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00:00harada-san from who heads up the tekken the tekken uh franchise this like pretty public
00:06feud and harada-san since his passing is has shared some like really long posts about how they
00:12kind of not kind of they they reconciled later and they really became friends and it was very
00:19touching mitchell i don't know if you had a chance to look at that stuff i i i did and i did it was
00:23just a really it was a really kind of neat insight into into who itagaki was um so yeah for me
00:32at the first time i met him was when he came in to the official xbox magazine offices
00:38it must have been either like sometime in 03 or maybe early 04 because ninja gaiden came out in
00:48early 2004 i think it was march if i remember right and yeah he came in and like like mitchell
00:55was saying like he he had this persona he he always wore a black leather jacket usually black
01:01leather pants as well he had long hair always wore these wraparound dark sunglasses even inside he
01:09never he didn't he didn't take them off um and he uh yeah he he just he had a vision for
01:17for his games for dead or alive and and especially for ninja gaiden and you know everything everything
01:25every interaction i had with him was through a translator since i'm i don't speak japanese but
01:30he was just uh he really cared about about the games he made he was so invested in it and i love that
01:38quote that mitchell shared i remember that quote as well um and then there was a there was a press
01:46event for the this this off-site like remote event that i went to for dead or alive extreme beach
01:53volleyball now for those of you who might be too young i've seen the acknowledging smiles from my
02:00castmates if that's the if this right now is the first time that you're ever that anyone listening to
02:06this or watching this is hearing about dead or alive extreme beach volleyball and yes extreme spelled
02:12x t r e m e it was the 2000s this is how it was go look up dead or alive extreme beach volleyball it's
02:22exactly what you think it is and uh i was i was interviewing him for that maybe maybe don't look it up
02:30at work yeah um man so there there was that in addition which was like the spinoff from doa obviously
02:41and then ninja gaiden 2 um i i'm i'm pretty sure i interviewed him over the course of the time for
02:48that as well i ended up i reviewed that one for official xbox magazine i didn't review the first one
02:53uh that was dave reese shout out to dave uh who was our disc editor at oxm he loved ninja gaiden as
03:00well he loved it agaki san and i reviewed too and that that was a badge of honor like honestly you
03:07know just getting through it conquering it reviewing it like sadly none of oxm's stuff is online like my
03:16my my whole pre-ign career only exists in literal actual physical magazine form so it's uh i if i had
03:25my ninja gaiden 2 review like available i would have shared it this this past week with the passing of
03:31it agaki san but it's it's somewhere in a box in uh down in my in my my loft in the garage but
03:38yeah he was a character he just so cared about about games and and like you were saying mitchell he just
03:45he had a way of he had a vision and he was not he was not going to compromise from that and he never
03:53did and then ninja gaiden 3 without him i'm not trying to disrespect the people that did make ninja
04:01guide 3 but mitchell it wasn't the same ninja gaiden 3 was was just not much it very much went in a
04:08different direction and uh it just wasn't really what people wanted out of a ninja gaiden game uh they
04:14kind of course corrected a little bit with racer's edge but it's even still racer's edge while a fine
04:19action game it's not like you can't really compare it to the first two ninja gaiden games it's a very
04:24different style of game yeah um ed boone of course the creator and still the creative chief uh at
04:32nether realm on mortal combat he posted rest in peace tomonobu itagaki posted a picture of ed with
04:39with itagaki's son and a rare picture actually it's it's itagaki without sunglasses he's just
04:44wearing prescription glasses so you can actually see his eyes ed ed boone posted rest in peace tomonobu
04:50itagaki dead or alive and ninja gaiden made an undeniable impact on gaming i only crossed paths
04:56with him a few times but he could not have been nicer and it's just yeah it's just this just a
05:04shocking thing since his clearly his his situation was not public and and then um i remember i i was
05:12scrolling instagram actually first thing in the morning before starting the work day and saw ign had
05:17had posted had done a news story on his passing and that was not something i was expecting to read so
05:24um yeah rest in peace itagaki san uh a truly a truly unique game creator and uh yeah his
05:33as mitchell was saying his his mark is still felt that the fact that ninja gaiden black uh it remains
05:40the pinnacle of an entire genre 20 years later not a lot of people can say that so yeah i think i think
05:48with regards to especially for xbox if you follow the xbox history um both dead or alive and ninja
05:55guy were huge for xbox's third party relations with japanese games so in a way like itagaki also
06:02pioneered um japanese support japanese ports uh bringing things west side through xbox with uh
06:10with the games that he worked on so kind of set a precedent that is you know xbox is still uh chasing
06:17and it still felt to this day so he made a pretty big impact on xbox itself uh and not just uh like
06:24the games that he worked on uh so um yeah he's uh he's one of the one of the pioneers of the industry
06:31and it is uh you know sad to see him see him go he's uh like y'all said he's such a character uh but
06:37he's also a visionary too so um yeah it's uh it's always sad to see someone go like this but
