OXMUK

Ninja Theory has fielded fan outcry, backlash from series creator Hideki Kamiya and even death threatsover its Westernised Devil May Cry reboot, but the company has refused to budge on the change of style. Speaking to OXM in an interview you'll read in issue 82, creative director Tameem Antoniades spoke up once more for the new Dante, insisting that you can't paper over cultural differences.

Some players have taken issue with Dante's perceived "camper" look, but this has more to do with different expectations surrounding Western games, Antoniades argued. "Somehow Japanese character styles get away with it," he said, when we asked whether players found camp leads from Japanese devs easier to swallow.

"We did a thought experiment suggested by [former Capcom exec Keiji Inafune] early on. It went like this: imagine this game as a contemporary movie. What would it look like? What would Dante look like? We went from there."

Capcom's Alex Jones expanded on the point. "Japanese style ethos does tend to involve make characters look cool for the sake of looking cool, adding odd accessories, crazy hairstyles and colour, cowboy boots and so on simply because they look cool.

"We in the West tend to be more functional adding things that have meaning and being able to explain that meaning. Why does Dante have white hair? I want to make a little story around that and explain it. And so on for the rest of his design choices."

"We've not so much done away with any of the Japanese aspects of the series," Antoniades resumed. "But are more building on the foundations of the franchise to develop a game that has a different flavour. We grew up on US and European movies, comics, music and general culture. That's what we're tapping into.

"We're not pretending we are Japanese nor making apologies for that."

Past Ninja Theory games have worked within lush fantasy fictions cobbled together from medieval European and Asiatic cultures. While pursuing a new art direction and story, Ninja Theory has been careful to respect Devil May Cry's combat system - read more on the subject over here, and pick up issue 82 itself for the Antoniades interview in full.

http://www.oxm.co.uk/38190/ninja-theory-on-dmc-reboot-were-not-pretending-were-japanese-or-apologising-for-it/

So they shouldn't

"We in the West tend to be more functional adding things that have meaning and being able to explain that meaning. Why does Dante have white hair? I want to make a little story around that and explain it. And so on for the rest of his design choices."

Thats a problem in itself. When we play Sonic the hedgehog or Mario ..or MegaMa, I dont think anybody cares why platforms are floating in mid air. Imagination would help this industry so much.

Hell nobody cared why the last Dante was a white haired metro, we definitely dont care now.

Plah. Its same as saying Square enix is making next COD.You know it just doesn't work.

Good thing too. I'd rather they try and make it according to their own strengths rather than trying to mimick the old games. It's good to get some new ideas in there.

I imagine if they did God of War

"We in the West tend to be more functional adding things that have meaning and being able to explain that meaning. Why does Kratos have no hair? I want to make a little story around that and explain it. And so on for the rest of his design choices."

Apologize for sucking shit at character design, then.

I don't think people care about his hair, the story is there to explain why it goes white. Its more of his emo, twilight look.

I personally don't care anymore and look forward to playing it.

I'm guessing they would only tell a story if there is an interesting story to tell. Going with God of War again, the entire basis of the series can be found by asking: "Why is Kratos so pale?".