By Adam Smith on July 23rd, 2012 at 9:07 am.
Tomonobu Itagaki, creator of beach sport simulations and ninja revivals, is bringing his next game to the PC. Devil’s Third is a third-person action game that doesn’t look entirely dissimilar to his previous team’s Ninja Gaiden series, although with a few more shotguns and other metal death pipes thrown in for good measure. The game’s troubled journey to existence appeared to have taken it over a cliff edge when THQ dropped it in May but Itagaki’s own Valhalla Game Studios are now teaming with the dubiously named Doobic to publish the game, Eurogamer have discovered. It’s with this new agreement that the game has been announced as a PC title, alongside 360, PS3 and tablet releases. More details and a short, snazzy trailer below.
Having just watched that, you’ll have to read this next bit, a quote from Valhalla about the game, with a frown more puzzled than a number-averse pygmy shrew trapped in a Sudoku factory. Earth’s space neighbourhood is so crowded that the Kessler syndrome has come to pass; it’s chock-a-block up there and all satellites are now out of order.
“In the resulting turmoil, war erupts around the world as the balance of military power is thrown into chaos. For a better idea of Devil’s Third, please try to imagine in what ways infantry battle would be altered in a world without satellite technology…close study of military affairs, historical verification and geopolitical analysis form the backbone of development for an intense, dramatic story in a fierce and cruel world.”
So, yes, you can imagine all of that, or you can imagine men running along the side of a building and being cut in half by a woman in a low-cut top. Your choice.
23/07/2012 at 09:10 Xerian says:
Um…
I think I’ll go with the woman in the low-cut top!
23/07/2012 at 09:14 Firkragg says:
DING-DING-DING-DING-DING-DING-DING-DING-DING-DING-DING-DING-DING-DING-DING!
23/07/2012 at 09:22 Wololo says:
0:24 I smell aimbot
On a serious note, too bloody for me >_>
23/07/2012 at 10:01 emorium says:
naw, it’s just the typical japanese game where you have 50 million ways to cut with a sword but you need the computer to aim your gun.
23/07/2012 at 10:03 gwathdring says:
Yeah. Even when it looks really fake, I still find that much blood gross.
23/07/2012 at 09:26 Ross Angus says:
Clockwork Melons?
23/07/2012 at 17:44 iniudan says:
Looked more like Clockwork Grapefruit to me. (Still bigger then Orange to keep with what you meant with your melon sense I guess, but the sanguine color of a grapefruit inside fit more with all the blood =p)
23/07/2012 at 09:42 AmateurScience says:
I do wish marketing types would at least wait until after a game’s released and critiqued to use the word ‘masterpiece’.
23/07/2012 at 09:51 onsamyj says:
How about “bestseller”?
23/07/2012 at 10:01 Roshin says:
Not just a masterpiece, but an EPIC masterpiece. Then again, how could it be anything less, when you have a “legendary” director? :D
23/07/2012 at 14:21 CptPlanet says:
He has made the Ninja Gaiden series which are some of the best in their genre.
23/07/2012 at 09:49 onsamyj says:
This story sounds to me like “Metal Devil’s Solid Third Gear”. But gameplay is interesting.
23/07/2012 at 10:06 Tunips says:
I wiki’d ‘Kessler Syndrome’, then I wiki’d Envisat, then I wiki’d Guyana Space Centre, then I wiki’d the constitutional status of French Guyana, then I discovered that the EU extends all the way to South America.
Thanks, ultra-violent Japanese videogames, for teaching me something new.
23/07/2012 at 10:46 RogB says:
‘Devils Turd’ in Ireland.
23/07/2012 at 10:59 CobraLad says:
THIRDFACE
23/07/2012 at 11:19 DaftPunk says:
Looks good for me,men is responsible for NINJA GAIDEN games,which are in my opinion best hack and slash games! This might turn very epic indeed.
23/07/2012 at 13:46 Dilapinated says:
Weeeeeeeeeeell.
1 was excellent. Black edition was sublime.
2 was.. For the most part fun, but with a lot of the steep-learning-curve-difficulty replaced by cheap-frustration-difficulty. It’s a hard line to walk, and 1 was certainly a hard act to follow.
From all I’ve heard of 3, I’m going to avoid it like a Facebook game about zombie farmers. It sounds like they’ve gone in the opposite direction entirely and toned down the difficulty.
NG:B takes my top hack’n'slash position, but Bayonetta and God Hand sit above it in terms of Beat ‘em Ups in general.
23/07/2012 at 19:43 Sinkytown says:
I think Ninja Gaiden II is the high point for the series. The dismemberment mechanic is a kinda brilliant addition to the core loop.
I keep the controversial stance that Ninja Gaiden is better than the Clover/Platinum brawlers. I guess It’s a matter of taste, but I reckon NG is the meatiest and most precise brawler of all evar.
23/07/2012 at 11:33 bill says:
For Itagaki that is the highest cut top imaginable.
23/07/2012 at 11:54 PoulWrist says:
I shall play this.
23/07/2012 at 12:21 phenom_x8 says:
Wow, thats quite a great trailer. Compared with DMC or another hack and slash, its actually feels there’s some impact when the character hit the enemies (esp. on the hand to hand combat). I miss this kind of game very much (my last satisfying hack and slash was DMC 4). I hope it’s quite success upon release
23/07/2012 at 15:25 Radiant says:
I WILL PLAY THIS UNLESS IT IS SHIT.
23/07/2012 at 18:20 Rhin says:
But I don’t want to be made into Itagaki’s bitch. Go away Mr. Overzealous Marketer.
23/07/2012 at 19:11 Hoaxfish says:
Interesting choice of music on the trailer
23/07/2012 at 22:03 iainl says:
Looks like DMC with screen-obscuring levels of silly blood effects and punishing difficulty as a replacement for balance, as usual.
But man, that’s just beautiful headline work Adam. That alone justifies the game’s existence.
25/07/2012 at 00:56 LTK says:
Wallrunning while firing automatic weapons? Fuck you, I have a rocket launcher.
I’m liking the look of this. Also, minigun corpse-juggling.