06:45that's a great point michael because you're right i i would even take it a step further
06:49from what you said and and he i would argue that he legitimized the xbox
06:57for japanese developers yeah we all know the story like this this american console from the
07:04american company like the japanese companies weren't really on board with it and kind of historically
07:10it's it's kind of come and gone but yeah you're right like itagaki bet big on xbox right out of
07:18the gate with dead or alive and then ninja gaiden um so yeah good great point there that that we
07:25probably xbox gamers owe a lot to itagaki-san and it as as xbox fans in addition to his actual
07:34like just literal game contributions as well yep so with that uh we have ninja gaiden 4 now again
07:44the timing is is almost eerie i mean this this series that's been gone it's been dormant for
07:49is it what is it a dozen years mitchell over a decade 13 years since ninja gaiden 3 13 years
07:56and uh boy if they haven't already patched in a like in memory of thing for him i'm sure they will
08:06and i don't think i saw his name in the credits i hope they do well you had finished it before he
08:11passed right so that's true yeah yeah um and i'm not there i think they probably still should have had
08:16a special thanks to tomonobi itagaki in the credits true very i know i know that there's some some bad
08:22blood uh with how they split um so yeah yeah um so ninja gaiden 4 does mitchell does it not not to
08:33get too heavy with this but like would itagaki have been happy with this game do you think i think so
08:41i think this this really kind of uh takes you know i said about ninja gaiden 3 that it went off in a
08:48different way um and kind of did its own thing that kind of kept the same core tenets of ninja
08:53gaiden's combat but then changed virtually everything else ninja gaiden 4 builds off the
08:58foundation of ninja gaiden 2 and adds on top of it basically um so yeah i i do think that he would
09:05have uh would have been happy with what they did with with this game for sure and so tell us now what
09:12you thought of it i mean again you're you're a big fan of the franchise i am too i'm only uh three
09:18i finished mission three and then i was just on assignment yesterday which we'll talk about
09:23in a few minutes um you've obviously finished the game you gave it an eight out of ten
09:28for ign which i'll be honest with you mitchell when i saw your review my initial thought was a little
09:35bit of disappointment only because not in not in your review but after that preview that we got of
09:44that you each and you and i each played of just that first chapter it was like man this this seems
09:50to just nail it like this seems like it could be absolutely awesome and your final review the combat's
09:59awesome which is the most important thing but yeah kind of talk to us about about uh about your
10:04thoughts on the game yeah and my excitement from that preview still did hold up like i i i was blown
10:11away when i played that preview by the by the combat of the game and it it really held through all the way
10:16to the the end of my my playthrough i think and this is something that a lot of people will say like
10:22ninja guide is not known for the story it's not known for its characters etc etc um and i agree with
10:29that and if it was just the characters in the story i probably still would have given it a nine
10:35but there are some other issues i think and i don't want to harp too much on the negatives of a game that
10:40i did really really enjoy yeah but i think that the the level design is pretty pretty weak compared to
10:46previous games i think uh you know the the progression is not very good at the beginning because
10:57they they they gate off so many of your techniques that previously weren't gated off like the ability
11:03to charge your your ultimate technique with uh orbs the ability to do an on-land ultimate technique
11:09which is like one of the core aspects of why i love the combat of ninja guidance so much um and a couple
11:16other like the ultimate technique related uh things are completely blocked off until you get enough
11:22currency to be able to buy them um and then also on top of that like you can get this all x edition
11:28which is 90 something dollars and then you just avoid that problem altogether which kind of doesn't
11:33sit well with me yeah it's not right oh yeah that's yeah a choice but outside of that in the ways that
11:42matter the most this game is so damn good i was smiling from ear to from ear to ear pretty much
11:48throughout the entire time playing just because i was having so much fun engaging with combat
11:53and combat is 90 of the game um like it to do you agree with this mitchell like for me again i'm not
12:00done with it it makes me feel like a badass when i'm playing this game oh yeah definitely i mean and
12:07that's what that's what a good action game should should do i think um you know you play devil may cry
12:14you feel awesome when you're you know hitting them hitting them up juggling them with guns jumping up
12:19knocking them away pulling them back etc etc like that just it feels so cool um and ninja guy has all
12:26that also in kind of a different way mainly because uh you're able to use these blood infused like uh
12:34blood raven form techniques basically and oh my god just the the amount of options you have at any
12:42given point you basically have like nine weapons in this game that you can swap between at any point
12:46because you have the the four base ones and then you have the different forms of those weapons which
12:52are also basically weapons by them like their own weapons by themselves they're just a little bit slower
12:57um it's just oh man i i was just having so much fun experimenting with all the different moves i can do
