Team NINJA is Planning to Reboot Dead or Alive and NINJA Gaiden

Some breaking news has been released today during Team NINJA's keynote at the South Korea G-Star conference by Fumihiko Yasuda that Dead or Alive and NINJA Gaiden reboots will be the future of the company after the release of Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty & Rise of Ronin. The final image presented in the breaking story has been translated by key individuals in our community including @WAZAAAAA and @Matt Ponton respectively:

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Team NINJA's Future - Reboot of Popular Series - Images of NINJA Gaiden & Dead or Alive ​

There is a lot of information in this story, and we will break all of it down here at Free Step Dodge, but this looks like extremely positive evidence of a future and now is probably not the time to leave the DOA community if you were planning to jump the fence. We've been covering Team NINJA's Fumihiko Yasuda all year and he checks all of the boxes of a proper president: he's been honest, he's developed legendary games, he's focused on the present and the future.

We don't know all of the details yet, but everyone interested should be inclined to give Yasuda a chance after (in all due respect) the marketing blunder that Yohei Shimbori was vacuumed into as Team NINJA director and producer for Dead or Alive 6. Shimbori was put into a position where he could not excel with DOA6 and was unfortunately retired because of it not to dampen the rest of his career which was a legendary run on his part.

If we find out in ANYWAY that these translations are inaccurate, we will remove them, but as of now they have been double checked, fact checked, site checked and approved for this story release. Also, it's important to consider that the term 'reboot' can mean a wide array of different things, some elements that could have negative impact and some elements that could have positive impact and we ask that you consider that when discussing the future of the games. Seeing as how Yasuda has been as transparent as he can be to a global audience; this is a good indicator of things to come.

 

After 6, I've lost confidence in TN. All the hard work they poured into DOA5 just went down the drain in DOA6. From stages, to story, to system changes. DOA6 is just some weird fever dream to me at this point that I want to forget about. I'm not confident in their ability to create a DOA7. Like, where the hell was there data analytics team during the production of DOA6 to inform them on what decisions needed to be made to secure profit lol?

 

I don't really feel the reboot thing was misinformation, but his phrasing to me reeks of typical japanese corpo "lemme walk that back".

Either plans changed, or that information was never supposed to get out to begin with. Likely both.

 

Poor TN will be doomed to make soulslike games until KT's shareholders say otherwise. The formula is so tired, it was already feeling that way before Elden Ring and after should have given everyone burnout.

 

https://m.ruliweb.com/news/read/174785 Is this looks like misunderstanding? Slides are here and Yasuda himself on the conference

 

People took things out of context, but yes, those are Team NINJA's slides, and yes; it does say reboot.

What they don't want to deal with is idiots who were expecting a trailer announcement that day. Those types of people are why companies have to backtrack and dumb things down so that there can be an understanding to people that speak without first using their brain to figure something out. Ronin isn't even out yet for Christ's sake, and they've been working on it for 7 fucking years.

"Hiroaki Morita" was right about Wo Long and Ronin MONTHS before they were announced, and he says NINJA Gaiden is next. Take this GSTAR Keynote story plus Hirokai's leak and put that together!

 

I kinda do hope the series get rebooted though. With how much effort the other big name fighting games are doing, DOA might have to try something new.

Course I mean in the sense that there's nothing DOA has in it's arsenal that catches new players to play the game vs other fighting games (sure the sex appeal is one, but any other game can do that if they really truly tried). The other FGs are getting new people into the games more than ever. Only thing DOA has to technically offer is DOA fans to get hype for the stuff in terms of new content, but nothing much in terms of overall growth and player growth who's never played the series or to even give it a shot.

 

Either way in some regard they are being rebooted because it's not going to be handled at all by Hayashi (at least very unlikely) or Shimbori.

 

I still have faith the next DOA can be great mostly because I blame DOA6 more on KT than I do on TN, which really isn't just one team anymore, is it? Nor were "TN devs" the only ones who worked on DOA6 - referring to the outsourcing work. Yeah the word "outsourcing" has already come up again, but that doesn't have to be a bad thing. It all really depends on whither KT has the mindset to treat DOA like they did leading up to DOA5 again, or be lazy and rush something out like they did with DOA6. I honestly don't think they can do the latter again. The moment we're in can only be compared to the time after DOA4 and before DOAD and DOA5, not like the time after DOA5LR and before DOA6.

The thing that needs a reboot the most in KT's outlook on the series to stop just treating it like a cashcow to take advantage of fans with. They need faith in the potential of the series enough to give it the resources and focus to build things up from scratch again (at least to the extent they did with DOA5). Hopefully seeing the results of SF6 and Tekken 8 will reinvigorate a sense of competition in them. Precedents have already been set - they've done good before and they're capable of doing it again.

 

Either way in some regard they are being rebooted because it's not going to be handled at all by Hayashi (at least very unlikely) or Shimbori.

Yes, currently we are stuck with "It's ok, nobody plays Phase-4 anyway" Nakamura.

 

Reject esports, return to booba

 

That's what venus vacation is for.

Although in the case of that game, it outright rejected any form of actual gameplay at all.

 

It also made 90% of the characters look like skinwalkers

 

If TN made another DOA, it would mainly be for their niche fanbase. They'd have to do some serious marketing work (and possible system rework) to pull in new players. The challenge that TN needs to address is, why would anyone want to play DOA7 over the likes of Tekken 8, MK12, SFVI, etc. I don't see TN securing the capital from Koei to do that. Publishers today are not interested in pouring money into anything that they feel won't make any profit.

 

why would anyone want to play DOA7 over the likes of Tekken 8, MK12, SFVI, etc.

Because we have the boobs.

None of those other games have a single attractive female model. And more than that, the game will actually look good.

 

Because we have the boobs.

None of those other games have a single attractive female model. And more than that, the game will actually look good.

I don't know... everyone is up Cammy's butt cheeks right now after her SFVI reveal, and not to mention the creepy Juri foot fetish trend. I can go on about the weird shit I see, but let's save that for another thread lol.

 

A sample of the "attractive" women of the other fighting games you mentioned:

 

DOA wins again.

 

What a totally not at all cherry picked list lmao

 

Yeah I forgot to include Jade in my list. She is so sexy.

 

A sample of the "attractive" women of the other fighting games you mentioned:

Hold on now, Marisa's kinda my type... and maybe Sheeva. Manon gets a pass IF her backstory turns out to be "the next Cammy" material.

But Granny Chun and Discount Blackarachnia? I'll give you those.

(I'm not gonna even bother with Power Punch Man...)