In a short Q&A with TheGamer, Team Ninja head Fumihiko Yasuda talked to us about the upcoming Ninja Gaiden: Master Collection, and if we’ve read between the lines correctly, we think he’s planning for a return to the franchise in the near future.
First we straight-up asked Yasuda-san if we would see a new Ninja Gaiden game in the future, and he responded appropriately coyly:
“If and when that time comes, we'll let everyone know. Look forward to it!”
Replying to our list of questions in an email, we also asked Yasuda-san multiple questions about the history of the Ninja Gaiden franchise, in addition to where it will go in the future, and he’s painted an optimistic picture for Ryu Hayabusa.
‘If’ might be doing some heavy lifting there, but ‘when’ sounds very promising. It would be nice to take this as confirmation of a new game coming soon, but that seems unlikely. As for what form this new Ninja Gaiden game would take, Yasuda-san has grand visions for the future:
“Someday I'd like to make a Ninja Gaiden game that retains the concept of a pure action game, but on a much bigger scale and advanced forward to meet the expectations of the times.”
This lines up with what Yasuda-san told us previously. In our interview prior to the release of Nioh 2 on PC, he mentioned: “I would like to try and take on an open-world style game in the future.” Couple that snippet with the “bigger scale” of his last reply, and we could start to believe Team Ninja’s next big game will be an original Ninja Gaiden title.
That all sounds encouraging enough, but Yasuda-san revealed to us that many of the younger members of the Team Ninja staff did not work on previous Ninja Gaiden games - instead, they grew up with them.
“The number of staff at Team Ninja who are of the generation that grew up playing Ninja Gaiden is slowly increasing. So, for our development team we wanted this to be an opportunity for them to get involved once again with the Ninja Gaiden franchise.”
Ninja Gaiden: Master Collection doesn’t seem to be just a way to resell past Ninja Gaiden games, but also a quick training run for the youngest members of the Team Ninja staff to familiarise themselves with the classic series, and hopefully bring their experience forward into the next game. This refresher may not just be for them, but for the younger generation of players too.
“[P]layers are clearly required to improve their playing skills in the Ninja Gaiden series in order to advance. For many new players, this stoic approach might feel fresh in comparison and for that reason, I think Ninja Gaiden can certainly satisfy the expectations of younger audiences.”
It looks like Ninja Gaiden: Master Collection will be a revisit to the series for both the staff and Team Ninja, as well as the rest of us who haven’t seen Ryu Hayabusa in action for nearly ten years.
Ninja Gaiden: Master Collection is available on Steam, Nintendo Switch, PS4, and Xbox One on June 10.