Ok, so we' ve established that the " terrible" camera isn;t actually " terrible" at all. that' s fine, ...now we can disregard it.

1) Ninja Gaiden Black/Sigma is at this point, as far as many action game fans are concerned - the best action game ever. It' s not hard to comprehend what he' s saying. The sequel to the best action game ever will be the new best action game ever. It looks and plays like Ninja Gaiden but it' s bigger, better, flashier and more brutal. I' ll let you know when i' ve played it whether it' s the best action game ever, but i doubt i' ll be disappointed.

2) Sigma is what Sigma is. It' s an updated port of Itagaki' s original Xbox title. It' s as kickass as the original because it is essentially the same game. Itagaki saying that II wil be better than Sigma is Itagaki saying it will be the best Ninja Gaiden game ever developed. Japanese - English/whatever translations often lose a lot of their meaning... so i highly doubt he was actually being offensive. If he was, maybe he simply didn' t agree with the PS3 port. That' d be understandable. If Tecmo was pushing for a PS3 port and Itagaki said he didn' t want to have anything to do with it... when it came to promoting his own direct sequel, you wouln' t expect him to praise it.

3) It' s a culture thing. If you haven' t been to Japan you probably wouldn' t understand.

4) NGII looks better than Sigma. I have Sigma, i bought it the day it came out - so i would know. It' s not massively different but the particle effects, number of enemies on screen, textures, lighting and enemy character models are all better to some degree or another. Again, i won' t be able to say what' s different until i' ve actually played the game for myself and seen it first hand on my TV but i suspect that without a complete engine overhaul this is as good as it gets. It looks as good as DMC4, just stylistically different. I don' t see the problem. It runs at 60fps too.

1) are you serious ? are you saying that ninja gaiden black is better than God of war 1/2 ? for god' s sake , the game is on ps2 and it walks all over it, graphics, sound, presentation, control, almost everything is better if not much better ...


3) a cultural thing ? since when ? it seems that japanese developers didn' t get their head out of their dicks yet, if they want to make the medium more respectful, they should stop aiming for horny kids , because that horny kid will still buy the game anyway even if you don' t put an out of place and time whore in the game.
What the fuck is a dominatrice doing in ninja gaiden world ? seriously don' t you feel insulted? hey i put a big ass boobie in our game , come come buy it! i know you haven' t seen a half naked woman since your birth, come dear son and buy my game, bless you!

it' s stupid and cruel lack of maturity, i feel insulted when i see this stuff. i know that big pushers behind that crap are the marketing stuff, but he' s the director and he should give respect to his creations. thank god westerners take video games more seriously and now they are focusing more on writing and striking characters.

4) are you a lawyer? now that' s a good way to put it , " It looks as good as DMC4, just stylistically different." different ? as uglier ? from what i' ve seen , it looks a lot like an xbox 1.5 game, except in some levels, i own dmc 4 and it destroys it. i' m not the only one who says that? all reviews agreed to the same thing , ninja gaiden is an average looking game, devil my cry is a great looking game, it' s not a fact and you can deny that, but the majority of people think the same thing, Ninja gaiden 2 was looking average from the first video we' ve seen !!


anyway, even DOA 4 is an average fighting game... a legendary developer they said?

quote:

I am a big fan of his DOA games.


I wouldn' t doubt it.

So true!

*wack* C==8 *wack*

But i do agree that he is not as innocent as he portraits himself. I don' t care much for him and do believe something is missing. We' ll have to wait and hear the other end of the story.

ORIGINAL: Abasoufiane

1) are you serious ? are you saying that ninja gaiden black is better than God of war 1/2 ? for god' s sake , the game is on ps2 and it walks all over it, graphics, sound, presentation, control, almost everything is better if not much better ...


