Ninja Gaiden 3 Has Easier 'Hero Mode' As Well As Much Harder Ones

Ninja Gaiden 3, the new hack and slash title from developer Team Ninja and publisher Tecmo Koei, will have an easier 'Hero Mode' in which players automatically dodge or block regular attacks from enemies, allowing more people to get into the experience.

Ninja Gaiden 3 is the first big title from Team Ninja without the supervision of its founder, Tomonobu Itagaki, and, so far, we've heard quite a lot of interesting details, including its bigger emphasis on story and its protagonist, Ryu Hayabusa, while the dismemberment during actual gameplay is no longer possible.

Now, one of the game's directors, Fumihiko Yasuda, who also worked on Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2 for the PlayStation 3, confirmed that the new title will be the most accessible in the series, thanks to a special Hero difficulty mode.

"We really wanted to flesh out the story this time around," Yasuda told Joystiq, "so we wanted people to enjoy that story and get used to the game as it is. In the past the games were really hardcore and we couldn't get players to stay with us and complete the game."

The Hero mode is optional, as the Normal difficulty still reflects the challenging nature of past Ninja Gaiden games, and there's also a much harder one for true fans of the series, according to the developer.

"At the same time," Yasuda said, "we've got the super hard difficulty mode. We're keeping the hardcore aspect of the game anyway, we're just trying to get the players who have never had a go at Ninja Gaiden to come check it out."

Quite a few fans worried about Ninja Gaiden 3 up until now, with many claiming that their challenging series is being watered down to attract more people but, at least judging by the statements above from Yasuda, the title will still satisfy the legions of existing Ninja Gaiden fans, while attracting people who didn't get a chance to experience or complete a past game because of its difficulty, with things like the Hero mode.

Ninja Gaiden 3 is schedule to appear in the first half of 2012.