He brought us many memorable games like Devil May Cry and Bayonetta, but Hideki Kamiya doesn’t usually do sequels (though he did work on sequels before, including Viewtiful Joe 2). That’s not to say he doesn’t want to; he just has a greater
calling.
From early on in his life, Kamiya wanted to
be a creator of video games. According to the Platinum Games game
designer, one of the things he wrote in a junior high school essay was that he
wanted to work at Namco Bandai (just “Namco” then) and make games.
“In retrospect, at the time it was probably more of an adolescent
aspiration, like a kid saying ‘I want to be a baseball star when I
grow up.'” Kamiya said in an interview with Weekly Famitsu
Kamiya got his chance out of college when
he sent applications to all the major game makers. Two companies, Namco and
Capcom responded. “Looking back, it was a fork in the road.” Kamiya
recalls with a laugh. “Namco offered a position as a graphic designer and
Capcom offered one as a game planner, so while Namco was a company I had
admired since childhood, what I wanted to be was a planner.”
While Kamiya feels he probably could have
gotten to do what he wanted in either company, choosing Capcom was the right
choice as it brought him under the wing of Shinji Mikami and eventually onto
Mikami’s team that was working on a new 3D horror game later known as Resident Evil
Kamiya was later on chosen by Mikami to
direct Resident Evil 2. While he
doesn’t know for sure why he was selected, Kamiya believes that Mikami must
have seen something in him. Said Kamiya, “Mr. Mikami often said to me
‘There are a lot of reliable planners out there, but you’re a dark horse who’ll
either make a hit or a miss.’ So perhaps Mr. Mikami gambled that I’d make a
hit.”
After moving on to Platinum Games, Kamiya
directed the action game Bayonetta.
He is not directly involved with the upcoming sequel, however. Asked about his
tendency to work on new projects rather than develop sequels, Kamiya answered,
“It’s not that I don’t want to make sequels – I really do! But considering
the nature of my position, I don’t really get a chance to. Somebody needs to
offer new entertainment to gamers and do the work of sowing seeds that can later
grow to be strong pillars. It sounds a little overblown, but I’ve come to believe
that is my purpose. If I had been involved with Devil May Cry 2, then Viewtiful
Joe and Okami might never have
been made. If I was directing Bayonetta 2,
then I wouldn’t have been able to make The
Wonderful 101.”
Currently, Kamiya is working on a new
project, though he was unable or unwilling to reveal anything. He’ll probably
let us know via Twitter, eventually. If it doesn’t turn out to be his standard response again
https://kotaku.com/when-bayonettas-designer-trolls-the-internet-5836088
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