3) a cultural thing ? since when ? it seems that japanese developers didn' t get their head out of their dicks yet, if they want to make the medium more respectful, they should stop aiming for horny kids , because that horny kid will still buy the game anyway even if you don' t put an out of place and time whore in the game.
What the *** is a dominatrice doing in ninja gaiden world ? seriously don' t you feel insulted? hey i put a big ass boobie in our game , come come buy it! i know you haven' t seen a half naked woman since your birth, come dear son and buy my game, bless you!

it' s stupid and cruel lack of maturity, i feel insulted when i see this stuff. i know that big pushers behind that crap are the marketing stuff, but he' s the director and he should give respect to his creations. thank god westerners take video games more seriously and now they are focusing more on writing and striking characters.

4) are you a lawyer? now that' s a good way to put it , " It looks as good as DMC4, just stylistically different." different ? as uglier ? from what i' ve seen , it looks a lot like an xbox 1.5 game, except in some levels, i own dmc 4 and it destroys it. i' m not the only one who says that? all reviews agreed to the same thing , ninja gaiden is an average looking game, devil my cry is a great looking game, it' s not a fact and you can deny that, but the majority of people think the same thing, Ninja gaiden 2 was looking average from the first video we' ve seen !!


anyway, even DOA 4 is an average fighting game... a legendary developer they said?

1) Yes in terms of gamplay / No in terms of presentation

When asked how he felt about Ninja Gaiden - Cory Barlog (the guy who directed God of War II had this to say in a Q&A on his personal blog...

Gaiden is a good game...though much to hardcore for my blood. I like to enjoy a play experience, not get my ass handed to me by it. I don’t have enough time in my day to master any one game...I just want to get in and play it. Enjoy it, maybe see what they are doing iwth it and take it apart to see how they did something. So Gaiden to me always feels like work. Painful work. Like when I worked at a Mcdonald’s for a week. I hated that...but I dont hate Gaiden. I just wish there was a SUPER easy mode.

The mechanics are solid and the control is smooth and responsive. They know their stuff over there. The Gaiden games are extremely well made. I also love that they change out the enemies and numbers of spawns when they ramp up difficulty. I wished we had done that with the GOW games.

http://corybarlog.blogspot.com/

God of War is made to be accessible, Ninja Gaiden is made to be hardcore. The combat system in Ninja Gaiden is fantastic. The combat system is God of War is weak. God of War is just as much fun to play, but it doesn' t require skill.

2) Oh... you' re conceding 2...

3) You' re being ignorant.

It' s nothing to do with publishers trying to get young males to buy their games. It' s a cultural phenomenon that is present in every facet of Japanese entertainment media. From manga and anime which are read and watched respectively by young and old alike, through photobooks, music, film and videogames.

The legal age of consent in Japan is 13. You can buy photobooks containing pictures of children wearing lingere right on the highstreet mixed in with the newspapers and comics. It' s normal in Japan. You and i might find it seedy, but it' s their culture and it' s not our pace to comment on such things.

It' s certainly not the way you seem to think.

4) Devil May Cry 4 is a great looking game, and i just played Ninja Gaiden II and that too is a great looking game. I' d go as far as to say that Ninja Gaiden II' s enemy character models are better looking than those in Devil May Cry 4. Not that it makes much difference... you' re Xbox 1.5 comment was enough to assure me you need your eyesight testing.

DOA sucks, NG sucks. Don' t care.

Tecmo as a whole sucks. The only tecmo game I liked was dark delusions on PS1, for like 20 minutes then it was boring.

ORIGINAL: emofag

DOA sucks, NG sucks. Don' t care.

Tecmo as a whole sucks. The only tecmo game I liked was dark delusions on PS1, for like 20 minutes then it was boring.

Have you play ninja gaiden from start to finish? I really think ninja gaiden is a great game. in fact it has become my favorite action game. I like it more than devil may cry. After I played devil may cry 4 I lost my interest in the series.
Not that is a bad game but I din' t like the story.

and for DOA the DOA series has really improve alot in it' s gameplay department and presentation. The gameplay is more deeper. So what is it that you don' t like about both DOA and ninja gaiden, Have you actually invested some time on both series to come to a conclusion that they both are bad?

