No estoy seguro , pero es probable. Una nueva heroina si esta confirmada. Pero creo que los scans ya se han visto, de todas formas gracias.
NUEVA ENTREVISTA
1UP: How long have you guys been working on Ninja Gaiden 2 -- graphics, level design, sound, all that stuff?
Tomonobu Itagaki: We started after Dead or Alive 4, so it's been about a year and eight months, give or take.
1UP: What was your goal with Ninja Gaiden 2? With the first Ninja Gaiden on Xbox, you set out to show that you could make more than just fighting games. Do you have an expectation of what you'll bring with Ninja Gaiden 2?
TI: I feel like Ninja Gaiden 1 was a great game. It was kind of unwieldy in some respects, and it wasn't necessarily a game that anyone could enjoy. You had to be in the right mindset to appreciate it, so I see it as kind of a situation where we were with the first Dead or Alive. Plenty of people said it was great, an excellent game or whatever, but looking back on it I wasn't satisfied with how it turned out. That's why I totally revamped things for Dead or Alive 2, and that's where we're at with Ninja Gaiden 2.
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1UP: If you had to pull out an example of something you think didn't work well for NG1 that you're changing for NG2, what would it be?
TI: There are plenty of examples. The biggest one would be the ninpo attacks, which I didn't think were implemented very well in the first game. The entire game ran at 60 frames per second, except when you used ninpo. We dropped it to 30 frames to give us extra power, but even with that extra power I still wasn't able to accomplish what I was looking for. I always felt that ninpo should be a lot more impressive and a lot more useful than it turned out to be. So that's one of the many examples of what we're changing for Ninja Gaiden 2.
You know, I really put a lot of effort into making the ninpo in the first game good, that's why I even allowed the team to drop the framerate to 30 frames to gives extra power to work with, but even so the result wasn't really ideal. It turned out to be something I didn't even really want people to use it, which is why I made it out to be kind of a badge of honor, like if you were able to beat a stage without using ninpo you got a bonus. That's because I didn't want people to use it too much because I wasn't really happy with it. But now since we're able to go back to the drawing board, we're able to create ninpo attacks that not only look cool but are really effective.
1UP: Does the game still use the base technology you created for DOA4 and Dead or Alive Xtreme 2?
TI: Yeah that's one aspect of it. Another aspect is using different techniques. For better or for worse, Team NINJA has always followed its own philosophy when it comes to visuals. You know, something like DOA4 at Xbox 360 launch. We really made the kind of visual quality, the vibrant colors and things that we wanted to do back then, but that wasn't necessarily what the Western world thought was required. They like to qualify things in terms of "we're using this technique," or "we have such and such rendering or mapping, and therefore our games look good." This time we're trying to bridge the gap, keep the Team NINJA style of artwork, but also include some of those technological features that people expect from "next-gen" in order to really bring it to the next level of visual quality.
1UP: The Aqua Capital stage (Venice stage) is actually very bright, which is a distinct contrast to Ninja Gaiden 1, which was very dark or dimly lit. Is this a conscious decision not only to differentiate from the previous game, but to also show how powerful the graphics engine is since the draw distance is so much longer?
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TI: Yes. This game really represents a fusion of the philosophies we've had for visual design for both the DOA series and the Ninja Gaiden series. It's kind of an amalgamation of both. Ninja Gaiden was great in how it had a really consistent world view. You really felt like you were in this world and that things were connected and the visual style represented that. But at the same time I think it's very important when working in a visual medium to have different extremes, to have vibrant colors and have contrasts, to have light areas and dark areas. And that's something we've done for a long time with the DOA series so we're kind of bringing those two worlds together.
1UP: Will there be any crossover from the first game?
TI: Not in particular, no. This is a new story starring Ryu Hayabusa. It takes place after Ninja Gaiden 1 for Xbox, and before the timeframe of the old Ninja Gaiden games on the NES. But right now the story details are secret; we're trying to show the gameplay first.
