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Ishmael
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"Itagaki Resigns" , posted Tue 3 Jun 21:59post reply

News of Itagaki public declaration of his resignation is all over the place but for the sake of having some sort of reference I'll link to the IGN article. So what's the deal with this? Are the reasons behind this change exactly what Itagaki listed or are there details that haven't been made public? Is this some sort of bizarre publicity stunt where Itagaki will continue to "secretly" work for Tecmo by showing up to the office in a ninja suit? What will happen to the properties Team Ninja worked on? While I'm sure Itagaki will continue to find some sort of public forum in which to parade around in I'm worried about poor Lei Fang and the rest of the girls. It's the children who always suffer in a messy divorce.






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emagius
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"Re(1):Itagaki Resigns" , posted Tue 3 Jun 22:13post reply

Maybe it's selfish, but I think Itagaki's resignation is for the best. After all, Ninja Gaiden II -- the series' swan song, according to Itagaki himself -- and Dragon Sword are already out the door. I never muched cared for the DoA titles (despite buying all the fighting games in the series), so perhaps now he can put his talents to better use than DoA5/Xtreme3.





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"Re(2):Itagaki Resigns" , posted Wed 4 Jun 01:45post reply

Nah, you are not being selfish. I feel that way too.

Attending meetings in a ninja outfit, eh? I like this idea. What will his ninja name be? "Sushi X?"
quote:
Maybe it's selfish, but I think Itagaki's resignation is for the best. After all, Ninja Gaiden II -- the series' swan song, according to Itagaki himself -- and Dragon Sword are already out the door. I never muched cared for the DoA titles (despite buying all the fighting games in the series), so perhaps now he can put his talents to better use than DoA5/Xtreme3.







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"Re(3):Itagaki Resigns" , posted Wed 4 Jun 08:19post reply

Maybe he got sexual harassment suit-ed out of town...and while this takes a lot of work to accomplish in Japan, I'm confident that Itagaki is up to the task.





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"Re(1):Itagaki Resigns" , posted Wed 4 Jun 09:32post reply

quote:
While I'm sure Itagaki will continue to find some sort of public forum in which to parade around in I'm worried about poor Lei Fang and the rest of the girls. It's the children who always suffer in a messy divorce.



I hope Itagaki comes out on top of things. I liked his brash, arrogant attitude. He was one of the few Japanese game designers who wasn't overly humble and wasn't afraid to talk himself up. His games were great. I still haven't played a better 3d action game than Ninja Gaiden for the Xbox, in terms of just pure gameplay.





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"Re(2):Itagaki Resigns" , posted Wed 4 Jun 09:39post reply

quote:
I still haven't played a better 3d action game than Ninja Gaiden for the Xbox, in terms of just pure gameplay.



Pick up Ninja Gaiden II. It's fantastic.





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"Re(3):Itagaki Resigns" , posted Wed 4 Jun 10:23post reply

quote:
I still haven't played a better 3d action game than Ninja Gaiden for the Xbox, in terms of just pure gameplay.


Pick up Ninja Gaiden II. It's fantastic.



Awesome, i'll check it out. Just one question, do you have to work hard to lop off limbs in that game? One of my favorite parts of Ninja Gaiden was that it was deeply satisfying to decapitate or otherwise visually maim people, since it happened so rarely. You really had to get a clean hit for it to happen.

The reason I liked Ninja Gaiden so much is that I felt like I was in control of all the action. If I cut a guys head off, it was because I timed my attack well, not because I was mashing buttons or because I followed an on screen prompt for a prescripted animation sequence.

Would you say Ninja Gaiden 2 does a good job of making you feel in control, and making you work for the cool stuff?





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"Re(3):Itagaki Resigns" , posted Wed 4 Jun 10:32post reply

I have respect for Itagaki for being one of the few Japanese developers (along with Sakaguchi) willing to take a risk and come right out and say "The Playstation is shit to develop for, and I may sell only 1/10th of what I could if I made it for PS3 by putting it on the Xbox but dammit I am going to do it"

Sony has grown fat, arrogant and lazy and it is pretty sad that Microsoft of all companies was able to go back to the drawing board and develop a smoother and easier to develop-for gaming system hardware-wise. I just wish there were more Japanese developers on board to bring a more diverse range of titles than the standard American FPS games.

Of course Sony is getting theirs thanks to Nintendo's triumphant resurrection with the Wii.





