If you love Dead or Alive or Ninja Gaiden, then you know the fast-talkin’, hard drinkin’, chain smokin’, Japanese man’s man Tomonobu Itagaki. Of course, the man that created some of the dude-liest Japanese games around is no longer with Koei-Tecmo, having branched off to spearhead his own studio, Valhalla games. However, that doesn’t mean a guy can’t stay in touch with old friends at the old office, right?
On his Facebook page, Itagaki wrote:
Hey guys, I strongly believe that [Fatal Frame producer] Kikuchi Keisuke will release the Fatal Frame V in America, in many countries. He and me have same philosophy from Tecmo days. That’s what I can say for now. I want you guys to read between the lines. Anyway I will play this game.
While that’s obviously not an official press statement from the publisher itself, this isn’t exactly a statement with no weight behind it. No developer is going to say something so public without a good reason, and the ongoing lack of a big third party library for the Wii U is definitely something that needs to be addressed. With horror games getting something of a revival recently, and Fatal Frame still holding onto its reputation as one of the most frightening horror franchises in gaming, the only real question remaining is whether Koei-Tecmo and Nintendo can afford to let a prestigious intellectual property languish in the west when its belongs to a genre that’s regaining traction with the gamers.
