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Hideki Kamiya

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The native form of this personal name is Kamiya Hideki. This article uses Western name order when mentioning individuals.

Hideki Kamiya
神谷 英樹
Born (1970-12-19) December 19, 1970 (age 53)
Matsumoto, Nagano, Japan
Alma materKyorin University
Occupation(s)Video game designer, director
Years active1994–present
Employer(s)Capcom (1994–2006)
Clover Studio (2004–2006)
PlatinumGames (2006–2023)
Clovers (2023–present)
Notable work

Hideki Kamiya (神谷 英樹, Kamiya Hideki, born December 19, 1970) is a Japanese video game designer and director. He began his career in 1994 with Capcom, where he directed Resident Evil 2 (1998), Devil May Cry (2001), Viewtiful Joe (2003), and Ōkami (2006). From 2004 to 2006, he worked for the Capcom subsidiary Clover Studio.

After leaving Capcom, Kamiya and other former staff members founded PlatinumGames in 2006. Kamiya also served as vice president from 2017 to 2023. His projects with PlatinumGames include Bayonetta (2009) and The Wonderful 101 (2013).

In December 2024, it was announced he had formed an independent studio named Clovers Inc., with their first project being a sequel to Ōkami published by Capcom.

He was named one of the top 100 game creators of all-time by IGN in 2009.[1]

Early life

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Kamiya was born in 1970 in Matsumoto in Nagano Prefecture. At a young age, he was already a fan of video games thanks to a neighbor who often invited him to play with his Epoch Cassette Vision console. Gaming appealed to Kamiya mainly due to the sounds it produced. During his early years of junior school he got his own first console, Nintendo's Famicom. The first game he bought was Nuts & Milk.[2] In high school, Kamiya bought a NEC PC-8801 to study programming, but ended up playing video games every day.[3]

The first software he purchased for his PC-8801 MA computer was Hydlide 3: The Space Memories. He also loved monster movies such as Godzilla and Ultraman as a child.[4]

As a game designer, Kamiya stated he has been most inspired by the games The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past and Gradius. His favorite action game is the original Castlevania.[5] Other favorite games include Space Harrier, Cybernator, Punch-Out, Wonder Boy in Monster Land, Snatcher, Sorcerian, and Star Cruiser.[6]

Career

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When reading an interview from the Family Computer Magazine that featured game creators Shigeru Miyamoto and Masanobu Endo, Kamiya decided he would become a video game developer.[3] After graduating from college, Kamiya applied for jobs at various game developers. He was turned down by Sega and had an application accepted by Namco. However, Namco wanted him to be an artist rather than a game designer.[7]

Resident Evil

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Kamiya joined Capcom as a designer in 1994. His early works included planner of the original Resident Evil. The development of Resident Evil 2 was carried out by a 40- to 50-person group that would later be part of Capcom Production Studio 4.[8][9] The game was directed by Kamiya, who led the team, which was composed of newer Capcom employees and over half of the staff from the original Resident Evil.[8][10][11] In the initial stages of development, producer Shinji Mikami often had creative disagreements with Kamiya, and tried to influence the team with his own direction. He eventually stepped back to an overseeing role as producer, and only demanded to be shown the current build once a month.[11]

To fulfill Capcom's sales plan of two million copies, director Kamiya tried to attract new customers with a more ostentatious and Hollywood-like story presentation.[12] As Yoshiki Okamoto did not want to simply enforce the new direction, he had regular series writer Noboru Sugimura discuss the plot revisions with Mikami and the development staff.[11] The planners redesigned the game from the ground up to fit the changes, and the programmers and other remaining members of the team were sent to work on Resident Evil Director's Cut, which was shipped with a playable preview disc of the new Resident Evil 2 version in order to promote the sequel and to apologize to the players for its belated release.[8][13]

