Team Ninja's Hayashi: How Do you you feel about him?

So anyone who follows Team Ninja probably knows a bit about this guy, and how controversial he is. For those who don't know, he started off by directing Ninja Gaiden Sigma and Dragon Sword for the DS. Ever since the beloved Itagaki left, Hayashi(or Hayashit to his haters) has taken reigns as the "face" of Team Ninja and has led every major project after NG 2, including DOA Dimensions, DOA 5, Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2, Ninja Gaiden 3/razor's edge, and perhaps most infamously Other M. I'm wondering just how does TV tropes feel about this guy, and do you think he's done more good or harm for Team Ninja and its franchises?

Personally...I think as far as being a game designer goes, he's got serious room for improvement. I like that he puts some actual effort into storytelling and characterization, but his approach to game design isn't fit for hardcore games like Ninja Gaiden, which ends up robbing that sense of overcoming challenge and some of the fun from going against such insurmountable odds. It's like Hayashi adds so much, yet does so with a pint of water each time. So you get more but at the same time the original product has been watered down to make it easier to drink, but has lost some of its original flavor as a result. I feel like the guy is trying TOO hard not to remain in Itagaki's shadow and take TN in his own direction(which isn't necessarily bad in itself, but is when it conflicts with what the team is sort of known for), but that direction is kind of driving TN into the ground. That said, DOA 5 Ultimate does look pretty hype(hoping it ain't a jugglefest though) and while NG 3 was a travesty, Razor's Edge as least makes some improvements even if it's still considered worse than NG 1/2 + sigmas. But then there's Yaiba, which I think looks dumb and isn't a good idea(maybe if it were a 3DS or Vita game I wouldn't mind as much) considering the damage NG 3 did to the franchise. I personally think the guy can still lead TN back to glory but he needs to better play off their strengths instead of trying to "Hayashify" the games and watering them down for easier consumption. And please, no more aping the West, that's partly what killed NG 3, but he said he learned his lesson from that. I take back what I said about him leading TN, he's probably better at being a creative director or something. Really at this point I'm not sure the man has it to lead TN, and will just always be "that ninja dog who replaced Itagaki."

Speaking of him you gotta wonder what Itagaki's face was like playing NG 3. Oh my god I'd pay money to see what his expression on the dinosaur fight was like. But he was responsible for the water dragon and Gigadeath in NG 2 so not like he's exempt from making crap bosses.

edited 24th Jul '13 5:32:31 PM by Vertigo_High

Hayashi isn't that bad to me.

I really Liked what I played of the Razors edge demo, and I'm really enjoying Ninja Gaiden 2 Sigma.

to be honest, Itagaki wasn't much better to me, especially his needlessly hostile attitude towards other 3D Fighting game and action game developers, And I really think Ninja Gaiden 1/Sigma is highly overrated.

And Blaming Other M on Hayashi when it was Sadamoto who thought up much of the story for that game doesn't help.

And if you want to blame anything on Yaiba (Which was in Pre-alpha stages at E3, BTW), blame Keiji Inafune for it, since he's the one calling a lot of the shots, but it looks awesome to me, IMO.

Also, Dead or Alive Dimensions and Dead or alive 5 are considered massive improvements over Dead or alive 4, and he doesn't treat the girls like their "His daughters" like Itagaki did.

edited 24th Jul '13 5:42:21 PM by Demongodofchaos2

Itagaki sometimes comes over as a massive douchenozzle to me. That guy's overrated.

No offense, but back when he left Team Ninja he acted like a massive turd towards things, didn't come off as really professional.

edited 24th Jul '13 5:49:20 PM by GaryCXJk

Eeeeeeeh.

He always seemed as someone trying to attain a solid goal but having poor followthrough.

On one hand Sigma 2 was a really decent game. It was much more evenly paced and more accessible than Vanilla 2. If the next game in the franchise had basically been a transplanted Sigma 2, I would have been perfectly content. And Gaiden 3 looked extremely promising from a distance.

But I mean... Well, just look at 3. Here's one thing that happened: They wanted a focus on the sword, and they wanted to really drive home what it was like to cut someone with it. In that game, swordsmanship has impact and focus like never before. You really feel the weight of people's bodies as they are struck. Mission absolutely accomplished.

