Ninja Gaiden 3: Team Ninja Chose Narrative Focus Rather Than Meaningless Violence
Team Ninja’s Yosuke Hayashi is voicing concerns that too many game titles are failing to properly express violence. He feels that games are now dominated by meaningless expressions of violence. Quite an interesting concern for a man responsible for a franchise known for its copious services of gore and, you guessed it right, violence. He said that he’s had this feeling for several years now.
Hayashi fears that if the evolution of games is to keep ramping up the blood and dismembered body parts, this development would lead to some “strange and bizarre” direction for gaming. He draws the line on “meaningful” violence. He says that including violence in a game must be backed up by some meaning behind the violence. He believes that the gaming industry has reached the level where it can accommodate adding meaning to violence in games.
Hayashi explains that this was the philosophy that pushed Team Ninja to include narrative focus on consequences in Ninja Gaiden 3. The game is designed in such a way as to make players feel the results and impact of violence instead of just getting to sit back and watch the digital blood spatters. Consistent with Hayashi’s philosophical take on game violence, Ninja Gaiden 3 doesn’t have any dismemberment scenes like previous installments of the series.
While there are no flying dismembered body parts, the game does still feature lots of violence. The game is slated for release in the US on March 20, and it drops in Europe on March 23 and will be available for Xbox 360 and Playstation 3.
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