It’s always interesting to hear developers talk about their motivations for creating different kinds of products. Some designers have such amazing range, one really tends to wonder how they manage to switch between the mindsets you’d need to approach each game with. For instance, Hideki Kamiya designed both Bayonetta and Okami.
In a post from January recently translated on the English Platinum Games blog, he explains that, while Okami was designed to be loved by everyone, Bayonetta was more of a game that appealed to him, personally.
With Okami, we aimed to make something that would be widely loved; however, making something in the manner we made Bayonetta is making something that really has to “agree” with you. Personally, I’m someone who doesn’t get motivated if I don’t think something is fun, and Bayonetta is something that people actively choose. Like with food, when one forgoes sweet curry, instead picking Thai red curry (which I was actually addicted to recently and was eating every day). For people like that, who can’t get enough of that “je ne sais quoi”-flavor1, I hope you keep supporting us in the future.
Kamiya also talks about the differences between the western and Japanese games press. He elaborates that one of the editors from Future Publishing interviewed him for the European Bayonetta strategy guide, and he found their questions to be very deep. He went on to say that he felt interviews with the Japanese press felt less stimulating, due to their tendency to censor and edit interviews — even before they are scanned by PR, surprisingly — more than required, to the point where they feel "mild."
There’s also a mockup of a Bayonetta body pillow (come on, you knew this was coming) at the post, so even if just for that, head on over to check it out.
