14 DAY TRIAL // Freeform dismemberment and decapitations will be less present in Ninja Gaiden 3 than in previous games in the series, something that has enraged long term fans, and the designers working on the game say that this is one way of making the game more realistic.
Yosuke Hayashi, who is the leader of the Team Ninja team working on Ninja Gaiden 3, has said, “For Ninja Gaiden 3, we wanted to focus on the act of cutting someone down, and what it’s like to actually kill someone with a sword. Once you start lopping off limbs, your enemy goes from being a living thing that you’re killing to just a thing.”
The developer also talked about how the change will evolve the combat mechanics to bring them closer to real life.
He added, “When you’re actually cutting into a person, and you feel them getting scared, and the blood is spraying right on you, you hear their dying breaths in your ear — that’s the kind of visceral violence we’re going for in Ninja Gaiden 3.”
The commitment to realism for Ninja Gaiden 3 might be commendable but Hayashi seems to know a little bit too much about how it feels to cut into a person for a video game developer.
The use of more violence in a series already known for being over the top is a way for the developers at Team Ninja to emphasize the personality of Ryu Hayabusa, a dark hero who needs to do very bad things in order to be able to redeem himself and make sure that good triumphs in his world.
Ninja Gaiden 3 will be launched on the PlayStation 3 from Sony and the Xbox 360 from Microsoft during the first six months of 2012.
A Wii U version is also being worked on and will arrive later.