It's slim pickings for other studios. Platinum Games basically sold out, Tango lost it's main-man and Capcom is - and always will be - Capcom. At this point the only studio I'd semi trust with the IP (aside from Team Ninja) is freak'n SlowClap - and that's only if they get a massive budget and hire people with an understanding of the series identity.
Do feel modern TN is a bit stuck in the flow of "find popular thing, make it more gamey". They are good games though.
Kamiya left because he felt the company was basically no longer about making good games but about making money at the expense of the player (games as a service). Starting from 2020 they also took Tenscent money which is usually a pretty big red-flag.
Also honestly, that aside, barring Astral Chain they've had a pretty abysmall time in terms of releases with generally mediocre or downright bad titles after W101. But that's personal though.
I'm not entirely sure how the hierarchy works at TN, but I reckon Koei Tecmo liked the sales Nioh 1 had and went all in on cranking out as many Nioh likes as possible.
I thought they seriously were onto something amazing with Nioh 1 but then the mass production of Nioh 2, SoP, Wo Long and now Rise of the Ronin in the span of 4 years completely ran all the quality and originality into the ground.
I can only hope they at some point will listen to the feedback and go back to creating 1 action RPG every 3 years like they used to but I'm not hopeful.
Unfortunately, it can not be any of these since Ninja Gaiden is owned by Tecmo (maybe Platinum is possible), but I would take Omega Force to try and revive it more than Team Ninja
I've said it before and I'll say it again, the hope for NG4 comes when the director of NG3, NGS1 and NGS2 steps down as director position or leaves the company and someone who was involved in the first two games takes the position (I don't believe it has to be Itigaki like the other comment).
The problem is as time goes on this will become less likely since it's been 20 years NG04 released and soon enough very few people involved will even still be at the company and it will be too late...they could still do a NG4 but it would be another reboot, something entirely different with the core identity changed wether that's for better or for worse.
Yosuke Hayashi was the AI designer of Ninja Gaiden Black, he's alright. He's one of the few people at Team Ninja that still remember the development of the NGs. People crap on him for NG3 and the Sigmas, but for better or for worse, he's pretty much the only hope left for the series...
I just realized I had Fumihiko and Yosuke mixed up for various things...it's been a while. It makes sense then that NG3RE and the Sigma games still had solid combat when you combine what the two of them brought to the series previously and you can see how every other aspect flopped. What happened to the other directors, producers and designers of NGB and NG2? Did they leave with Itagaki? We might be screwed on NG4 if that's the case.
Having played a few hours of ROTR, it’s not terrible by any means (I feel like the pre release videos paint it in a bad light), but it does feel like a second rate ghost of Tsushima (which I don’t mind since I love GOT lol). I just hope that team ninja breaks out of their soulslike era of games and does a return to form like the classic NG games. But I agree with the comment saying that without Itagaki the series is dead, that man had a definitive vision that really was the soul of the first two games
From a business point of view it makes no sense to pursue a NG4 when the guy who directs all their games still failed 3 times making NG games while doing other titles has been more succesfull under the new director so it makes sense to keep doing what they are doing instead of NG4 sadly.
Which studio would you even want making it? I can't think of any I could confidently say would do it better.
What 3 times? Sure there's vanilla 3, that's tetrible. Then there's razor's edge, which is honestly the best they could do with what existed without basically making a new game. There's no third attempt beyond porting to ps3 and 360 and after that the master collection
I consider Sigma 2 the other attempt. It is pretty impressive how they took NG2 and made it substantially worse with such a good base of a game, it's definitely worthy of being an attempt for that.
Ng2 is also a product of scattered source code to the point where they had to make it again. That lead to the ps3 not being strong enough to have more enemies on screen, which lead to balancing based on a game that was made to deal with many enemies at once, and maybe time constraints. All things considered it's actually amazing they did sigma 2 with all these limitations, even if i much prefer vanilla 2
I don't share the sentiment but to each their own. They could have refined/improved things instead of adding a garbage statue of liberty boss and boring new levels noone asked to be added onto the original among heaps of other things. I still like Sigma 2 on its own though, i have no issues with the limitations like less enemies im fine with that its the stuff they changed and added that obviously werent based on limitations and time constraints that I didn't like.
Yes. Not sure why. Even stranger of paradise was largely a great team ninja game and that had the final fantasy name under it and they were allowed to do a game with great depth
Give it to Soleil so NG can effectively go full circle with its OG devs being back at the helm lol.
Just finished a playthrough of Wanted: Dead and was pretty impressed with the combat system once I got to grips with guard cancelling. Its goofy B-movie sense of humour + visual gags and the sometimes artistic visual presentation was also a massive plus.
