#341: Itagaki mass

Rest in peace, then, Tomonobu Itagaki. The revered — and in some quarters reviled — Japanese developer, best known for the Xbox-era Ninja Gaiden games, the Dead Or Alive fighting-game series and titsy life-sim spin-off DOA Xtreme Beach Volleyball, has passed away aged just 58.

Whether you liked him or not — for what it’s worth, I went back and forth on it a bit — he was a remarkable figure. For a Japanese developer he was uncommonly gobby, eschewing the national traditions of conformity and respect by waging a public war of words with the Tekken development team in a bid to get more eyeballs on Dead Or Alive. (As Tekken stalwart Katsuhiro Harada pointed out in a long and properly excellent not-Twitter post earlier this year, it worked. Itagaki later apologised, admitting it was nothing personal, just a strategy to garner attention in western media.) His Ninja Gaiden games had a fearsome reputation that he leaned right into; he called people who complained they were too hard “losers”, said those that played on the lowest difficulty were “not afraid to shame themselves to accomplish their goals”. He labelled the mode Ninja Dog, and if you picked it he added a pink ribbon to your character model. When he left Tecmo in 2008 he went anything but quietly, calling its president “a man who chooses not to honour promises even when he is able to do so.” He sued him for defamation, and the company for withheld bonuses. 

It was a short career, really, his peak spanning just twelve years between the first Dead Or Alive and Ninja Gaiden II. (In an interview promoting DOA Xtreme, he credited that hot streak to his taste for whisky.) His post-Tecmo output amounted to very little: the execrable Wii U action game Devil’s Third, a ‘supreme advisor’ credit on a 2020 Samurai Jack tie-in I’d never heard of until I looked it up just now, and the occasional shoutout in Special Thanks. In a way, I think Hidetaka Miyazaki came along and ate his lunch. He talked about the same things but in a different way, believing in rather than belittling his players, speaking not of dogs and losers but of trust in his players’ resolve. I’ve had a newsletter rattling around in my head for a while now, lamenting the impact the rise of the Soulslike has had on the character-action brawlers I hold so dear, that Itagaki was so good at making, and that you don't see too much of these days. You can still have big swords and fancy combo systems but you’ve got to have bonfires, and ladders you kick down, and loot that scales to your character stats and all that. God, can you imagine if Itagaki had made a Soulslike? Perhaps it’s for the best the back end of his career was so quiet.

I adored his games, finishing Ninja Gaiden II a dozen times and spending an unforgettable week off sick playing Dead Or Alive Ultimate on Xbox Live from dawn to dusk, but I never managed to meet him. While I ticked off most of the names on my bucket list of Japanese legends during my time on Edge — Miyamoto, Aonuma, Nagoshi, Mizuguchi et al — our paths never crossed; he’d already left Tecmo by the time I came along. But we did send him some questions for an email interview in one of the best issues I worked on.

I was flying to Kyoto for a world-exclusive Miyamoto interview and photoshoot, and Nintendo asked if there was anything else we needed. Sensing they were in a rare accommodating mood, I decided to push my luck: how about a series of email Q&As with the minds behind Wii U’s release slate? Amazingly they went for it, and even roped in Itagaki to talk about the then-mysterious Devil’s Third. Email interviews don’t count, of course, particularly when Japanese developers are involved. Their responses are too clean and polished, losing much of their magic at the translator’s desk, then most of the rest as the file gets passed between various stakeholders who sand down any remaining edges. I plucked the issue down from the shelf this morning expecting Itagaki’s section to be a load of hot nothing. I believe I was wrong! Let’s pop on our shades, draw our katanas, set the jiggle slider to max and let the man himself bring today’s edition to a close.

“To you all, I might appear as a guy that just kind of fits with wearing sunglasses or gambling while having some drinks, while some people view Nintendo as a company only interested in making family-friendly videogames featuring Nintendo characters. But it’s dangerous to measure the value of things or try to predict the future with such a stereotyped mindset. All you’ll get are weak answers.

