A portion of a G4 interview with Team Ninja's Yosuke Hayashi...

G4: Going back to Ninja Gaiden 3 – Team Ninja’s last action game, Metroid: Other M, was also quite story-heavy. The story elements, however, received something of a mixed reaction among players and critics. Have you learned anything from your experience with that title, and how will you use it to improve the story presentation in NG3?

Hayashi: The story for Other M was definitely the product of Mr. Sakamoto at Nintendo. We definitely worked with them on the project, but that was all him. For NG3, we’ve worked with Masato Kato to create our own story. It’s going to be different in a lot of ways. There are definitely things we learned from Other M by working with Mr. Sakamoto and with Nintendo that we’ve applied to the NG development. The actual story that you will experience here, however, will have a very different feel. A “Team Ninja” feel, you might say.

Is it just me, or does it seem like Team Ninja is trying to distance themselves from the story elements of Other M as best as possible?!