Kamiya wants to "exceed" God of War
Starts by getting into a fight with Itagaki.
Devil May Cry creator and Bayonetta designer Hideki Kamiya has said he wants to "make a game that exceeds God of War's sequel".
"Out of all those action titles, there's one game that I am paying really close attention to, that I think is a rival game, a good game, which is called God of War 3," Kamiya told EGM.
Kamiya was less enthused about Tecmo's Ninja Gaiden series, however. "I've never played Ninja Gaiden, and to be honest, I'm not that interested," he said.
Apparently that's because "the quality that gets you interested in something is that you feel something for them", and "Ninja Gaiden just didn't have that power".
Ninja Gaiden, of course, was overseen by former Tecmo producer Tomonobu Itagaki, who recently left the company in a whirlwind of litigation at the completion of the second game in the Xbox series.
Fortunately, 1UP was able to track him down in a pub in Japan and ask him for his reaction. Brilliant.
Kamiya had argued that "the baton was dropped" after he made the original Devil May Cry eight years ago. "Was he asleep for eight years?" said Itagaki.
"There's those that truly are outspoken, and there are those who are just trying to cover up for their weaknesses. We have a saying here in Japan which is that 'the weaker dog barks more', and I sincerely hope that he is not one of the latter." Fight!
But let's get back to God of War, which Kamiya definitely felt something for.
"So there's like a wall for your imagination or ideas, and when you're actually creating something, you don't even see the wall. But with GOW, I felt like I saw beyond the wall," he told EGM.
"I felt like they created the game in a very good way which managed to bring in the users, they gave you a huge impactful feeling right in the beginning, and just drew you into the game. So I'm very impressed that they made the game like that."
For more on Kamiya's hopefully-God-of-War-3-exceeding Bayonetta, check out our Bayonetta preview. For more from Tomonobu Itagaki, trawl the pubs around Waseda University, apparently.