Recent Interview With The Director Of Ninja Gaiden Sigma

[thelastword]

Yosuke Hayashi on NGSIGMA and the PS3.....


Can you talk about the overall graphics and what people can expect technically from Ninja Gaiden Sigma on the PS3?

It's not so much that we brought the game over to the PS3 as it is we more or less are recreating Ninja Gaiden with the most up-to-date graphic techniques in order to take advantage of the hardware. In order to have this be a great experience for both people who are new to the series as well as those who've enjoyed it since the beginning, we want to provide an experience that looks totally new and fresh. One of the best ways to do that was to have a game that runs at a 1080p with a constant 60 fps, and utilizes real-time self-shadowing. No other game as accomplished all three of these goals at once.


Was it always a plan to release it in the first-year window of the PS3?

We wanted to provide this experience to people on a next-gen platform as soon as we possibly could. It wasn't that we were aiming at first year timing.


Does the power of the PlayStation 3 allow you to do more with enemy A.I.?

For us putting new enemies in the game we needed to make sure that served a purpose. It's not just about the number you can have at once. There are games that have thousands of enemies at once, and some of them don't move or do much. For us it's about making sure they have goals they are fulfilling and that they can work together with existing enemies. That's really our philosophy. As far as A.I. goes people have played our game before will see that we've made some subtle improvements. A lot of it has to do with using all the Cell's SPU processors.


Have you nailed down the number of difficulty levels?

It's going to have five levels, just like Ninja Gaiden Black.


We saw a new dual-wielded set of swords? Do you think people will pick up the new mechanic right away?

We wanted more of an orthodox weapon, something easy to pick up and play. Since a key mechanic was the sword, we decided that we'd do a dual sword, [which provides] something new and flashy, and has a different play mechanic but is close enough to the original that people can easily pick it up easily. We've succeeded in making a weapon that has a ton of moves and is as useful as the single sword you start the game with. We wanted the dual swords to be the second standard weapon. You don't start out with them, but acquire them early on.


Has it been difficult to develop for the PS3 overall?

For us it's not a question of being easily to develop for, that's a relative term. When we first got our hands on the hardware it took us a while to get back into the flow of working with Sony, because they way they do things is a little different. The developers that say it's too hard to develop for and complain about it are missing the point. It sounds like an excuse to the consumer to us.

There are a lot of people out there that bought the PS3, and it's not a question of whether it's easy or hard. If your going to do a project you have to do the best you can. It's like if you bought a CD and it sounded bad and the singer said it was because the studio and the engineer were no good. Ultimately it's up to that person to make sure they have the quality that's needed. Look at what were able to do and the quality we are able to achieve and that speaks for it self. I think people will be satisfied with what we were able to do. If we can do it then other people will be able to do it as well.


Do you think Sigma could move a considerable amount of PS3 consoles?

That's up to the consumer. We hope that this game is something people or going to buy and want to play. We also recognize that it's more important to satisfy existing PS3 owners.


Can you talk about any online features at this point?

We're going to have "karma ranking," which is like a leader board for your score. That's something we had back on Xbox but we're going to expand it more to include more detailed statistics on how you played. One guy may have a high score but he may have died a lot so you can use that to share as a community.


Will any of the online features support PlayStation Home?

I think Home is an interesting concept and something that will be interesting to people. We'd love to implement compatibility but unfortunately Sony hasn't provided any of the tools needed to implement it. If you wanted to wait for the game to come out for a few more moths we'd be able to, but I don't think anybody wants that. I hope Sony gets on the ball with giving the developers the tools they need to implement Home, but right now I just look at it as an observer.


Will Rachel (and her War Hammer) have a unique move set, and how different will it be from Ryu's?

Rachel is a fiend hunter and her whole fighting style is based on that concept. We wanted to provide her with a great solid action that's different from Ryu, but really latch on to what makes her character unique. She appeared in cut-scenes on the Xbox, so people know that she carries this huge hammer and has seen her shoot wires into buildings. We're including those as weapons that are playable. She's mainly going to use her war hammer to pound enemies into submission. She's also got the wire shot she can fire into enemies, or into objects like chandeliers and swing into enemies to attack them.


Will Ryu and Rachel's missions interweave?

They're going to appear in the same storyline, so you'll play a few missions as Ryu and then some as Rachel.