13:05and uh trying to challenge myself to come up with uh different combos for for you know enemies that
13:12you can kind of juggle and it's it's challenging but not too challenging uh it just it hit it i say
13:20this in the review it checks all the boxes yeah um master ninja difficulty for the fellow sickos
13:27opens up after you complete the game correct correct yeah yeah and i don't think you would want to play
13:33master ninja before that because of the fact that the progression is kind of locked behind the ninja
13:39coin yeah and if you try to if you try to survive against the the enemies on master ninja difficulty
13:46with the amount of life that you have and no ultimate technique upgrades good luck i it would take
13:54a better person than me to deal with that so you you were talking in your review that that you're you said
14:01the combat for the the combat in this is as good as it's ever been which is really insanely high praise
14:07yeah i mean uh again it builds off of ninja guy 2 which i think has the best combat in the series
14:13um even though i like ninja guy black better that's more from just the the overall vibe of it and
14:20the structure of the game i like the the open kind of exploration that you can do the backtracking
14:25um and just kind of the enemy design but ninja guy 2 uh it adds the obliteration techniques which
14:32is basically you slice off an enemy limb and you make them instantly executable but then on the flip
14:39side and this is this is again this is an itigaki thing uh when you cut off a limb you know you would
14:45think that would make the the enemy you know less dangerous like no like they they can't they can't do as
14:50many things they're crawling on the floor but to him he would he would say yeah but now they don't have
14:57anything to lose so you have a crawling enemy on the floor that's very slow but he will leap at you
15:04stab you with a explosive kunai and blow himself up along with you and it does massive damage so to
15:10you know to counter that even though they they have a you know they're down a limb they are more
15:16dangerous but you can kill them in a single hit with the next obliteration technique and that's just
15:21such a fun way to experience this combat especially because i i saw a lot of people saying
15:27that the enemies were kind of like like spongy they took a lot of hits to to kill i never i never got
15:34that sense because of the fact that you have so many ways to just instantly take an enemy out of the
15:39fight you could use i'm with you ultimate techniques you can use obliteration techniques
15:43your flying swallow technique and just decapitate enemies sometimes uh there's just so many ways you
15:49have uh you have the asuna drop uh there's just so many ways you have of dealing tons of damage
15:54really really quickly to enemies in this game i i never won i have yet to get tired of of the
16:01obliterations it's i don't think it's ever going to happen every time it's the same camera cut every
16:06time but just the way the camera just like swoops around and then you get you get a head that just
16:11comes off it's the it's the best and they're super punchy they don't take too long they're very
16:16satisfying they they all end in a very cinematic shot of yakimo just like slicing an enemy's head
16:21off and looking really cool at the camera and it's just it's one of my favorite mechanics in
16:26can you talk about the berserk finishers which are oh yeah the bloodbath kills so yeah so you
16:32another new mechanic is uh the berserk meter which fills up as you take and deal damage and do
16:37obliteration techniques and once it's full you activate it and then all of your charged blood
16:43raven form techniques will instantly kill any enemy that they that they touch so you can like
16:49do things where you can extend your sword on the ground kind of like what goku would do with the
16:54power pole or wukong and then you like leap off sweep it across and just take out like eight enemies
17:00all at once in a really cinematic like that red flash we're actually seeing it right now if you're
17:06watching this video it's just so cool i actually did that i i and it's just so perfect whoever the
17:14i forget the the chapter three boss i had i finished him that exactly in that one it was just like the
17:20most satisfying thing ever that's awesome where the screen just goes red and it does the cinematic
17:25thing and then the the boss just drops and it's just like this is this is like just main i can just
17:30mainline this for for hours this is so good um miranda is this are you gonna get that are you
17:38gonna jump into this at all where where are you at i have katamari coming up so a little bit of a
17:45different vibe yeah different kind of rolling style you know um i i might get around to this there's
17:52just as you're saying at the top there's just so many games out right now that it's really hard
17:56and i feel like i kind of have to prioritize where i do want to try this out but i'm also going
18:00into it without having any sort of ninja gaiden knowledge and i know this is kind of deemed as
18:05a decent starting point just because they're trying to introduce new characters and things so
18:09i might try to give it some time
18:11so excited like this month is just non-stop excitement for me basically because of all the
18:24releases but
18:24one thing i will say you know ninja gaiden has always had a reputation for being very difficult
18:30and it is uh the first two games are some of the hardest games i think you'll you'll play in
18:35the kind of i can't call it the modern age anymore but uh you know in that kind of era of like the
18:42xbox xbox 360 kind of days but ninja gaiden 4 uh does a really good job of kind of lowering the
18:49the skill floor they have a new difficulty mode called hero mode which you know i think if you are a
