Hiroyuki Kobayashi may be renowned as the producer of Resident Evil 4 and the Devil May Cry series, but right now in Japan he’s probably best known for his role in Sengoku Basara (aka Devil Kings), a series of Dynasty Warriors-y action games that has become wildly popular in Japan in recent years.
“We came up with the project plan for Basara around the time game sales began to slow down in Japan,” Kobayashi recalled in an interview printed in Famitsu magazine. “We thought a lot about how to to make a game sell here, and during the trial-and-error phase, we went to a bookstore and found a section devoted to the Warring States period. Stuff like that has a very constant sort of popularity; something set in that period is easy to get into, and it’s better to have a base to work with anyway, even with an original game.”
What was Kobayashi’s inspiration for Basara? Mainly, to make a game that sold more than a handful of copies. “Before Basara, I was producer on a couple of games that didn’t sell at all [P.N.03 and Under the Skin],” he said. “The people on the development teams decided they wanted to make a game that sells for a change! It was tough for all of them, making good games that don’t find an audience, so that’s what they wanted to do. That’s what connected to Basara. It’s certainly rare for me to get inspired because I was frustrated by sales figures — but I felt like the first Basara had to succeed, no matter what, or else I’d have three games in a row that didn’t sell!”
It’s a very interesting statement for Kobayashi to make, because even today, Capcom has a rep for hardcore action games and fighters, not million-selling blockbusters. “Capcom makes a decent variety of games so they’re probably more flexible than all of that,” Kobayashi responded, “but I did get a lot of comments along those lines, more from the team than the company. The team was surprisingly conservative in their thinking — a lot of them saw Basara as an affront to their pride, which was a surprise to me. That’s starting to change lately, but I didn’t have a lot of people on my side back then.”
How did he overcome this resistance? “During the team meetings, I used concrete numbers to egg everyone on — “Don’t worry, Basara is going to sell 300,000 copies without breaking a sweat,” and so on. I had nothing to back that up with, but it didn’t matter! Someone has to say it. The first game did wind up breaking 300,000 when you count the budget re-release, but in my mind, it was still a shock that the game’s full-price edition didn’t break 200k. I figured it was good for at least that much, though I’ll admit the first game didn’t have many of the little things that later made Basara popular.”
Looking at the Japanese game business in 2010, Kobayashi sees reason for both alarm and applause. “When I go to game shows overseas, I can really feel Japan taking its own path and diverging from the rest of the world,” he said. “However, I also think that Japanese people can make fun things that can connect on a worldwide level. You see a lot of people thinking about pushing something for the West or hoping something sells in the West — but it’s Japanese people making this stuff, and it seems strange to simply leave behind the large Japanese audience of gamers.”
Kobayashi believes a balance can be struck between the domestic and international audiences. “Why can’t we make something that overlaps, that Japan can enjoy too?” he asked. “There are common threads of ‘fun’ that unite the human race, that are shared by Americans and Europeans. We just need to be aware of the ways gamers from different countries are affected by their games. Japan has some very talented creators, so I think we can manage that. It’s not like Resident Evil or Devil May Cry were meant for the West from the start; we just wanted to make a fun game.”
As for his personal plans, Kobayashi is resolute. “I want to keep on making games for home consoles,” he stated. “I’m a movie fan, but I think movies should concentrate on making the sort of entertainment that only that medium is capable of. They shouldn’t worry about how they’ll look on a home television or whatever. In much the same way, if a console game is like a movie, then portable or mobile games are like TV shows or miniseries.”
What about something more casual in nature? “I don’t know what the future holds, but for now, I have no desire or interest in making a ‘casual’ game. I’m much more enthusiastic about making good, well-rounded games, something closer to movies.”
