Lin Yousuke is excited about the 2020 Tokyo Summer Olympics. "I want to go to the Olympics in person, but it's too difficult to buy tickets," he told me as he punched. Given that Japan is the host of this year, his desire for international sports events may be the same as everyone else in Japan. However, as president of the Ninja Team, Lin Zhihao has vested interests.
His studio is known for "Ninja Gaiden", "Dead or Alive" and "Nio". These are games that require almost athletic performance to master. A quick thumb needs to react to an attack that can be received in just a few frames. The combination must be remembered so that they become second nature. The idea is to mimic the skills of warriors, ninjas, and samurai controlled on the screen. Can't keep up? Prepare to be severely punished.
Hayashi hopes to spend his time on the virtual stage to see the extreme feats of physical performance in reality. Beyond that, there is more. Reflecting the sentiment of President Kenichi Sato of PlatinumGames, Kenichi Sato said that he plans to use the Tokyo Olympic Games "to attract the attention of fans around the world" and is pleased to invite international events to bring it to Japan. "It's great to see more and more Western tourists," he said of the upcoming Tokyo Olympics.
Hayashi said this when preparing to launch Nioh 2.Maohcore RPG has obvious Japanese historical and cultural characteristics, but presents it in a way that appeals to Western players. He told me: "We made Nioh 1 mainly for Japanese audiences, but we learned that it really works very well in Western countries." Nioh was released in 2017 and was well received by people outside Japan, which surprised the Ninjas. The Ninja team learned that its main audience was outside Japan, and therefore knew why it attracted them to Nioh. What the studio found caused it to change the style of Nioh 2.
The sequel is more like an interesting guide to the Japanese Warring States Period and its culture than the first game. The Japanese character of the game has provided enhancements to its international fans because that's exactly what they want. Hayashi said: "Similar to the history of Japan, we study in Japanese schools, and monsters are Japanese folklore, so we are already familiar with it, and this is what we already know." "I think what is really familiar in Japan It's often boring, but too local for Japan. But we want to maintain this image as Nioh's identity to attract the West. "
Attracting those who are unfamiliar with Japanese commonality first means that the range of monsters in the sequel has been greatly expanded. After all, with their twisted shapes, they can easily become the most eye-catching objects in Nioh's cast. The ninja team was spoiled in this adventure. Looking back at ancient scrolls and listening to folklore, you will find that Yangyang will lick dirt with long tongues, human heads appearing in fireballs and wheels, and huge undead skeletons seeking bone revenge. The Ninja team hopes that the rich supernatural monsters in Nioh 2 will bring freshness to the game, inspiring players who may be encountering them for the first time.
The real historical environment of Nioh 2 is less dramatic, but the same is true of Japanese. It is second only to the demon, but Hayashi hopes that some people appreciate the efforts of the Ninja team to lay the mystery of Nioh 2. Hayashi said: "We refer to real-life events and illustrate the samurai in the real world, but we do not want to impose it on players." "If they just play the game and experience the world and explore the story, then they will learn very much Great new thing. The historical part is very accurate and authentic, so education is possible, but this is not the most important part of Nioh. ”If you are a loyal advocate of authenticity, the better news is that Hayashi has confirmed to me that you will be able Switch between English and Japanese sounds in the game.
For those interested in this story, "Nioh 2" took place before the first game of feudal Japan in 1555 and followed the historic warlord Toyotomi Hideyoshi who unified the country. However, Nioh 2 turned Hideyoshi into two people-one controlled by you and the other called Toukichiro. Since your parents belong to different species, fictionalization has become more wild than ever: one is a human and the other is a monster. This makes you a Shiftling, capable of transforming supernatural abilities from your human form into a powerful demon, thus exerting a barbaric advantage in battle.
When you play William the Irish Samurai, the first Nioh lacks the power of the monster. He was based on William Adams in real life, one of the first Englishmen to arrive in Japan, and later became one of the few Western warriors in existence. You have no choice but to play William of Nioh with his blue eyes and blond hair. But the Ninja team eliminated the restrictions on the sequel by placing the character creator at the beginning of the game.
