rockman zx
Member
Thanks for the kind words. They brought me back 20 years in the past, when I first began to give my life over to DOA, and Ive been on the go constantly from then til now. The reason why someone like me, now 47 years old, can still battle on the front lines of video games is because of fans like you. Words like yours give me and my staff the courage and strength we need to keep going, and they form the Anvil of Victory we need to work our craft.
I feel like the timing of your message was fate "user X", as it comes just as we are finishing up production on Devils Third. So again, let me say thank you.
Lets see Im trying to remember when I decided to wrap up the DOA series with DOA4 on Xbox360 I think it was in January of 2005, so about 9 years ago. Let me tell you why I wanted to finish the series then.
First of all, personally, I love every character in the DOA universe from the bottom of my heart. Every character contributed their all in making DOA such a success. This character died, that character fell into tragedy but EVERY character had one thing in common they ALL played their parts until the bitter end with all of their strength and with a Greater Love in their hearts.
However, its a sad fact that all actors eventually age. Thats true in both the real world and the virtual game world. Id appreciate it if everyone reading this would think about that.
I believed that it was my responsibility as the father of DOA to end the series while these characters were still shining their brightest. That was my decision and my goal: to finish the series with Helenas ending, Denouement.
Of course, what I said here only pertains to the DOA that I know, that I created. After that I had no say in development. Even to this day I hold the founder of Tecmo, Yoshihito Kakihara, who passed away 8 years ago, in the absolute highest regard. He had such vitality. And while he was strict with the younger guys (including me), he led with such enjoyment. In created DOA, I put honoring his decisions as my top priority, and I took the liberty of adding other things in where I could. By going above and beyond his orders though, I was always at risk of losing my head, and I worked on DOA with a letter of resignation always in my pocket.
In those days, I felt that there were only maybe five people who truly loved DOA in TECMO probably because the way we developed the game didnt exactly follow... common sense. One of those people was Kakihara-san, as well as his son. However, with my teacher passing away, I no longer had any reason to create DOA5. I did create a script for DOA5, in the event that management (now without Kakihara-san) decided to go through with DOA5, but unfortunately it looks like the dog might have eaten it. I dont know if the current DOA5 developers even read that script. But let me be clear there are a lot of things about DOA that only I know. To be honest Im not sure if the current developers even understand the meaning behind the Team Ninja visual identity (the intro with the roaring sea rising into the clouds) that Matsui Hiroaki and I created.
There are a couple points that we do seem to disagree on though, "user X".
You say that DOA5 was the start of the problems (or nightmare?), but I think it started with DOAimensions. I could sense it just minutes after turning the power on, and I immediately had to turn it off. Combos arent something that you do with a touch panel.
My other disagreement is actually positive. You say that you are from the minority, but thats not true. Take a look at the number of active fans dropped off with the release of DOA5. My design philosophy behind DOA was all about diversity. All thats changed is that there was a shift from a very diverse player community, to one where primarily players who hold a more specific preference seem to have remained - thats a cold, hard objective analysis from a professional. If the current fans are happy and satisfied with what they have, Im happy for them, because they were also fans of mine when I was at the helm. But please dont forget there are many, many other loyal fans like you who have ended up walking away but also share and understand the true DOA greater love.
The current DOA developers would do themselves a disservice should they ignore this fact.
So "user X", thanks again.
The passion youve shown for DOA has really come through to me and made its mark.
I promise to do my best to channel that passion and the passion from all fans into our future endeavors.
Lets look forward to that future together.
This is a reply from Itagaki to someone in facebook, I censored the name of that person in case she/he wants privacy, but you can find it in Itagaki's facebook, is from 1 month ago.
