Filed: Bayonetta, Community, Games, PlatinumGames

Hey, everyone! Did anyone get a chance to see episode 8 of BayoTV on our Japanese site? I tried to watch it myself, but I was so messed up that I couldn’t make it to the end!

If you are wondering what that costume was about, it is the same costume as I use in my avatar here on the blog.

Last I heard from Hashimoto-san, we still don’t have firm plans for a western version of Bayo-TV, so if it doesn’t make it out there, check out Bayo-TV at http://bayonetta.jp/bayotv/

This was also a character I used when I was writing on the PlatinumGames corporate blog when we started the company. (Japanese)

http://platinumgames-blog.cocolog-nifty.com/blog/2008/01/post_0bc9.html
http://platinumgames-blog.cocolog-nifty.com/blog/2008/02/post_5856.html

I’d love to write on there again if I ever find some more free time.

So, have any of you had the chance to check out the higher difficulty levels in Bayonetta? Actually, I did some of the spot checking on the upper two levels of difficulty during the end of the development. The request was to make sure “a normal human being can get pure platinum if they try really hard.” As I am apparently “representative of normal human beings” I worked on balancing the game up until the last days before the deadline. In Bayonetta, accumulating points is a rather important element of the gameplay, and one of the ways this can be accomplished is via the various interactive action events. I tried to avoid really complicated inputs, and focused directly on pressing the buttons and rotating the analog stick during these sections…

Suffice it to say, in order to earn points, I would play from morning until night, pressing buttons and rotating the analog stick to the very limit over multiple play-throughs, and ending up with a fat right forearm in return. I think I hit on a new sort of exercise equipment. (That only works for your right forearm…)

Amongst all her moves, from the guns to the summons, there is one pillar that explores the more sadistic side of Bayonetta’s actions – the anti-Witch Hunt moves known as Torture Attacks.

Iron Maiden & Guillotine

The first one that I thought up was the Iron Maiden. It was the easiest one to think up, and very fast to nail down, thus becoming the basis for all the designs that came after. The main part of the design is the face design patterned off of real Iron Maidens used during the Middle Ages. However, just tossing something into the game like that wouldn’t be very interesting, so I gave it a little extra organic movement for kicks. That we went all the to making the Iron Maiden belch is kinda in line with what you see in the game.

The Guillotine is also a major torture attack, and I’d like to expand upon it here. However, simply using device based attacks tends to end up being “summon and done”style gameplay, so Kamiya-san and the animators would scheme up ideas that, when just hearing about, are almost unpalatable for public consumption.

For example:

“She’s just going to keep kicking him in the ass.”

“He’ll get split in two… But really, really slowly.”

“Japanese rope bondage.”

The basic color scheme was gold inlays over black, and to make people feel like this guillotine has long been in use, I attached some of it’s previous “spoils” to the side. By the way, enemies that can’t be stopped by this guillotine seem to grow their necks back. Must be angels or something…?

Gravestone & Chainsaw

The previous two torture attacks were designed to be used with frontal and rear attacks, so then I went to work on a “Dropping Tombstone” to be used when attacking a downed enemy. I drew plenty of ideas, but we ended up going with the first one on the right. The more you press the action button, the larger and more extravagant the tombstone becomes. We even occasionally dropped a Japanese style grave randomly; however, we changed this to an idea that Kamiya-san had of a 16 ton weight. Seriously, can that man love Fantasy Zone any more!? (For me it is more of the 16 ton weight from SEGA Game Library available on the Mega Drive [Genesis].)

Also, we had to include the weapon-du-jour, a chainsaw. I designed the non-moving parts to see very organic. Perhaps in Inferno, these things are swimming around in schools.

