Continuous Failure

Why can't anyone develop a good traditional ninja game or a quality samurai game? I'm not talking about Ninja Gaiden, Samurai Warriors, Onimusha or any other game that happens to star a samurai or ninja. I'm talking about someone making a good stealth game where you have to ninja around or a samurai game with an elegant sword-fighting system that doesn't frustrate to death or bore players to the point of quitting. People, this is possible. It's just not being done. Why? I don't know. Probably money.

What about Tenchu? Tenchu sucks. The controls are over-complicated and the guards are of two classes: they're either deaf, dumb, and blind or they're just retarded. Tenchu games do a great disservice to ninjas and stealth games alike. I don't understand why anyone throws money at a Tenchu game, I will not advocate anything with those two syllables ever again. Ninja Gaiden? Doesn't count. It's fighting system is well-done, easy to use, and smooth. The only reason Gaiden doesn't count is it's not a true ninja game. It's a fighting game. The game I'm looking for is the core of a Tenchu game with everything that feels like a Tenchu game jerked out of it.

Come on now Matt, what about Kengo? What about Bushido Blade? Fuck Kengo. That game is utter crap. I played it, not expecting much, and still got disappointed! There are too many problems to get into and none of them really need to be mentioned. Bushido Blade? Awesome. Why can't someone translate that fighting system into an action-adventure/story mode game? Where you have to calculate your slices and consider your enemy's next move instead of mashing X and holding A while they attack you. Maybe even a game where you get to choose your style and upgrade certain parts of your technique. None of these concepts are new to games, they're just not being used effectively in samurai games.

With these 2 subjects, (ninja and samurai) you'd you think that you couldn't lose. That said, time and time again developers continue to create games based on these ideas that are lacking in most every department. I guess they continue to sell based on the subjects themselves. A ninja game? Awesome. A samurai game?? It must be good.

Kind of like movie games. You can make a horribly shitty game and it will sell because it has Jack Sparrow on the cover.

I don't know what needs to happen to remedy the situation, maybe a new developer needs to step in and push a quality game in. It probably won't sell and will remain under the radar but maybe other developers will play it and pull some helpful ideas from it.