Devil May Cry

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Kamiya was later the director of Devil May Cry, which started out as the earliest incarnation of Resident Evil 4.[14] Initially developed for the PlayStation 2, the game was directed by Hideki Kamiya after producer Shinji Mikami requested that he create a new entry in the Resident Evil series.[15] Around the turn of the millennium,[16] Sugimura[17] created a scenario for the title, based on Kamiya's idea to make a very cool and stylized action game.[18] The story was based on unraveling the mystery surrounding the body of protagonist Tony,[19] an invincible man with skills and an intellect exceeding that of normal people, his superhuman abilities explained with biotechnology.[16] As Kamiya felt the playable character did not look brave and heroic enough in battles from a fixed angle, he decided to drop the prerendered backgrounds from previous Resident Evil installments and instead opted for a dynamic camera system.[15] This new direction required the team to make a trip to Europe where they spent eleven days in the United Kingdom and Spain photographing things like Gothic statues, bricks, and stone pavements for use in textures.[20][21] Though the developers tried to make the "coolness" theme fit into the world of Resident Evil, Mikami felt it strayed too far from the series' survival horror roots and gradually convinced all of the staff members to make the game independent from it.[22] Kamiya eventually rewrote the story to be set in a world full of demons and changed the hero's name to "Dante".[16] The cast of characters remained largely identical to that in Sugimura's scenario,[23] although appearances of the hero's mother and father were written out of the story.[24][25] The game's new title was revealed as Devil May Cry in November 2000.[26]

The game was developed by Team Little Devils, a group of staff members within Capcom Production Studio 4.[27][28] Some of the major gameplay elements were partially inspired by a bug found in Onimusha: Warlords. During a test-play, Kamiya discovered that enemies could be kept in the air by slashing them repeatedly, which led to the inclusion of juggles by gunfire and sword strikes in Devil May Cry.[29] According to the director, Devil May Cry was designed from the ground up around Dante's acrobatics and combat abilities.[30] The decision was made late in the development process to change the game to a more mission-based advancement, instead of the more open-ended structure of the Resident Evil games.[31] Devil May Cry's difficulty was intentional, according to Kamiya, who called it his "challenge to those who played light, casual games."[32]

Despite the success of the original Devil May Cry, the sequel was not created by Hideki Kamiya or Team Little Devils.[33][34] The first notice Kamiya's team was given about any sort of sequel occurred during localization of Devil May Cry in North America and Europe, a move which greatly surprised Kamiya. Instead the project was handed over to Capcom Dev Studio 2.[35] Since the game's release, Kamiya has expressed disappointment that he was not called on by his superiors at Capcom to direct Devil May Cry 2.[36]

Although Kamiya did not direct the third game, Devil May Cry 3: Dante's Awakening, he still advised writer Bingo Morihashi in the characterization of the title character as well as his design. He also gave Morihashi freedom in terms of the story's retcons regarding Vergil's history.[37]

Kamiya stated on Twitter that he was interested in remaking the original Devil May Cry game, although he was not employed by Capcom at the time.[38]

Clover Studio

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Further information: Clover Studio

Kamiya directed the original Viewtiful Joe. The game was conceived as a "staff-focused project" aimed at increasing the skill of its creators, specifically director Kamiya.[39] Kamiya provides the voice for Six Machine in the game.[40]

In 2006, Kamiya worked as the director for Ōkami. Ōkami resulted from the combined ideas of Clover Studio.[41] The game was originally built around "depict[ing] a lot of nature", but had no central concept or theme, according to Kamiya, who served as the game's director.[42] Kamiya eventually created a minute-long demonstration movie showing a wolf running about a forest, with flowers blossoming in its wake, but still lacked any gameplay. Kamiya and other members of the team introduced ideas around the nature aspect and eventually led to the game's initial prototype, which Kamiya admitted was "incredibly boring to play".[42] Eventually, they settled onto the gameplay found in the final product, With the core feature of allowing the player to pause the gameplay at any time to draw on the landscape to affect the world around them.[42]