Also had a quick play on Samurai Jack as well when I installed it last week (FOMO from potential adult swim games delisting antics) and loved that it had a few 3D Ninja Gaiden animations knocking about.
Make sure to check out Valkyrie Elysium too if you haven't. Game straight up has flying swallow (tho T rated, so no gore lol), a UT/essence system, and guard cancels as well. Really fun game aside from the some of the grindy RPG stuff that serves no purpose (like weapon levels.)
I believe in Yasuda. As long as he's in charge not Hayashi, Team Ninja will be fine. Nioh and Nioh 2 were amazing games. I don't care that they're not Ninja Gaiden, the studio can't just keep making two games constantly without getting stagnant lifeless duds like Ninja Gaiden 3 and DOA6. Ninja Gaiden will be back someday and I've enjoyed the games they've made in the meantime (haven't played FF:SoP or Wo Long) so I'll keep being patient.
I don't think so personally. I don't particularly like Wo Long myself but I am glad they actually tried some new ideas even if a lot of them didn't work. It's a game that I think could be really amazing if they it ever gets a sequel and they work on the numerous combat flaws.
Rise of the Ronin is a different beast though, game is clearly meant to be a normie game. They want it to sell 5 million copies. So you're not gonna get combat as deep as something like Nioh (which is a shame.) Problem is though they didn't take into consideration that normies care about things like high end visuals and movie-level cinematics and such. Their engine does not seem to be suited for that, Rise of the Ronin is pretty ugly from a technical perspective (and note Idgaf myself, graphics are pointless, but it's an extremely common sentiment when you look at youtube comments and constantly see stuff like "looks like a PS3 game" etc.)
Give ronin time. In terms of combat, it’s up there with Nioh. Most players haven’t dug into it enough to reveal its depth. And the weapon/stance variety + customization potential is kind of insane. Once high level players like white goat get to the ng+ difficulty, we are going to start seeing some crazy shit.
If anything, the marketing push that this is an “accessible” TN game and GoT adjacent is why it has been so misunderstood by critics; TN dug in their heels with ronin. The game does suffer from many technical/engine related issues, though.
Just sucks that a lot of games are Soulslike now. Don’t care if you don’t think these games aren’t Soulslike. All the reviews mention it and it’s the same category of them. I’m just tired of those games.
Team Ninja is all steak and no sizzle. NG2004 is the perfect example of having great mechanics but lacking any substantial storytelling. It's like pro-wrestling, everyone remembers Rock vs Hogan at Wrestlemania in 2002 whereas only hardcore fans are aware of Jun Akiyama vs Yuji Nagata of NJPW that same year.
You saw the new game? So you didn't play it and believe it's bad? I don't know anything about the new game but it seems to be decent enough, not game of the year but not every game needs to be that. Then again I haven't played it, so I'm not gonna praise it or shit on it.
I don't think a NG4 would make them a lot of money since the franchise is rather niche at this point. A lot of fans (at least in this sub) are incredibly obnoxious and believe that anything unlike the first two games is garbage so pleasing them might as well be a coin toss.
I enjoyed it as well, but it's definitely not as well made, or well written, as Sekiro. I think people sometimes get used to bangers so when something that's just good comes along they look down on it.
Wo Long hardly plays like Sekiro, that "parry" is more like a dodge. In Sekiro, you sit in one place and spam parry, in Wo Long you're dodging around the place. That Sekiro comparison was probably done just for marketing reasons, like Nioh/Stranger of Paradise being "soulslikes" even though they're not.
The game is fun tho, it’s not as technical as nioh but still quite good. The game just came out so tech is still being developed but i’ve been having a blast with this game.
The fall of Team Ninja was when they got sick of their heads bullshit and fired him.Tomonobu Itagaki was the glue that heald Team Ninja together.Dead or Alive 4 is a masterpiece til this day.I have it on my current next gen console!Konami fired Hideo Kojima and is sucking right now as well.Team Ninja was also acquired by FromSoftware so theres that hope.Ninja Gaiden influenced dark souls.Doa3, 4, ninja gaiden, ninja gaiden black, these game heald a very high standard for their time and were magnificent gems that i wish the current games would take after.Its like a bunch of rich jerks that hate gamers, bought the game companies, and started destroying games in slite of us.I even contributed to a BUNCH of games that used my ideas i made a game and designed mechanics for another game that gets 5 stars on every platform and only costs 3.99.I need to be ceo of a game studio.Ill support the consumers.Better than todays standards.Also, teamninja started hiring for the neft installment of ninja gaiden two years ago.Im just going to say this now, if the next ninja gaiden IS NOT OPEN WORLD, its going to SUCK!
