It’s been the best part of a decade since we last saw a mainline entry in the popular Ninja Gaiden series. Now, as Japanese developer Team Ninja is about to wrap Nioh 2, the game’s director hints at a potential sequel.
Speaking with IGN, Fumihiko Yasuda doesn’t reveal any solid details though the following quote pulled from an interview strongly suggests we could be seeing Ryu Hayabusa and friends in the near future:
The core members of the team that worked on Ninja Gaiden want to make a new game,” said Yasuda. “We are aware that some fans wanted Ninja Gaiden more than Nioh 2. Now we see a lot of ninja games like [Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice] as well, and we see a lot of good inspirations in those games, so we hope to deliver some good news one day.
The last we saw of Ninja Gaiden was 2014’s awful zombie slashing spin-off, Yaiba: Ninja Gaiden Z. Co-developed alongside the now defunct Spark Unlimited, Yaiba saw the series hit a devastating low point – we scored it worrying 4/10 in our review.
As Yasuda notes, we’re currently in a golden age of games focused on samurai, shoguns, and shinobi. Although Nioh has been a major success for Team Ninja, we’re fascinated to see what the developer could do with Ninja Gaiden, especially on the upcoming PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X.
Speaking of Nioh, here’s an excerpt from our preview of the sequel:
The combat still feels incredibly slick, with each fight being potentially lethal to your character and a need to cautiously scout areas for enemies lying in wait to ambush you if you get too close to them. It does feel a bit odd revisiting another samurai game having played Sekiro last year, but the two are only really comparable in setting, which makes it a bit easier to digest.
All in all, Nioh 2 feels like a well-refined Nioh, which is all anyone can ever really ask for in a sequel. It’s definitely gotten a bit deeper, and that’ll keep those who are looking for a variety of gameplay options very happy indeed.
Nioh 2 launches exclusively on PlayStation 4, March 13th.
Source: IGN
