Thoughts on specific (action) game directors?

The idea of this thread came after I was summoned to yet another Bemo memery(goes to show that every cloud has a silver lining), the idea is to simply talk about game directors and what you guys think of them, their best games or whatever. One line or an essay both are fine and it doesn't really needs to be solely game directors as well.

I'll just start with a short description of the ones I can think of.

Kamiya: Top tier, DMC1 remains as my favorite DMC still and I think there hasn't been anything like Okami(and will most likely never will be). Even the games that I haven't played such as W101 look really great.

Mikami: Despite never being much of a tank RE fan, RE4 is one of my favorite action games ever, with games like God Hand or Vanquish I'd easily place him next to Kamiya as far as great developers go.

Itsuno: I feel like Itsuno will never really deliver a bad game but at the same time he's not really gonna deliver masterpieces or anything near DMC3 level ever again. A good game developer, but as stated on gamefaqs I feel like he's always missing something or off in really obvious aspects of the games he's directing(WE WANT DANTE).

Suda51: Suda gives me the same vibe as Itsuno as in "guaranteed fun" except with way more acid and with a somewhat lower quality. People keep complaining about how he really dropped his ball after Killer7 and NMH but I feel like they never were that much to begin with and most of his games post NHM are still entertaining enough to warrant a gameplay. I also feel like he enjoys creating bad games on purpose such as Michigan just for the sake of it.

Taro: Massive hack. (Yes, this is bait).

These are my favorites too, except for Taro. Never liked Drakengard.

I'm a huge fan of Suda's Lollipop Chainsaw. Great game.
I own most of his other stuff though couldn't get into NMH because I hate waggle.
Played Killer 7 and it gets top marks for being the weirdest shit I've ever played. Never touched it again though.
Michigan is bizarre. I didn't mind it, and at one point I was trying to get all the endings. Lots of strange ideas.
A lot of his games have really cool or weird mechanics. Some come out kinda off but at least he tries new stuff.

Itsuno for DMC3 and Dragon's Dogma: Dark Arisen. I put hundreds of hours into it. Started with vanilla DD on 360 when it was the only console I had, moved to PS3 and got Dark Arisen, and also got the PS4 remaster earlier this year. Easily one of my most played games.

How much is the director responsible for? I want to add Yoshinori Ono, who is listed as producer of my all time favorite, Chaos Legion. He was the one promoting the game and talking about it like it was his concept, yet the director is listed Makoto Maeda.

For Knack 2, we have Mark Cerny and Takamitsu Iijima both listed as director. Mark Cerny seems to have worked on a lot of western games I don't like. No idea who the Japanese guy is. Seems to be a mixed team, with Japanese listed as producers, and you can tell by the gameplay it's a Japanese action game through and through. Maybe Mark didn't actually have anything to do with the gameplay mechanics.

And whoever is responsible for Transformers Devastation.

For me I guess, whenever I like a game, I automatically like whoever provided it.
But yeah those you listed definitely made most of what I like.

It's funny how Bemo already has a legacy here, I'm honestly surprised he hasn't found his way over here yet. Though I'm glad he hasn't in some part. A good topic that said.

My personal favorite is Atsushi Inaba, Itagaki and Shinji Mikami. I know that Inaba is technically cheating since he's the producer, but he holds the distinct honor of making every single thing I love. CVX, DMC1, VJ, God Hand, Vanquish, MGR:R, W101, Bayo2 - basically what this man touches is gold to me. If I see his name on a box I buy it.

Shinji needs no introduction. What I like about his games is that they tend to emphasise gameplay and replay, with him acknowledging things like Knife Only Runs etc in his games and even putting that private little letter in REmake to those insane speedrunners on higher settings. His games have this great set of core mechanics, from TEW1, RE, PN03 etc. They aren't complex but there's so much little details to unravel, with their movement etc.

Itagaki just made pure game. Ghost Fish? If they aren't an enemy why are you wasting time making them? Testers find it hard? Make it harder. The games were a bit unreasonable as a result at times but there isn't much like it. There are plenty of games that at least play like God of War or like Devil May Cry...there's nothing that plays like an Itagaki game.

