Nioh 3 director Masaki Fujita revealed that Team Ninja found some inspiration for their new game East of Tokyo.
He shared his admiration for Round8’s Lies of P in a new interview with PC Gamer. Fujita said this:
In addition to [Lies of P’s] solid action that requires careful use of guarding and evading, I really had a lot of fun in the battles against the bosses, who had a wide variety of designs.
In particular, the bosses’ attack actions made full use of their distinctive designs, so it was great stimulation in giving me inspiration when thinking about the yokai actions in Nioh.
Team Ninja seems to have been paying attention to Round8 for a long time. They actually had a collaboration between Round8’s Lies of P and Team Ninja’s Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty.
They may have found common ground in how they have taken off of the Soulslike label to make games distinct from FromSoftware’s seminal titles. And while gamers keep showing up for them, Team Ninja and Round8 will definitely keep making more of them.