“So then, how can we find out the real personality of a man, or a company? Let me tell you the answer: heart. A company is just a collection of people. Therefore, a company must also have a heart. I’m working on Devil’s Third with a Nintendo producer, Mr Yamagami. And alongside him there are many other fantastic artists and artisans at Nintendo. Every day we are going back and forth, arguing and laughing. What else could be more exciting?

“Development is fun, isn’t it? Working on different things every day, thinking differently every day. But it’s easier said than done. There is one thing that never changes, though. It is the desire to make a game of a new genre for people to enjoy — that passion. For that passion and for that goal, it will often lead us to argue, and it will often lead us to embrace. And then we’ll go for a drink.”

Kampai, old boy, and thanks for all the memories.

MORE!

• The next PlayStation and Xbox will arrive in 2027, according to various internet rumourmongers, whose witterings have been helpfully collated by the bods at VGC. Apparently the Xbox will be more powerful, but also more expensive; in reality neither of those things will matter because only four people will buy one. Honestly not sure why we’re talking about next-gen already. Still feels like this one’s barely got started.
• Former Call Of Duty big-dog Glenn Schofield is out at Gamescom Asia this week, and has admitted to VGC that he’s worried about the series’ prospects under Microsoft’s ownership. “What’s happening to Gears Of War? Where’s Halo? You know what I mean? Unfortunately, once you’re assimilated by one of these big companies, I think you take on some of their traits.” Interesting point, this. You’d think even Microsoft would know better than to mess around with the Xbox operation’s biggest cash cow but, well, it’s Microsoft. They can’t help themselves over there. 
• Employees at Metroid Dread developer MercurySteam are kicking off about the studio’s working conditions. According to a machine translation of 3DJuegos’ reporting, management introduced an ‘irregular workday distribution’ policy earlier this year, allowing it to insist staff work an hour of overtime per day; that was later scaled up to ten-hour days. Staff who pushed back on the ruling faced retaliation, the report claims, with some getting fired for taking pre-arranged time off. Yikes.
• Staff and union members at EA have hit out at the firm’s proposed buyout by a consortium of the worst people in the world. “We, the very people who will be jeopardi[s]ed as a result of this deal, were not represented at all when this buyout was negotiated or discussed,” they said in a statement. “If jobs are lost or studios are closed due to this deal, that would be a choice, not a necessity, made to pad investors’ pockets.” Democrats in the US Senate are also kicking off, with Elizabeth Warren and Richard Blumenthal writing to the US treasury secretary to express “profound concern about the foreign influence and national security risks” associated with the buyout. Appreciate the sentiment, like, but with Kushner’s name on the deal sheet, this is getting waved straight through.
• Quantic Dream is the latest studio to embody the Arrested Development ‘but it might work for us’ meme with the announcement of Spellcasters Chronicles, a free-to-play 3v3 live-service thing. “It was a concept initially that came up from David Cage,” game director Gregorie Diaconu ominously told GI.biz. Apparently it’s been in development for seven years. Doomed. Absolutely doomed.
• Sonic The Hedgehog can now give you directions in the GPS app Waze. In the pre-smartphone era I had a Garmin satnav narrated by Snoop Dogg. It was brilliant and I miss it every day. “Go straight on, like a playa do.” Better times. Sonic! Fuck’s sake.
• All hail McDonalds Japan X Street Fighter. No notes. 

God, can we stop there? My RSS reader is absolutely full of guide articles for the new Pokemon. I get it and stuff but sheesh. I believe the eldest has decided to raid his moneybox for it rather than wait for Christmas, so my house will be full of related nonsense soon enough. Gah.

Have a lovely weekend — a lovely couple of weekends, in fact! Hit Points will be away next week, getting slowly sozzled in the Mediterranean sun. I’ll be back in your inboxes on Friday, October 31, if not before. Mind how you go!