The gameplay style is a mix of action, platform, and puzzle gaming genres, and has been noted by many reviewers to have numerous similarities in overall gameplay style to The Legend of Zelda series,[43] an inspiration that director Hideki Kamiya, a Zelda fan, has admitted has influenced his general game design.[44]

Clover Studio was closed by Capcom in late 2006.[45]

PlatinumGames

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Further information: PlatinumGames

PlatinumGames was founded under the name Seeds, Inc. on August 1, 2006, by Shinji Mikami, Atsushi Inaba and Hideki Kamiya.[45][46]

In May 2008, the company, now renamed to PlatinumGames, announced a four-game deal with publisher Sega.[47] The games involved in the development and publishing deal included Bayonetta, a "stylish action game" for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 directed by Kamiya. The game was considered as the successor of Devil May Cry with Kamiya having used its latest sequel Devil May Cry 4 as part of his research.[48] First announced at E3 2012, Kamiya directed The Wonderful 101 for the Wii U, which was released in September 2013. He also wrote the story to Bayonetta 2,[49] released on the Wii U in October 2014.

Kamiya has stated he is interested in making a new Star Fox game, and due to a lot of fans asking him on Twitter repeatedly, he was encouraged to submit ideas to Nintendo without success. Eventually, PlatinumGames did end up working with Nintendo on the next installment of the Star Fox series, entitled Star Fox Zero, and its companion game Star Fox Guard, both of which were released in April 2016.[50] Kamiya was working on Scalebound, a new game for Microsoft Studios until its cancellation in January 2017.[51][52]

In October 2022, Hellena Taylor, the voice actress for the titular Bayonetta in the first two Bayonetta titles, revealed that she decided not to voice Bayonetta in Bayonetta 3, alleging that PlatinumGames offered her $4,000 for the role, an amount she found "insulting" and instead asked fans to boycott the video game.[53] Days later, Bloomberg and VGC verified sources that allege that Taylor was initially offered a larger sum for the main role, and that the $4000 was a final offer from Kamiya for a cameo role near the end of development.[54][55] Kamiya responded to Taylor's claims with a tweet reading "Sad and deplorable about the attitude of untruth. That's what all I can tell now." before temporarily deactivating his Twitter account.[56][57][58]

In September 2023, PlatinumGames announced that Kamiya would be leaving the company on October 12, 2023. Kamiya later confirmed the news.[59][60]

Establishment of Clovers

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At The Game Awards 2024, it was announced that Kamiya had independently formed a studio named CLOVERS and would be working with Capcom. Clovers' first project is a new Ōkami sequel that is currently in preproduction.[61]

Online presence

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Those who have met Kamiya describe him as having a soft-spoken, friendly personality, but he has earned a contrasting reputation among some on Twitter for blocking large numbers of users for tweeting him in any language other than Japanese, including users responding in English to tweets he made exclusively in English.[62] Kamiya's blocking has become an inside joke with fans, to the point that getting blocked or unblocked became a stretch reward for The Wonderful 101: Remastered Kickstarter.[63][64]

Works

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Video games

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Year Game Role
1996 Resident Evil System planner
Arthur to Astaroth no Nazomakaimura: Incredible Toons Planner
1998 Resident Evil 2 Director
2001 Devil May Cry Director, story
2002 Resident Evil Zero Original game design
2003 Viewtiful Joe Director
2004 Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney − Trials and Tribulations Japanese voice of Godot
Viewtiful Joe 2 Story
2005 Viewtiful Joe: Double Trouble!
2006 Ōkami Director, story
2009 Bayonetta
2013 The Wonderful 101
2014 Bayonetta 2 Supervisor, story
2019 Astral Chain Supervisor
2021 World of Demons
2022 Sol Cresta[65][66] Creative director, story
Bayonetta 3[67] Supervising director, scenario
2023 Bayonetta Origins: Cereza and the Lost Demon Supervising director, original story, chief scenario writer
TBA Project G.G.[68] Director
Untitled Ōkami sequel[69]

