“In terms of action games, I think ninjas are a good fit,” says Fumihiko Yasuda, Team Ninja producer. We’re discussing why ninja characters are so enduring throughout the history of video games, right back to the original Ninja Gaiden games in the 1980s.
“This goes back to the 2D games, because [ninjas] have those acrobatic abilities and that appeals to an audience regardless of country. Also the fact they cover their face, they don’t really reveal their emotions, they portray this sense of ‘all-business’ professionalism, a seriousness, a mysteriousness. I think that makes them appealing.”
PlatinumGames producer and director Yuji Nakao concurs. “There’s this image of what a ‘cool’ ninja is,” he says, “and I think all the way back to the 2D Ninja Gaiden games, those have really captured the cool ninja that’s in everyone’s imagination.”
Ninja characters have long had a place in video games, even before the first Ninja Gaiden game back in 1988. But that game certainly popularised the aesthetic of the ninja action-hero, the retro-futuristic setting, the use of cinematic cutscenes, and a very high level of difficulty. Indeed, all of these elements returned with Team Ninja’s 2004 3D revival of the series on the original Xbox, which continued until 2012’s Ninja Gaiden 3.