Interview with Director Fumihiko Yasuda and Programmer Maasaki Yamagiwa of “Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty”, discusses about Team Ninja’s view on “Masocore” games

Western Media VGC has interviewed Director Fumihiko Yasuda and Programmer Maasaki Yamagiwa of “Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty” during Gamescom 2022 last month, of which discussed about Team Ninja’s opinion on “Masocore” games, balancing between the development of brand new IPs and classic series, the possibility of a “Ninja Gaiden” sequel, “Nioh” port to other platform and so forth. The key points are as of below:

-Yamagiwa stated that in Masocore games like “Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty”, “Bloodborne”, players seek for the sense of achievement attained when they overcome a very difficult obstacle or defeat a great boss. The team tries to find the perfect ratio in game difficulty, while leading players to learn from their failures and move onward.

-After playing “Elden Ring”,the team praises on the game’s seamless world gameplay experience, yet Team Ninja doesn’t wish to make “Wo Long” into a open world game, but instead decided to use the mission based action game that they are good at developing, emphasising on intense combat phases instead of a fully explorable map. For Team Ninja, they believe that even after “Elden Ring”, linear soulslike game still has its spot in the market.

– The one point that differentiates Wo Long from other games is the “Morale Rank system”, that increases when enemies are defeated, and decreases when the player is dead. Thus players can choose between different approaches and routes, deciding to fight the enemies head on or avoid fighting. Besides, there is still space for creativity in the future for Masocore games, and there’s also quite an amount of similar games announced in the Gamescom event. Players might feel fatigued towards the genre, because they have already played many masocore games. Keeping them interested and the genre vitalized is the role of the development teams. Yasuda stated that what they could do is to continue providing games like Wo Long, as there are things that can only be felt while playing masocore games.

– They couldn’t share more about the online multiplayer aspects for now, but players can look forward to what they have prepared soon.

– The decision between developing new games for existing series or brand new original IP is based on satisfying the fans’ desires and also manpower resources in the developer team. For example, the current developer’s skill kit may fit into developing a certain series and so forth. On another note, Yasuda stated earlier this year that there will be good news for Ninja Gaiden fans, but it is not an official announcement. Outsourcing the Ninja Gaiden series to other companies might be a legit way to do it, but if they are to outsource it, they need to make sure that the outcome is something that will be loved by fans and exceeds their expectation. The developer team will have to find suitable candidates, from other young developers internally or outsourcing, they needed people who can “inherit the Ninja Gaiden bloodline”.

– Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty will be included in the Xbox Game Pass day 1, but it will not change the way the team develops the games. The team is glad that there will be many new players trying out games from Team Ninja for the first time. The developer team tries their best to make “Wo Long” the best game ever, and hopes that fans will love it, and new players will be able to adapt and enjoy the gameplay. But they didn’t want to change anything to cope with certain user groups.

– The positive significance behind the addition of Wo Long into Game Pass is that many new players will try the game out, and aids in the growth of the online community. With more players willing to join and try out the multiplayer contents,the developer team hopes to see a good online community with decent growth.

– The Xbox platform now has better influence in the Japanese market than it ever has been in the past. The developer team believes that the Xbox Game Pass will allow more gamers to know about the platform, and attracts more players to join into the ecosystem and be part of the Xbox gaming community. But from the point of view of a publisher, looking at the numbers, the Japanese market is mainly dominated by the Nintendo consoles, but the growth of Xbox is indeed noticeable and the platform seeks to find a more solid standing ground in the market.

– The “Nioh” series will most likely not be getting a port to the Xbox platform, and we hope that Xbox fans will look forward to the launch of “Wo Long” and like the game.