Some others I like:

• Michel Ancel is anotherlegend to me. Rayman. Beyond Good and Evil. Guy really touched some legendary European games. Shame he's stuck at Ubisoft.
  
• Itsuno. So much potential but held back by playing it safe by sticking to Capcom who's milking his talent for a quick buck.
  
• John Johanas: loved his DLC packs for TEW1, and TEW2 was a great successor. Absolutely adored that game. Really curious to see what he's going to do next.
  
• Warren Spector: guy made Deus Ex, 'nuff said. I really like his vision of 'the perfect game' that he'd love to make. Instead of using modern technology to make a huge game, he wanted to make a game that was just one block, but completely alive. Very interesting.
  
• The originals from both ID, Westwood and Blizzard, they really had this 'we're gamers and make games' feeling. You could really feel this from titles like Doom 1, Diablo 1, Red Alert etc. Shame they're all dead now.
  
• Miyamoto. Not much to say about him.
  

@Birdman, to answer your question, the Director sets up the vision and is the team leader. He sort of sets the general direction. Usually via keywords, artwork etc to give people an idea of what kind of game they'll make. He 'directs' the staff. It is up to him how much freedom he gives his team to add their own ideas.

Ok so Kenji Saito directed TF:D according to this, with Atsushi Inaba as producer.
https://www.mobygames.com/game/transformers-devastation

I wish I knew more, like who came up with the momentum system.

I'm honestly surprised he hasn't found his way over here yet.
I have no doubt that he's visited, but he won't dare post in a place where he can't get away with his nonsense.
It's a shame because he seems quite passionate about the genre, but like a lot of fans/vets, can end up being main contributors to killing it.

Birdman:

>Taro
I don't either, I mostly mentioned him because I wanted to take a jab at him. I mentioned the bait bit because I'm used to people jumping on me(mostly joking since I feel like our opinion will be somewhat similar)  when I claim he's overrated and Automata is basically a decent platinum game hindered by Taro's vision.

>Drakengard
When I was younger I got baited into buying Drakengard, there were cinematic trailers with massive wars and aerial combat plus the massive Square Enix logo in the cover to sel the deal. As a sucker for Square Enix action rpgs such as legend of mana and Brave Fencer Musashi I ended up getting it without a second thought. The result is what you're probably expecting: a ehhhhh game with mediocre mix of Musou and Panzer Dragoon gameplay.

>couldn't get into NMH because I hate waggle.
There's a ps3 port of that game(though unsure if it was released overseas), did you ever try it?

>Suda51 trying all sort of weird stuff.
I feel like this is why I enjoy Suda games way more than Yoko Taro games despite both being on the weird design. I feel like Suda really enjoy gaming as a concept and tries to push it in directions and sorts of direction. Taro on the other hand sticks to bread and butter gameplay and just pushes weird ideas and taboos strictly in the plot to create buzz and attract people.

>Based Ono.
What do you feel about him not being the head of Capcom fightans anymore? While Chaos Legion 2 is certainly impossible, there's always the possibility of him working on different action games.

>Knack 2.
Is 1 good as 2? I think I have 1 on psplus but haven't touched it yet.

Raeng:

>Bemo
He's really unique in the sense that it feels like he's clearly trolling but at the same time I can feel he  actually cares about the genre(somehow).

>Atsushi Inaba
I didn't know that, I guess I'll keep an eye out for this guy name considering now that I'm looking him up all I see are names of games I enjoyed.

>Itagaki
I didn't mention him because to be fair I don't have looked up much information for him besides knowing he made one of my fav games ever that were the first two xbox NGs.

>OG western dev teams.
I really liked the old Bioware Crew responsible for stuff like ME1 and 2 as well, I think they left and started a studio?

Also:

>Iga
How do you feel about him? He's listed as one of the producers of Bloodstained Curse of the Moon, I saw you mentioning the game on the GoW boards and I've honestly loved the game as well(had quite the fun with a base zangetsu no subweapons run, might attempt a Nightmare no magic Alfredo near the full game release) and am looking forward to the actual Bloodstained ever since it was announced.

Drakengard
There's stuff to like about Drakengard. I really liked being able to call my dragon, jump on and off but that was about it.

