Lady Lumps Don't Sell Games

Jonathan Gordon 12:57, Tuesday 13 October 2009

Japanese game developers discuss the female form.

There is talk circulating the Japanese games industry and beyond that Hideki Kamiya could be revisiting an ongoing feud with Dead Or Alive and Ninja Gaiden creator Tomonobu Itagaki. Kamiya, the mind behind Resident Evil, Devil May Cry and Okami was talking about Bayonetta in a recent interview when he suddenly seemed to go on the offensive about what is and isn’t sexy in a videogame.

“It’s a huge mistake to think like an idiot that big breasts on women seem erotic,” Kamiya declared. The reason that this is being taken as an attack on Itagaki is that the two game directors have clashed before, particularly over their action games Devil May Cry and Ninja Gaiden. Last year Kamiya dismissed Ninja Gaiden as a series that lacked the power to draw him in.

“It's a huge mistake to think like an idiot that big breasts on women seem erotic”

“I’ve never played Ninja Gaiden, and to be honest, I’m not that interested,” he said. “You know when you’re watching a TV commercial or a movie trailer or listening to a song or whatever, how you just feel something and you get pulled into it? it just didn’t have that power, so that’s why I wasn’t interested.”

Itagaki had a few words at the time too, attacking Okami and Kamiya’s view that the action genre hasn’t moved on since Devil May Cry. “Was he asleep for eight years?” he demanded to know. “There are two types of people out there who like to make controversial, splashy comments. There are those who are truly outspoken, and there are those who are just trying to cover up for there weaknesses. We have a saying here in Japan — “the weaker dog barks more” — and I sincerely also like to remind him to make sure to stay awake for the next years.”

As Itagaki launched his new studio he went on the offensive yet again. “If I made a similar game as a game I made in the company I quit, people would say, ‘What an idiot, can’t he make anything else?’” Itagaki told 1up earlier this year. “Well, that is more or less the opinion I have for, uh, that Bayo-something game.”

What does all this mean? Absolutely nothing although a little battle between two of Japan’s best-known action game creators may be just the thing we need to be interested in Japanese games again. The most important question though is whether or not Kamiya is right about the breast question. Let us know what you think.

Via Kotaku.

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Jonathan Gordon

Jonathan Gordon

News Editor of Play, previously of 360 and there was some Nintendo thrown in there at some...

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