Diversification and creative difficulties (Ninja Gaiden )

You might have noticed that all the franchises that inspired the artworks on Map Station so far are published by a single gaming company. The reason is quite simple, as I own a Nintendo Switch and not much else to game on. I also played and owned a lot of Nintendo consoles throughout the years, starting from the NES up to the Wii, but ultimately I sold all of them. 

However, I recognize that there is a lot more to gaming than just Nintendo and one of the games that stole my heart on the NES was Ninja Gaiden. An early attempt at cinematic storytelling with a Ninja facing up against all kinds of weird demonic entities and an insane difficulty curve. After three titles the series was discontinued until after the new millennium. Then a new 3D installment was announced – on the new Xbox console by Microsoft of all places.

Since I knew I had to play this game I just bought a Xbox and never regretted it. Ninja Gaiden was a masterpiece from start to finish and introduced me to a wider scope of games in general. 

It stuck in the back of my head as another one of those monumental games. The action was brilliant and slick, the difficulty was intensely challenging and the world was surprisingly coherent. Most of the action takes place in a fictional contemporary city somewhere in central Asia. This city has several districts which all branch off to different connected underground areas. Perfect material for a new art piece! 

After downloading the trilogy version for the Switch I re-entered the game and took it all in. There is a shitload of both overworld and underground areas to explore and up until this day I’m not sure if there’s a way to fit everything in one location. The connections feel rather haphazardly and I don’t think the developers gave it much thought. But that made it even more enticing to map this all out. 

Currently I finished four maps of Ninja Gaiden covering several chapters. This includes the main city hub of Tairon, Hayabusa village and the Airship. The Aqueduct, one of the underground areas, has also been done. A good result, but frankly it all feels a bit convoluted at the moment. Sometimes you know exactly when an artwork is done or what else should be done, but in this case it’s somehow harder to pin down. 

And I can’t help but ask myself questions about that. Could it be due to the complex structure of the underground areas? Are four maps not a bit too much to take in already? Is there a way to connect everything in one illustration? Does anybody except for me even give a shit about properly portraying Ninja Gaiden like this?     

Sometimes it is just best to let things rest and continue with something else…