Canceled projects

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References

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  1. ^ "IGN - 56. Hideki Kamiya". IGN. Archived from the original on April 20, 2014. Retrieved November 15, 2023.
  2. ^ "Iwata Asks". Nintendo. p. 1. Retrieved August 12, 2013.
  3. ^ a b "Iwata Asks". Nintendo. p. 2. Retrieved August 12, 2013.
  4. ^ Leone, Matt. "Hideki Kamiya: Making Scalebound with a Western publisher". Polygon. Archived from the original on January 22, 2015. Retrieved August 2, 2021.
  5. ^ Mielke, James (August 18, 2006). "The Kamiya Touch: An Interview with Clover's Hideki Kamiya". 1UP.com. Archived from the original on October 12, 2012. Retrieved April 6, 2009.
  6. ^ Kamiya, Hideki (January 20, 2008). "Hideki Kamiya's Blog - A Self-Introduction". Facebook. Archived from the original on January 18, 2016. Retrieved August 2, 2021.
  7. ^ Kato, Matthew (December 2009). "Action Hero: An Interview With PlatinumGames' Hideki Kamiya". Game Informer. GameStop. p. 11.
  8. ^ a b c "Resident Evil 2: New In-Depth Interview!". Tips & Tricks (37). LFP, Inc. January 1998.
  9. ^ "Production Studio 4" (in Japanese). Capcom Co., Ltd. Archived from the original on February 6, 2005.
  10. ^ Hodgson, David (1997). Resident Evil 2 Survival Guide. Gamefan Books. pp. 106A–108A.
  11. ^ a b c Research on Biohazard 2 final edition (in Japanese). Micro Design Publishing Inc. September 1, 1998. ISBN 978-4-944000-77-7.
  12. ^ Devil May Cry Graphic Edition (in Japanese). Kadokawa Shoten. December 2001. ISBN 978-4-04-707071-4.
  13. ^ Bio Hazard Perfect Guide: Inside of Bio-Hazard (in Japanese). ASCII Corporation. March 1997. ISBN 4-89366-659-2.
  14. ^ Kevin Gifford, Mark MacDonald (April 2005). "Afterthoughts: Resident Evil 4". Electronic Gaming Monthly. No. 190. Ziff Davis Media Inc. pp. 51–52.
  15. ^ a b Hideki Kamiya (July 2001). "新しいバイオ" [New bio]. Devil May Cry Column. Capcom. Archived from the original on March 6, 2010. Retrieved July 17, 2010.
  16. ^ a b c Hideki Kamiya (July 2001). "シナリオの話". Devil May Cry Column. Capcom. Archived from the original on March 6, 2010. Retrieved July 17, 2010.
  17. ^ Minoru Funatsu (April 11, 2001). "カプコン、深作欣二監督を招き「クロックタワー3」を制作". Game Watch. Impress Watch Corporation. Retrieved July 8, 2010.
  18. ^ Devil May Cry Graphic Edition. Kadokawa Shoten. December 2001. ISBN 978-4-04-707071-4.
  19. ^ Hideki Kamiya (September 19, 2010). "Twitter". Archived from the original on October 27, 2013.
  20. ^ Hideki Kamiya (July 2001). "背景". Devil May Cry Column. Capcom. Archived from the original on March 6, 2010. Retrieved July 17, 2010.
  21. ^ James Mielke (August 18, 2006). "Retro/Active: Hideki Kamiya -- The Okami Family Tree". 1UP.com. UGO Entertainment, Inc. Archived from the original on September 27, 2007. Retrieved July 20, 2008.
  22. ^ Douglass C. Perry (May 17, 2001). "E3 2001: Interview with Shinji Mikami". IGN. IGN Entertainment, Inc. Retrieved July 20, 2008.
  23. ^ Hideki Kamiya (September 22, 2010). "Twitter". Archived from the original on January 8, 2014.
  24. ^ Hideki Kamiya (September 19, 2010). "Twitter". Archived from the original on January 8, 2014.
