Yaiba: Ninja Gaiden Z…with zombies!

Last week we wrote about an upcoming title dubbed Yaiba. It was being designed by the man who brought us Mega Man and one of Capcom’s once most creative minds, Keiji Inafune.

Well at Tokyo Game Show, Team Ninja head Yosuke Hayashi and Mr. Inafune came together to finally announce more information on Yaiba, revealing its full title, Yaiba: Ninja Gaiden Z.

Yosuke Hayashi  was delighted to work Keiji Inafune,” With Yaiba: Ninja Gaiden Z, Team Ninja is collaborating with Comcept lead by Keiji Inafune to create a new Ninja Gaiden franchise,”

Both sides seem pretty excited to step into this new territory especially since it’s taking one of Tecmo Koei’s popular franchise to a whole new level.

“Last year, I was the one who said the Japanese video game industry was over,” Inafune-san joked. “As you may know I’m a great zombie fan. When I left my previous company, my dream was to make a zombie game. I’m very happy to be making this game with Team Ninja. Just as much as I love zombies, I like samurai and ninjas. My dream was to always make a ninja game so this collaboration that I’m announcing today is almost a dream come true.”

 

 

“The reality for a lot of creators is that they can’t make the games they really want to make. There are boundaries and rules and other people have say in the games you want to make. I’m very happy to be hear today to make the games I want to make,” Inafune gleamed. “Several years ago, I said the Japanese game industry was dying. Hayashi-san mentioned today they’re not dying. They’re going to survive, make good games and lead the Japanese game industry.”

The game focuses on a brand new character, Yaiba, who is chasing after Ryu Hayabusa. In this game, he faces a whole new type of enemy, zombies.

Currently the game is being developed by three different studios: Comcept (which is led by Keiji Inafune), Team Ninja and a Western developer Spark Unlimited, who is currently working on Lost Planet 3.

We have yet to confirm what console the game is being developed for, nor a planned release date.

Chris Del Castillo

Growing up Chris watched a lot of the original Saturday morning cartoons and developed a love for arts and animation. Growing up he tried his hand at animation and eventually script writing, but even more his love of video games, anime and technology grew.