Stone Horse & Mysterious Fish (Rejected)

The stone horse is something that no sadistic witch could be without. Once you get a look at it in the game, you’ll realize that this one is alive, too. It has spikes on its back that look incredibly painful, and we also planned to include a rose whip as a set with this item. With all this going on, Joy must have gotten really tied up, so to speak. But I didn’t know how she would really get tied up, so I had to check some of “those” sites during work hours to get the production down just right…

The fish was a rejected idea. It was based off the fish from an old game that may have involved Balloons and Fighting, but we didn’t really have a place to put it in the game, so it got pushed to the back of the stack.

Vise, Blender (Rejected) & Bird Cage (Rejected)

The vise was actually designed by Shimako, who stepped in as a pinch hitter while I was busy with other work. The palms being jagged like a washboard is a relly nice touch. In the game, as you rotate the analog stick, Bayonetta methodically turns the crank on the vise. I think it is probably the best example of a point in the game where the player and Bayonetta are in complete synchronization.

We didn’t have anywhere to fit the Blender into the game, so it got cut. Although, I think if we would have put it in the game, things would have gotten messy in more ways than one.

The bird cage was actually a Middle Ages torture device, but there wasn’t really a way to turn it into an action oriented event, so it was cut. I would have loved to stick chains on it and spin it around, but anytime I explain why my idea was so cool, no one would understand. That sucked.

There are many more torture attacks in the game, and they all been imbued with a bit of a sadistic edge, so I think you will enjoy watching them carefully and trying to pick out all the details. There we also ideas I didn’t get to use that I’d love to use we ever get another crack at things. Maybe they will end up alongside weapon ideas in another game…

As the weapons chief of PlatinumGames, I want to continue designing incredible weapons like the ones in this post. My aim – to be a sort of video game DARPA. (The US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency)

Also, JP has an announcement he wanted me to pass along:

For our fans in Europe, check out the Eurogamer Bayonetta minisite, where you can enter competitions to wined signed copies of Bayonetta, pre-order the game, and try to beat Kamiya-san’s high score on the Xbox 360 demo.

http://www.eurogamer.net/bayonetta/

So with that, I hope you all have a great time being a real witch.

22166 Comments http%3A%2F%2Fplatinumgames.com%2F2009%2F12%2F24%2Fthe-weapons-of-bayonetta-%25e2%2580%2593-vol-3%2FThe+Weapons+of+Bayonetta+%E2%80%93+Vol.+32009-12-24+07%3A37%3A24Muneyuki+%26quot%3BJohnny%26quot%3B+Kotegawahttp%3A%2F%2Fplatinumgames.com%2F%3Fp%3D2216 / / Read More

Tagged: Bayonetta, Hideki Kamiya, Japanese Rope Bondage, Kotegawa, PlatinumGames, PS3, Torture Attacks, Torture Devices, Xbox 360

Filed: Bayonetta, Community, Games, PlatinumGames

A confused Kamiya here… I finally fixed the settings on my router the other day, and now my iPod touch gets online no problem, so I can lie around watching Nico Nico videos and wasting money on the App Store, not to mention that I don’t have to go through the connection process every time I turn on my Macbook Air as it just works now! It’s great! But when I think that, I also think that I bought the thing a year ago, and I have no idea what the heck I was doing…

Bayonetta has seen release, and I’m happy that I’ve been able to see Japanese fans getting excited these days, but now we have the Western release to look forward to, and I am getting excited all over again. For instance, the demo was made available to fans on December 3! I’d love for you all to get a feel for Bayonetta personally, as action games live and die on how they feel to play, and the best way to experience that is to pick up a controller and give it a shot yourself. I’ve always said that I don’t say, “I want you to buy our game.” I say, “I want you to play our game.” So, the first thing that I would like you to check out is how it feels to play Bayonetta, as that feeling is something that is very important to us.

Also, for every blog that I write, I do get the chance to read all of the comments that you send in. Thank you all so much! I know we made many of you wait for a while after the Japanese release, but even if it is just a day closer, I hope to share the excitement of Bayonetta with you all soon.

I forgot to blog about this earlier, but did you all get the chance to check out the MTV Japan Bayonetta special that aired on October 28? During the show, Hashimoto came out and was so incredibly nervous that his face turned a strange color, but more importantly, I want to write about recording the narration for the show. The recording took place on October 25, and I was able to sit in.