NMH PS3
I haven't. Saw it said something about PS Move on the cover so I just avoided it. Not sure if it actually required it. As for the Wii version, I can't remember how far I got. I know I beat maybe two bosses and then left it at a point where I had to walk around a city looking for work or something.

Ono Capcom fighters
I never got into those fighters and didn't even know he had any part until some debacle about TekkenXSF which I looked into because around that time I was into Tekken. People were trashing Ono for some reason and I remember him always having this toy of Blanka. Otherwise I only know him for Chaos legion. So to answer your question, I don't feel anything on this matter.

Was he good or bad for these fighters?

While Chaos Legion 2 is certainly impossible
As long as he's with Capcom I still have hope. In an old interview he seemed really into this idea of summoning. There are games with summoning, but for me, nothing beat CL. Overlord was pretty good though and had some really unique mechanics for controlling your critters. I always thought that if they combined elements of both, it would make for the ultimate minion summoning action game.

Knack 2
So much better than the first that it can't even be quantified.

Fiver:
> bemo
I'm pretty sure he's just really daft. He's the classical example of someone who likes a certain product and designer, but doesn't know why, so he says things that don't add up.

> Inaba
He's a great guy, as noted everything he touches is basically gold. Guy's also in charge of Platinum Games as a whole as I recall. Interviews paint him a nice picture too.

> Itagaki
The two Ninja Gaiden essays on the main site offer a lot of insight into his design methods. Guy really was "gameplay first", going as far as to berate a colleague for designing a background model (Ghost Fish) and telling him if it wasn't going to be an enemy he was wasting his time. Devil's Third was held back by a multiplayer emphasis, which I have to admit was probably the best multiplayer shooter I've played (or at least top 3 ish).

> Bioware Crew
Not sure what they are up to now, the studio is a shell of its former self that's for sure.

> Iga
Love Bloodstained, but haven't played any of his other games. Never was a big fan of the MetroidVania style, always more of a traditional fan (Super Castlevania IV). The main game (Ritual) looks really bad so far, can't put my finger on it.


Birdman
> Ono
He's a guy with the heart in the right place, but tends to screw things up. Guy singlehandedly revived fighting games with Street Fighter 4. He did some behind the scenes work for titles like DMC, Onimusha etc (like sound designer) before landing his first producer gig at Chaos Legion. Probably why he's such a big fan of it since it was his first real own project.

Other titles he's 'famous' for are Shadow of Rome, Dead Rising (explains the overlap) and Street Fighter 4 and up (all versions).

>Birdman:

>Redeeming points on Drakengard.
Yeah that was prettty cool, I think the variety of weapons was okay too, never reallly got to finish collecting all of them and instead stopped at ending D.

>NMH
I'm pretty sure the psmove is just optional, I'd recommend giving it another try but if I had to rec you anything it'd be NG2 instead. The town minigames are kind of annoying in between all the frantic action yes.

>Was he good or bad for these fighters?
He had his fuckups but we overall he was really positive and basically played a huge role in making fighting games be at the point they're now.

>ultimate minion summoning action game.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wzegU2UCpyk

Jokes aside I do hope he gets another crack at action(preferably HnS) games.

>Knack 2
Cool, I'll get to eventually play 1 and then get 2 someday so I can see how big the jump is.

Raeng:

>Devils Third
That game being release on Wii U was such a massive shame, from what I've seen of the multiplayer it had huge potential of going big on Psquadruple or MasterRace platforms.

>shell of its former self
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7KWkao73HuU
Definitely.

>Iga games
They're a "you either like it a lot or you don't" considering they're not that different from each other, I like how Iga eventually implements level restricted runs in his games and they're speed runner friendly. While I don't think Iga is a genius, I do enjoy the fact that he created a formula that works and has interest on keeping it alive for as long there's people willing to play it, and unlike Inafune the guys seems to actually care about the games he's making.

>Traditional CV
Always been a fan too though to be honest I don't own as many copies of the old games as compared to post Iga castlevanias.

>Ritual looking bad.
I'm not a fan of the artstyle and I also feel like the game feels sort of out of proportion when it comes to the map and the main character sprite, I was worried about frame canceling related techniques due to the 3d art choice but it seems they're still in the game. Gameplay just looks like you'd expect from any other Iga game, so in the very least I know I'm in for a ride for something that I'll certainly enjoy.

