Speaking in London he has elaborated on his decision to finish the Ninja Gaiden journey and move on to new and exciting properties.
Itagaki says he has always loved the action genre and how much he loves to make sure his characters animations are as ”fluid and as cool looking as they can be”.
”I love the action game genre, in particular I am very focussed on movement and the animation. One of the precepts I always have for my games is making sure that the animation of all the characters is as fluid and as cool looking as they can be,” explained Itagaki.
“I think that I’m going to continue to explore the action genre and do something that allows me to go in directions that I haven’t been able to go with the Ninja Gaiden series, with an entirely new franchise.”
Ninja Gaiden II is due out exclusively on Xbox360 this June 6th and is the ”swan song” for the entire franchise by his own account.
”I really put all my heart and soul into making this the definitive game in the Ninja Gaiden franchise. So I personally don’t intend to make any more,” said Itagaki.
”It is a game that we basically built from the ground up. We threw away everything we had from the first game, improved on what was good, changed what was bad. So it’s been a long project, it’s been close to three years in the making. We were able to accomplish everything that we wanted to achieve with this franchise.”
Let’s hope we’ll see more visceral action from the mind of Tomonobu Itagaki and his team sometime in the near future.
