Ninja Gaiden 3 released back in March to virtually unanimous negative critical reception. Fans decried the game for its severe lack of gore, weapons, playable characters and general Ninja Gaiden swag. Director Yohei Shimbori says this overwhelmingly negative reception came as a complete shock to the development team.

Yohei-san says that the fan backlash taught him a valuable lesson about a long-running and celebrated series. He now understands the importance of keeping longtime fans happy as opposed to ignoring them almost completely in favor of catching the attention of newer, uninitiated fans. This doesn't seem like a lesson Team Ninja should have had to learn the hard way.

They'll have something of a second shot at critical success with Ninja Gaiden 3: Razor's Edge. The team is allegedly taking fan feedback into heavy consideration for the Wii U exclusive port, which is already confirmed to have more weapons, more blood and gore and an additional playable character compared to the Xbox 360 and PS3 versions. They've also removed the tons of 'steel on bone' QTE sequences.

Razor's Edge is shaping up to be the true Ninja Gaiden 3 experience.