I was fortunate to get invited to join Team Ninja on the tour to San Francisco to showcase Ninja Gaiden 3 (for PS3 and Xbox 360) and Dead or Alive 5 (for PS3 and Xbox 360) last week. It was an amazing experience and it’s nice to see the team again and this was my very first time to the states as well so this was a very great experience. In this report, I’ll be talking about the event and some information I’ve got from Team Ninja (Hayashi-san and Shimbori-san) about both titles.
The content we were showing:
- Ninja Gaiden 3 (New Stage – Day 2: Dubai)
- Ninja Gaiden 3 (Online – Clan Battle)
- Dead or Alive 5 (4 characters)
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NINJA GAIDEN 3
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For Ninja Gaiden 3, from the London stage, Ryu has lost his sword in the final duel with the Regent of the Mask, that’s also you get to see Ayane in the next stage passing him the new sword from Hayate. I would say the new stage looks really different than the past Ninja Gaiden series in level wise (if you’ve watched the live stream on IGN) – I’m not going to spoil you but I would say the whole stage is just completely different and I personally think it’s really really good. I’ve also heard some feedback from the fans (for those who watched the live stream) and they’re mostly positive (which is good). In past titles, Ninja Gaiden series have been mainly focusing on Ryu’s moves, but this time around, as Team Ninja has taken it to the new direction, while player not only will enjoy the combat and gameplay, but will gain greater insight and emotion into Ryu’s spirit as well.
The questions such as dismemberment, returning characters and etc, I believe they’ve all been answered in the previous interview videos that I’ve done. You can watch it here: PART 1 & PART 2. Ninja Gaiden 3 is compatible with PlayStation Move controller because the team believes that the Move can resemble a katana very closely and would be fun to try it out. However, for the Xbox 360 version of Ninja Gaiden 3 is not compatible with Kinect. About the WiiU version, more details will be coming soon.
Apart from this, there is a very huge online play for Ninja Gaiden 3. During the event, we have tried out the Clan Battle (4 vs 4 online) at the Hidden Village, you can customize your character and fight other ninjas on the battlefield. You can also obtained new items during the online play as well. During the session, I’ve noticed that my character was able to collect the kanji symbol after I killed the other ninjas, as well as committing suicide (not to let your opponent to get the score). I would say there are still so many things to explore in the Online Mode. I’ll let you know more information about it when the time comes. Ninja Gaiden 3 is coming in the end of March 23, 2012 in Europe.
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DEAD OR ALIVE 5
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As for DOA5, I just couldn’t believe the game was only 15% done when I was playing it. The graphic is top class (as you can see the sweat, the dirt and everything is so realistic), I’ve also noticed the chest size reduction – I personally think it’s better because the tagline is “I’m A Fighter” anyway and the team has evolved. I have high hope for this one!
I didn’t get a lot of information about DOA5 this time but I’ve asked Shimbori-san about “Make A Move” contest that we had in November that players submitted their moves and the team would put it in the game as well as giving credits. There are around 500 entries and he’s still checking them from time to time. Good news is that he has got 2 moves from the submission already so when the time comes, we’ll see who are the winners. Good luck and I hope your entries get picked and your name to get credited.
