Tecmo on Ninja Gaiden 2 violence, AO rating scare

What’s claimed to be the “best action game in the world” could also easily be the bloodiest, thanks to Ryu Hayabusa‘s brutal ways to decapitate enemies in Ninja Gaiden 2 on Xbox 360. Some even worry that the gore may warrant an Adult Only (AO) rating by ESRB, but Tecmo believes in violence and sexual elements as key elements of entertainment.

Producer Yoshifuru Okamoto sat down with GamePro to discuss about the upcoming title. As he puts it, sexual elements and violence are crucial for any entertainment medium. Team Ninja already touched the erotic parts with previous projects like Dead or Alive Extreme 2, he said, so Ninja Gaiden 2 is taking the violence up.

That isn’t to say slicing enemies into bloody piles of flesh is the meat of the game, because “it’s important that the violence is not just for its own sake” according to Okamoto. Ryu is killing baddies who try to take him down, and Ninja Gaiden 2 wants players to feel how crazy that can be.

Okamoto explained:

Slaughtering innocent people in the street or taking enemies that are already dead and playing around with their bodies and picking up their arms and throwing them around and things like that is not what we are trying to do.

Such justification might not work with the ESRB though, so an AO rating is very possible. Fortunately, it seems Tecmo is open for adjustments. Okamoto told GamePro:

We certainly don’t take the rating into account at the very beginning. It’s a situation of thinking what’s best for the game — what do we want to show, what do we want to express. And then incorporating that and trying to work out the rating issue later.

He stressed out that gameplay won’t be compromised in any way, but the technology to adjust violence aspects is there. Some effort will also be invested in Ninja Gaiden 2‘s new heroine who’s yet to be revealed. The new girl isn’t anything Rachel, “but she will have large breasts,” Okamoto confirmed.

What’s claimed to be the “best action game in the world” could also easily be the bloodiest, thanks to Ryu Hayabusa‘s brutal ways to decapitate enemies in Ninja Gaiden 2 on Xbox 360. Some even worry that the gore may warrant an Adult Only (AO) rating by ESRB, but Tecmo believes in violence and sexual elements as key elements of entertainment.

Producer Yoshifuru Okamoto sat down with GamePro to discuss about the upcoming title. As he puts it, sexual elements and violence are crucial for any entertainment medium. Team Ninja already touched the erotic parts with previous projects like Dead or Alive Extreme 2, he said, so Ninja Gaiden 2 is taking the violence up.

That isn’t to say slicing enemies into bloody piles of flesh is the meat of the game, because “it’s important that the violence is not just for its own sake” according to Okamoto. Ryu is killing baddies who try to take him down, and Ninja Gaiden 2 wants players to feel how crazy that can be.

Okamoto explained:

Slaughtering innocent people in the street or taking enemies that are already dead and playing around with their bodies and picking up their arms and throwing them around and things like that is not what we are trying to do.

Such justification might not work with the ESRB though, so an AO rating is very possible. Fortunately, it seems Tecmo is open for adjustments. Okamoto told GamePro:

We certainly don’t take the rating into account at the very beginning. It’s a situation of thinking what’s best for the game — what do we want to show, what do we want to express. And then incorporating that and trying to work out the rating issue later.

He stressed out that gameplay won’t be compromised in any way, but the technology to adjust violence aspects is there. Some effort will also be invested in Ninja Gaiden 2‘s new heroine who’s yet to be revealed. The new girl isn’t anything Rachel, “but she will have large breasts,” Okamoto confirmed.