1UP: Well the trailer shows the Statue of Liberty and New York and Venice. So are you trying to show more of a worldview?
TI: That's right. Eventually you'll find yourself down in the underworld and imaginary areas that are reminiscent of what was shown in the first game. But before that, Hayabusa will find himself in various cities throughout the world and taking care of business in those areas. Of course 'taking care of business' means he's killing people.
1UP: Will you make an effort to explain why Ryu goes from city to city? It's one thing in a fighting game to just warp from mountain-top to Las Vegas without any explanation, but will the cut-scenes help explain how and why Ryu gets from place to place?
TI: Yes.
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1UP: Since you have a few real world settings, are you actually going to the real locations to take footage and accurately represent them? Because you better get New York City right.
TI: [Laughs] Of course.
1UP: Regarding the more ambitious, global scale of the game, does this reflect a desire to appeal to a more international audience, or does it indicate a desire to take more vacations while researching this game?
TI: I think it's part of the franchise to have a little bit of realism in there. Even back in the NES days, you had Ryu going to New York to avenge his father, so it feels like having a little bit of realism in there really kind of spices up the universe, and I really wanted to see Hayabusa fighting in a lot of different locations.
1UP: With the weapon sets are you planning to increase the move lists for existing weapons, or change them? Meaning, will the Dragon Sword require relearning somewhat to use in NG2?
TI: Is it OK if I relate things in terms of fighting game examples?
1UP: Sure.
TI: For instance, take Kasumi's high-kick. That particular animation has been retouched and refined over the years, but when she does a high-kick, it's essentially the same move every game. But as the different game mechanics change, that changes what that move does or how it affects the overall battle.
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http://media.1up.com/media?id=3436954 SCREENS: Click the image above to check out all Ninja
1UP: So NG1 veterans will have to adjust to changes in the combat system.
TI: Of course.
1UP: In regards to the new weapons, how many do you plan to add, and is there any philosophy behind the amount you add?
TI: As you know by now, I don't like to think of things in terms of strict number requirements. It's more about making sure you have the best experience possible. When I look back at the weapons from the first game, of course he's going to have the Dragon Sword -- that's his signature weapon. But there are some weapons I say, "You know what? This weapon wasn't that fun. This may not have been all that useful." And so instead of trying to do something with those, we just cut them out. And when we look at new weapons, we think, "Wouldn't it be cool if we had this? Wouldn't it be a great experience to cut people up using this?" That's where our influences come from.
1UP: Can you give us an example of a weapon that didn't make the cut?
TI: The Dailhabro -- the big sword.
1UP: One of the standout features of this is all the body parts that get chopped off and remain on screen. Are you able to achieve this without using the HDD?
TI: The game doesn't use the hard disk.
1UP: In the demo you did for us, you showed us how easy the water running is. Is it something that's automatic, or do you use button presses to perform it?
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TI: I think it's really intuitive how we've set it up. As you probably know, there was water running in Ninja Gaiden Sigma. But I wasn't involved with that at all, so ours is separate, but I believe it's more intuitive.
1UP: Do you plan to have enemies that will require you to take advantage of this feature? Like enemies that appear only in the water, or enemies that you'll have an advantage over if you fight them on the water?
TI: I don't think of it so much as trying to really affect things using all of the environmental factors. We will have water battles as a part of it, and I think the goal is just to make the on-water/in-water portions more intuitive than any other game on the market. But I'm not thinking of taking an enemy from land and dragging him into the water and therefore you can fight better. In that case you might as well cut him to pieces on land and get it over with faster.
1UP: The dismemberment and violence has been a big hit with fans in North America. But with the recent controversy with Manhunt and having to cut a lot of the violence out in order to get a Mature rating, is this something you're worried about with Ninja Gaiden 2?
TI: Nah I don't think that's going to happen to us. I think we'll be OK.
1UP: Do you feel that way because Manhunt tackles its matter in a more realistic way, whereas this is more of a clear-cut fantasy setting?
