CVG goes straight to hell with Devil May Cry director

CVG - Devil May Cry has started to attract some serious attention, and was touted by Sony as one of the most important games for PlayStation 2's 2001 at E3 in May. What do you think is the main reason for this?

Kamiya - I feel the video game industry has been concentrating on appealing to wider audiences too much and has been ignoring hardcore gamers who have been supporting the industry for a long time. With Devil May Cry, we wanted to return to the concept of playing games being a fun, yet challenging experience. It was our goal to create a hard-edged game, not to flatter the players. DMC could be considered as our challenge to the modern gamers who have perhaps been spoiled by too many player-friendly games. We strived to create what we truly wished to deliver and what we truly believed to be fun. It is my opinion, because of this policy that DMC shines as a unique title and has been recognised by Sony, something that I am extremely proud of.

CVG - The game is something of a departure from Capcom's efforts in the adventure genre in recent years, specifically the BioHazard [Resident Evil] series. Can you explain what your vision for Devil May Cry was, how you've managed to achieve it and why you decided to step away from traditional Capcom survival horror?

Kamiya - At the beginning of the project, DMC was supposed to be the next game in the Resident Evil series. The producer of RE series Mr. Mikami's instruction was: "Create a brand new Resident Evil on this new platform PlayStation 2!" Thus we came up with various new features that changed people's traditional impressions of the RE series. We surpassed the RE series' overwhelming realism by improving the graphics, animation and the sound effects and in addition added some brand new features.

~In the RE series, the main theme was "horror" and your goal was to escape from overwhelmingly strong enemies and survive, whereas the main theme in DMC is "coolness": you seek out trouble and defeat strong enemies with super human powers. As a result, the game deviated too far from the RE series' world settings but at the same time it's high quality and great potential were recognised. That was when a new original title Devil May Cry was born. After DMC officially became an original title, I changed the game universe to a demon world, the main character to a super human being who can transform into a demon and also the enemies into a variety of demonic monsters. Because I myself have always been involved with the RE series since I joined Capcom and was the Director of RE2, it has been my strong desire to create something totally different from the RE series. Devil May Cry is the materialisation of this desire.

CVG - Where does the inspiration for Dante come from? Why did you decide to dress him in Bohemian clothes?

Kamiya - I got the inspiration for Dante from a Japanese comic book character called "Cobra". He never fears his enemies and always looks perfectly confident. Even in times of danger, he talks with lots of irony and a provoking look. I liked this character very much and thought he would be most suitable for a character, which would fight with demons.I gave Dante a cloak to make his intense action look even more colourful. The reason why his costume is red is that it is a heroic colour - in Japan, red is traditional colour for a hero. The other reason is that since Leon from RE2 was dressed in blue, I wanted try the opposite colour this time.Although Dante is a hero, I didn't want to give him an extreme, over the top, outfit as you often see in some Japanese comic books featuring heroic characters. We tried to come up with a design that was a good compromise between the realistic and the heroic.

CVG - You made a great deal at E3 in creating the system where Dante can throw enemies into the air with his sword and juggle them with his pistols. Do you consider this feature an integral part of the game as a whole?

Kamiya - The action you're referring to is just one of Dante's combination moves. As I said earlier, DMC's main theme is coolness but it is left to players' hands if DMC can truly be a "cool" game. There are lots more combination moves you can perform in DMC than the juggle and I would like each player to enjoy creating their own original "cool" combination moves and admire watching Dante perform these original actions in a "cool" way.All this said, the "sword and gun" action you're referring to could be considered as the one symbolic move of DMC. I wanted to create an unconventional character with Dante, I didn't want a typical hero type who always slashes the enemies or always shoots them so I tried to forget of all the usual stereotypes. Dante attacks in many different ways and wields many types of weapons. "Throwing enemies into the air with sword and juggle them with pistols" represents Dante's style the best and is therefore my favourite move.

~CVG - You switched the format of Devil May Cry to a mission-based structure following feedback from the release of the first demo. Why?

Kamiya It is not true we switched to a mission-based structure following feedback from the demo. At the time we released the demo, the game was far from complete. Lots of game system issues had yet to be finalised and were under consideration. Nonetheless, the opportunity of bundling DMC demo with Biohazard Code: Veronica Complete [the Japanese version of Resident Evil Code: Veronica X] was too good to miss. It was obviously the ideal opportunity to let gamers taste the atmosphere of this brand new game even if it was not complete. So we decided to create that demo within a very short period of time. Although it was not complete and there was a possibility of changing the game system, at least we were confident the game's main theme of "coolness" would never change in the final product and the core part of the enjoyment of DMC could be found within the demo.
After we released the demo, we realised we had been bound by the Resident Evil formula and discussed what would be the best system for DMC's fast-paced action. This is how we came up with the mission-based structure.Other than this structure issue, there were also many ideas we could not implement in the demo. Every time we heard the player who tried the demo saying "Why can't I do this in this demo?," we wanted to explain to them: "It will be possible in the final product so please be patient." Thanks to their comments toward the demo, I'm very confident the final product will not fail their expectations.

CVG - Can you describe some of the monster battles in the game? Where did you get the ideas for the bosses?

Kamiya -When I changed the game's world setting to a demon world, I took traditional fantasy monsters and tried to alter them so they would fit into the world of Devil May Cry. What if I were to transform those traditional monsters like Marionettes, Death and Lizardmen so they can fight against the super powerful devil hunter Dante? That's how the monsters were born.When designing monsters, I tried not to let the traditional concepts of the demon worlds restrain my imagination. My policy was: "Anything that looks cool is acceptable."
Even more important than the designs is the fact that the monsters are there to fight. Although their appearances are unique and attractive, we would like players to pay more attention to their movement. You won't be able to defeat them simply by blindly slashing your sword. You will have to predict their next attack and evade it to give them an effective blow. Once you get used to the game, it would be a good challenge to try to defeat them without taking any damage. Some players may become engrossed in finding the coolest way of defeating monsters and it would be great for me if each player finds their own style of playing DMC.

~CVG - Can you outline the basic storyline of the game? How have you managed to balance story-telling with full-power action?

Kamiya - DMC's storyline is simplistic, nothing of a novelty. It can be considered as a traditional story of a hero. It is my opinion in an action game; the story itself should not surprise the players or make the players sad. For an action game like DMC, it is most important to motivate the player so they feel like a hero and want to defeat enemies at any cost. You confront an enemy and then fight it; the first time you may lose but finally you will defeat the enemy and such a process should be considered as part of the story. So the in-game cut scenes should be blended seamlessly with the gameplay to stimulate a player's emotions. They are integral part of the game but at the same time cannot exist on their own.

CVG - It would be sensible to assume that Devil May Cry will be forged into a Capcom franchise, with further instalments on the way. Is this the case?

Kamiya - I would like to think so, but until we get feedback from our consumers on the game it is too early to say.

CVG - Why have you decided to keep the title as a PlayStation 2 exclusive?
Wouldn't this sort of graphical showcase be a good title to bring over to Xbox? What about Gamecube?

Kamiya - When we started development, PS2 was the most advanced hardware at that time.

CVG - Finally, what pleases you the most about the title, and what do you think will make Devil May Cry stand out against the rest of the crowd this Christmas?

Kamiya -What I like most about DMC is its unprecedented atmosphere. The game develops contrary to players' expectations yet allows them to perform anything they wish in the game. This game doesn't conform to any existing video game formula and am confident the game's extraordinary energetic atmosphere will hold great appeal for gamers.

CVG - Thanks for your time.

Johnny Minkley