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"Re(4):Itagaki Resigns" , posted Wed 4 Jun 11:01post reply

quote:
I have respect for Itagaki for being one of the few Japanese developers (along with Sakaguchi) willing to take a risk and come right out and say "The Playstation is shit to develop for, and I may sell only 1/10th of what I could if I made it for PS3 by putting it on the Xbox but dammit I am going to do it"



Was this the same guy that said "Tekken is a piece of shit" ?





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"Re(5):Itagaki Resigns" , posted Wed 4 Jun 11:17post reply

quote:
Was this the same guy that said "Tekken is a piece of shit" ?



Correct





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"Re(6):Itagaki Resigns" , posted Wed 4 Jun 12:14post reply

quote:
Was this the same guy that said "Tekken is a piece of shit" ?


Correct



He also pointed out that Heavenly Sword was pretty dumb.

“I look at Heavenly Sword and it seems really half-assed, because it’s asking you to do all these button-timing sequences but you are not getting much payoff from it.”





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"Re(7):Itagaki Resigns" , posted Wed 4 Jun 15:06post reply

Itagaki is a smear politician, not a game critic. He says the things he says to further his own agenda. Anyone who takes his troll comments seriously, agree or disagree, has basically fallen for his scheme of self-promotion.

It's the same with this spiteful press release of his. You see, Tecmo will still continue to make Ninja Gaiden and Dead or Alive whether he's there or not, but Itagaki is trying to prevent his fans from supporting them. Instead they will follow him wherever he goes.

I'll laugh if he can't find a job because of how he abuses publicity like this. I can't imagine there are too many companies that want to be caught up in one of his lawsuits now.





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"Re(8):Itagaki Resigns" , posted Wed 4 Jun 15:40post reply

quote:
Itagaki is a smear politician, not a game critic. He says the things he says to further his own agenda. Anyone who takes his troll comments seriously, agree or disagree, has basically fallen for his scheme of self-promotion.

It's the same with this spiteful press release of his. You see, Tecmo will still continue to make Ninja Gaiden and Dead or Alive whether he's there or not, but Itagaki is trying to prevent his fans from supporting them. Instead they will follow him wherever he goes.

I'll laugh if he can't find a job because of how he abuses publicity like this. I can't imagine there are too many companies that want to be caught up in one of his lawsuits now.



I don't care if he speaks like that because of publicity to gain a fan following or whatever you want. I just love him, and I don't even own any of his games. Whenever an interview or feature with him showed up, I always get a grin in my face of the impatience for reading it. Quick laughs! I really like that he speaks up his mind.

I really wish I could play at least the Ninja Gaiden games but...

quote:

Sony has grown fat, arrogant and lazy and it is pretty sad that Microsoft of all companies was able to go back to the drawing board and develop a smoother and easier to develop-for gaming system hardware-wise. I just wish there were more Japanese developers on board to bring a more diverse range of titles than the standard American FPS games.



That and 360's failure rate...





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"Re(9):Itagaki Resigns" , posted Wed 4 Jun 16:44post reply

You should marry him if you love him so much.
quote:
I just love him.






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"Re(8):Itagaki Resigns" , posted Wed 4 Jun 17:56post reply

quote:
Itagaki is a smear politician, not a game critic. He says the things he says to further his own agenda.



That's why I like him. Japan needs more game designers with his cavalier attitude. :)





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"Re(4):Itagaki Resigns" , posted Thu 5 Jun 01:43:post reply

quote:

Awesome, i'll check it out. Just one question, do you have to work hard to lop off limbs in that game?


Not especially. Flying swallow will decapitate quite often (depending on enemy type, at least). Otherwise, certain Y combo attacks appear to lop off limbs with great frequency (100%?), and properly timed counter attacks against the standard ninja grunts always (?) result in lost limbs.

Do note that such mutilated enemies are still dangerous, however.

quote:
Would you say Ninja Gaiden 2 does a good job of making you feel in control, and making you work for the cool stuff?



Moreso than the competition (GoW/DMC), but not quite as much as the first game. At least that's not the feeling I'm getting from the game. Part of it is just the speed -- the game moves significantly faster than Black -- but the heightened aggressiveness of the enemies (unlike NG1, they'll constantly knock you out of whiffed combos, grab you out of blocking, and will lock you down in block stun unless you counter attack/dodge) and Ryu's increased repitoire of moves/combos (the movelist nears DoA-like levels of insanity) also play their part.