TI: Yeah, that's right.
1UP: Another thing I noticed was that when you're fighting in the Aqua Kingdom, some of the enemies would hang back, ones who look like they're plotting something. Do you plan to add any cooperative attacks, where two enemies coordinate what they're doing in order to take you down?
TI: Yeah you'll see things like that. The enemy A.I. is currently around 30% of what we're aiming for. And we still haven't touched any of those teamwork type elements where enemies work together so I think you're going to see that improve greatly as we go along. What we're aiming for with the first demo here is to show that the game is focused on the subject of violence. But we don't want to do violence for violence's sake. We want to show that the gore and violence in the game has an impact on the gameplay and that the two are very highly interconnected. It's not just about lopping off arms. It has an effect on what the enemies do and how the battles play out.
I think there's a lot of interesting things you can do. Just as we have the suicide bomb for ninjas that have lost their leg, maybe an enemy that has lost his arm will run up to Hayabusa and knock him down and jump on top of him. And while blood is shooting out of his stump, he'll stab at you multiple times to show you he's taking desperate measures. That's the kind of thing we're going to be tweaking as we go along.
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1UP: In regards to coordinated attacks, will you take anything you learned developing Dead or Alive's tag-team moves and put it into Ninja Gaiden?
TI: I'm not quite sure how a tag type of attack would work. It's important that the A.I. works together to examine the situation and change its tactics based on the situation. But I'm not sure if a move where enemies join hands and attack you might be very realistic.
1UP: I notice that there are a lot of interactive elements in the game, like there are in DOA4. Will enemies be able to contribute to the damage and break things as well?
TI: I'm not incredibly focused on that element. It's not a core part of our gameplay. I think it would be cool to have destructible objects and interactive objects throughout the stages, but that's not where the core of the fun is, so I don't think we're going to be spending a huge amount of our processing budget of hardware power on those elements.
1UP: It's nice to have some of those elements, because one of the things that's a little frustrating about playing something like Devil May Cry 4, is that they've got these really pristine environments, but they're absolutely sterile. You're fighting all these enemies, but you can't break windows or any objects. The better the environments look, the more obvious it becomes when there's nothing to break or when you're not affecting things environmentally.
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TI: I think it's fun to have players actions affect the environment. I mean we have the whole God game genre, which is basically all you do is create and affect the environment. But when I look at the list of "these are the absolute must-haves of what it takes to make Ninja Gaiden II a fun game," there's a good chance that'll be omitted from that list as a must-have feature.
1UP: So you're saying there will be elements of interactivity in each stage, but just to what degree is determined by what bandwidth you have.
TI: Yeah, I think it's just a question of moderation. Having a world where everything is static and nothing changes is boring too. It's a question of how high a priority is that, and we have to balance it out with the other things happening onscreen at once. As a counterpoint to that where there have been games in the past where the developers have said "Look! We have fully-destructible environments, you can do anything!" And I think for the most part those games have been pretty boring to actually play. Yeah it's pretty cool technology, but how is the gaming experience, but they tend to be not all that much fun.
1UP: A little of that is fun though. Like what your friend Hideo Kojima does in Metal Gear Solid. You can't destroy the whole environment, but you can always knock over an ice bucket and see ice cubes melt if that's your thing. Speaking of hardware power, this is the third Xbox 360 game you're working on, as opposed to what most 360 developers have made so far, which is often their first game. What have you learned that you can do with the system more efficiently now than when you first started working with the hardware?
TI: Yeah it was pretty tough at launch. I don't really think of it in terms of being able to do this, and this, and this. I think in the current generation of consoles, the Wii being the only exception, you have to take a stance of "What do I want to make? What's my vision? What kind of game do I want this to be?" Then you go on and say, "OK, in order to achieve that vision what techniques have to be implemented, what technologies are needed," etc. I think that's the smarter way to develop right now. In the past it was true, like when you went to a new hardware, you'd think "Oh we could do this that we couldn't do before, and we'll put that in regardless of whether we'd need it or not." Now it's kind of the opposite.
