Devil May Cry creator Hideki Kamiya has talked about Hideaki Itsuno taking over directing duties for the series, saying that without his DMC3 and 4, "there would have been no Bayonetta."
While Hideki Kamiya created the Devil May Cry series, it's safe to say that a ton of people associate the series with Dragon's Dogma creator Hideaki Itsuno, who joined the series during Devil May Cry 2 and directed each of the games from there (barring the edgelord reboot). While DMC2 was a total mess, Itsuno was brought on as director to try and salvage what was there (to which Kamiya says "I don’t think that’s what he really wanted to be doing, to be honest"), but then bounced back with arguably the best action game ever made with Devil May Cry 3.
Kamiya was asked about his thoughts on Itsuno's work for his YouTube Q&A series. Kamiya admits he hasn't actually spent much time with him at Capcom, or in general, until a recent drinking session. But he recounts Itsuno consulting Kamiya about his vision ahead of starting work on DMC3, "he brought me in and told me about the vision he had."
Kamiya recalls, "Since I wasn't the director, I could say whatever I wanted without any real responsibility" when suggesting ideas to Itsuno. But in the midst of these ideas, Kamiya says, "There's something he said that really stuck with me." He adds: "Itsuno said to me, 'only Kamiya can get away with stuff like that. If we do the same, fans would get mad." This made Kamiya realize "Itsuno was feeling super cautious" after the DMC2 debacle, and "he had to be incredibly careful."
As we know now, Devil May Cry 3 turned out to be incredible, which Kamiya says really inspired him. He recalls Shinji Mikami seeing the game and telling him "Kamiya, you gotta go see it. That was wild!" and that "when I saw it, I thought, 'damn, this is awesome.' It really fired me up." Kamiya would soon leave for Platinum Games after completing Okami, he said, when the team started working on Bayonetta, "I was like, 'there's no way I'm losing to that…' It really lit that competitive fire in me."
Kamiya then speaks about playing a demo of DMC4 that was taking place across from the Platinum offices. "A bunch of us went and tried it out – 'Ooh, not bad!' but adds "While we were playing it, we were like, 'no way we're losing to this'" which led to the Bayonetta team "getting super motivated." Kamiya adds "If Itsuno hadn't created DMC3 and DMC4, there would have been no Bayonetta," saying the mindset of "I can't lose to this" and "I'm going to top this" is "what drove Bayonetta forward" and that he's "genuinely super thankful to Itsuno for that." As he should be, because Bayonetta also turned out to be one of the best action games ever made, alongside DMC3.
Despite the 8-year hiatus, Capcom has called Mega Man "one of our most important IPs."
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