Who Made This?: Hideki Kamiya // Codex Entry

Let's rock, baby.

Patreon:   / codexentry  

Also, a massive shout out to JP Kellam, Yusuke Hashimoto, Atsushi Inaba, and everyone on the PlatinumGames team. Game creation, as always, is a team effort and they are just as responsible for a lot of these games as Kamiya himself.

A few things I should cite and note:

Bayonetta playthrough with Kamiya. If you're interested in hearing his design philosophy straight from the man himself, you can't do much better:
https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/p...

Iwata Asks interview with Kamiya that served as my primary source for a lot of his biographical stuff:
https://www.nintendo.co.uk/Iwata-Asks...

An interesting yet terribly translated interview circa 2002 (I think):
http://survivhor.biohazardfrance.net/...


I'm sure some of you noticed that I didn't really include Resident Evil 2 in my discussion about his games and that was intentional. While Resident Evil 2 is the first game directed by Hideki Kamiya, I would really hesitate to call it the first Kamiya game in the way we would come to understand what that is later. It manages to find footholds for certain things that would go on to be design trade marks of his such as an emphasis on skilled, fast play marked by way of the end game ranking, a bombastic presentation (at least in comparison to it’s predecessor), and a tense, brooding atmosphere. However, while it is a great game and fascinating to examine, it’s hard to shake the feeling that this is more of a Mikami game by way of Kamiya, than a genuine Kamiya game. After all, it’s a survivor horror game, a genre that Kamiya has had no apparent interest in truly revisiting. Sure, he loves dabbling with the tone, but the actual mechanics have long since been left behind in his toolkit. It’s a great game, but it reminds me a lot of James Cameron’s Aliens: A great work made by a great artist with a sequel crafted by another great artist that doesn’t fully reflect either of their personal visions. It’s also worth noting that this is the first and only sequel to anything he has ever directed, so make of that what you will.