Yeah the only way to really understand the jump is to play both.

The first is a platformer with basic combat, the second is a real action game. It has platforming but combat is much more the focus and you have a lot more abilities and tools to use.

I dont know if you've checked my guide but it will give you a good idea.

There's nothing super execution heavy in terms of moves, but the enemies on VH can be brutal and really try to kill you.

Thoughts?

Mikami is my all time favorite. His games have that, “I can boot this up and play it anytime” factor that I don’t get anywhere else, and he did it across multiple genres. REmake and RE4 are part of the same series, but manage to be so masterful in their different approaches to mechanics and overall flow that it still blows my mind. Still replay them to this day and continue to appreciate little things at every turn. God Hand also has my favorite combat system ever. Highly doubt we’ll ever get another game like it.

Kamiya is right up there, with RE2, DMC1, and Viewtiful Joe all being very special games to me that I think are excellent. W101 is also the best game I’ve played in the last few years. I know Gfaqs loves to say he’s a hack because he includes shooting sections in his games, but they don’t detract from the mechanics, and certainly don’t bring the games down enough to label him a hack.

He’s not an action game director really, and this will not be a surprise to anyone, but I have to mention Kojima. His games have an astonishing amount of depth with almost unmatched replayability when you dig in and don’t just believe the uninformed that say his games are movies.

Again, not an action game director per se, but Hashino from Atlus. Catherine is a real gem, and Persona has some great JRPG combat. Pretty under-appreciated imo.

I don’t know how much involvement he has in the game design itself, but I have to mention Hugo Martin. Doom 2016 is a very, very special game to me, and if you see interviews with him, he seems like a genuine and passionate dude. Doom Eternal is looking amazing too.

And I have to mention Koizumi from Nintendo. He had a big hand in all of my favorite 3D Mario’s, directing Galaxy and producing Galaxy 2 and 3D World. He also worked on some other great stuff, like Majoras Mask and Wind Waker.

Suda, Itsuno, etc. are all good in their own ways, but I don’t have much to add that hasn’t been said. Hopefully Suda can come back with another awesome game like Killer Is Dead.

How is Travis Strikes Again? Anyone played it?

I'll be honest, I've totally lost interest due to it being a top down game, cooldowns on specials and only on the Switch.

BIRDMAN
I saw the title and was interested, then I saw the gameplay and quit. I never played the originals either so there's that (are they worth it?).

INFINITY
I can really agree on Mikami, just such a fantastic director that knows exactly what we as classic consumers want. Just a good game director. Kamiya, I can understand the frustration with him constantly trying new things within said games and I echo those annoyances, but they don't make the core games any less fun.

What I think makes Mikami, Itagaki, Kojima and Kamiya stand out is that they make fun to play games with good core mechanics, and also do the rest. All their games have good visual flair, fun stories (mostly), and mostly feel like good games that just happen to have a good combat engine. Meanwhile other titles, like Hayashi's Razor's Edge, feel more like the whole point is the combat.

> Hugo Martin
Dear god how did I forget this guy. Saw that interview too, fantastic man, really a "one of us" type of dude.

>No More Heroes
You’ll probably want a second opinion, but I didn’t like either of the first two games. I like the style but didn’t want anything to do with actually playing them.

>directors
Yeah, those four directors especially have games from the early to mid 00’s that haven’t been matched in a lot of ways. These are guys that are good at packing their games with good, replayable content too.

I need to play Devil’s Third and go hard at NG2. As it stands, Itagaki is a guy I really respect and would look forward to what he’s involved with, but I don’t have the best connection to games. I plan to change that this year, though.

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(are they worth it?).
Not sure. I couldn't get into them due to hating the amount of waggle required, and I wasn't a fan of having to get jobs to pay for stuff in the open part.

It's probably great mechanics wise, but I have no idea.

