This is what happens when Shinji Mikami and Suda 51 work together.
The greatest interviews in the gaming world can’t all come from 61 Frames Per Second, dontcha know!
While we’ve been chatting with the OCRemix crew about Street Fighter II HD Remix, Gamasutra’s Christian Nutt has been chatting with director Yasuhiro Anpo and producer Jun Takeuchi of Capcom about their controversial sequel,
Resident Evil 5. Nutt gets into far more interesting territory than new weapons and enemies and broaches the geographical background of Capcom’s creativity as a Japanese developer:
Nutt: Is there something creative at Capcom, too, that's part of the equation? Ultimately, Resident Evil, all the way back to PS1, is the game coming out of Japan that best captures that Hollywood movie feel -- and I feel that if you look at Lost Planet, Dead Rising, Resident Evil, and other major Capcom games in this generation, they really bring up the polish and manage to retain that. It's become a Capcom style, in a certain sense. What drives that, at Capcom?
Takeuchi: Well, I think that there are two reasons, mainly, why that is. First of all, we at Capcom, when we set out to make a game, we make it on a world-wide basis.
We make a game that people all over the world are going to buy. And I think that that way of thinking is one of the reasons for our successes.
Maybe at other developers, they first of all look at the Japanese market, and then say, "Oh, we can also sell this in the west."
They develop it first for the internal market, for the Japanese market; but we at Capcom, we look at it first of all as selling something for the whole world.
The second reason, I think, is that we in Capcom are based in Osaka, unlike most of the other Japanese developers, who are based largely in Tokyo.
And I think that gives us -- we have a lot of creative people, and the atmosphere and feeling in the workplace is a little bit different, and I think that gives us a little bit of originality, and allows us also to make something that's technically very high level.
Meanwhile, 1up’s Thierry Nguyen got face time with the
RE5 team’s forebear Shinji Mikami and his new partner in EA crime, Suda 51. While they don’t get into too many specifics about their new “action horror title”, Suda and Mikami do shed even more light on the difference between Eastern and Western game development.
Nguyen: You've worked with other publishers to get your games to the West. Are there restrictions with those other publishers, and is there a sort of blank check "do what you want" feel with EA? How is EA different from other companies you've worked with?
Shinji Mikami: Both of us are the creators. In terms of being a creator, having people understand what I want to do, that's the biggest thing. Also, EA has strong marketing power. If Suda just keeps on doing what he wants to do, players might not understand what they're playing. But with EA's strong marketing power, they know what people want from a game, and we combine both their knowledge and his creativity to help create a better game.
Suda 51: I actually presented two ideas at the same time, and EA really liked one idea. They instantly said "we like that exact idea; we don't want the other one." Too many publishers say that they will think about it and let you know later, but EA was the one that said exactly how they felt the first time. The idea they liked was the game I really wanted to create the most, and they understood what I wanted to do, which helps.
Both are ripping good reads, so head over to
Gamasutra and
1up to check ‘em out.
Related links:
The Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix Soundtrack - An Inside Look
61FPS Q&A: David Lloyd and Larry Oji of OC ReMix on the Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix Soundtrack
Revenge of the Port: Dead Rising Shuffles, Moans on Wii