  25. ^ Hideki Kamiya (September 20, 2010). "Twitter". Archived from the original on January 8, 2014.
  26. ^ "New From Capcom: Devil May Cry". IGN. IGN Entertainment, Inc. November 15, 2000. Retrieved July 17, 2010.
  27. ^ Capcom (October 17, 2011). Devil May Cry. Capcom Entertainment, Inc. Scene: staff credits.
  28. ^ "Production Studio 4" (in Japanese). Capcom. Archived from the original on February 6, 2005.
  29. ^ Electronic Gaming Monthly, December 2001 issue, pg. 56
  30. ^ Mielke, James (August 18, 2006). "The Kamiya Touch". 1UP.com. Archived from the original on December 8, 2012. Retrieved July 20, 2008.
  31. ^ Ike Sato, Yukiyoshi (May 24, 2001). "Capcom changes Devil May Cry gameplay". GameSpot. Retrieved July 20, 2008.
  32. ^ "Greatest 200". 1UP. Archived from the original on January 16, 2013. Retrieved July 20, 2008.
  33. ^ Team Little Devils (October 17, 2001). Devil May Cry. Capcom Entertainment, Inc. Scene: staff credits.
  34. ^ Kristan Reed (February 20, 2003). "The Devil's in the detail". Eurogamer. Eurogamer Network Ltd. Retrieved October 19, 2010.
  35. ^ Capcom (January 25, 2003). Devil May Cry 2. Capcom Entertainment, Inc. Scene: staff credits.
  36. ^ Mielke, James (August 18, 2006). "The Kamiya Touch". Archived from the original on January 16, 2013. Retrieved July 20, 2008.
  37. ^ Devil May Cry: 3142 Graphic Arts. Capcom, Udon Entertainment. 2015. p. 211. ISBN 978-1927925485.
  38. ^ "Devil May Cry Creator Wants to Remake Original Game". March 15, 2018.
  39. ^ Sheffield, Brandon (March 11, 2005). "Postcard from GDC 2005: Lessons from Viewtiful Joe: Making a Creatively and Financially Successful New Game". Gamasutra. Retrieved February 17, 2009.
  40. ^ Production Studio 4 (October 7, 2003). Viewtiful Joe. Capcom Entertainment, Inc. Scene: Staff credits, 3:35:19 in, Voices.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  41. ^ McGarvey, Sterling (February 23, 2006). "Running with the Wolves: Atsushi Inaba talks Ōkami". Gamespy. Retrieved August 9, 2007.
  42. ^ a b c Grifford, Kevin (November 4, 2009). "PlatinumGames' Kamiya Reflects on Bayonetta, Okami". 1UP.com. Archived from the original on October 19, 2012. Retrieved November 5, 2009.
  43. ^ Totilo, Stephen (October 10, 2006). "GameFile: 'Ōkami' Goes Green; Official Wii Word; 'Idol' Launch And More". MTV. Archived from the original on October 1, 2007. Retrieved August 10, 2007.
  44. ^ Mielke, James (August 18, 2006). "The Kamiya Touch: An Interview with Clover's Hideki Kamiya". 1up. Retrieved August 10, 2007.
  45. ^ a b Sinclair, Brendan (February 14, 2007). "Clover vets reunite, form Seeds". GameSpot. Archived from the original on May 24, 2011. Retrieved December 21, 2009.
  46. ^ Gantayat, Anoop (February 15, 2007). "Clover Reborn". IGN. Retrieved February 16, 2007.
  47. ^ "PlatinumGames Partner For Four-Title Deal".
  48. ^ Ramsay, Randolph (April 8, 2009). "Q&A: Hideki Kamiya on Bayonetta". GameSpot. Archived from the original on December 28, 2009. Retrieved October 21, 2009.
  49. ^ "Bayonetta 2 joins The Wonderful 101 on Wii U". PlatinumGames.com. August 31, 2012. Archived from the original on September 15, 2012. Retrieved September 14, 2012.