I guess what I mean from an anecdotal basis is back in the days of the Sega Saturn, you had two main processors and a DSP, right? Back then no one was really using the DSP all that much, and we were one of the first teams to go in and say "If we use the DSP to the max we'll be able to make something that nobody else could" and the result of that was DOA1 on the Saturn. There certainly was a period of time where that was the case, but I don't think that's the best approach right now.
1UP: If you had to encapsulate the kind of game you want Ninja Gaiden 2 to be that Ninja Gaiden 1 wasn't, how would you define it? Would you say it's what DOA2 was to DOA1? Is it that big of a leap?
TI: I think it would be the amalgamation of violence and gameplay. That's the key concept. We're still very much in progress, but I think it will end up being that big of a shift.
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1UP: Will there be any crossover from the DOA series, like how Ayane made a cameo in NG1.
TI: This is Ninja Gaiden.
1UP: Are you saying that "This is Ninja Gaiden, so we won't put any DOA in there," or "This is Ninja Gaiden, so of course we'll have DOA in there?"
TI: [Laughs] You're a funny guy. Someone might make a brief appearance to show their face and say "Hello." But if I think you were to see a character make a brief appearance, consider it a nod to our fans that we're willing to make the space on the disc for that character to appear.
1UP: I know we've only seen Ryu so far, but do you plan to introduce a new character to replace Rachel?
TI: Of course.
1UP: Will it be a female, specifically? Making Ryu Hayabusa the James Bond of ninjas? Or would he team up with someone like Hayate, also of his clan?
TI: It will be a female lead.
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1UP: Will you see any NPCs or get any sense of these environments being inhabited? It kind of makes you wonder where everyone's gotten to.
TI: Yeah I think that's true, but we're not quite as bad as Earth Defense Force.
1UP: You previously said that Ninja Gaiden Dragon Sword is a linking game between NG1 and NG2. And some of these environments in NG2 appear to be similar to environments we see in Dragon Sword.
TI: Yes, it's the same place. What you're seeing is deliberate.
1UP: Will there be any multiplayer elements? Please elaborate.
TI: Right now I'm seriously considering what online features to include in Ninja Gaiden 2. I think I can say from past experience that the world of Ninja Gaiden and multiplayer doesn't necessarily always go well together. With that taken into account I'm thinking about the best way to create the online experience in Ninja Gaiden.
1UP: One of the things that's always been fun about Ninja Gaiden has been the statistical information that's recorded. Do you plan to boost that for NG2? Like how many decapitations you've accrued, or how many ninpos you've used, percentage of weapon useage, etc.? You have it in Dead or Alive; it'd be interesting to see it applied here.
TI: Yeah I think that's a good idea. We could have a head-chopping contest. Write that down. [Laughs]
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Una entrevista extremadamente interesante, de donde se pueden sacar puntos claves de la próxima entrega de este fabuloso juego:
* El juego lleva aprox. 2 años en desarrollo
* Las animaciones han sido completamente retocadas, sobre todo la de los enemigos. Anteriormente el Team principal de animación no trabajó en Ninja Gaiden, esta vez está el Team completo en este proyecto.
* Los enemigos tendrán una nueva A.I. dependiendo de la situación en el combate. Tener un enemigo mutilado no significará victoria pues aún así pueden intentar un ataque suicida para deshacerse de Ryu.
* El juego tendrá lugar en localidades de la vida real para luego pasar a escenarios ficticios.
* Una de la armas desechadas para NG2 fue el Dabilharo (la Espada más grande)
* Los Ninphos (ataques especiales) han sido totalmente rediseñados. Ya no será necesario bajar el juego de 60fps a 30fps para poder ejecutar un Ninpho, y según dice Itagaki, esta vez serán mucho más efectivos en combate.
Fuente
http://www.1up.com/do/previewPage?pager.offset=0&cId=3164447