GR: What do you feel your biggest competition is going to be when Sigma comes out the door?
YH: We don't really have any competitors right now. Whenour game comes out, it's going to be the undisputed king of action games. We have a lot of games behind us that are gonnatry to play catch-up, but nothing right in front of us that we could call a competitor. I think that Ninja Gaiden Sigma is gonna set the bar that games that come after are going to be compared to.
GR: Moving along those lines, have you seen Devil May Cry 4? Do you have an opinion on it?
YH: I have seen Devil May Cry 4, but it's basically a totally different philosophy fromwhat we do. If you look at their trailer that they haveonline, you'll see that none of the enemies attack you. None of the enemies attack whatsoever. That's a game where the enemies only exist to provide a target forall of yourcombos, and they don't really do anything else. For us, we're a combat-action game;our enemies are alive, they think, they attack you, andif you don't actively defend yourself, you're going to die really quick. So it's a basic difference in philosophy. We're an action game, they're kind of a "let's see how stylishly we can show off thesecombos and get a high score" kind of thing. So if the people playing think that's stylish, then more power to them.
GR: More than anything else, what would you like people to take away from this interview?
YH: We're confident that Ninja Gaiden is going to provide an experience that is going to blow away people that have never played the game before, as well as fans of the series, and we're pretty confident that we're providing a brand new experience here. And so my hope is just that as many of yourreaders as possible, whether they're fans of the series or they're just gonna start with Sigma on the PlayStation 3, will get their hands on it. We're going to provide as much as we can (in terms of) new features in orderto make it look attractive to everybody,so as soon as you get the chance, pleasepick up the game and see what we've been working on all this time.
March 22, 2007