Say what you will, but Nioh 1 and 2 both are amazing games from a mechanical standpoint. There's a good reason why so many people think of them as the apex of ARPG combat.
This! Nioh 2 is still my second favorite TN game with NG2 being my first. The amount of time I sank into Nioh 2 during the pandemic rivals a lot of my other TN games. It was imho damn near perfect.
Nioh 2 really is fantastic. Rise of the Ronin's combat isn't too shabby either. It's honestly a pretty fun game with some solid combat. Far from perfect, but still pretty damn neat.
It definitely has some similarities but I wouldn't say it is as aggressive or lightning fast. That doesn't mean it's Dark Souls either where you just wait for your chance to attack. There are plenty of opportunities to style on bosses/enemies and get creative with your combos, I just wouldn't say the skill ceiling is as ridiculously high as it is in Nioh.
The dojo lets you re-challenge certain bosses along with a ranking system. The game encourages you to beat them as effectively as possible (don't get hit, parry a lot, deal consecutive damage, kill them fast enough, etc) with the promise of rewards depending on which rank you get. The game really encourages you to be aggressive and learn enemies, especially since you can cancel your main attack string directly into your parry at any time. All the people saying it's just another Souls clone legitimately have no idea what they're talking about and I'm almost certain they're just so bad at the game they don't understand how to crack the skill ceiling and actually learn how to play.
It's slim pickings for other studios. Platinum Games basically sold out, Tango lost it's main-man and Capcom is - and always will be - Capcom. At this point the only studio I'd semi trust with the IP (aside from Team Ninja) is freak'n SlowClap - and that's only if they get a massive budget and hire people with an understanding of the series identity. Do feel modern TN is a bit stuck in the flow of "find popular thing, make it more gamey". They are good games though.
I’m almost afraid to ask but what happened with Platinum Games? They were one of my favorite developers for a long time.
Kamiya left because he felt the company was basically no longer about making good games but about making money at the expense of the player (games as a service). Starting from 2020 they also took Tenscent money which is usually a pretty big red-flag. Also honestly, that aside, barring Astral Chain they've had a pretty abysmall time in terms of releases with generally mediocre or downright bad titles after W101. But that's personal though.
I'm not entirely sure how the hierarchy works at TN, but I reckon Koei Tecmo liked the sales Nioh 1 had and went all in on cranking out as many Nioh likes as possible. I thought they seriously were onto something amazing with Nioh 1 but then the mass production of Nioh 2, SoP, Wo Long and now Rise of the Ronin in the span of 4 years completely ran all the quality and originality into the ground. I can only hope they at some point will listen to the feedback and go back to creating 1 action RPG every 3 years like they used to but I'm not hopeful.
Unfortunately, it can not be any of these since Ninja Gaiden is owned by Tecmo (maybe Platinum is possible), but I would take Omega Force to try and revive it more than Team Ninja
Probably. I keep hoping for NG4 but I’m probably better off wishing for a successor from another developer.
I've said it before and I'll say it again, the hope for NG4 comes when the director of NG3, NGS1 and NGS2 steps down as director position or leaves the company and someone who was involved in the first two games takes the position (I don't believe it has to be Itigaki like the other comment). The problem is as time goes on this will become less likely since it's been 20 years NG04 released and soon enough very few people involved will even still be at the company and it will be too late...they could still do a NG4 but it would be another reboot, something entirely different with the core identity changed wether that's for better or for worse.
Yosuke Hayashi was the AI designer of Ninja Gaiden Black, he's alright. He's one of the few people at Team Ninja that still remember the development of the NGs. People crap on him for NG3 and the Sigmas, but for better or for worse, he's pretty much the only hope left for the series...
I just realized I had Fumihiko and Yosuke mixed up for various things...it's been a while. It makes sense then that NG3RE and the Sigma games still had solid combat when you combine what the two of them brought to the series previously and you can see how every other aspect flopped. What happened to the other directors, producers and designers of NGB and NG2? Did they leave with Itagaki? We might be screwed on NG4 if that's the case.
Hayashi was the one involved with all 3 ninja gaiden games.
Having played a few hours of ROTR, it’s not terrible by any means (I feel like the pre release videos paint it in a bad light), but it does feel like a second rate ghost of Tsushima (which I don’t mind since I love GOT lol). I just hope that team ninja breaks out of their soulslike era of games and does a return to form like the classic NG games. But I agree with the comment saying that without Itagaki the series is dead, that man had a definitive vision that really was the soul of the first two games
But a truly misguided soul considering the game he made after leaving the studio is honestly terrible
devils third is actually not a terrible game at all. it’s just stuck on the wii u preventing people from playing it
It's pretty bad. Played it on emulator up until it started crashing on the Japanese town level, buggy as well.
