Ninja Gaiden 3 Message Board older than one year ago

The Japanese website for Ninja Gaiden 3 has emerged from the inky blackness of the internet, brandishing a finely honed blade and silently moving through the night, all the while tossing shurikens and newly forged screenshots into our cerebral cortexes.

A Ninja Gaiden game for PlayStation Vita remains an immaterial idea while Team Ninja gets Ninja Gaiden 3 ready for its 2012 launch. The developer has received a PlayStation Vita system to test and eventually chop in half mid-air, in an incredibly expensive variant of Fruit Ninja, but hasn't progressed beyond the consideration phase.

"We've received a PlayStation Vita system and are thinking about it," said team lead Yosuke Hayashi in a recent PlayStation Q&A. "Having said that, right now we're focused on Ninja Gaiden 3 for PS3, and after that's complete we'll start to look at ideas such as bringing out Ninja Gaiden on PS Vita because of course we'd like to expand the series."

Alright, let's toss in another concept tinged with "of course." Beyond the Wii U port (and planned 3DS game), Team Ninja will need some way to sell at least one more iteration of its latest Ninja Gaiden game. A Vita port mashed up with a Greek letter seems like a solid alpha bet.

#ninjagaiden Today at Gamescom in Germany, Tecmo's Team Ninja revealed that Ninja Gaiden 3 was getting physical with the PlayStation Move, finally allowing the player and Ryu to commiserate over how difficult it is to slash at enemies for hours on end. More »

One of the few non-Nintendo games confirmed for Wii U at E3 was Ninja Gaiden 3: Razor's Edge, a sequel under close scrutiny, as the series is no longer under the guidance of Tomonobu Itagaki.

The Wii U version is already in development, Team Ninja localization manager Peter Garza told me at the show, with the overall game about 30% finished. Garza said the team has not settled on how Ninja Gaiden 3 will utilize, but it's looking to the DS game, Dragon Sword, for inspiration.

"There was a DS version, so we have some experience with touch controls and it [Dragon Sword] seemed to be fairly well received," said Garza. "So, now we have the chance to give this full console experience with those controls on the Wii U. We've actually started development on it but we don't have anything set. We're just playing with it."

If you aren't aware, Dragon Sword is a seriously fantastic touch-based action game for the DS. Even players who can't get into the frenetic flow of Itagaki's games (me) should give it a look.

If you thought Team Ninja would be ditching violence for the third game, you'd be wrong.

"We're looking forward to emerging of Ninja Gaiden 3 gameplay and visuals with Dragon Sword touch commands," he said. "That's where we're thinking now. Honestly, we're just playing with it, so it might change--that's the focus right now."

I wrote a not particularly flattering hands-on preview of the game, my impressions going astray because of the constant button prompts. I've been told those prompts disappear as the game progresses, but that wasn't clear from the show floor demo. The idea of playing a Dragon Sword-style game with the visual fidelity of a console Ninja Gaiden? Yes, sir, I would like that.

One last thing I have to share, if only because the quote's so ridiculous.

The DS game was not nearly as enthusiastically violent as the console versions. Were Team Ninja to merge Dragon Sword with modern Ninja Gaiden, plus the changes for Ninja Gaiden 3, we'd get something brand-new. Here's what Garza told me about the violence in this new one.

"What does it mean to cut someone with a sword, both physically and mentally?" he said. "You'll notice sequences when time slows down, the camera will zoom in. That's the representation of the sword going into the body, getting caught in the bones and the muscles of the enemy, and you have to really push through the meat of the body to finish the cut. We call that steel on bone."

Because why not, right?

When I asked Ninja Gaiden 3 lead Fumihiko Yasuda how the protagonist was able to glide through the air with nothing more than a black, skin-tight suit, I committed the sin of dragging logic into a discussion that was utterly incompatible with it. Ryu Hayabusa can fly because he's a ninja, and that's an axiom you'll just have to accept.

The legitimate mystery is why an army of hapless (and soon-to-be-headless) soldiers would stomp all the way through the brutally extracted entrails of their comrades, and still insist on fighting an enraged man who literally just flew in. The gushing violence signals a welcome change from Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2's purple energy nonsense and comes across as silly and satisfying, rather than OH GROSS. Hayabusa's sword never seems to clip through enemy bodies so much as it slides and scrapes through them.

Ryu Hayabusa becomes a Japanese dark hero in this interview!

We find out about the Wii U features and the visceral feel of the combat.

Human enemies and Regent of the Mask confronted in an extended version of the presentation demo discussing core concepts and more.

Blade meets bone as enemies are sliced and diced through the rainy streets of the city.

Ryu flashes a little sword on the downtown streets in this gameplay from E3 2011!

For some folks, "old tricks" might mean smooth dancing moves, or a suave ability to hit on the ladies. For Ninja Gaiden 3's Ryu Hayabusa, it means flipping out and murdering people with a katana. Take a peek for yourself -- carefully! -- after the break.

The intense combat in Ninja Gaiden 3 gets enhanced with a variety of gameplay styles new to the series.

#watchthis Slicing and dicing, Ninja Gaiden 3 is a bloody overture all things ninja. The game is set in London and is headed to the Xbox 360 and PS3 sometime in early 2012. More »

Ryu Hayabusa is back and ready to eviscerate all in his path! Get an in-depth look at the game in this massive Gameplay Walkthrough from E3 2011!

The stage boss makes his first appearance in the second part of the E3 2011 Walkthrough!

Ninja Gaiden 3's flow takes shape in the third section of the E3 2011 Gameplay Walkthrough as Ryu flows seamlessly in and out of quicktime events and combat!

Attack Helicopters and giant spider tank? No problem! Hayabusa takes on enemies of all shapes and sizes in the conclusion of the E3 2011 Gameplay Walkthrough!

#ninjagaiden3 As fast and as bloody as ever, here's the trailer of Ninja Gaiden 3. Click to view More »

Ryu Hayabusa is back! See the legendary ninja in action in this trailer from E3 2011.