Ninja Gaiden II will be the last in the franchise

Creator tells fans to treat it as a "swan song"

14 May 2008 10:37 GMT / By Verity Burns

Ninja Gaiden fans may want to take a moment here. Team Ninja's Tomonobu Itagaki has said that he doesn't plan to make any more games in the Ninja Gaiden series following the release of Ninja Gaiden II on Xbox 360.

"Personally I think we were able to create the definitive 3D game in this series so I'm not planing on making any other games in the series", Itagaki said through a translator. "So I hope fans treat this as a swan song for the franchise."

"I think we were able to achieve everything we wanted with this game so anything else would be extraneous."

And don't be expecting a swan song for the PS3 or anything like that, Itagaki has dismissed that as ridiculous.

Instead, the creator of the popular series said he wants to make something that is "totally new, completely unrelated to anything I've done before. Not any part of any existing franchises".

So did Itagaki drop any hints about what direction he would be moving in for his next titles? Well, he said he'd like to work on another action title or perhaps a war-themed game, set in the Pacific Theatre during World War II.

"I'm interested in that period of time, for my generation, that was an event that influenced us more than anything else. I think that would be an interesting topic to explore", he said.

Ninja Gaiden II is released on Xbox 360 on 6 June.