18:56complete complete newcomer check it out you know get your hands on the combat mash some buttons have
19:02some fun uh it has auto guard it has auto combos they can do cool stuff just by pressing one button
19:09eventually you'll probably want to take those training wheels off and go to normal or i think
19:14i think normal is the next jump up but uh but yeah like you you can play this game if you've never
19:21played ninja gaiden game before if you don't know the combat um and i think you can still have a good
19:26time uh so i i think that that's actually a really good thing to kind of open the the doors a little
19:32for for newcomers i i do agree with you but i have to wonder if itagaki-san would have would have
19:37gone for that that is probably something that itagaki would have would have vetoed if he had a
19:41creative control but i i personally think it's a good thing yeah i'm with i'm with you it is it is good
19:47to open open the door for more people and then you have hard and you have master ninja there if uh
19:55if if you want that extra challenge um i just i just want to get people in the door i just want people
20:01to to understand why this is such a special game series to me um and just get get like a basic
20:09understanding of why this combat is so cool and and so mitchell kind of last thought on this uh before
20:17we move along you know this this was primarily developed by platinum games you know team ninja
20:23kind of produced it kind of was the guiding hand but this really was a platinum project so do you feel
20:31good a do you want this to continue i assume yes we want a ninja gaiden 5 and you you feel good about
20:39platinum being in the driver's seat now yeah i mean here's the thing with team ninja they are
20:45one of the busiest game developers out there in terms of their output of video games they're still
20:52doing neo i i could not believe that this game was coming out within a year of of neo 3 like i know
21:01that is that is because of the platinum partnership but i just never thought one of the reasons why i
21:05never thought this game would happen in the first place was because of the fact that neo had become
21:09such a popular brand for team ninja and i just didn't think that they would want to go back to
21:14uh the ninja gaiden series um but yeah i i if if this is what it takes to to keep ninja gaiden alive
21:24having having platinum and i think platinum did a phenomenal job in terms of taking what team ninja
21:31done before and adding their own spin to it uh so yeah so i would be i would be stoked to see
21:36this partnership continue and platinum games uh continue the legacy of of ninja gaiden i'm with you
21:44with you 100 i hope uh i hope this continues and hopefully a bunch of people play it on game pass
21:50it's on ps5 hopefully people buy it um it's on pc it's you know multi-platform now so
21:56we'll see how it does but man it's cool go ahead mitchell i will say if if we do get a ninja
22:02guy in five please put ryu back in the driver's seat yeah yakumo i think uh the gameplay that he
22:10he is able to to the stuff that yakumo is able to do is awesome but as a character i want ryu back
22:19i don't i don't want to be around yakumo anymore he's a bummer man yakumo is probably the weakest link
22:25of the game uh i mean i've played quite a bit of myself uh at this point and i think it's it's one of
22:31it's a difference between uh the contrast is very stark when you think about ninja gaiden uh
22:37two black which we played earlier this year and then with um ninja gaiden four is that there's a
22:42brisk pace to the way uh ninja gaiden two ran its story and it was like campy but it wasn't getting
22:48in the way it kind of it was slick it ran alongside the game itself but there's something about ninja
22:54that like it stops you and then shows you a lot of its story kind of kills the momentum and more so
23:02when you have a protagonist like yakumo who's like this edgelord who tries to be cool but isn't cool
23:08but he is cool in combat because once you figure out how to do the the blood ravens uh techniques
23:14that's when the game really opens up and i'm like oh yeah i like playing this guy but i do not want to
23:20hear him talk to anybody in this world um yeah that's uh it's it's kind of a contrast it's like
23:27you said like this isn't a story heavy game but the way it is delivered is a little like it's a
23:33creates a little bit too much friction with the game itself i think and part of that is because i
23:38don't think yakumo is a great character especially when you have someone like ryu hayabusa also in
23:43like part of like as the icon of this franchise it's like oh but i get the story that they're trying
23:49to tell here or the the context they're trying to build for a new era of ninja guidance but you
23:54know i wish there was more ryu in this one yeah and not you know not to spoil anything but mitchell
24:02you do cover this in your review you do get to play as ryu um but yeah maybe if maybe if we're lucky
24:08now team ninja will we'll see that that platinum has has earned the right to make a ryu game now
24:16uh and maybe five will we'll get us back get us back in his boots but um there you go ninja
24:23gaiden 4 on game pass now go play it we're loving it eight out of ten go check out mitchell's
24:29review either read it or watch it on ign or youtube and mitchell uh i know you've got a family
24:34obligation here we're gonna let you go and then we will move on to our next topic awesome thank you
24:39guys so much for having me thanks for checking out this clip from unlocked ign's weekly xbox show if
24:45you enjoyed it don't forget to watch the full episode at youtube.com igngames new episodes of
24:52unlock drop every thursday on ign games ign.com and your favorite podcast platforms thanks for
24:59watching and we'll see you next time