[RIP] Itagaki Tomonobu (Ninja Gaiden, Dead or Alive, etc)

[Mommar]

Only 58.

I still never finished the original Ninja Gaiden...

https://www.famitsu.com/article/202510/55345

—Itagaki’s final message (English translation)—

Words I Leave Behind

The flame of my life is finally about to go out.

If this message has been posted, it means that the time has come.

I am no longer in this world.

(This final post has been entrusted to someone dear to me.)

My life was a series of battles. And I kept on winning.

I know I caused trouble for many along the way.

But I followed my convictions and fought to the very end.

I have no regrets.

Only one thing weighs on me — I’m deeply sorry to all my fans that I couldn’t bring you a new work. I truly am.

That’s just how it is.

So it goes.

Tomonobu Itagaki ——-
 

[Big s]

1 hour ago, Mommar said:

I still never finished the original Ninja Gaiden...

 

I was totally devoted to the og Nintendo version of the game. And it’s sequels. I beat it only because I had youth on my side, but trying to do it on the switch and somehow I felt like the stupidest gamer ever, failing several times in just the first level was embarrassing. I still knew pretty much exactly what to do, but somehow kept screwing up the timing of just about everything. Modern games made me soft I guess still looking forward to this revoltech figure and I guess it will feel a bit more special unfortunately 

Edited Saturday at 09:50 PM by Big s

[Valkyrie Hunter D]

He was a rockstar in the video game industry, R.I.P.

[mikeszekely]

I understand he wasn't always the easiest to work with, but when a lot of people were getting into Tekken I was a big time Dead or Alive fan. I only dipped out after Itagaki and Tecmo parted ways and DoA 5 was riddled with expensive microtransactions.

[Seto Kaiba]

Had a lot of great times thanks to Itagaki-san's work.  When I was in HS, a bunch of us band kids used to sneak into unused classrooms after school to play video games using the big old CRT TV carts while we waited for tuesday night marching band practice to start.  Dead or Alive 2 on the Sega Dreamcast was one of our go-to games for years.

From what I've read about him in the past, it always sounded like he would've been a blast to work with.  The industry has lost one of the real ones.  

[JB0]

Shocked to see he died of illness. His image was such I just assumed it was a motorcycle accident or something. I need to fire the old XBox up and throw Ninja Gaiden Black in to honor him.

 

 

Tekken's Harada posted some words about his friend/senpai(?)/rival. And linked back to an older post about his relationship with Itagaki, which is a good read. I wish I wasn't seeing it because it became a eulogy.