Yes.

After I played devil may cry 4 I lost my interest in the series.
Not that is a bad game but I din' t like the story.

DMC4s story kicked ass. The only thing I didn' t like about it was there was too much Nero and not enough Dante.

Itagaki wouldn' t ruin Shinobi/Kunoichi. If anything, he would take it to the next level, gameplay wise at least.

Graphics-wise also ..

1) are you serious ? are you saying that ninja gaiden black is better than God of war 1/2 ? for god' s sake , the game is on ps2 and it walks all over it, graphics, sound, presentation, control, almost everything is better if not much better ...


3) a cultural thing ? since when ? it seems that japanese developers didn' t get their head out of their dicks yet, if they want to make the medium more respectful, they should stop aiming for horny kids , because that horny kid will still buy the game anyway even if you don' t put an out of place and time whore in the game.
What the *** is a dominatrice doing in ninja gaiden world ? seriously don' t you feel insulted? hey i put a big ass boobie in our game , come come buy it! i know you haven' t seen a half naked woman since your birth, come dear son and buy my game, bless you!

it' s stupid and cruel lack of maturity, i feel insulted when i see this stuff. i know that big pushers behind that crap are the marketing stuff, but he' s the director and he should give respect to his creations. thank god westerners take video games more seriously and now they are focusing more on writing and striking characters.

4) are you a lawyer? now that' s a good way to put it , " It looks as good as DMC4, just stylistically different." different ? as uglier ? from what i' ve seen , it looks a lot like an xbox 1.5 game, except in some levels, i own dmc 4 and it destroys it. i' m not the only one who says that? all reviews agreed to the same thing , ninja gaiden is an average looking game, devil my cry is a great looking game, it' s not a fact and you can deny that, but the majority of people think the same thing, Ninja gaiden 2 was looking average from the first video we' ve seen !!


anyway, even DOA 4 is an average fighting game... a legendary developer they said?

I know everyone has their opinions, but you are just being anal because you don' t like the guy.

1. Ninja Gaiden Black is a much better game than GoW and GoW2. It may not be as epic or be better presentational wise, but is a lot more fun. If anything, fun is a relative thing, but Ninja Gaiden' s combat system and gameplay mechanics trample those of GoW any day of the year. GoW+GoW2 mechanics are still not on par with those of Ninja Gaiden Black or Sigma.

3. At least he hasn' t gone and added a pathetic sex mini-game and actually feature nude characters. 9/10 GoW females walk around showing their cleavage, and yet you say Itagaki is aiming at pre-pubescence?

Now, if we take GoW' s nudity into a cultural context, then yeah, its probably a close depiction of their mythology. Much like the females Itagaki creates are on par with anime (both DOA and NG are anime inspired, in case you don' t know), which is more than just animation in Japan. Nitro' s explanation on the anime phenomenon is spot on. So, if you want to consider GoW' s nudity as cultural, cool, but lets also be fair to the Japanese anime culture. If you want to consider it pre-pubescent shit, then its only fair you put GoW in that group too.

4. I don' t think NG2 looks as good as DMC4, but I haven' t really seen NG2 on my TV, while me playing it. I am sure as hell that the shadows don' t look nearly as bad as those in DMC4 and the animations of NG2 (even the original NG for Xbox) still walk over those of any DMC title. And there is also a shit-ton more going on NG2 than DMC4 at any given time.

And DOA4 is far from an average fighting game, just because you don' t like Itagaki and what he makes, it doesn' t make DOA4 average.

Tecmo' s Follow Up

Our company getting sued by this employee is huge problem... the reasons for making this lawsuit public are self-centered. What' s more, this employee is filing this suit for himself and making it seem like he alone is responsible for the development of the game titles the rest of the Team Ninja staff had poured its heart into.

Team NINJA is currently working on a line-up of new titles. All of Team NINJA is starting to work together on interesting new game titles.

Pretty much what the article says at the end, things are going to get ugly

Many games, epecially launch titles come with completion bonuses, so it wouldn' t surprise me if Itagaki has a valid case.