Hayashi told me: "Players around the world can customize their characters to make them look like themselves, if they like or otherwise enter the story and enjoy the game." The character creator is Nioh, who gets after Nioh "One of the biggest feedbacks." But this is a sequel that the Ninja team has decided after the first game has attracted so much international popularity.
The Ninjas know very well that their fans must express their desires in the game. In the golden age of Japanese action games, the team of ninjas struggled to establish themselves in neighboring studios, reflecting this.
Over the past few years, products like Nier: Automata, Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, Monster Hunter: World, Kingdom Hearts 3, Devil May Cry 5 and Astral Chain have all sold millions. Capcom reports substantial profit growth. PlatinumGames attracted fans as they worked hard to self-release after launching several popular games. Square Enix predicts that sales of this year will surge due to the remake of Final Fantasy 7. Japanese action games are thriving and seem to prove more than ever that it is very popular around the world, not just in Japan.
This is a welcome relief for Japanese game developers. As early as 2010, Japanese games ran into trouble, accounting for only 10% of global sales, compared to 50% in 2002. This led Superman creator Inafune to say at the time: "Everyone is making terrible games, and Japan is at least five years behind. I don't think Japanese games will ever be popular overseas. But they will not be in a pure state. No matter how popular it is. "
This is the state of Japan's game when Hayashi took over as president of the Ninja Team in 2008. He has since faced controversy in Western countries due to accusations of underage characters in the Dead or Alive series and widespread criticism from Japan. The West is more inclined to portray women in these games. He initially encountered mixed torment when trying to use the flagship series Ninja Gaiden 3 and Yaiba to take over the torch of the succeeding man Toagabu Itagaki-they are said to be repeated, streamlined and even a disaster. Until 2017, Hayashi's greatest success in the West was to take over the established work of another studio with Hyrule Warriors
No wonder Nioh's popularity surprised him. It became one of the many Japanese games released in 2017, and it has caused a huge international response, which has inspired many to revive the country's developers. What's the secret? Looking at Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, Resident Evil 7 and Final Fantasy XV, the answer seems quite obvious. These games are unique in Western game design trends. So is Nioh.
Hayashi told me: "It's great to see other Japanese developers making a lot of great action games." "It looks like all development teams are making the most of their areas of expertise. In the West, they have also been well received. They have healthy competitors. It's great that we want to keep pace with them and maintain our identity as one of the special competitors. "
But what is the identity of the ninja team Lin mentioned here? Although the studio now has many new fans due to Nioh's popularity, many can still trace the idea of the game to other studios. If you have played FromFromware RPG in the past ten years, you will be able to identify many design elements in Nioh. Hayashi recognizes the similarities, but insists that Nioh 2 is not what Ninja Team uses in FromSoftware's latest game Sekiro or any other modern Japanese action game. "We played these games and took inspiration from them, but more of a combination of what we learned from Nioh 1."
The Ninjas want to please fans accumulated after the first Nioh is over and have listened to them as much as possible. Beta tests and surveys were distributed for players so they could provide feedback on request. Hayashi and his team listened and adjusted the game where they thought it would be most effective. Hopefully by keeping the same blueprint as the first version, Nioh 2 will attract fans back, but by adding feedback-inspired ideas, the sequel will start to become more like a ninja team game rather than a game based on other ideas.
This is how I felt when I played Nioh 2 in a preview event recently. The Ninja team seems to have its own original ideas to contribute to the design library around masocore RPG. Curious, I asked Hayashi to describe how he thinks the "Ninja Team" game is different from the competition. "When making action games, we attach the most importance to responsiveness, so for us, it is very important to provide the game at a stable 60 frames per second, at least this is an option. This is the core idea of the Ninja team.
Comparing his game to others may not be his job. Without a doubt, he needs to focus on improving what he thinks the Ninjas are doing best. If so, great! Although I suspect that all action game developers will agree that this is essential for this type. It may take longer for the team of ninjas to really figure out who they are in order to transcend the crowd. But at least now there is a chance. Anyway, just like the Olympics, it's great to see all the competitors leading the way. After playing a small part of Nioh 2, I started to feel that the Ninja team is returning to glory.
Nioh 2 will be released on PS4 on March 13.