  50. ^ "Bayonetta Creator Wants to be Forced to Make Star Fox at Gun Point -- Andriasang.com". andriasang.com. Archived from the original on December 25, 2012. Retrieved January 11, 2022.
  51. ^ Dyer, Mitch (September 16, 2014). "PlatinumGames Has Never Made A Game Like Scalebound". IGN. Ziff Davis. Retrieved August 5, 2015.
  52. ^ a b Goldfarb, Andrew (January 9, 2017). "Microsoft Confirms Scalebound is Cancelled". IGN.
  53. ^ Foster, George (October 15, 2022). "Hellena Taylor Is Asking Fans To Boycott Bayonetta 3". TheGamer. Retrieved October 15, 2022.
  54. ^ "A Tense Pay Dispute Overshadows Nintendo's Upcoming Bayonetta 3". Bloomberg.com. October 18, 2022.
  55. ^ "Sources dispute Bayonetta voice actor's claims over pay offer". October 18, 2022.
  56. ^ Young, Rorie (October 15, 2022). "Bayonetta 3 Executive Director Hideki Kamiya Responds to Voice Actor's Call For Boycott". Game Rant. Retrieved October 16, 2022.
  57. ^ Comrie, Sam (October 16, 2022). "Bayonetta director Hideki Kamiya's Twitter account restricted amid voice actor controversy". Dexerto. Retrieved October 16, 2022.
  58. ^ Middler, Jordan (October 16, 2022). "Hideki Kamiya's Twitter account restricted amidst Bayonetta 3 VO controversy". Video Games Chronicle. Retrieved October 16, 2022.
  59. ^ Welsh, Oli (September 25, 2023). "Bayonetta creator Hideki Kamiya is leaving PlatinumGames". Polygon. Archived from the original on September 25, 2023. Retrieved September 25, 2023.
  60. ^ Porter, Jon (September 25, 2023). "Bayonetta director and Platinum Games co-founder Hideki Kamiya is leaving the studio". The Verge. Archived from the original on September 26, 2023. Retrieved September 25, 2023.
  61. ^ Kennedy, Victoria (December 13, 2024). "Okami sequel in the works with Capcom and Hideki Kamiya's new studio, Clovers". Eurogamer. Retrieved December 13, 2024.
  62. ^ Hideki Kamiya [@pg_kamiya] (July 3, 2019). "Really fed up with insects which never read my posts/header pic and just keep posting . THAT'S WHY I'm telling u not to post me in languages other than Japanese. If u break rules, that means u r brainless insect and will be blocked immediately. BE CAREFUL" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
  63. ^ PlatinumGames. "The Wonderful 101: Remastered". Kickstarter. Retrieved April 6, 2020.
  64. ^ Robinson, Andy (February 4, 2020). "Blog: I asked Hideki Kamiya all the questions he blocks you for on Twitter". Video Games Chronicle. Retrieved February 4, 2020.
  65. ^ Kamiya, Hideki (August 5, 2021). "Sol Cresta revealed: PlatinumGames' 36-years-in-the-making space shooter sequel". PlayStation.Blog. Retrieved August 5, 2021.
  66. ^ "Sol Cresta - Gameplay Trailer | PS4". YouTube. August 5, 2021. Retrieved August 5, 2021.
  67. ^ Kamiya, Hideki (September 23, 2021). "A Message from Bayonetta 3 Executive Director Hideki Kamiya". PlatinumGames Official Blog (in Japanese). Retrieved September 23, 2021.
  68. ^ Romano, Sal (February 25, 2020). "Platinum Games announces Hideki Kamiya-directed hero game Project G.G." Gematsu. Archived from the original on February 26, 2020. Retrieved February 25, 2020.
  69. ^ Webster, Andrew (December 13, 2024). "Okami is getting a sequel". The Verge.
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