No more heroes is definitely worth playing. The first one has a ps3/360 port, and the second one has pro controller support. I have only played 2 with a controller. But it was sooo good without motion controls. The second game has you tilt the wiimote up and down for high/low attacks, but with the controller it is just a separate button! You could imagine how much more interesting combat can get if you have that kind of speed to switch styles. If you like coming up with cool infinite loops for bosses, this game has a lot of that. I really loved the combat in 2. Definitely a hidden gem for action games. And the style and wackiness alone in the series is worth it. Suda at his best since Killer7. Everything he has made since has DECLINED.

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How is the work stuff really? A massive grind or is it not that bad? Is that even in NMH2?

In the first game you do as much as you want, but it is minimal. In the second game they are like mini nes games.
I remember them being a fun way to get some extra cash, but you never really need money.
The open world of the first game is the biggest drag. But I believe it is a commentary on boring and shallow open worlds, so I don't mind it.

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>Travis Strikes Again
Kinda of bad, the gameplay is very simplistic with basic light and heavy attacks, lv1 runs feel like a drag becasuse everything is so fucking spongy and you feel like you spend a lot of time just waiting for your cooldowns to come out so you can deal any sort of damage. It also has weird design overlooks such as the game clearly being made to play as co-op(it's boring if you're playing alone) but then you have segments like the Donut platforming where everything feels cramped and you keep throwing your teammate off the edge if you both don't time it right or how it's almost impossible to get a gameover in co-op due to you being able to revive infinite times as long one of you is still alive.

The good points of the game is that it's Suda as hell if you're a fan of his style and co-op while broken it's pretty fun. If I were to recommend a fun co-op platformer on switch you're better getting Kirby all Star though.

I suppose this can also serve as a more general overview of my thoughts on a lot of their games.


Mikami is probably my favorite game director overall (tied with Kojima but I wouldn't consider him an "action" director). If I had to summarize why I like Mikami so much, it would be his attention to detail and that he always manages to offer the maximum amount of mechanical depth for the minimum amount of complexity. There is something really tight and intuitive about the controls and animations of most Mikami games that I love.

I don't have a very high opinion of the original RE, but REmake represents the classic RE formula at its absolute best.

RE4 is the game I've spent the most time with by far (must be well over 1000 hours by now), and I keep revisiting it several times a year, mostly for Mercenaries these days. Usually the EU GCN version thanks to the glitchy ports on current systems. There's very little I would change about this game even if I had the opportunity, and I think it stands as the most poignant evidence of what a talented director in his prime can achieve with a devoted team behind him and a proper AAA budget to back him up.

I love God Hand and Vanquish as well thanks to their impeccable mechanical structures, although they're not the total package like his previous works are and their lower production budgets are often leaving me with a feeling of "what could have been".

Unfortunately, his career seems to have taken a wrong turn in recent years. I cannot comprehend why he would want to tie himself to Bethesda (of all studios!!) in order to direct / supervise by-the-number TPS horror games. I couldn't get into either TEW1 or 2 no matter how hard I tried and it breaks my heart not to have played any new top tier Mikami game since Vanquish came out nine years ago. I wish he'd go back to Platinum somehow and be able to work his magic again.


Itagaki is a bit more difficult one to pinpoint because of how short-lived his period of brilliance was in retrospect. I'm not really a fighting game fan, but his DoA games are among the very few that clicked with me beyond surface level thanks in large parts to their dynamic hold system. But it's his work on Ninja Gaiden that is the stuff of legends. As much as I love DMC3 and Bayonetta 2, NGB is definitely my favorite character action game overall and I find it difficult to think of a better example of "lightning in a bottle" than this game. Everything about the mobility options, the animations, the weapon handling, the enemy design, the bosses, the genius essence / UT system, the pixel-perfect Izuna drop, the insane polish, balance and replayability, mission mode... Almost everything about this game appears to have been handcrafted by the most talented team of developers imaginable. Even the soundtrack is boss. It always bothers me to hear the genre being described as "DMC clones", because this game plays absolutely nothing like DMC thanks to its focus on hyper-aggressive enemies who always dictate the flow of battle and constantly put the player on the defensive.

