Team Ninja | Through the Shattered Lens

This year’s E3 wouldn’t be the same if the folks from Team Ninja (though one that’s somewhat not as awesome with it’s rockstar leader Itagaki Tomonobu having left the studio) didn’t release more cool stuff about the latest and third entry in their Ninja Gaiden action-adventure franchise.

Ninja Gaiden 3 returns with it’s iconic ninja-hero, Ryu Hayabusa, and more blood and severed limbs that a gamer can shake a Wiimote at. The series has always been about extreme violence and always been known to cater to the hardcore of the hardcore gamers out there. The Ninja Gaiden series never catered to the newbie gamer. They even had a hilarious way to help out gamers who could never master the game by creating an “easy” difficulty level simply called “Ninja Dog”. Team Ninja’s newest lead designer, Yosuke Hayashi, mentioned that this latest game will not have it’s difficulty level toned down for the casual gamers out there who will have some major difficulties getting past the game.

That’s the good news in addition to how the game just looks gorgeous (like all past games in the series), but one thing shown at this week’s E3 really dampened my excitement for this third entry: inclusion of QTE (Quick Time Events) where a player presses a series of buttons to accomplish an event. QTE’s I consider as part of the “pussification of hardcore action games” and games like those in the God of War series (which I love but could’ve loved even more if they got rid of the QTEs) rely heavily on such gameplay mechanics.

Ninja Gaiden 3 should be about testing a gamer’s skill and not how fast they can press a combo of buttons shown on the screen to finish an event. Other than that disappointing news most of the announcements by Team Ninja about this title still will have me dropping some cash to buy and play it. Here’s to hoping that Team Ninja doesn’t drop a ton of QTEs in this game. No amount of severed limbs and bodies or lakes of hot, steaming blood would be enough to balance out a ton of QTE’s in a game that never needed them.

That trailer is the debut of what looks to be another — as the trailer captions even flashed across the screen — “epic masterpiece” from video gaming’s rare “rock star” developer, Tagaki Tomonobu.

Devil’s Third will be the first game from Itagaki’s newly formed development studios Valhalla Game Studio. Itagaki was formerly of Tecmo’s Team Ninja studio where he had been instrumental in developing the very successful Ninja Gaiden and Dead or Alive franchises. Both franchises were fan-favorites (also polarizing just like it’s developer Itagaki.) and sold in the millions with each release. With the falling out between Itagaki and his publisher’s bosses at Tecmo, the mercurial and mad-genius developer left Team Ninja and went on a year sabbatical before finally starting up his own studio in Valhalla. Other top designers and developers from Team Ninja would soon leave Tecmo and join Itagaki at Valhalla. With Valhalla Game Studio now established and publishing agreement made with THQ, it looks like Itagaki is back to doing what he’s best known for: making over-the-top games for the console systems.

Devil’s Third will be Itagaki’s first foray into the shooter-genre. His previous franchises were either in the fighting game (Dead or Alive) and/or the action (Ninja Gaiden) genres. This upcoming title for THQ and Valhalla looks to take the shooter genre into the very same over-the-top aesthetics as Itagaki’s previous titles. From the trailer it looks to be as violent and bloody as his previous titles, but now with guns in addition to the usual melee and bladed action.

Even though the game is still at least two years away from a release date the trailer looks to show Itagaki’s plans at adding some fresh new lifeblood at a genre which has become staid and bereft of anything new and innovative. Devil’s Third looks to be Itagaki’s chance to show that his success while at Team Ninja wasn’t just a fluke and that he could branch out to other genres even one as crowded with very good games as the shooter genre.

Despite the game being still two years away from being completed and released I have a feeling this trailer, once it makes it appearance at this year’s E3, will become one of the most anticipated games for both the Xbox 360 and the PS3.