"With Yaiba: Ninja Gaiden Z, Team Ninja is collaborating with Comcept lead by Keiji Inafune to create a new Ninja Gaiden franchise," Team Ninja head Yosuke Hayashi announced at a press event in Tokyo.
"Last year, I was the one who said the Japanese video game industry was over," Inafune-san joked. "As you may know I’m a great zombie fan. When I left my previous company, my dream was to make a zombie game. I’m very happy to be making this game with Team Ninja. Just as much as I love zombies, I like samurai and ninjas. My dream was to always make a ninja game so this collaboration that I’m announcing today is almost a dream come true."
Yaiba: Ninja Gaiden Z features a new main character named Yaiba who is chasing Ryu Hayabusa, the lead character from the main Ninja Gaiden series. Hayashi said Yaiba: Ninja Gaiden Z is in development for consoles, but wouldn’t specify which ones.
"The reality for a lot of creators is that they can’t make the games they really want to make. There are boundaries and rules and other people have say in the games you want to make. I’m very happy to be hear today to make the games I want to make," Inafune gleamed. "Several years ago, I said the Japanese game industry was dying. Hayashi-san mentioned today they’re not dying. They’re going to survive, make good games and lead the Japanese game industry."
Team Ninja and Comcept are also working with Lost Planet 3 developer Spark Unlimited. "You may have seen in the trailer, the Spark Unlimited logo, it’s a Western developer we’re working with to make a game that is very Japanese yet very Western," Inafune said.
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