In the late 1980s, Hideo Yoshizawa, Masato Kato and Keiji Yamagishi worked with a small team to create action game Ninja Gaiden for the NES. As part of Polygon’s Life in Japan cover (which also features the debut of Yamagishi’s first single from his new album, and the reveal of a game he’s composing music for), when they weren’t freezing in the cold for our photoshoot, I talked to them as a group about what it was like developing the classic action series more than 20 years ago.

Photo: Benjamin Parks