Team Ninja was known as one of the best developers during the late '90s and the 2000s. They worked on the Dead Or Alive fighting game series (which admittedly wasn't loved by the hardcore fighting fans, but was by casuals) and resurrected the Ninja Gaiden game series to enormous critical praise. However, in 2008 the founder and head of the studio, Tomonobu Itagaki , announced that he was leaving. The issue with this is that similar to "Kojima Productions" many saw Itagaki as Team Ninja, so understandably people were afraid that Team Ninja as we knew them was no more.
Initially this fear seemed to be warranted as the first game released after Tomonobu Itagaki's departure was Metroid: Other M which was infamous for being one of the most disappointing titles in years. It was followed by Ninja Gaiden III which is often seen as the "Devil May Cry 2" of the series, which I think more or less everything about it. Due to these two huge blunders it seemed that Team Ninja had gone the way of Sonic Team.
Fortunately, they turned themselves around with Dead or Alive 5. The studio proved that they could still make the series as enjoyable as ever before, and it seems that unlike previous entries this one had (at least some) blessing from the hardcore fighting game community. They then partnered with Nintendo again to create Hyrule Warriors, a musou game that had a very positive commercial and fan success. And to finally top it all off, they released the commercially and critically successful Ni-Oh, which many see as their best work since Ninja Gaiden. Today Team Ninja is often seen as one of the best Japanese developers, which is very reassuring being that they seemed to be in turmoil in the early 2010s.
But yeah this is just something that I think about, because I thought that after Other M and Ninja Gaiden III, the studio was done, but they really turned themselves around after that.
Initially this fear seemed to be warranted as the first game released after Tomonobu Itagaki's departure was Metroid: Other M which was infamous for being one of the most disappointing titles in years. It was followed by Ninja Gaiden III which is often seen as the "Devil May Cry 2" of the series, which I think more or less everything about it. Due to these two huge blunders it seemed that Team Ninja had gone the way of Sonic Team.
Fortunately, they turned themselves around with Dead or Alive 5. The studio proved that they could still make the series as enjoyable as ever before, and it seems that unlike previous entries this one had (at least some) blessing from the hardcore fighting game community. They then partnered with Nintendo again to create Hyrule Warriors, a musou game that had a very positive commercial and fan success. And to finally top it all off, they released the commercially and critically successful Ni-Oh, which many see as their best work since Ninja Gaiden. Today Team Ninja is often seen as one of the best Japanese developers, which is very reassuring being that they seemed to be in turmoil in the early 2010s.
But yeah this is just something that I think about, because I thought that after Other M and Ninja Gaiden III, the studio was done, but they really turned themselves around after that.