There also seems to be a much greater focus on chaining ultimate attacks this time around. In many ways, NG2 picks up where NG1 left off: by the second stage of the sequel, you're using nearly everything that you learned from the first game.

I've only put about an hour into the game so far, however, and could easily be mistaken with regard to any of the above, especially since it's been a good year and a half since I last played Black.





[this message was edited by emagius on Thu 5 Jun 01:44]

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"Re(5):Itagaki Resigns" , posted Thu 5 Jun 02:30post reply

No way! This is the first sequel that I know of that does this.

Kind of off topic but are there any other games that does this?
quote:
In many ways, NG2 picks up where NG1 left off: by the second stage of the sequel, you're using nearly everything that you learned from the first game.







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"Re(5):Itagaki Resigns" , posted Thu 5 Jun 02:30post reply

Unsurprisingly, the boss of Tecmo answered that they are perfectly natural reasons for Itagaki's departure, the sexual harassment thing included, they are going to take this lawsuit very seriously, and they apologize to everyone who will suffer (employees, retailers, fans) that could be upset by this deplorable claim.





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"Re(6):Itagaki Resigns" , posted Thu 5 Jun 05:40post reply

quote:
Unsurprisingly, the boss of Tecmo answered that they are perfectly natural reasons for Itagaki's departure, the sexual harassment thing included, they are going to take this lawsuit very seriously, and they apologize to everyone who will suffer (employees, retailers, fans) that could be upset by this deplorable claim.



i think he's needlessly arrogant and i've never had any interest in his games, so i realy couldn't care less where he goes! he can be boring somewhere else if he chooses and it's all the same to me.





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"Re(7):Itagaki Resigns" , posted Thu 5 Jun 13:04post reply

THIS IS


THE END OF ALL HOPE





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"Re(6):Itagaki Resigns" , posted Thu 5 Jun 17:10post reply

quote:
Unsurprisingly, the boss of Tecmo answered that they are perfectly natural reasons for Itagaki's departure, the sexual harassment thing included, they are going to take this lawsuit very seriously, and they apologize to everyone who will suffer (employees, retailers, fans) that could be upset by this deplorable claim.



Their stock fell 10% on the day of the announcement.





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"Re(7):Itagaki Resigns" , posted Fri 6 Jun 00:51post reply

quote:
Unsurprisingly, the boss of Tecmo answered that they are perfectly natural reasons for Itagaki's departure, the sexual harassment thing included, they are going to take this lawsuit very seriously, and they apologize to everyone who will suffer (employees, retailers, fans) that could be upset by this deplorable claim.


Their stock fell 10% on the day of the announcement.

I can't imagine what Tecmo and Itagaki are going to do without each other and it seems like the stockholders agree. Also, considering Itagaki's tendency to talk like he's posting on a message board I can't imagine he has too many friends in the business. At this point his own personal stock can't be looking much better than Tecmo's.

Say, was the decision to focus putting so many of Team Ninja's products on the XBox consoles an actual exclusive contract or was Itagaki more interested in programming for one system over another? If it was the latter Tecmo could at least have better luck going multi-platform with their releases now.





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"Re(8):Itagaki Resigns" , posted Fri 6 Jun 04:08post reply

quote:
At this point his own personal stock can't be looking much better than Tecmo's.

I have a hard time understanding the surprisingly high number of bloggers and message board posters who predict Microsoft will hire him. Why the hell would Microsoft burn bridges with Tecmo?

quote:
Say, was the decision to focus putting so many of Team Ninja's products on the XBox consoles an actual exclusive contract or was Itagaki more interested in programming for one system over another? If it was the latter Tecmo could at least have better luck going multi-platform with their releases now.


Tecmo benefited a lot from the cooperation with Microsoft. It is not even a question that Tecmo benefited much more from MS than the opposite. Do not underestimate Tecmo management. They have always been pretty smooth at keeping all their options open, feel where the wind is turning and figure out which alliances they should strengthen at which point in their existence.





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"Re(9):Itagaki Resigns" , posted Fri 6 Jun 09:27post reply

quote:
At this point his own personal stock can't be looking much better than Tecmo's.
I have a hard time understanding the surprisingly high number of bloggers and message board posters who predict Microsoft will hire him. Why the hell would Microsoft burn bridges with Tecmo?



my predictions were that he'd start his own studio or come to america - but sega is a pretty convincing possibility that someone posed.