Are you impressed with anything out on the PS3 right now?

I think I look at the lineup and I think people are trying, but I'd like to see a little more progress. We're working with real-time self-shadowing at 60 frames, and there are other games running at lower frame rates and us the fact that they have self-shadowing as an excuse and that's kind of disappointing. There are games I'm looking forward to, and one is Heavenly Sword. I haven't played it so I have no idea how it works as a game, but it has visuals that make you want to play it. It stimulates us to work harder to be able to take that game on when it comes out and I hope our game doesn't disappoint gamers.
Link (http://www.gamepro.com/news.cfm?article_id=107423)

[folken001]

Has it been difficult to develop for the PS3 overall?

For us it's not a question of being easily to develop for, that's a relative term. When we first got our hands on the hardware it took us a while to get back into the flow of working with Sony, because they way they do things is a little different. The developers that say it's too hard to develop for and complain about it are missing the point. It sounds like an excuse to the consumer to us.

There are a lot of people out there that bought the PS3, and it's not a question of whether it's easy or hard. If your going to do a project you have to do the best you can. It's like if you bought a CD and it sounded bad and the singer said it was because the studio and the engineer were no good. Ultimately it's up to that person to make sure they have the quality that's needed. Look at what were able to do and the quality we are able to achieve and that speaks for it self. I think people will be satisfied with what we were able to do. If we can do it then other people will be able to do it as well.

Very well said. I have been saying the same thing since PS2 era. A programmer's job is to program, not to complain. You shouldn't be in the field if you can't get the job done.

[Mochan]

Whine whine whine that's why it was so laughable when all those big wigs in Western dev companies were whining their hearts out about how hard it was to work with the PS3.

I guess that's one thing you can count on from Japanese developers they work hard. It doesn't surprise me that a Japanese-made game will probably be the first to take advantage of the PS3's capabilities and offer 60fps at 1080p with some good lighting effects thrown in. Motorstorm and Resistance were simply games that weren't pounded on enough in the development.

[thelastword]

It's interesting that they were able to do all that at 1080p/60fps, so much for Sony lying about their machine's cababilities "It won't ever do 1080p outside of the PSN I tell you".

Regardless, so many PS3 games are already 1080P and a truckload of upcoming games will be at that res including GOW3.

Very quick List of current 1080p/60fps games;

RR7
VF5
VT3
NBA 07
Full Auto 2
Marvel UA



I think that if NGSIGMA gets good sales then that makes NG2 a definite lock. I don't know though, whether Itagaki is having a hard time conceptualizing the second as nothing on NG2 has been shown, maybe the plan is to get SIGMA out first. Interesting again, that everyone is looking at Hsword, visually, it is the game to beat in this genre. Note how Hayashi says Hsword motivates him to work harder to compete with it.


Anyways.......

According to a JP mag, A demo of NGSIGMA will be made available on the Japanese PSN on April 27th. The full game is to debut on June 14th.

[Mochan]

Maybe Itagaki is too busy dodging sex scandals.

It would be nice to see Ninja Gaiden push good numbers on the PS3, but as the PS3 install-base isn't too big yet, I'm not expecting any GOW miracles.

[DrunkenThumbmaster]

It's funny when people said we did 1080p and 60Fps They are one in the same 1080p image refreshes at 60fps so it's automatic. Anyway I'm curious about this but I'll wait and see how far off Ninja Gaiden 2 is since it's a true sequeal and on superior game playing hardware.

[Mochan]

It refreshes at 60Mhz but it doesn't mean the image feed is running at 60 frames per second. If a game is only outputting 30 fps just having a 1080p signal doesn't magically make the framerate 60 fps.

[DrunkenThumbmaster]

It refreshes at 60Mhz but it doesn't mean the image feed is running at 60 frames per second. If a game is only outputting 30 fps just having a 1080p signal doesn't magically make the framerate 60 fps.


1080p at framerates lower than 60 is possible I guess but there has been a standard set and in most TV you can't get a 1080p image without it moving at 60 fps. That's why every single game that's been announced to run in 1080p also runs at 60 fps.

here's the Wikipedia about it. It doesn't really address games but it's good enought.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1080p

[Mochan]

Er... the very article you linked just said there are 1080p feeds going at 30fps, 25fps and 24fps repsectively.

Need I also point out that pretty much every movie shot only runs at like 24fps, are you saying no movies will run on a 1080p set?

While TVs can "upsize" the stream to a 1080p stream, the actual source material is still 24fps or what not. Same with games. If the game is running at 30fps, then it's 30fps and it's not going to look like it's running at 60fps even if it is upsized to 1080p.

[ThaMaskedGamer]

is NOT done yet.

I agree with him, do the best you can and do it right. Which is why Oblivion is delayed, which is why SCDA and GRAW2 are delayed, etc. Which is why we haven't seen any of the big name PS2 games. They are all still in development. As is this game.

So Mochan I don't get your point about western developers whining. Last time I checked Oblivion is a much more demanding game than a refreshed XBOX game, and yet it is already in the market for PS3. Ditto for SC:DA which will drop this week for the PS3. So I don't think western developers are doing anything different than Team Ninja, they taking their time to make sure they deliver a good gaming experience for the PS3 and PS3 users.

To me the guys struggling are the Japanese developers or at least the ones who did PS3 launch stuff. Ridge Racer, Ghenki(Stanky whatever), I mean those games were turds and they barely used PS3's power. But I really don't even blame them. You have to fault Sony.

You need games present, yet it takes a very long time to make good games. You can't have a system without games, so the answer is to cut corners and make crappy games and hope and pray that people can wait. I see this as a continual problem for PS3, it will always take a long azzed time to make quality games on this system. I guess the learning curve for developers will shorten, but it will always be a problem compared to 360.

As for everything else he said. I agree. They always do a good job, well at least with DOA and Ninja Gaiden, the volley ball stuff I can't say I never played it. But I respect the fact they are taking the project seriously and utilizing all the features of the PS3. This is what made me want a PS3, well not an updated XBOX port, but games that utilized its architecture and delivered 60fps at 1080p. That was the promise and I only got disappointed in the PS3 when that promise turned to hype. Hopefully Team Ninja can ignite a fire and get something started. Unfortunately this is a port, so I can't count it as something that I will ever play or something that will motivate me to buy a PS3.

[Mochan]

So Mochan I don't get your point about western developers whining. Last time I checked Oblivion is a much more demanding game than a refreshed XBOX game, and yet it is already in the market for PS3.

We had a bunch of devs whining about how hard it is to develop for the PS3.

John Carmack
"There are aspects that could make it a winning decision, but they're not helpful to the developers."
-http://www.1up.com/do/newsStory?cId=3156329

Tim Sweeney
http://game-hawg.blogspot.com/2006/09/programming-for-ps3s-cell-is-hard.html

etc. That's what I meant. Well I'll get back to you gotta have lunch first I have a date.

[ThaMaskedGamer]

We had a bunch of devs whining about how hard it is to develop for the PS3.

John Carmack
"There are aspects that could make it a winning decision, but they're not helpful to the developers."
-http://www.1up.com/do/newsStory?cId=3156329

Tim Sweeney
http://game-hawg.blogspot.com/2006/09/programming-for-ps3s-cell-is-hard.html

etc. That's what I meant. Well I'll get back to you gotta have lunch first I have a date.

No I understand that. But TeamNinja isn't refuting the idea it is hard to develop on PS3. They are saying "quit b%tchin' about it and just get to work. And take the time to utilize the hardware." But I don't think TeamNinja is at all saying it is NOT hard. Obviously it must be since they are still developing a port.

[folken001]

No I understand that. But TeamNinja isn't refuting the idea it is hard to develop on PS3. They are saying "quit b%tchin' about it and just get to work. And take the time to utilize the hardware." But I don't think TeamNinja is at all saying it is NOT hard. Obviously it must be since they are still developing a port.
They didn't confirm it either. They say you get paid for doing certain things. So do it and stop blame your own incompetent on something else.

[ThaMaskedGamer]

They didn't confirm it either. They say you get paid for doing certain things. So do it and stop blame your own incompetent on something else.

So if it IS easy to develop good games on the PS3. Why has it taken so long for TeamNinja to port a relatively light title like Ninja Gaiden, a title with no online support? Why is it taking them just as long or longer as it is taking other companies with completely new games that are much more profound some featuring online play?

And if it is easy to develop on the PS3 to what do you attribute the overall delay in games on the PS3?

[thelastword]

Then why don't you answer your own question, since you're basing it on things which you are clearly ignorant on.

How long has NGSIGMA been in development?

Is it as simple a port as Oblivion?

The fact is your arguments are just too loose. NGSIGMA was first shown and announced at the TGS in september of 2006, at that point they were about 30% done with the remake. We are in March of 2007 and you say these guys are taking forever, the darn thing will be in stores come June the 14th, yet still, it is not simply a port as was Oblivion since they have redone every single texture on the chars and in the enviroment and improved on the geometry in the world as well. There are more trees, leaves flying everywhere etc..hell, even the first level shown has so much more going on. They improved the polycount on all characters putting the ingame engine close enough to the CG in the xbox version. They added a playable character in Rachel with her own movesets etc... built 3 levels around her. They improved the Ai and have implemented a great lighting system at 1080P/60fps. This is much more work than the port of Oblivion to the PS3 (as good as that was).

I think some of you so called xbots hype and talk about released games they clearly have not played. No wonder Gaiden sold like ass, You guys were too busy talking about how great it was when your'll never touched it. I guess it was only a point of reference huh! "Hey NG is 92% at gamerankings on the xbox". It's better than DMC bla bla bull....

Hell, it seems more PS fans have played NG on this board than the so called bots. It would be interesting if Tecmo says NG2 will be on the PS3 exclusively how many xbots will say that DMC4 crushes NG2. Goodness...G

Anyways, the point has been proven...

[thelastword]

Which is why Oblivion is delayed, which is why SCDA and GRAW2 are delayed, etc. You know what, I'm assuming these games are being delayed because they're using the EDGE tool to bring them up to speed. EDGE was just detailed to and released to developers, especially to aid third party developers. Frankly I don't see these titles selling much, but if they are half ass they will sell even less. When Sony fans have a squad shooter like Socom coming up they're will not be bothered with half ass ports, clearly Ubisoft gets the message and are coding the games properly. After Edge all PS3 ports/multiplats should look better and play better at 60fps IMO.

[folken001]

i think thelastword summed it up pretty well for me. Using GRAW2 as an example is a poor strategy. PC version of GRAW2 is also delayed until June. I suppose it's just hard to make games for PC too nowadays. 360 is the easiest to program for. All hail to M$.

[Mochan]

No I understand that. But TeamNinja isn't refuting the idea it is hard to develop on PS3. They are saying "quit b%tchin' about it and just get to work. And take the time to utilize the hardware." But I don't think TeamNinja is at all saying it is NOT hard. Obviously it must be since they are still developing a port.

Um, duh? Tha'ts what I said. What *I* was whining about was the whining other devs were doing, I wasn't whining about the PS3 being hard or not to develop for. I was laughing at the mentality of the other devs who just whined whined whined all the way home, and I was admiring the "do or die work to the bone ethic" of Team Ninja.

[Cuddly Knife]

Ninja Gaiden Sigma gameplay looks nothing like the CG form XBOX Ninja Gaiden. You're still smoking that rock I see, huh Word?

[thelastword]

Ninja Gaiden Sigma gameplay looks nothing like the CG form XBOX Ninja Gaiden. You're still smoking that rock I see, huh Word?Knife I said close enough to the CG, we shall see how it really looks at when we actually play come June. I'm not hyping per se, it's just that Ryu's ingame model looks about on par with the movie sequences in the xbox version.

[DrunkenThumbmaster]

Er... the very article you linked just said there are 1080p feeds going at 30fps, 25fps and 24fps repsectively.

Need I also point out that pretty much every movie shot only runs at like 24fps, are you saying no movies will run on a 1080p set?

While TVs can "upsize" the stream to a 1080p stream, the actual source material is still 24fps or what not. Same with games. If the game is running at 30fps, then it's 30fps and it's not going to look like it's running at 60fps even if it is upsized to 1080p.

The article isn't completely up to date. And toward the middle it states that a new standard is being develop. Regardless of the techincal issues the bottom line is that
1080p games all run at 60fps all of them

Call of Duty 3 on the 360 1080p 60 fps
Ridge Racer 7
Nba2k7/Nba the show
Marvel ultimate alliance

Across the board that's the standard.

[Cuddly Knife]

Viruta Tennis on the 360 is 1080p, 60fps, and online. Something the PS3 version is not.

[NEO-360]

Then why don't you answer your own question, since you're basing it on things which you are clearly ignorant on.

How long has NGSIGMA been in development?

Is it as simple a port as Oblivion?

The fact is your arguments are just too loose. NGSIGMA was first shown and announced at the TGS in september of 2006, at that point they were about 30% done with the remake. We are in March of 2007 and you say these guys are taking forever, the darn thing will be in stores come June the 14th, yet still, it is not simply a port as was Oblivion since they have redone every single texture on the chars and in the enviroment and improved on the geometry in the world as well. There are more trees, leaves flying everywhere etc..hell, even the first level shown has so much more going on. They improved the polycount on all characters putting the ingame engine close enough to the CG in the xbox version. They added a playable character in Rachel with her own movesets etc... built 3 levels around her. They improved the Ai and have implemented a great lighting system at 1080P/60fps. This is much more work than the port of Oblivion to the PS3 (as good as that was).

I think some of you so called xbots hype and talk about released games they clearly have not played. No wonder Gaiden sold like ass, You guys were too busy talking about how great it was when your'll never touched it. I guess it was only a point of reference huh! "Hey NG is 92% at gamerankings on the xbox". It's better than DMC bla bla bull....

Hell, it seems more PS fans have played NG on this board than the so called bots. It would be interesting if Tecmo says NG2 will be on the PS3 exclusively how many xbots will say that DMC4 crushes NG2. Goodness...G

Anyways, the point has been proven...

All this hoopla in the long run will mean absolutely nothing. This game wont sell well. Why? Because if you've played this game before on the Xbox why buy it again? For playing with Rachael? 3 extra levels? New animations? Improved A.I.? Sorry but um once again why play through this game again if you've beaten the 1st Ninja Gaiden and Ninja Gaiden Black on all levels?

This game wont sell well. Before any of you can let talks of NG2 coming to the PS3 coming out of your mouths the PS3 first has to sell alot of games to show that its in fact a bonafied gaming console. So far games from Burger King has outsold the top PS3 games since its launch back in November. Hows that for a comparison?

The only point thats been proven is that you guys would rather hype up a four year old Xbox port with a fresh coat of paint and call it a new game rather than be happy with owning something that nobody else would have. Thats about it.:thumbsup:

[NEO-360]

All this hoopla in the long run will mean absolutely nothing. This game wont sell well. Why? Because if you've played this game before on the Xbox why buy it again? For playing with Rachael? 3 extra levels? New animations? Improved A.I.? Sorry but um once again why play through this game again if you've beaten the 1st Ninja Gaiden and Ninja Gaiden Black on all levels?

This game wont sell well. Before any of you can let talks of NG2 coming to the PS3 coming out of your mouths the PS3 first has to sell alot of games to show that its in fact a bonafied gaming console. So far games from Burger King has outsold the top PS3 games since its launch back in November. Hows that for a comparison?

The only point thats been proven is that you guys would rather hype up a four year old Xbox port with a fresh coat of paint and call it a new game rather than be happy with owning something that nobody else would have. Thats about it.:thumbsup:

Just like I thought. PS3 supporters with nothing to say after taking a jab to the chin.In the words of Ashton K."You've been Punked!!":p

[slade]

The only reason Moody puts down NGS is because he couldn't finish NGB without going to Ninja Dog mode. When a game actually brings out your inner character for everybody to see, it's a little difficult dealing with an even harder version of it.

[NEO-360]

The only reason Moody puts down NGS is because he couldn't finish NGB without going to Ninja Dog mode. When a game actually brings out your inner character for everybody to see, it's a little difficult dealing with an even harder version of it.

I finished Ninja Gaiden Black without adjusting the level difficulty. Went through hell and brimstone playing it but I ended it. If I remember correctly I talked vividly about my encounters with the game. I even talked in great detail about alot of parts of the game.

When I asked you to do the same and talk about how far you were in the game you didnt say jack. So lets not go there. Plus I've been talking about God Of War II a hell of alot more than you've been since you started that thread over in the PS3 forum.

I'm not putting NGB down. I'm putting down Ninja Gaiden Sigma for the PS3.(Which is a four year old Xbox port with a paint job and new levels starring a busty blonde)

But yet you attack my character? Way to go Saramonius Sladester.:thumbsup: