Devil’s Third Wiki – Everything you need to know about the game

Devils Third is an upcoming third person shooter combat video game that is in development by the development team Valhalla Game Studios which is headed up by industry renowned video game designer Tomonobu Itakgai who is famous for the Dead or Alive competitive fighting games and the revival of the much loved Ninja Gaiden Franchise.

Initially running on the engine that powered the now defunct THQ’s Darksiders II, the game is currently being developed for an estimated 2014 release window on PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and Microsoft Windows.

• 1. Development
• 2. Gameplay
• 3. Story

Development

The development process of Devils Third began when Tomonobu Itakga announced his resignation from Tecmo (June 2nd 2008) shortly before the release of Ninja Gaiden II due to a legal dispute, suing the company for withholding a bonus payment that was promised to him for previous works for the company, he was also suing Tecmo President Yoshimi Yasuda on the grounds of “unreasonable and disingenuous statements” made in front of his colleagues.

With his resignation tendered, Itagaki departed Tecmo and formed his own game development studio named Valhalla Game Studios. The new studio was also made up of ex staff members from Team Ninja (Metroid: Other M and Dead or Alive: Dimensions) who also left Tecmo, this time in 2009.

Despite the games development process being largely uneventful, the game was initially running on a supposedly THQ owned engine which, following THQ’s unfortunate liquidation (December 2012 – defunct as of January 2013) the developers at Valhalla Game Studios continued their development cycle using an adaptation of an engine from Relic Entertainment who had, in the past worked with THQ on numerous projects.

With THQ originally slated as the publishers for Devils Third, there was some concern over the rights to the intellectual property, these rights were however given back to Valhalla Game Studios.  A statement from THQ reads: “THQ confirms that the company will not be publishing Devil’s Third. All of the game’s IP rights have been returned to Itagaki-san and the Valhalla team.” Itagaki revealed that they were anguished and THQ were kind to them and he appreciates THQ managers that signed the transfer contract.

With the rights being returned to Valhalla Game Studios, development continued and even though Itagaki has said that Nintendo’s struggling Wii U could support the game, there has been no mention of a port to their system with the focus instead being on 7 Generation Consoles. With the 7th gen focus in mind, this will be the first time Itagaki will have developed a game for the PlayStation 3. The studio is currently planning the release of the game and also intend to expand the Devils Third universe by using numerous digital devices and other forms of media entertainment.

Gameplay

Tomonobu Itagaki has a habit of making his games mind numbingly difficult, Ninja Gaiden being the prime example here, but this departure from the hack and slash genre as well as his more common competitive fighting genre, leaves a lot to be considered in terms of gameplay.

While not a lot is known about the gameplay at the minute, we do know that it combines visceral close combat action and third person shooting with online features, similar to products previously released by the original intended publisher THQ who released the Warhammer 40k: Space Marine game, which focused on visceral close combat and third person shooting with online elements.

Itagaki has said “It’s not taking a hack and slash game and tacking on some ranged weapon combat. We feel we have a lot to learn as we make this, but we also feel confident in our experience and the fundamental elements of head-to-head competition in [our previous] games.” THQ’s Executive Vice President Danny Bilson has described the games online multiplayer features as being “phenomenal” and that it was this feature that initially made THQ sign the developers contract.

Story

The backstory for Devils Third is based primarily on the Kessler Syndrome Theory. The theory (which was put forward in 1978 by NASA Scientist Donald J. Kessler) posits that a large enough number of objects (namely, satellites) in low orbit around the Earth have the chance of colliding with each other.

Were these objects to collide, they would generate a reasonable amount of space debris which stays in low orbit, thus increasing the likelihood of further collisions which in turn lead to more cascades and thus the cycle repeats. In Devils Third, combat functions across the earth have been changed for infantry forces now that they lack the satellites which they so rely on. With both military and civilian satellites being out of action a war breaks out in the resulting chaos.

Note: This wiki will be updated once we have more information about the game.