Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2’s Lead Character Artist Speaks

Hello! My name is Hirohisa Kaneko, and I am the Character Art Lead of NINJA GAIDEN SIGMA2. It is my pleasure to write our third post for you to see how we work here at Team NINJA. First, let me say that I’m working very hard! We try and produce as many assets as we can for Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2 as I think nice screen shots and art are needed for our fans. I want fans to spend a lot of time looking at our assets so that is why we spend many hours getting them right!

The process of creating an artistic direction for screenshots begins at fixing the outline of a scenario, then we select the necessary location and situation which suites the scenario. Once we have those ideas drawn in by our designers we have a discussion and delve deeper into them, fleshing out ideas, improving composition etc. We do this at least a couple of times until those drawings evolve into “graphics which contains pleasure” as we would say in Japan. We want the assets to be eye-catching and pleasing to look at – creating screenshots is as much of an art as game design itself – we don’t just screengrab from code!

For the overall theme of Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2 we’ve pursued a sleek and cool visual style on this title, for that is what a ninja is – sleek and cool – the game must reflect the character, it must feel that the two are linked. We always try and improve the visual beauty of our games and run with those good feelings caused by such visual effects – it is good to go with your heart. NINJA GAIDEN SIGMA2 is the culmination of our work that we’ve ‘run with’. We are working with our feelings, moving where the heart takes us. Whenever we achieve our goals at Team NINJA, and whenever we’ve set out on any title we develop, that’s our basic stance. We complete our objectives by pursuing the new visual style we’ve decided and then we ‘run with it’.

A lot of people are questioning the idea of violence in Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2 but we do not think that less violence will be our new company direction for all games that we are going to produce at all. We’re developing the NINJA GAIDEN franchise, but on the other hand we developed DEAD OR ALIVE as well, and that does not have extreme violence, but rather it has an ‘extreme expression’. It is ‘out there’ and visually stunning, but I wouldn’t say it was extremely violent. I would say that you have to explore the extremes though – when my team explores one direction or theme, we can then proceed to new themes with their prior knowledge and experience behind them, it helps us judge where we want to take our games. So, now we know where we have been, our next title may be depicted with even more violence or we could try something completely different that is visually stunning. I would say we are sitting between ultimate violence and cool expression with NINJA GAIDEN SIGMA2!

For visual references in NINJA Gaiden Sigma 2, we need the game to be recognisable. If you remove all characters, will you still know what game you are playing just by looking at the background? We need to achieve this. We need harmony to the game, and to have it feel like Ninja Gaiden at all times. To acheive this, I have to be mindful that Ninja Gaiden carefully I mixes traditional Japanese aspects like Ryu’s village with sci-fi parts like Tokyo skyscrapers. For me, that is the essence of what Ninja Gaiden looks like. I don’t think it’s enough to depict environments and objects as you would see them in reality, we need to mix things up – place different areas and objects next to each other. Look at the first level of Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2 – we have traditional village buildings set against a cityscape – the placing of these parts together, when done correctly, creates balance. The image is formed, it IS Ninja Gaiden.

We are always careful to have economy in our design though – Ryu Hayabusa is a man, and this is just his story – we pick up and feature only what we need to accomplish that story – nothing more. It keeps the process clean – sleek if you like! I hope and believe that our fans instantly recognize our game! If I am honest, I am not sure what it is that makes it recognisable, but I always strive to deliver something that our fans think is beautiful, something that we pour our heart and soul into, it is as simple as that. I think all Team NINJA staff has that mind, and that is what makes our games recognisable – we design with our souls and hearts.