However, they did this by completely removing all the other weapons as well as the dismemberment mechanic. They sacrificed almost EVERYTHING that made the game series an amazing masterwork of lightning-fast and tactical melee combat to have a bit more kinaesthetic impact. Not a good trade off.

I want to say good things about how he treats female characters, seeing as he tried to tone down the fanservice in DOA 5 and how Momoji and Mizuki Mcloud aren't wearing a BDSM outfits... Buuuut he folded to fan appeal pretty quickly and there's only so much you can blame on Sakamoto for Other M.

I'm not exactly itching for Itagaki's comeback either though. Dude was an asshole.

If nothing else, the new Team Ninja does seem willing to admit to their mistakes. Razor's Edge fixes almost everything wrong with Vanilla 3. But one do-over is more than most games are allowed in the first place. Let's hope Hayashi can really knock his next game out of the park.

It's weird because I think he's made DOA better, but made NG worse.

He was sort of a dick(although I think his hate towards other games is a bit overblown, not like he has to like every other game and he only started hating Tekken after 3...which wasn't exactly an unpopular opinion at one time), but considering he did NG 1/2's combat, that's pretty incredible. Those games' combat still hasn't been matched as far as action games go IMO, and yes I'm including DMC 3 and Bayonetta. Though the IS spam and cheap grabs in NG 2 got to ludicrous levels at times lol.

edited 24th Jul '13 6:00:37 PM by Vertigo_High

If it wasn't for Hayashi, then NG and DOA would be stuck in Xbox. For that I'm grateful.

Haven't played DOA 5 yet, but from playing the vanilla NG 3 demo, and a few level's of Razor's Edge, I'd say he has no idea what the hell he's doing when it comes to Ninja Gaiden.

As for Itagaki, he was an arrogant dick, but he had the skills to back it up, and even then a lot of developers can come across as arrogant, hell, Mike Z of Skull Girls fame has put down Arc Sytem Works' games on occasion, and Bungie has said some pretty ludicrous stuff too. Also, didn't Itagaki take a picture of himself with Kamiya and Harada?

I don't mind a developer hyping their own work. I want them to get into the competitive spirit, to try and put everything into their work, to one-up their peers. Some healthy competition is a good thing.

Itagaki, though, was just an arrogant asshole. And that doesn't even touch on the accusations of sexual assault.

No comment on the alleged sexual harassment, but I'm pretty a fair amount of stuff he's said about Tekken (like his top 5 worst games thing) was mostly just playful ribbing.

Hayashi certainly isn't a "character" like Itagaki was, but frankly, I don't think he did that bad since he took the helm in TN. Sigma was a mostly flawless port (as much as Itagaki hated it), Sigma 2 had a lot of improvements compared to Vanilla 2 (because he wasn't affraid to remove annoying/unnecessary elements − except the whole "blue mist blood" weirdness), Razor's Edge is completely decent and I haven't heard any complaints on DOA5. So NG3 was mostly an accident to me.

Now is he capable of refreshing the team's series and promote innovative gameplay elements…? I'm not too sure about that. Going by NG3's example, the guy isn't that good at breaking conventions. Worse, NG3's failure might jeopardize any further attempts from TN at breaking conventions. And Hayashi certainly isn't as much into hardcore difficulty as Itagaki was.

So, I have really nothing against the guy, but I can't really see him as a leader for some reason…

edited 25th Jul '13 5:15:53 AM by Lyendith

I dunno. It always seemed that Itagaki was being completely honest with his dislike of Tekken, although you can never be too sure.

As for Hayashi, I haven't played any of the DOA titles (I was interested in 5 but never got around to picking it up, and I might jump in with Ultimate), nor have I played NG3 or Razor's Edge, so I can't weigh in there. However, Sigma and Sigma 2 were sound, nor can I fault Hayashi for trying to better emphasize the storytelling element of the games. It just seems that he sacrificed too much in the gameplay dimension when going in that direction for 3.

Like Lyendith said, I have no real qualms with Hayashi, but if he's not going to step down to solely focus on storyboarding, then he needs someone in Team Ninja to rein him in at times.

He's alright. Still something of a greenhorn, but has room for improvement.