The dismemberment in Ninja Gaiden 2 kept it purely as a videogame. For Ryu Hayabusa to become a ‘dark hero’ enemies can’t be ”just another” game object.
”We’re not trying to deny what we’ve done in the past. The combat is still there, the action is still there,” said localisation boss of Tecmo Koei, Peter Garza, in an interview.
”I think what we’re trying to do is add in another layer, so maybe the actions that you do, maybe those have another meaning in another level through the course of the story: they connect to you on a different level.” They want it feeling more than just a game.
”So it’s not just a clinical video game trying to up the combo meter or up the number of enemies that you’ve killed. But the action also has meaning within itself and within the course of the events in the game itself.”
”We’re not trying to tone down the gore. What we’re trying to do is focus on violence over gore. In the past, I think it’s been more about spectacle and locking the limbs over and seeing the blood spray and all of that,” he continued.
Team Ninja want us to feel sorry for the enemy. ”For the dismemberment system that was in Ninja Gaiden II, once you cut someone’s limb off like that, and the way it was used there, the enemy becomes just another object, it’s a game object.”
”And the game becomes just a game, it takes you out of that immersive aspect.”
”In order to show Ryu Hayabusa as this dark hero, you need to, at some level, empathise with the enemies. And you don’t empathise with just an object if it’s the same as a watermelon or lampshade. You sort of need to humanise the enemies,” noted Garza.
”So rather than the splatter and the gore, we’re looking at violence and that kind of brutality and seeing how that plays into Ryu Hayabusa as a human and as a ninja who’s there to do a job.” Ninja Gaiden 3 releases on Xbox 360, PS3 and Wii U in early 2012.
Check out the full interview between Peter Garza and VG247.
