Devil May Cry Creator Rags on Ninja Gaiden

Platinum Games head and Capcom designer Hideki Kamiya is waiting for another action game like Sony's God of War to improve upon the gameplay set by his Devil May Cry.

"I've never played Ninja Gaiden, and to be honest, I'm not that interested," commented Kamiya to 1Up on the Tecmo ninja franchise that some consider to be Microsoft's answer to the Devil May Cry series Kamiya started.

He continued, complaining about Gaiden's lack of intrigue, "The quality that gets you interested in something is that you feel something for them. Like on TV, or a movie, or a song, or whatever. You just feel something, and you get pulled into it, and then that's how you pick something up. But Ninja Gaiden just didn't have that power, so that's why I wasn't interested in it."

To Kamiya, no company really improved the genre after DMC's 2001 release.

"I don't know why the baton was dropped, but it is very true that I don't feel that anybody was like, 'Oh my god, this guy created a game like Devil May Cry. We have to create something better,'" he stated. "I never got that feeling from others, so I really don't know why no one picked up the baton."

The closest comparison, and the only game Kamiya is looking to for inspiration, is the very American action game God of War, which is also another Sony franchise.

He explained, "But out of all those action titles, there's one game that I am paying really close attention to, that I think is a rival game, a good game, which is called God of War 3. So I guess they're working on the sequel? I want to make a game that exceeds God of War's sequel. That's one title that I'm paying attention to."

"My impression is that it's very carefully made, the details are all carefully made. Devil May Cry was a bit rough, but I think that there's no roughness in God of War. I thinks that it's very well-made.... I felt like they created the game in a very good way which managed to bring in the users, they gave you a huge impactful feeling right in the beginning, and just drew you into the game. So I'm very impressed that they made the game like that," stated Kamiya.

Now working with ex-Capcom employees from Clover Studio, Kamiya's Bayonetta project is something he describes as "sexy", different from the "cool" appeal of Devil May Cry.

When translating his game ideas to teammates, Kamiya will stand up and personally demonstrate the image in his mind. He revealed, "I'm usually picturing a steamy hot woman doing the move, and I'm trying to do that, but I'm not actually able to convey that to the team, so it sometimes doesn't get across to the team."

Oddly enough, this is the same process the Escapist editors use when editing articles.

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Sexy...Must...refrain...from...joke...
I think it's good that he finds competition in God of War. Maybe the next game he makes will top it. Maybe it won't. Either way, this sort of friendly competition isn't exactly detrimental to the gaming world, so it's good to hear it still exists.

So... He's declaring that Ninja Gaiden hasn't tried to improve the genre, having never played it, and his single "why" is that it's not emotive enough? Jesus.

I've never played Ninja Gaiden

Yet he's ready to file the game away as crap. Looks like a forum troll to me :P

As far as the To Kamiya, no company really improved the genre after DMC's 2001 release comment. That's basically saying his own DMC releases were more of the same as well. So maybe he should pick up his own baton.

I lol to this entire interview. Not only is he critisizing Ninja Gaiden, but also himself for not making anything better.

Ignorant?
Arrogant?
Self justified?

Wow what is it with these Video Game Producers thinking there 'rockstars'?
I personally think Ninja Gaiden 2 is a lot of fun.
I must be wrong then, thanks for pointing that out Mr Kamiya
you utter TOOL

I never saw anything where he says Ninja Gaiden is crap. All I saw was him saying that he had no interest in playing Ninja Gaiden, because in his mind, it didn't have anything that interested him. Gasp! How dare someone not be interested in Ninja Gaiden! Besides, it's not like he's acting like his games are perfect. In fact, he criticizes them, too.

The only way he ever criticizes himself is by saying DMC was a little rough. Other than that, he's basically stating that he's created what remains the pinnacle of hack and slash in the 21st Century.

-10 points for being an egomaniac
+2 points for finding a competitor
+4 points for aiming to kick that competitor's ass
-7 points for making a game based around a "steamy hot woman." Please stop pandering and just focus on making a good game.

Does the Capcom dude not realise that the Ninja Gaiden series created the hack and slash genre? Without the original NG, there never would have been a Devil May Cry.

Incidentally, when the NG remake first came out, I'm sure I read reviews saying stuff like 'revolutionary controls', 're-defines the action genre', 'the best fighting engine in any game, ever', and the like. You know, the sort of stuff that suggests that the bar has seriously been raised. That's the impression I got playing the game.

thebobmaster:
I never saw anything where he says Ninja Gaiden is crap. All I saw was him saying that he had no interest in playing Ninja Gaiden, because in his mind, it didn't have anything that interested him. Gasp! How dare someone not be interested in Ninja Gaiden! Besides, it's not like he's acting like his games are perfect. In fact, he criticizes them, too.

Something Itagaki should learn from.

j-e-f-f-e-r-s: The original Ninja Gaiden games played nothing like the new ones. They were platform games with sword slashing one shot kills, they were hardly the starters of hack and slash games. The new Ninja Gaiden games are based on the formula presented by Devil May Cry, focusing more on combo-ing the enemy. Now NG split from DMC in its second iteration on the 360 by being even more combat focused, and further distancing itself from what the original NG games were, which is fine.

I recently rented Ninja Gaiden 2 and my wife commented on how much it reminded her of Devil May Cry.

Kamiya definitely has a point, although it is unfortunate that he undermines his own statement by saying that he has never played Ninja Gaiden.

I played both God of War games and DMC3 recently, and i must say i find GoW vastly superior

comparing graphics, music, story, atmosphere, and pacing between the two is like comparing a school bully to Muhammad Ali.
In DMC the action takes place in some huge demon tower where you're guaranteed to backtrack a bunch of times and get lost along the way, you don't even see the sun all game for crying out loud. u hear the same battle music all game long. The story isnt much better either, i can summarize it in 1 sentence:
ur evil twin wants to take your father's power by taking your medallion, so he invites you to the demon tower. That's it. all pretty much clear before the first mission.
Cut-scenes don't develop the story or the characters, the main character can't act serious to save his life, the "love interest" is a joke and an opportunity for more smart-ass remarks.
all the cutscenes do is give Dante a chance to show off his awesomeness in increasingly impossible ways. As fun as they are, it would be even more fun if you could be even half as awesome ingame. Which is horribly broken with its infamous bullshit difficulty; if u die u repeat the level from the very start, having to re-do parts that you already proved your worth in is never fun, and it takes very, very few hits from a boss to kill you.

The gameplay is the only thing i can praise in DMC, even though all non-boss enemies serve as punching bags to practice on instead of any actual challenge.

Just stick to GoW

^Well, he did say God of War was superior to DMC.