Gamasutra: With the development of Ninja Gaiden III, Team Ninja faced a lot of challenges -- modernizing the franchise, pushing it forward without creator Tomonobu Itagaki, and trying to make it fit in with the current generation of games, one in which Japanese games have often been a poor fit.
The team chose to try and Westernize the series' aesthetics and gameplay, with disastrous results. The game was widely panned by critics as losing the soul Ninja Gaiden -- arguably Tecmo Koei's most important franchise in the West. The team lost the battle of expectations, despite delivering a solid game.
What happened?
Rise of the Rōnin producer Yosuke Hayashi and director Fumihiko Yasuda are watching Shogun and recommend you watch Yojimbo.
Koei Tecmo's Integrated Report 2023 published this morning alongside the company's financial results includes interesting insight from veteran Yosuke Hayashi.
Famitsu: "Rise of the Ronin is a PlayStation 5 (PS5) software scheduled to be released on March 22, 2024 by Sony Interactive Entertainment (SIE).The game is being developed by Koei Tecmo Games' Team NINJA. This is a completely new open world title set at the end of the Edo period in Japan. Along with a story full of historical romance typical of Koei Tecmo Games, you can enjoy an action RPG with a high level of combat typical of Team NINJA, making full use of melee weapons and firearms. In this article, we interview Koei Tecmo Games' producer Yosuke Hayashi and development producer and director Fumihiko Yasuda. We asked him in detail how the development of this work began, and what kind of story and game it is."
I know I'm probably the minority on this but I don't really care for many team ninja games. I can't think of one I actually really enjoyed. Ninja gaiden I liked but coulda did without, probably more a nostalgia thing on that.
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All the core members left Team Ninja along time ago with Itagaki to form Valhalla
Well, they took allot of hate to get here... But they now understand it!
Now if Capcom and Square Enix could learn this!