Tendo City

http://gaming-age.com/event/2004/e3/13-102

You know, I've always hated this guy, but this recent GA interview makes him look like an even bigger asshole than he was before, and most importantly an extremely immature, cry-baby asshole.

Quote:On the morning of the first day of the Electronic Entertainment Expo, Gaming Age had an unexpected opportunity to conduct a short interview with Tecmo’s Tomonobu Itagaki, the lead designer of the Dead or Alive series and the recently released Ninja Gaiden.

It was soon discovered that Mr. Itagaki is a personal reader of Gaming Age; he immediately brought up the issue of the critical review of Ninja Gaiden run on the site several months back before a single question was asked. At this point, I realized this was not going to be like any other interview I’d ever been apart of. How often does a Japanese developer who doesn’t take criticism well personally chastise you?

The following is a mostly complete transcript (some of the introduction is missing due to a malfunctioning tape recorder) of the conversation between Patrick Klepek (me), John Inada (Tecmo’s General Manager, Sales & Marketing Director and translator for Mr. Itagaki) and Tomonobu Itagaki.

John Inada: [In reference to Gaming Age’s critical review of Ninja Gaiden] You know, we don’t care. Honest review, that’s fine. But it seemed like a gimmick to me to try and get people’s attention.

Patrick Klepek: Well, no, it definitely wasn’t that. It was just a totally different opinion and as you can probably see, most people are pretty much on the other side of the spectrum.

Inada: (laughs)

Patrick: It was really just one guy who was the odd man out. We would never do that to try and attract attention or try to cash-in.

Inada: (translates for Mr. Itagaki)

Inada: Well, let’s talk about DoA: U. Just fire away.

Patrick: Basically, this isn’t quite Dead or Alive 4, but you’re bringing it up to speed past Dead or Alive 3?

Tomonobu Itagaki: DoA 4 is going to be on the next Xbox; the next generation consoles. Have you played Dead or Alive 3?

Patrick: Yes, I have.

Itagaki: It’s going to be a completely different game on a different system.

Patrick: Are you incorporating the move sets from Dead or Alive 3 into DoA: U or just the move sets from Dead or Alive 2 and 1?

Itagaki: Two.

Patrick: Just two?

Itagaki: Yes. DoA: Ultimate has [sic] some new system as you’ve seen.

Patrick: What are you most proud about with DoA: Ultimate?

Itagaki: There’s no area in the game that I’m not proud of. I am proud of everything. You know, every component, every element of this game. There’s no one thing that I’m proud of. I’m proud of the whole thing.

Patrick: Have you had many problems brining the game online?

Itagaki: So far, we haven’t really had any problems. What we do is always perfect in our mind that we’re not gonna have any problems like that. We haven’t had any issues so far.

Patrick: You had said there would be new storyline elements to Dead or Alive: Ultimate? Can you elaborate on what those will be?

Itagaki: Of course, there’s going to be new story, but I want people to buy the game when it comes out to find out for themselves for the first time. So, I’m not going to reveal any of the story, because that’s why you’re getting that.

Patrick: Similar to Ninja Gaiden, do you plan to incorporate online tournaments and downloadable content?

Itagaki: So, technically, of course, we’re capable of doing many of those things. It’s up to our fans, and if I hear in a voice, if I sense that someone wants certain things, we [will] try to respond to that.

Patrick: This is not related to Code Cronos? That’s another project you have in development, right?

Itagaki: Of course it’s not.

Patrick: Do you have any idea when you might be announcing it, or is it far off?

Itagaki: I hold many secrets, and that’s one of the biggest secrets.

Patrick: With Namco’s Nina game, taking one of their fighting game characters and bringing it into another genre, is that something you’d be interested in doing in the future with one of your Dead or Alive games?

Itagaki: Well, you know, of course, DoA Xtreme Beach Volleyball is a good example of that, We basically took the characters to a different genre of game. But, of course, we’re very careful and conservative and we know what we’re doing, but if someone else were to try and do something like that, taking a character from a fighting game and taking to a different genre, I don’t think they can do a very good job at that.

Patrick: Do you mind if I ask a couple of Ninja Gaiden related questions?

Inada: Sure, go ahead.

Patrick: You mentioned you wanted to incorporate player response into upgrades for the Master Ninja Tournament, and wondered if you could go into some of the differences in the game that people will be downloading.

Inada: He [Itagaki] wants you to quote him accurately and exactly how he said, but he says that no matter what you write about Ninja Gaiden, he doesn't [sic] think your readers would trust what you say about Ninja Gaiden.

Patrick: You know, I can’t really tell you anything except that it was one guy’s opinion and that we strive to [express that opinion] – if someone has an opinion, to express it. And unfortunately with Ninja Gaiden, it wasn’t quite the one that maybe you were looking for, but unfortunately we have to maintain a certain standard or else we’d be doing a disservice to our readers. But it was never meant as an offense, it was simply his critique and he simply found a lot of problems with the camera that seemed to take it down for him. But as you’ve seen, a lot of the gamers didn’t have that problem, so, in the end, it almost doesn’t matter, but we strive to do what we can to be loyal to the games we’re trying to have our readers have information about, but there’s unfortunately not much I can do.

At this point, Mr. Itagaki's presence was requested at Tecmo's main stage, Patrick's explanation wasn't fully translated and our interview came to a close.

Good grief, so just because they didn't give NG a shining review he resorts to pety insults and extremely rude behavior?

The biggest jackass in the games industry: