Feature: Q&I: A Chat With Team Ninja's Itagaki Subscribe to this RSS feed
Itagaki on Star Wars in Soul Calibur, and downloadable purchases!
Games.Net: Namco recently announced that Star Wars characters Yoda and Darth Vader will be in the new Soul Calibur game. I was wondering what your thoughts on that were. Are you supportive, or do you think it's a cash-in? What are the possibilities of famed third-party characters appearing in future works?
Itagaki: As far as the announcement, I just say that I guess people are going to have to be careful not to be eaten up by the Star Wars characters (laughs). On a more serious note, I've heard that each of the Star Wars characters are going to be exclusive to one of the platforms. Speaking as a producer, I would say that I don't agree with that approach. I think it's a disservice to the gamers because I feel it's fine if I'm going to make a multiplatform game, to say "buy one version." This is basically like saying "You have to buy both to get everything." They should either the content the same on both or just focus on a single platform. I think that's what you have to do to be fair to the gaming public.
As far as a guest character appearing in one of my games, in DOA4 we had Nicole the Spartan, inspired by Halo. When we were doing that, one thing I felt was that it was a big responsibility to be in charge of taking someone else's work that they've lovingly crafted and try to shoehorn it into your game. You really have to approach it with respect and delicacy, and it's not as easy as it looks.
A simple example would be when we were putting the Spartan into DOA, we were struggling to balance her character with the rest of the roster. If you make her the strongest character, then Halo fans are probably going to be upset because it's boring to have that one character dominating the other. If you make her the weakest, obviously they'd be upset because she's not supposed to be weak. It isn't as simple as just throwing her in there; you really have to think about it closely. It took a lot of thought and a lot of careful design to figure out exactly where she would fit in with the rest of the characters.
Games.Net: A lot of folks thought you tapped the complete potential of the Xbox with Ninja Gaiden. Do you think there's room for improvement on the Xbox 360 from Ninja Gaiden 2?
Itagaki: I think it's impossible to use hardware 100%. Maybe 98%. You have to remember that there is a slight variation in tolerance on a console, so if you were going to make something that ran at 100%, there would be some machines it wouldn't run on. I think anyone who says they're using 100% of a console is really just using around 98%.
Games.Net: What are the chances of, after Ninja Gaiden 2's out and whatever downloadable content has arrived, of a refined release a la Ninja Gaiden Black?
Itagaki: I haven't thought about that at all. The reasons for that are because when we did the original Ninja Gaiden on Xbox, the attach rate for Xbox Live was so low back then. I thought it was unfair that only the people who were part of the fledgling Xbox Live service back then could enjoy the new content we made for the Hurricane Pack. So I wanted to give offline-only users a chance to experience all the content as well. But now it's totally different. The attach rate on Xbox Live on the 360 is huge, so I'd say "Hey, everybody, get online and download that content." I don't feel I have to worry about that anymore.
Games.Net: What do you think about the idea of having content already on the disc unlocked via paid download versus creating that content later on? Where does Team Ninja's philosophy lay with that?
Itagaki: I think both are equally valid approaches. I mean, of course, that downloading completely new content for a price should be the main way, the main source of downloadable content. But there are plenty of people out there like me who don't have a lot of time on their hands who want to see everything a game has to offer but don't have the time to do it. So instead of asking you to put X number of hours into a game to see this content, we're going to charge you to see that content. I think that's a valid option for people that are older or don't have much free time. This industry has been around over twenty years; it's time we accept there are other types of gamers out there, so I don't think that teenagers or young people with all the free time in their hands are going to accept that kind of system where you unlock pre-existing content.
When I like something I say I like it; when I don't like something I say I don't like it. You'll know I'm speaking the truth when I say I like games like Ace Combat 6, and I like unlocking new planes in that game. But I don't have time to jump through all those hoops and do everything that's required for the unlockables in that game. To allow me to unlock a game with Microsoft Points, I would take that; I think it's a valid option for me.
Games.Net: What about when you can only get the content on the disc through buying it instead of through normal gameplay means?
Itagaki: Games like that should cease to exist from the planet.
Games.Net: What are your thoughts on the action genre thus far this generation? Have you played games like Heavenly Sword, Devil May Cry 4 or No More Heroes?
Itagaki: I played the demo for Heavenly Sword. One thing I thought it did well was showing the weight of the weapon and how the main character swung such a heavy weapon with a relatively light frame. You kinda felt the fragility of the main character as she tried to swing it. I thought it was really good animation.
However I think the overall sum of the all the game design parts left a little to be desired, so I'm looking forward to seeing a sequel in that franchise. I haven't played no more heroes.
Games.Net: It's the only game that I think has done sword fighting right on the Wii.
Itagaki: Is it tiring?
Games.Net: No, it only has you do finishing strikes.
Itagaki: Ah. I look forward to trying out Devil May Cry 4 too.
