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Game Director Faceoff: Hideki Kamiya vs Shinji MIkami

Kiriku

SWEDISH PERFECTION
Mikami, mostly because he made Resident Evil and more importantly the Resident Evil Remake. I did love Okami and Resident Evil 2 was great, but I don't think it's enough to match Mikami for me personally.
 
Mikami is the better if the two, at least, to me.

Mikami created Resident Evil and perfected the original formula, with REmake. He reinvented that series and the TPS genre with Resident Evil 4, which can be seen as influence for Gears of War and many other series's. Mikami then took that genre into the stratosphere with Vanquish, which merged TPS and Shmups into perfect harmonious action.

While Kamiya has had many highs (Devil May Cry, Viewtfiful Joe, Bayonetta and Okami); he owes his success to being Mikami's protégé and I feel he has yet to top his mentor's perfection.

They both have some of the strongest and most creative output, but Mikami hits higher sustained highs than Kamiya.


Both The Evil Within and Wonderful 101 are brilliant, but flawed. If they reunite and work together again....

:(
 
Well I like RE2 more than 1 and Bayonetta more than Vanquish, so I am gonna have to go with Kamiya but they both are awesome, they should collaborate more.
 

Zaku

Member
Is Kamiya responsible for the deleted version of RE2 ? if no then i would say Kamiya

If by responsible, you mean he directed it, then yes.

If you mean responsible for the change from that version to what we got, then no, that wasn't his call. Capcom higher-ups weren't happy with the original direction of the game and pressured Kamiya and Mikami to change it.
 

jay

Member
I'm surprised by how many people are saying Kamiya.

Resident Evil, Resident Evil 4, and God Hand are three of the best games ever made and the first two were hugely influential on games as we know them.
 

Riposte

Member
Someone post the RE interview at a bar video where out of four devs Mikami is the last one standing and Kamiya passes out drunk. Mikami has a higher power level.

I believe The Evil Within is suppose to be Mikami's last directed title?
 

Neff

Member
If by responsible, you mean he directed it, then yes.

If you mean responsible for the change from that version to what we got, then no, that wasn't his call. Capcom higher-ups weren't happy with the original direction of the game and pressured Kamiya and Mikami to change it.

Actually it was Mikami who requested that they start over. Mikami pretty much left Kamiya and his team to it, but when he tried the prototype, wasn't happy with how it had turned out. Unfortunately there was no way of fixing the game since so much work had been done, and the team agreed that the game just wasn't coming together in a satisfactory way, at least not one which did justice to the original game, which of course was a big hit. Capcom management, recognising the opportunity to establish consistent quality in a potentially important franchise, agreed to Mikami's request. They turned the game around in record time in addition to improving it vastly.

I believe The Evil Within is suppose to be Mikami's last directed title?

He did say that, but there have been post-TEW interviews where he's hinted that he may direct again, because he found TEW a pleasurable and relatively stress-free process.

edit: Oh, and because of Bethesda lol.

Those comments led to reports online of Mikami planning to retire as a director, which he says didn't go over well with higher-ups at Bethesda and may not end up being true.

"I probably shouldn't have said that," says Mikami. "My bosses were pretty upset. That was something I decided before I started Tango, that the next project would be my last. ... I was thinking back then that I would have to spend more time managing the studio and training people rather than directing. But now because Tango is part of Bethesda, I have less management overhead. So I have more time to get involved with a game than I originally thought I would."

At this point, Mikami says he doesn't know who will direct Tango's next game. It might be him. It might be someone else at Tango.
 

Lernaean

Banned
Someone post the RE interview at a bar video where out of four devs Mikami is the last one standing and Kamiya passes out drunk. Mikami has a higher power level.

I believe The Evil Within is suppose to be Mikami's last directed title?

1) It's called 'Director's Hazard' and is indeed very interesting. You can find it in Youtube with subs.

