Hideki Kamiya is a legendary Japanese game developer—known for creatingDevil May Cry, Okami andBayonetta—with a proven track record of launching successful series.
Kamiya recently spoke about his departure from Capcom in 2006, and the unenviable task his former colleague Hideaki Itsuno, creator of Dragon’s Dogma, had in continuing the Devil May Cry series.
Itsuno took the reins during the development of Devil May Cry 2, which wound up being a big flop for Capcom. However, with the benefit of a whole development cycle in charge, Itsuno released the amazing Devil May Cry 3, which set a new standard for action games.
Competition Inspires Innovation
In arecent YouTube Q&A, Kamiya was asked about Itsuno (nice spot,GamesRadar+). He said, while they didn’t interact much at Capcom, Itsuno sought out Kamiya’s advice while the former was working on Devil May Cry 3.
“Since I wasn’t the director, I could say whatever I wanted without any real responsibility,” Kamiya said. “There’s something that really stuck with me… Itsuno said to me, ‘only Kamiya can get away with stuff like that. If we do the same, fans would get mad.”
Kamiya realised how cautious Itsuno was after Devil May Cry 2 failed, as he “had to be incredibly careful” not to disappoint fans again.
However, when Devil May Cry 3 wound up being a smash hit, Kamiya was incredibly inspired. Kamiya had been working on Okami, and Shinji Mikami, a colleague who would eventually depart Capcom with Kamiya to found PlatinumGames, told him that he had to go play Devil May Cry 3, which Mikami described as “wild.”
“When I saw it, I thought ‘damn, this is awesome’, it really fired me up,” Kamiya explained. “I was like, ‘there’s no way I’m losing to that’, it really lit that competitive fire within me.”
When Devil May Cry 4 was released, the team working on Bayonetta was motivated to surpass Capcom’s action series: “If Itsuno hadn’t created DMC3 and DMC4, there would have been no Bayonetta,” Kamiya asserted, thanking Itsuno for the additional motivation.
Kamiya is currently working on the sequel to Okami, while Itsuno recently departed Capcom after directing Dragon’s Dogma 2.