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"Re(9):Itagaki Resigns" , posted Fri 6 Jun 13:24:post reply

quote:
At this point his own personal stock can't be looking much better than Tecmo's.
I have a hard time understanding the surprisingly high number of bloggers and message board posters who predict Microsoft will hire him. Why the hell would Microsoft burn bridges with Tecmo?




MS doesn't have any major bridges with Tecmo in the first place, AFAIK. The only reason why Ninja Gaiden II and DOA4 were exclusives were because of Itagaki's request. Of course, Ninja Gaiden Sigma came out for PS3, much to the chagrin of Itagaki, and slammed his "subordinate", saying he didn't approve of the port.

I didn't care much for Itagaki and his attitude, nor did I think DOA was really that great of a game. However, like it or not, he was the face of that company since DOA2, and now Tecmo has to find a way to win back their audience with their rockstar developer on his way out. I think they'll do fine, in fact they may actually do better. Who knows, maybe Itagaki held the reins of Team Ninja a little too tightly, and they may have better games to speak of without his polarizing personality. Just my opinion... but hopefully they'll be fine.

As for Itagaki himself... I would think he'd join MS more than Sega. I don't know if Yu Suzuki could stand Itagaki if he was anywhere near the VF development team.





[this message was edited by EddyT on Fri 6 Jun 13:25]

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"Re(10):Itagaki Resigns" , posted Fri 6 Jun 15:15post reply

quote:

my predictions were that he'd start his own studio or come to america -


He'll probably do both. In Japan he's burned too many bridges to get people to work for him, but in the USA he fits right in since we love assholes. Especially foreign assholes! Actually he should go right to FOX and pitch his own reality show, call it "Game Over" and have it be Itagaki trying to find people to hire for his new company. It would be like Hell's Kitchen with angry videogame nerds and sekuhara.

quote:

but sega is a pretty convincing possibility that someone posed.



Well, he has dissed VF5 pretty hard. I guess it's possible that Sega wouldn't care, though.





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"Re(2):Re(10):Itagaki Resigns" , posted Sat 7 Jun 01:47post reply

quote:
Actually he should go right to FOX and pitch his own reality show, call it "Game Over" and have it be Itagaki trying to find people to hire for his new company. It would be like Hell's Kitchen with angry videogame nerds and sekuhara.



I would watch the hell out of that show!


... and at the risk of sounding like a pervert, I'm hoping with Itagaki gone DoA will turn into a cheesecake game again. People (especially Tecmo USA's ads) like to call DoA "the sexiestiest game series EVER!!!" but it's really really boring (Christie has like what, 4 costumes in DoA4, and pretty sure 2 are palette swaps. and DoAX games are sooooo tedious, even though it in theory has cheesecakey costumes you'll NEVER get the girl you want to wear them to actually accept and wear it)

maybe now that he's gone someone will bring back the 15+ costumes in fighting DoA games and make DoAX less about figuring out which birthstone and flavor of shaved ice will make Tina hate you less and not trash a 10,0000,000 swimsuit because she 's only had 4 love notes for 6 days in the afternoon where that items would require she have 4 notes for 6 days in the evening to be comfortable accepting such a gift and various other charts/graphs/list/lunar calander related crap and more about bikini volleyball.






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"Re(2):Re(10):Itagaki Resigns" , posted Sat 7 Jun 09:06post reply

quote:

Actually he should go right to FOX and pitch his own reality show, call it "Game Over" and have it be Itagaki trying to find people to hire for his new company. It would be like Hell's Kitchen with angry videogame nerds and sekuhara.

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"Re(10):Itagaki Resigns" , posted Sun 8 Jun 03:25post reply

quote:
MS doesn't have any major bridges with Tecmo in the first place, AFAIK. The only reason why Ninja Gaiden II and DOA4 were exclusives were because of Itagaki's request.

I think you are surestimating Itagaki's influence on the relationship between Tecmo and MS. Tecmo is a company with which MS has been doing close business for a couple of years. Itagaki is only a seemingly talented and famously exuberant producer/director. He probably had his say in which consoles his teams would work on, but certainly not in the final decision. There is not so much to gain for MS with hiring Itagaki, and there is much more to lose with killing their relationship with one of the few Japanese publishers that ever took MS seriously.

quote:
I don't know if Yu Suzuki could stand Itagaki if he was anywhere near the VF development team.


Suzuki has had nothing to do with the VF team for quite a few years. The person you are thinking of(?) is Hiroshi Kataoka.





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