Even before the full release of Team Ninja’s new open-world game, Rise of the Ronin, director Fumihiko Yasuda is already thinking about the studio’s next project. In an interview with VGC, Yasuda shared that he wants their next game to learn from the challenges faced during Rise of the Ronin’s development, aiming to “accomplish things we couldn’t do this time.”
Team Ninja, known for the level-based action games like the Nioh series, is taking a significant departure with the upcoming game Rise of the Ronin. According to Yasuda, the developer’s desire to provide players with more freedom and a broader narrative experience led to the decision to create an open-world game. The project has been in the works for eight years and draws inspiration from popular titles such as Assassin’s Creed and Red Dead Redemption.
In a recent statement, Yasuda admitted that adopting an open-world format presented a significant challenge for the studio. While he feels that the fundamental idea behind Rise of the Ronin has been effectively brought to life. He wants to improve its implementation in a future game.
“I think going forward, our challenge is to build from that and perhaps achieve things we weren’t able to do this time, and continue to build from there.”
Fumihiko Yasuda
Despite liking games with more straightforward structures, Producer Yosuke Hayashi is sure that the mix in Rise of the Ronin will please both fans of Team Ninja’s action-packed games and those who enjoy open-world freedom. The game includes planned main missions as well as unplanned gameplay in its open setting.
“We’re always trying to do a lot of things with each title, and we’re always trying to utilise what we learned in the past on what we work on next. I think with Rise of the Ronin you’ll see that it’s kind of an amalgamation of the games that we’ve worked on in previous years. We’re going to utilise what we learned with Rise of the Ronin to further expand our work going forward.”
Yosuke Hayashi
Since its launch, Rise of the Ronin has been generally well-received by critics. It’s not clear yet how the studio will apply the lessons from Rise of the Ronin to their next project. However, Yasuda’s comments suggest they are aiming to keep improving and pushing boundaries.
Comments