2) I know the same. I hope it's either false or he changed his mind, cause it would suck.
Edit: and i hope Neff is right :)
 

Grakl

Member
Mikami directed the best character action game of all time (God Hand), but Kamiya is overall stronger, so this is too tough for me to decide.
 
Asking which one is better is really difficult as they're both great. But if you're asking me to put just about anyone up against the guy who made Resident Evil, I'm going to side with the guy who made Resident Evil.
 

Zaku

Member
Do you love more mom or dad?


I actually prefer Kamiya for his consistency.

I'm hoping every thread I do this with is going to cause the same discomfort for people. I'm going to be tracking how many people it was too close to decide for when I tally the votes, because that'll be a fun statistic.
 
8Qls0Fe.jpg


Based Kamiya
 
Super difficult choice. Mikami gave me God Hand. He'll always have my love for just that one game.

But I like more of Kamiya's games than Mikami's. And also Kamiya provides endless entertainment on Twitter for free!

Guess my vote goes to Kamiya.

Please don't hate me, Mikami-san. I still <3 you.
 

Sakura

Member
Of the games of theirs I've played, Kamiya. I really liked TW101. Okami was a super cool game. Resident Evil I just don't really have any interest in.
 

StuBurns

Banned
I was planning to make whoever wins this one go up against Hideaki Itsuno, to really round out the Capcom/former Capcom talent pool. He's got a pretty strong string of releases, arguably as strong as Kamiya's or Mikami's.
I think you started too strong. Whoever wins this isn't going to lose, probably ever. Miyamoto is pretty much the only roadblock.
 

Neiteio

Member
Ah, the Master vs. his Apprentice.

I think Mikami has had higher highs (RE4 being the best game between the catalogs of both directors), but Kamiya is more consistent in terms of output and quality.

I think Kamiya could improve his games with better pacing, a smoother learning curve, and less filler minigames/genre shifts that distract from the core gameplay.

If he were to do that and really focus on what he does best, while better communicating the nuances of gameplay to the player, he could handily exceed his teacher. :)
 
Mikami because RE4. Fuck yes, I'd vote for him anyday. I have played 12 times through the whole game. Also givin some love to TEW bc I've had more positive experiences with it.
 

Lunar15

Member
Goddamn, now this is a Sophie's choice.

While RE4, Vanquish, and God Hand are some of my favorite games of all time, I'd have to say that I prefer Kamiya just slightly. Okami, Bayonetta, and W101 are just too good.

Kamiya makes some really weird decisions in his games though, namely really bad minigames.

Honestly, it's way too close to call.
 

ohlawd

Member
wait, no, fuck

lemme rationalize this

Mikami did RE4, my favorite game overall from both

but Kamiya did TW101 and Bayo 1, some of my fave games too

okay so that's 2 > 1

it's fucking math; 2 is a bigger number than 1

okay I'm gonna edit that other post. don't worry OP, this is the last time I change my vote lols

I vote for Kami-chan
 

StuBurns

Banned
Didn´t he write the stories?
Kind of, some of them. But it's a 'game director faceoff', so it doesn't matter.
Sakurai, Miyamoto, any Naughty Dog person

nah there's definitely plenty of people to trip the winner up
Naughty Dog? No, Rubin has no chance, nor does Hennig. Maybe if this goes on till UC4 is out, Straley will have done UC2/TLoU/UC4, but he still wouldn't beat either of these two.

EDIT: I don't want to derail with this stuff. We'll see when the time comes I guess.
 
Kamiya. Not even a question to me.

Nothing against Mikami but Kamiya's games always have so much energy and personality to them. They're absurdly satisfying to play.
 
Wait till the powerhouse that is David Cage enters the fray...

Seriously though. I will take more into account than just directing roles when it pertains to Sakaguchi. Such a valuable asset to the company throughout those years.

Also, the number of games isn´t of my concern either. Fumito Ueda is above these two, personally. Shadow of the Colossus and Ico are both in my top 5 games of all time. That is hard to beat in my mind. Add to that, The Last Guardian if it releases before this contest is over...
:p
 
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