As the producer (his title is actually ' Director' but it' s not really used outside of Japan) of almost all Team NINJA games (not Sigma) he has been the guy responsible for overseeing all aspects of the art and technical design elements, making sure schedules, budget and milestones are all hit (which is where this completion bonus will come in), overseeing the QA etc etc etc...

His role is a crucial one. It' s dominant in games development and the person in that job is the greatest influence on the end product. Ninja Gaiden and DoA are the games they are because of his vision. If they' re going to get Hayashi to take over as director he has a lot to prove. His role during Sigma' s development will have been very limited as many of the decisions that he would normally have had to make were already made by Itagaki during development of the original game. His actual role was more ' project manager' than director.

I suspect as Zoy does that they thought they could use the sexual harassment case against Itagaki as leverage to not pay him. Shady stuff, but this is Tecmo and as far as most gamers are concerned Tecmo is Team Ninja and Team Ninja without Itagaki is nothing.

Now what I am wondering: Why did Itagaki stay so long? Dead or Alive 4 has been finished 2 1/2 years ago...so shouldn' t he have been eligible for that completition bonus then? Why did he take so long to sue them? Could it have been that he himself wanted to finish Ninja Gaiden 2 before leaving Tecmo?

Legal matters take a while to get started. There are lots of avenues you have to explore before building a case and going to court. By that time, NG2 and other projects would have been started. Leaving everyone high and dry half way through development of a game would:

a) Make it hard on everyone else at Team Ninja.
b) Negatively affect the quality of the games he was currently producing.

ORIGINAL: UnluckyOne

Legal matters take a while to get started. There are lots of avenues you have to explore before building a case and going to court. By that time, NG2 and other projects would have been started. Leaving everyone high and dry half way through development of a game would:

a) Make it hard on everyone else at Team Ninja.
b) Negatively affect the quality of the games he was currently producing.

Nor would it stand him in good stead in his lawsuit.

It looks better for him that he' s fulfilled his commitment to 3 additional games (DoAX2, Dragon Sword and Ninja Gaiden II). If he' d walked away from them the court could have drawn an inference against him.

Looks good for potential new employers too.

Anyone considered that he may make his own company like Okamoto/Mikami...etc? Maybe we will have to wait and see if people will " follow" him or not but i see it possible as much as other options there.


As for my personal opinion of the guy, i hate him but its a fact that he makes cool games. Let' s see how good are those " interesting new game titles" .

I have faith in Itagaki and his new ideas.

As far as Team Ninja, I will wait and see what happens if there is ever a DOA5 and NG3. I would like to think Hayashi is up to the challenge, after all, Itagaki did select him to lead Sigma and he was also pretty involved with Dragon Sword and NG2.

Microsoft' s already begun the ass-kissing...

Microsoft has publicly thanked Tomonobu Itagaki for his Xbox support following his dramatic departure from Tecmo yesterday.

" Tomonobu Itagaki has decided to leave Tecmo and Team Ninja to pursue other opportunities. We thank Tomonobu Itagaki for the many years he has supported Xbox as he has contributed immensely to the success of the videogame industry as a whole," the platform hold told Kotaku.

Itagaki was outspoken in his support for Xbox and Xbox 360 despite the relative indifference of many of his Japanese peers. " There' s no launch titles that create within me an urge to search all over Tokyo to find a PS3 so I can play them," he once told 1UP.

And so it begins. Who' s expecting other developers to take a stand in this?

Maybe the ones that want to hire him. I' m sure Itagaki would appreciate public praise and any company who does so would stand a much better chance to woo him to their stables.

ORIGINAL: mastachefbkw

After I played devil may cry 4 I lost my interest in the series.
Not that is a bad game but I din' t like the story.

DMC4s story kicked ass. The only thing I didn' t like about it was there was too much Nero and not enough Dante.

The DMC series needs a change, too much of the same shit, but DMC is deffinetely superior to NG, no question.