In a recent interview with GamePro Hayashi goes into a further discussion over his expectations of the style of DOA5, the current state of the fighting genre, and dealing with the forced change of the team due to Itagaki's departure. The first page was all Ninja Gaiden discussion with most of the second page about Dead or Alive.
GamePro said:Team Ninja Next: Yosuke Hayashi's Vision for Ninja Gaiden and Dead or Alive
by Billy Berghammer
September 25, 2011 23:08 PM PT
As if switching up Ninja Gaiden wasn’t enough, Team Ninja’s venerable fighting franchise Dead or Alive is also looking to breaking new ground.
“With the boom that’s happened with fighting games in recent years – of course we’re happy that the genre is back and is as strong as it’s become. Especially after Street Fighter IV, things have really boomed again. But we wanted to make sure that Dead or Alive is not looking back," Hayashi-san said.
"All of the fighting games that are out there now seem to be going to back to their roots, and it’s the same sort of game that you were playing 10 years ago, with updated graphics, online play…that aspect is good. But we want to make sure that we’re doing something new and trying to push the genre forward.”
Billed as “fighting entertainment,” the video of pre-alpha action showed environmental elements taking a bigger part in the outcome of a match. Hayashi expressed that we’ll see just as much of a change in DOA that we’re seeing in Ninja Gaiden.
“You can definitely expect a different Dead or Alive in Dead or Alive 5. It’s been six years since [DOA] 4. Nobody is going to want a game now that could have been there six years ago. So we definitely want to update it. We definitely want to see something that is very different."
"When we talk about updating franchises and updating things and a different sort of Team Ninja making these games, there was talk about redoing the Team Ninja logo and making it something else and I opposed it vehemently. Because it’s not about the logo. We’re not trying to change the image of the team. We’re going to respond through the games. And we’re going to answer the fans who are worried --who might be on the fence. Play the games. that’s where you’ll see this is still Team Ninja.”
Hayashi exudes a level of confidence and pride in Team Ninja’s product, and while this may be a different sort of confidence that Itagaki-san showed, it’s apparent that he and the team are focused on the challenges ahead.
“We’re just trying to make good games. We’re not trying to make a game for the West, or looking over there, and [saying,] ‘Oh my god, what are those Westerners going to like, and what kind of games… okay they’re going to like this, okay.’
We just want to make the best, most kick-ass games we want to make, and we are putting our hearts and souls into these games. We’re confident that if we can put that passion into these games, it’ll reach anywhere.”