When we look back on 2019, we’ll think of it as the year where some of Capcom’s greatest franchises flourished. Devil May Cry 5 and Resident Evil 2 Remake are the first stages of this, presenting long-awaited updates to fan favorite franchises. In a new documentary from YouTube channel Archipel, the team made their way to Osaka where Resident Evil 2 has just completed development and Devil May Cry 5 is in its final stages.
The documentary switches between the two development teams as they explore their inspirations, history, and intentions with their respective game franchises. Devil May Cry 5 director Hideaki Itsuno describes how he started out his career at Capcom in the arcade games department, working on quiz titles like Quiz and Dragons and fighting game series like Street Fighter before being made a director on the company’s first 3D game, Star Gladiator.
Itsuno was planning out an RPG project before the higher-ups started asking if anyone was available to finish development on Devil May Cry 2. Since Itsuno hadn’t started on anything yet, he remained the only free director that was able to finish off the project. He had to push his RPG project back again several times since he was asked to work on Devil May Cry 3 as well. This time, Itsuno was involved from the start and aimed to create his own vision, rather than just expanding on what Hideki Kamiya had established in the first title. Although Itsuno hadn’t planned on sticking with the franchise, nobody else had the ability to take over from him. After Devil May Cry 4, he was finally able to make his RPG though, releasing it as Dragon’s Dogma.
On Resident Evil 2‘s remake, two directors headed development. In Resident Evil 7, the staff at Capcom tried to find the roots of the series. The feedback from Resident Evil fans brought them to exploring what makes players afraid and this feedback led into how they should recreate Resident Evil 2. The documentary explores them dealing with these ideas and finding ways to innovate, but not disappoint fans of the original title.
Archipel’s toco toco series of creator spotlights are a valuable way of finding out more about Japanese artists and creators directly. I’d also personally recommend their spotlight on Persona artist Shigenori Soejima and their documentary on Virtual YouTubers.