NG2 is more of a mixed bag. It abandons most of the adventure elements which hurts the pacing, the enemy design is all over the place, the lack of polish can be really frustrating at times and both versions of the game have their own share of pretty glaring flaws. With that being said, the weapons and the overall combat system are so enjoyable as to make up for everything else. Very few games have such a distinct and cathartic moment-to-moment gameplay. I get these insane NG2 cravings sometimes when I just want to boot the game and play the first few levels and/or the endless missions in order to fight the basic ninja enemies. So fluid and fun.

And he pretty much disappeared afterwards as well, which is a damn shame.


I love Kamiya as well, although it bears mentioning that my two favorite games of his (RE2 and Okami) are probably his least action-oriented. I have a lot of respect for the original DMC, but it pales in comparison to DMC3 in almost every respect. Viewtiful Joe, as I mentioned yesterday, never really clicked with me. I refuse to give up on it entirely and plan on revisiting it at some point. I love Bayonetta but, like DMC, I think it has been surpassed by its successor. TW101 is a weird and wonderful game and I'm very very glad it exists, but I also never felt like I was perfectly in tune with the experience in the way I wanted to.

I'll obviously keep buying anything this guy does without hesitation, but he's just not quite on the level of the other two in terms of the directors whose design sensibilities appeal the most to me personally. I think of him more as a trendsetter with a very interesting vision rather than "the best".

Interestingly, I've never played the original Resident Evil on the Playstation. Not only are there too many versions to choose from and I have no clue which one is the best, I ... just never had a chance to.

I agree heavily about Mikami's attention to detail. This goes from minor gameplay mechanics being extremely well thought out like the door-kick in RE4 - a mechanic that most would completely ignore, but he put time and effort into it mechanically - but also item descriptions, world building, etc. The 'examine' part of REmake was a joy.

You mentioned lacking 'total package' in terms of God Hand and Vanquish, what do you mean by that?

> Bethesda
You have to imagine that this is a pretty big deal. The East is very secular, so having a Eastern director start a studio with a Western publisher is something that could be seen as a learning experience for him too and something to challenge him further. I think after the EA debacle and conflict, he'd want to learn more about the western publisher world.

> Evil Within
Shared this opinion for so long. Find the perfect time in your life when everything aligns, dump all expectations of it being an RE4 succesor and play the games. Aside from Vanquish I'd say TEW1 and TEW2 are his best works. I personally love TEW2 more, but the series is very divisive even amongst fans. If Kajiwotore would post here again, he'd probably jump through the screen to slam my keyboard in my face screaming about TEW1's superiority
But really. Give them a chance when the stars align for you. I did and never regretted it for a second. And that's coming from someone who sold the original years ago because he hated it.

> Itagaki
Don't forget Dead or Alive. A series that, when he was at the helm, was one of the the genre's best. DoA2 is pure fighting excellence and still a regular disc in my drive when friends are over.
He's currently more a mentor figure, giving workshops and trainings in Italy.

Sorry for the late reply, I didn't have the time to sit down and formulate a proper response yesterday.

Royta/Raeng wrote:
You mentioned lacking 'total package' in terms of God Hand and Vanquish, what do you mean by that?

Well, I feel like many of the secondary aspects of these games are lacking in some way.

Stories and characters tend to be paper-thin in both titles. I don't mind goofy stories in action games whose main purpose is to provide some semi-believable context for the action, but DMC3 and even some of the GoW games show that you can still have genuinely engaging dialogue and character moments in the genre.

Music is very important to me, and apart from the legendary God Hand credits song, I don't feel like either soundtrack can hold up on its own. I replayed Vanquish a few months ago and I'd be hard-pressed to recognize any of the songs by now. PS: Listening to it now, a lot of it sounds like rather generic Hollywood action music without much personality.

Level design is another big one. "Linear" is usually a plus for me, but I also appreciate detailed environments and levels that are interesting to traverse. God Hand in particular isn't just linear, it's straight up barren, with most of its late-game stages being little more than empty corridors and straight lines with a bunch of enemies waiting for you. Vanquish's levels are better structured, but the color palette and general look of the game stays pretty much the same flat futuristic-industrial grey throughout.

You can tell the production values were rather modest and that they had to cut a few corners here and there. The end boss in Vanquish being a remixed duo of a previous boss or the lack of any extra content in God Hand, for example.


