Fumihiko Yasuda, the director of Nioh 2, apparently wants to make a new Ninja Gaiden game very badly. However, his work on Nioh is getting in the way. The information came up during a Famitsu interview with several Koei-Tecmo executives and developers, along with discussion for some upcoming Nioh 2 DLC.
There hasn’t been a Ninja Gaiden game since Yaiba: Ninja Gaiden Z, which got a critical thrashing bad enough to label it as one of the 100 worst games of all time. That game came out back in 2014, and considering the experience gained since then, now might be the time for Ninja Gaiden to make a comeback.
Since Team Ninja is responsible for starting the Ninja Gaiden series to begin with, the past six years, plus all of the experience developing the combat and gadgets of the Nioh games, can more than likely translate into a great Ninja Gaiden game.
However, Koei-Tecmo president Hisashi Koinuma, told him that he can’t do that yet, because he still has to work on the Nioh 2 DLC that’s still to come. The first Nioh game had three different DLC packs, but so far we don’t know how many there will be.
The first Nioh game’s DLC packs, Dragon of the North, Defiant Honor, and Bloodshed’s End, each included new missions, enemies, and more, along with including more historical events (in that case, the Siege of Osaka.)
As Nioh 2 director, Yasuda apparently would like to set the first of the Nioh 2 near the start of the samurai era, unlike the original game which was set during the Sengoku Jidai, the Warring States Period of Japan.
Since Nioh 2 is a prequel to the original game, it’s quite likely that we may get more DLC for it as well. Set in the late 1500s, Yasuda has said that even if the setting is still Japan, the timeline for the Nioh 2 DLC might jump around more, especially since an early suit of samurai armor was available as a pre-order bonus in the game.
Since Nioh 2 releases exclusively on the Playstation 4 tomorrow, we hopefully won’t have much longer until we can find out what the DLC will involve for ourselves.
