In the Hot Seat: Hiroyuki Kobayashi

We grill Devil May Cry 4's lead producer Hiroyuki Kobayashi on the hot seat. Did we, you know, make him cry? Read on...
1/31/2008 12:00 AM | 0 Comments | Page 1 of 3

The main character is a total jerk. The gameplay is repetitive. The here's-the-action-from-this-awkward-but-terribly-stylish camera angle is, to put it mildly, f*#&ing annoying. Finally, the story is the kind of nonsensical videogame garbage that we've been ranting against for years. Top it off with Devil May Cry 2, one of the worst sequels in the history of the medium, and it's tough to believe that this franchise not only still has legs underneath it, but it's still running.

And yet, having played through the original and the third games in the series not once but multiple times (I unlocked Virgil in DMC 3), I confess to having a weakness for Dante and his sword-swinging, guns-a-blazing, misogynistic ways.

I sat down with Kobayashi-san in a midtown Manhattan hotel room recently, along with Evan Narcisse, and gave him the double-barrelled Crispy treatment.

Crispy Gamer: It's an honor to meet you. I'm a big fan of the games. Except for number two.

Hiroyuki Kobayashi: [Laughs] For the record, I don't think a lot of number two, either.

Crispy Gamer: One thing that always occurs to me regarding the series is that the Devil May Cry games never feel like they're really based on any mythology; they're not influenced by history the way that, say, the Dynasty Warriors series is. They seem completely clean, as if they'd been born out of nothing but other videogames. Would you agree with that?

Kobayashi: It's funny that you should say that, because we honestly don't really pay a lot of attention to other games. So we don't intentionally take things that other games are doing, or pay attention to what other game companies are doing. We make the kind of game that we want to make, and make a game that has the brand of action that we want to create. I would say, if anything, the games that we make are influenced more by movies or anime than they are by other videogames.

Crispy Gamer: The Devil May Cry games obviously embrace an over-the-top aesthetic, not unlike the grindhouse movies, where the only logic that exists is the logic that the movie creates for itself. Is that the only way to accomplish certain gameplay goals? And is that over-the-top sensibility something that happens with the gameplay in mind first? Or is it the sensibility that drives the gameplay?

Kobayashi: Well, I'm very interested in Hollywood action movies. One of the reasons that the game is what it is, is because it's not possible for us to make a Hollywood movie. We want to make the kind of game we would like to make if it was a movie, if you get my idea. I think that brand of extreme action is something that the players themselves want from the game; it's something the [Devil May Cry] fans have come to expect -- that extreme action, that extreme stylization. So, that's why we do it like that.

Crispy Gamer: So, if you don't borrow from other videogames, what does inspire you?

Kobayashi: As I said, I love Hollywood action movies, but Yoji Shimomura [director of the game's cut scenes] is more into Asian action movies. You know, the kind with lots of fighting in cramped spaces. Obviously, the team overall is influenced by anime. One in particular that influenced the team -- it was a manga originally, and then became an anime -- is called 'Black Lagoon.' And naturally, we are influenced by anything with guns and swords, anything like that. One thing you might not know is that it was the movie 'Blade,' and not 'The Matrix,' that was the biggest influence on the original Devil May Cry.