Ninja Gaiden 3's lack of gore, swipe controls, and QTEs explained

We've all heard the preview scandals - Ninja Gaiden 3 turns down the gore, packs in quick time events, and uses touch-screen controls. But Team Ninja is quick to point out that demos can be misleading.

When Destructoid noticed Ninja Gaiden 3 is without its precursor's famous decapitations and piles of severed limbs, producer Yosuke Hayashi said it was a deliberate, story-driven decision, not an attempt to soften the game for censors.

"To us, there's a difference between gore and violence. Ninja Gaiden 2 was about gore. Ninja Gaiden 3 is about violence," he said.

"... That feeling of cutting into bone, actually killing a person. When you cut off an arm, it just becomes an object. Ryu is fighting humans, not monsters, and we want you to feel that."

Hayashi said consequences of violence will be one of the central themes of the game, something the series has never tackled before.

Meanwhile, MTV Multiplayer expressed some doubts about what seemed to be a lot of quick time events during the floor demo.

"This is a demo stage, it's a tutorial. We want to introduce people to 'Ninja Gaiden 3' and sort of introduce them to how all these actions work," Hayashi explained.

"As you play further into the game, the buttons stop appearing", he added, and it was noted that the button prompts had been attack cues.

Firing up the Wii U version of the game - subtitled Razor's Edge - Kotaku was surprised to note the game featured touch-screen controls very similar to those of the DS game, Dragon Sword.

Happily for the hardcore crowd, these controls are entirely optional, although Team Ninja is enthusiastic about them.

"It was almost like fate that we're making making Ninja Gaiden 3 and then we have the option to bring in Dragon Sword controls, that kind of gameplay, to a high spec console version," Hayashi said.

"We feel we'll be able to give players a new kind of gameplay, a new feel with the new controller."

Ninja Gaiden 3 is due on PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 in early 2012, with a Wii U version to follow.