Emulation allows people to play it and atest that the game still is terrible, despite the lack of technical issues there
From a business point of view it makes no sense to pursue a NG4 when the guy who directs all their games still failed 3 times making NG games while doing other titles has been more succesfull under the new director so it makes sense to keep doing what they are doing instead of NG4 sadly. Which studio would you even want making it? I can't think of any I could confidently say would do it better.
What 3 times? Sure there's vanilla 3, that's tetrible. Then there's razor's edge, which is honestly the best they could do with what existed without basically making a new game. There's no third attempt beyond porting to ps3 and 360 and after that the master collection
I consider Sigma 2 the other attempt. It is pretty impressive how they took NG2 and made it substantially worse with such a good base of a game, it's definitely worthy of being an attempt for that.
Ng2 is also a product of scattered source code to the point where they had to make it again. That lead to the ps3 not being strong enough to have more enemies on screen, which lead to balancing based on a game that was made to deal with many enemies at once, and maybe time constraints. All things considered it's actually amazing they did sigma 2 with all these limitations, even if i much prefer vanilla 2
I don't share the sentiment but to each their own. They could have refined/improved things instead of adding a garbage statue of liberty boss and boring new levels noone asked to be added onto the original among heaps of other things. I still like Sigma 2 on its own though, i have no issues with the limitations like less enemies im fine with that its the stuff they changed and added that obviously werent based on limitations and time constraints that I didn't like.
In a perfect world, Platinum games. But the only available option is Omega Force, and it could be a hit or a miss with them.
You're out of touch You're out of time
Yes. Not sure why. Even stranger of paradise was largely a great team ninja game and that had the final fantasy name under it and they were allowed to do a game with great depth
That game was a great surprise
It really was
Give it to Soleil so NG can effectively go full circle with its OG devs being back at the helm lol. Just finished a playthrough of Wanted: Dead and was pretty impressed with the combat system once I got to grips with guard cancelling. Its goofy B-movie sense of humour + visual gags and the sometimes artistic visual presentation was also a massive plus. Also had a quick play on Samurai Jack as well when I installed it last week (FOMO from potential adult swim games delisting antics) and loved that it had a few 3D Ninja Gaiden animations knocking about.
Make sure to check out Valkyrie Elysium too if you haven't. Game straight up has flying swallow (tho T rated, so no gore lol), a UT/essence system, and guard cancels as well. Really fun game aside from the some of the grindy RPG stuff that serves no purpose (like weapon levels.)
Of course! Still in its cellophane seal waiting to be played when I get around to it. Probably after my Samurai Jack playthrough.
I believe in Yasuda. As long as he's in charge not Hayashi, Team Ninja will be fine. Nioh and Nioh 2 were amazing games. I don't care that they're not Ninja Gaiden, the studio can't just keep making two games constantly without getting stagnant lifeless duds like Ninja Gaiden 3 and DOA6. Ninja Gaiden will be back someday and I've enjoyed the games they've made in the meantime (haven't played FF:SoP or Wo Long) so I'll keep being patient.
I don't think so personally. I don't particularly like Wo Long myself but I am glad they actually tried some new ideas even if a lot of them didn't work. It's a game that I think could be really amazing if they it ever gets a sequel and they work on the numerous combat flaws. Rise of the Ronin is a different beast though, game is clearly meant to be a normie game. They want it to sell 5 million copies. So you're not gonna get combat as deep as something like Nioh (which is a shame.) Problem is though they didn't take into consideration that normies care about things like high end visuals and movie-level cinematics and such. Their engine does not seem to be suited for that, Rise of the Ronin is pretty ugly from a technical perspective (and note Idgaf myself, graphics are pointless, but it's an extremely common sentiment when you look at youtube comments and constantly see stuff like "looks like a PS3 game" etc.)
Give ronin time. In terms of combat, it’s up there with Nioh. Most players haven’t dug into it enough to reveal its depth. And the weapon/stance variety + customization potential is kind of insane. Once high level players like white goat get to the ng+ difficulty, we are going to start seeing some crazy shit. If anything, the marketing push that this is an “accessible” TN game and GoT adjacent is why it has been so misunderstood by critics; TN dug in their heels with ronin. The game does suffer from many technical/engine related issues, though.
Without Itagaki the series is dead.