None of this really impacts my appreciation of the games because their core mechanical structures are so strong and what make them so deeply enjoyable and replayable. But I also think that potential sequels / spiritual successors would have a lot of room for improvement in the aspects I've mentioned.

Royta/Raeng wrote:Aside from Vanquish I'd say TEW1 and TEW2 are his best works.

Wow, so you consider both to be superior to REmake and RE4, too?
High praise indeed. I've been meaning to replay them at some point but I can never find the motivation to do so. Will have to rectify that eventually.

Royta/Raeng wrote:Don't forget Dead or Alive.

I didn't! I mentioned DoA. Probably should have spaced that a little better!
Yeah, DoA3 and 4 are those I've spent the most time on, and they certainly scratched an itch that most other fighting games don't.

No worries mate, we're all just hobbiests, join the conversation when you have the time :)

> Dead or Alive
Wow, apologies! Totally read over that one. Totally agree with you on that one, very very nicely done games. I do feel the later ones also lost what made them great (high damage holds and combos) in favor of what was just a neat extra (ass and tits). Dead or Alive 2 really feels like this perfect 90s game. Badass soundtrack, industrial menu with blue icons, a weird VR like female announcer, hard hitting attacks like in Street Fighter 2 with high risk high reward, fights are over in like 10 seconds making you beg for more, attacks sound like you're hitting foes with a truck instead of fists and all the characters are slightly sexualized and hyper attractive.

Later-on it just went a bit nuts.

> total package
I can understand that. I wouldn't put Vanquish in that street honestly, while it is a tad generic the story actually is pretty ballsy, making the only humans you kill be american soldiers and have - basically - Hillary Clinton be the villain, that takes guts honestly. I do agree that the genre has shown it can really evolve above this. God of War 1 and DMC3 are absolutely stand-out examples of amazing tales (for games that is) in the medium.

> God Hand soundtrack
I'm really surprised to hear this, but music really is a personal thing. I really like to spin the album on my HDD on a timely basis, especially most of the battle themes like Devil May Sly and Yet Oh See Mind are ones I adore. I agree that music is absolutely necessary. It is why DMC4 never resonated with me and DMC3 did. It is why I love Painkiller Black just that little bit more than Serious Sam. It is why Metal Gear Rising always has that place in my heart. And it is why I never use Vanquish's music...

> level design
In God Hand I can understand it, but I also understand the idea behind it. They really just wanted a game-game. Look through walls makes it easier and better to play? There we go! In terms of lineair levels I always enjoyed what God of War offered the most. It is technically lineair but there is minor backtracking and hidden chests. Really love that the most.

I fully agree Vanquish needed some other enviroments. It does try it with the forest and zero-g area, but both are way too short compared to the 'crumbling city of the future'. Feel something small like entering a museum alone would've already imrpoved it significantly.

> TEW1 and TEW2
Whoops. I, for some reason, always forget those two when discussing these topics since they are such no brainers for best games. I'd put them slightly below it - equal to them. They are absolutely beasts of games, but I think what you do need is a really open mind and the heart to be creative - especially with the Crossbow. That weapon really is a game-changer and the evolution of the Grenade Launcher I feel.

RE4 is my most played game of his paired with Vanquish, but RE4 is a tad inconsistent for me at times in terms of quality still. Some levels really do bore me to tears or annoy me, but yet when I think of what I'd change....not a whole lot.

>Taro
Might have found a wrangler.

>Suda51
Hasn't found a wrangler.

>Itsuno
Doesn't know he needs a wrangler.

>Mikami
Needs to wrangle the others.

>Kamiya
Needs to wrangle that non-HnS shit he keeps putting in his games.

>Jaffe
Thoroughly wrangled.

>Nu-Barlog
Now in grave need of wrangling.

Speaking of Itagaki, I honestly can't wait for X019. He said that we'd see him soon a week ago, and I think he was talking about X019. That, or TGS 2020 or E3 2020.

I wouldn't hold out hope just yet, I think it will be late 2020 when we hear something. Though, I wouldn't mind hearing something earlier! I do wonder who he's working with.

Looks like he didn't show up this year, like you said.

My new bets are on E3 2020, or TGS 2020.