No Okami

In Game Informer's 201st issue there is an article titled Action Hero. It's an interview with the Platinum Games' employee Hideki Kamiya.

In this article he talks about his relationships with Capcom and Sega and moving to platinum. The one thing in that interview that got me the most was when he discussed his feeling on the game Okami, which he created.


He said he felt strongly about making a sequel to the game for a while up until the point where Capcom decided to create that funny new DS sequel. Here is the quote

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Up until very recently I really felt someday I wanted to make a sequel to Okami, and there were others who wanted me to as well. But then the other day I heard the announcement that someone else would be making a sequel and now I'm just not that interested anymore. Once someone else touches a world that you yourself created it stops being yours. There is no point in making a sequel when the world doesn't belong to you. Viewtiful Joe is probably all I've got left. The story is incomplete so I'd like to finish it someday. But that would probably be the most difficult one to do.

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That upsets me. Capcom had to go and make a cash in sequel for one of the best games ever and the result of that is losing what could have been a true sequel to one of the best games ever.

Hey! Nothing's concrete yet! If I concentrate really hard I might be able to DESTROY CAPCOM.

This isn't uncommon, I mean Devil May Cry 2 was made by a different group than the DMC1 team and that's why they eventually came back to do the awesome DMC3 to show them boys how it ought to be done. ;)

If it's his, can't he just put his foot down and say no.

In the game industry the publisher owns the IP to games and the characters not the developers.

Capcom made a sequel on the DS because it was likely that that was all they could afford. If you didn't know already, Okami tanked in sales. Its all well and good that Kamiya wanted to make a sequel, but who would fund it exactly? He would probably only get permission to make sequel on the DS anyway, and it looks like Capcom already beat him to it.

That's a very sad story... but right now I'm not sure how I feel about Platinum Games much less Capcom.

He mentions in the interview that Capcom owns all rights to all of those old 'Clover' games, so really his potential involvement in any of those series is unlikely. In the Wii port of Okami, Clover's credits are removed entirely (which was a complicated issue, but still an extremely sucky thing to do). The only way Kamiya would have been able to do one of his old franchises again is if Capcom specifically contracted him to do it.

It's been a little while, but I don't think the Platinum remnants exactly left Capcom on good terms.

This is kinda one of those elements that never sits well with me when I hear about creators getting screwed over for their IPs.

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Originally Posted by JKTrix

In the Wii port of Okami, Clover's credits are removed entirely (which was a complicated issue, but still an extremely sucky thing to do). The only way Kamiya would have been able to do one of his old franchises again is if Capcom specifically contracted him to do it.

It's been a little while, but I don't think the Platinum remnants exactly left Capcom on good terms.

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now that's just F'ed up. I know it didn't really seel all that well on both sides, but man that was an incredible game and it deserved more. I just Wiki'd the game and a couple of Capcom games art style were inspired by Okami.

I think a sequel could do better if they advertise it well enough. Capcom releases a lot of new IPs. If they didn't have the money for it then I don't see how they would for other ones they released or are going to release.

There's been a few times where ex-Capcom producers will say, after another team takes over their series, that their games have been tainted or whatever and they, most of the time, won't come back to it. This happens a lot. It happened with Shinji Mikami too after RE4 became multiplatform.

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Originally Posted by Depression Moon

I just Wiki'd the game and a couple of Capcom games art style were inspired by Okami.

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Why stop there, i would say many games in general have.