came out.

Perhaps they may have learned from their past failures. I won't get my hopes up too high, but I'm keeping my fingers crossed since I'm still waiting for a game that can match or surpass NGB's quality from these guys.

[gunswordfist]

This would be steep expectations

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Oh yeah, I'm no fool. I still don't fully trust Team Ninja. I just have a sliver if hope for some of their former glory with the little that I've seen of this game.

On another note, though, the people complaining about the main character not looking Japanese are idiots. If they did the slightest bit of research, they'd know that he's supposed to be half-western by birth. His design is intentional.

[gunswordfist]

Witcher Japan!

[Foggle]

Also, Foggle, did you know that this game was originally going to be a movie tie-in? The movie was going to be directed by Kurosawa's son, but it got scrappe in pre-production.

Back then Omega Force was supposed to develop the game, and it was going to be more like a Musou game. The project was put on hold for still unspecified reasons.

Huh. The new version certainly should be more interesting and hopefully better!

The short gameplay segment looked nice. At first, I groaned thinking it would be a Souls clone, but then I saw all the creepy supernatural stuff and got excited. Looks like a long lost PS2-era action-adventure.

I knew you'd be excited about the Yakuza remake.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

Funny thing is that I read some comments that had the opposite opinion of yours. Some people thought it was a historical samurai game at first and then groaned when the supernatural monsters were revealed.

The thing is, clearly Team Ninja has experience and knows how to craft satisfyingly deep and nuanced combat, so I expect that they could make more than just a Souls clone, but the question is: will they?

[gunswordfist]

This is awkward..I thought Foggle would be excited about a Souls clone.

[Foggle]

This is awkward..I thought Foggle would be excited about a Souls clone.

I like the Souls games, but between Dark Souls 2, Lords of the Fallen, Bloodborne, next year's Dark Souls 3, and the leaked Bloodborne 2, the market is getting oversaturated with releases of their type IMO. Reading more about it, I think Ni-Oh is more of straight character action game than a hardcore action RPG, though, so a similar combat system wouldn't bother me.

Funny thing is that I read some comments that had the opposite opinion of yours. Some people thought it was a historical samurai game at first and then groaned when the supernatural monsters were revealed.

The thing is, clearly Team Ninja has experience and knows how to craft satisfyingly deep and nuanced combat, so I expect that they could make more than just a Souls clone, but the question is: will they?

I hope it turns out as good as it looks! A historical samurai game could also be great (please localize Yakuza Ishin, Sega/Sony), but I'm a sucker for horror influences in my video games. That trailer was absolutely dripping with style, and looked much more appealing than anything TN's made since NG2.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

If this trailer had come out after NG2 was TN's latest game, back when Team Ninja was an awesome developer to me, I would've been hyped beyond belief and blindly handed my money over to them. Given their track record in the past few years, I'm cautiously optimistic, but if this is a good game, then I'll actually be super excited for NG4, and if TN becomes a good developer again, I will know that miracles really exist.

And I love J-horror elements in any game.

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

So, I didn't have the opportunity to watch the live demo, but someone who did noted the following:

Ohh, more noticable things.

- Flask looks like it'll be used for health or mana or whatever.
- Multiple weapons confirmed.
- More than one summon/buff confirmed too. Different elements it looks like.
- Like a bunch of people have said before, it is very stance based.
- It might actually be limb based as well - aiming for certain limbs and such ala Deep Down's gameplay.

I like what I'm hearing, at least. It sounds like an interesting, in-depth combat system.

[gunswordfist]

Obliteration? 

[Dr. Ensatsu-ken]

https://youtu.be/yuY6R-iF3XU

My response to Team Ninja:



I'm totally fine with them taking inspiration from Dark Souls for the gameplay style, but adding their own spin to it with a completely different combat system (something they've proven that they can execute extremely well).

Remember, Ninja Gaiden basically took inspiration from Devil May Cry, and it's my favorite game ever. Not saying that I now suddenly trust modern Team Ninja, but I am perfectly fine with the direction that they are going in with this game. Clearly it's no button-masher, and unlike NG3, the combat actually looks skill-based, versatile, and fair.

Samurai Souls Musha Gaiden is now on my radar.

[gunswordfist]

It looks like they are going for a Dark Souls feel with how the enemies look slower (still faster than souls though) and it looks like the game has its on equivalent of the bonfire.