Ninja Gaiden 3 is going back to its roots -- way, way back. Game director Yosuke Hayashi says he brought back the writer for the original NES Ninja Gaiden title, Masato Kato, whose credits also include Chrono Trigger and Chrono Cross.

"I came up with sort of the concept, and I had some ideas of what I wanted to do with the game, and the direction I wanted to take it in," Hayashi told Gamasutra "And we wanted to make sort of a new [main character] Ryu Hayabusa, and present him in a new way. And so we reached out to the writer for the original NES Ninja Gaiden -- Masato Kato -- and brought him back into the Ninja Gaiden world. And just going back and forth with him, brainstorming ideas, a lot of things like that -- that's how the story came together."

Those old enough to remember the classic Ninja Gaiden games will know that the writing was a stand-out feature by NES standards, with a noire-pulp feel to the ninjitsu proceedings. Hayashi says that Kato's contribution means we can expect "something similar" to his well-known plot twists. "We really think that the elements of the story will keep you playing, and in the play will keep you interested in the elements of the story; they merge together very well within the course of the game," he said.