Fans of the Ninja Gaiden series who weren't too impressed with how Rachel - who was claimed to be the "world's greatest female action character" - may turn to the next Ninja Gaiden leading lady for their potential awesome female character fix.

There's a hitch, however: Sonia won't be playable in Ninja Gaiden 2.

Team Ninja's gaming meister Tomonobu Itagaki, who was present in a recent London press event, said that making Sonia playable in Ninja Gaiden 2 would be tantamount to the team making a "game like Gears of War."

What does this exactly mean, however? Let the eloquent Itagaki-san explain why:

That being said I think that Ninja Gaiden is a story of Ryu Hayabusa and of his journey. Particularly I didn't think that the Rachel playable aspect in Sigma was done very well. Sonia is mainly a supporting character that provides function with the story. She uses machine guns and bazookas and things like that, so if we were going to feature her as a playable character we would have to basically make a game like Gears of War.

So is Sonia too awesome to be playable for us lowly mortals? That may be the case indeed. However, it seems as if Itagaki and the rest of the Team Ninja may have learned their lesson with Rachel and her being playable, saying that she "wasn't done very well."

Itagaki offers his explanation as to why Rachel didn't reach the expectations of most Ninja Gaiden Sigma players: "I would just like to point out really quickly that the playable Rachel in Ninja Gaiden Sigma was something that was done by a junior member of Team Ninja and I didn't really have any involvement in Ninja Gaiden Sigma for PS3 because I was working on this title."

Interesting words, indeed. In case you haven't seen Sonia yet, do check the previously covered "Sonia Reveal" video to see if she's indeed a good candidate to the title of the world's greatest female action character. She's got the mandatory gravity defying physics and clothing, at least.