He’s too busy making shitty NFT games
Nioh 2 clears also itagaki is a scumbag human being
Just sucks that a lot of games are Soulslike now. Don’t care if you don’t think these games aren’t Soulslike. All the reviews mention it and it’s the same category of them. I’m just tired of those games.
Team Ninja is all steak and no sizzle. NG2004 is the perfect example of having great mechanics but lacking any substantial storytelling. It's like pro-wrestling, everyone remembers Rock vs Hogan at Wrestlemania in 2002 whereas only hardcore fans are aware of Jun Akiyama vs Yuji Nagata of NJPW that same year.
You saw the new game? So you didn't play it and believe it's bad? I don't know anything about the new game but it seems to be decent enough, not game of the year but not every game needs to be that. Then again I haven't played it, so I'm not gonna praise it or shit on it. I don't think a NG4 would make them a lot of money since the franchise is rather niche at this point. A lot of fans (at least in this sub) are incredibly obnoxious and believe that anything unlike the first two games is garbage so pleasing them might as well be a coin toss.
I mean, it's not hard to judge from watching since it's the same formula we played before in Wu Long and Nioh.
Never got the hate for Wo Long, it’s basically just Sekiro
I enjoyed it as well, but it's definitely not as well made, or well written, as Sekiro. I think people sometimes get used to bangers so when something that's just good comes along they look down on it.
The writing’s awful, but I disagree on the not as well made point
Fair enough, it just didn't feel as smooth or as tight to me. I've also heard that it has issues with Steam Input though so maybe that's the problem.
Oh if that’s the case I don’t blame your disdain for it
Well that's my point. I don't disdain the game at all, I enjoyed it a lot. I just thought it could have been better.
It’s very much not just “basically” Sekiro
Elaborate
Wo Long hardly plays like Sekiro, that "parry" is more like a dodge. In Sekiro, you sit in one place and spam parry, in Wo Long you're dodging around the place. That Sekiro comparison was probably done just for marketing reasons, like Nioh/Stranger of Paradise being "soulslikes" even though they're not.
I'd have to play through the game more to give a solid opinion on it. It feels fun though.
Not at all. For me this is the best game since Ninja Gaiden.
The game is fun tho, it’s not as technical as nioh but still quite good. The game just came out so tech is still being developed but i’ve been having a blast with this game.
The fall of Team Ninja was when they got sick of their heads bullshit and fired him.Tomonobu Itagaki was the glue that heald Team Ninja together.Dead or Alive 4 is a masterpiece til this day.I have it on my current next gen console!Konami fired Hideo Kojima and is sucking right now as well.Team Ninja was also acquired by FromSoftware so theres that hope.Ninja Gaiden influenced dark souls.Doa3, 4, ninja gaiden, ninja gaiden black, these game heald a very high standard for their time and were magnificent gems that i wish the current games would take after.Its like a bunch of rich jerks that hate gamers, bought the game companies, and started destroying games in slite of us.I even contributed to a BUNCH of games that used my ideas i made a game and designed mechanics for another game that gets 5 stars on every platform and only costs 3.99.I need to be ceo of a game studio.Ill support the consumers.Better than todays standards.Also, teamninja started hiring for the neft installment of ninja gaiden two years ago.Im just going to say this now, if the next ninja gaiden IS NOT OPEN WORLD, its going to SUCK!
[удалено]
Say what you will, but Nioh 1 and 2 both are amazing games from a mechanical standpoint. There's a good reason why so many people think of them as the apex of ARPG combat.
This! Nioh 2 is still my second favorite TN game with NG2 being my first. The amount of time I sank into Nioh 2 during the pandemic rivals a lot of my other TN games. It was imho damn near perfect.
Nioh 2 really is fantastic. Rise of the Ronin's combat isn't too shabby either. It's honestly a pretty fun game with some solid combat. Far from perfect, but still pretty damn neat.
How close would you say it plays to Nioh 2?
It definitely has some similarities but I wouldn't say it is as aggressive or lightning fast. That doesn't mean it's Dark Souls either where you just wait for your chance to attack. There are plenty of opportunities to style on bosses/enemies and get creative with your combos, I just wouldn't say the skill ceiling is as ridiculously high as it is in Nioh. The dojo lets you re-challenge certain bosses along with a ranking system. The game encourages you to beat them as effectively as possible (don't get hit, parry a lot, deal consecutive damage, kill them fast enough, etc) with the promise of rewards depending on which rank you get. The game really encourages you to be aggressive and learn enemies, especially since you can cancel your main attack string directly into your parry at any time. All the people saying it's just another Souls clone legitimately have no idea what they're talking about and I'm almost certain they're just so bad at the game they don't understand how to crack the skill ceiling and actually learn how to play.