Bayonetta was narrated by the same voice actress that did the voice-over for the Japanese Bayonetta TV commercials, Ms. Atsuko Tanaka. Amongst members of the team, we would often ask the question, “If someone were to play Bayonetta, who would be good?” Tanaka-san’s name always came up in these conversations, and I, too, was looking forward to the recording.

Once we got into the studio, I saw Tanaka-san already reading the script and practicing her lines. It was my first time meeting her, and my impression of her was different than I had imagined. She has a quiet aura to her, and was soft spoken. However, the voice I heard through the speakers reading Bayonetta’s lines was powerful and vigorous, just like our heroine. Maybe it was because of the gap between her appearance and her performance, but I was left speechless.

I was sitting in on the sessions to explain Bayonetta’s character traits to Tanaka-san, and I thought that I would have to occasionally step in to direct her, but the fear that I would have to do was a bit over-the-top. I ended up just being in awe of her the entire time… In fact, there was really no reason for me to even be there in the end. (LOL) Of course, I was incredibly pleased because it was a great experience for me. The wild ideas in my head really expanded in scope. For instance, if there is ever a chance for Bayonetta to have Japanese voices, I definitely want to ask Tanaka-san to fill the part…

The TV show’s director, Mr. Yoichi Sakuma, is truly a creative individual, and being able to watch from the sidelines was really great fun. Working with people like these really made me feel like we were going to make a great show. It was a wonderful day for me.

Picture: I got an autograph from Ms. Atsuko Tanaka! I asked her to write it out to “Hideki-kun,” just like Bayonetta would write it. Hehehe. Thank you so much for listening to my ridiculous request!

This is something I mentioned a while ago, but Hashimoto and I appeared on a Nico Nico live broadcast November 15 called “Xbox LIVE Park – Bayonetta Day!” This was my third time being on a live net broadcast. There was nothing like this when I was working on really highly anticipated titles like Resident Evil 2 or Devil May Cry. (Let’s not even get into the worldwide levels of anticipation for Viewtiful Joe or Okami… Suffice it to say, there were no live broadcasts either.) With Bayonetta, it seems that we are getting attention from a variety of places, which is something I am incredibly thankful for as this is an original title.

So on to the show… The show was set up where there was a section where we would answer user questions, another where we would show gameplay footage, etc., so we filled up our allotted 90 minutes. For someone who tends to say things off the record during interviews that would end up causing tons of problems, I get a little bit nervous with the live stuff because I know that I have to be a good boy… However, being able to talk with users directly over voice chat and the like, I was really able to get a taste of the fun that live presentations bring. I am already a big fan of Nico Nico videos, so it was incredible fun for me to see the comments streaming along to my own video.

The other thing that was, needless to say, hotly anticipated, was Japanese celebrity personality Kayo Police-san donning the Bayonetta cosplay costume! The costume, as you may know, has a bit of an audacious open-back design, but seeing her wearing it in person was really floored me. Being so innocent myself, I got so excited that I couldn’t look directly at what was going on… But I digress… Anyways, Kayo Police-san seems to be a pretty staunch fighting game fan when she games, but to make sure she was ready for the shoot, she put a good chunk of time into the retail version of Bayonetta (I hear she has even beaten the game now!) I am incredibly grateful for her enthusiasm towards Bayonetta. She even did a great job of picking up the slack when it looked like I was going to foul things up… Thank you so much, Ms. Kayo Police!

Picture: Ms. Kayo Police surrounded by a couple of old dudes. She has a style that makes you think she isn’t Japanese, and she wore the costume perfectly! Standing next to her, I really end up looking like Doraemon or something…

And now for something completely different… The other day I got the chance to have a chat with Mr. Masahiro Sakurai, creator of Kirby and the Smash Brothers series amongst others. Speaking of Sakurai-san, I read your column all the way to the very end… I’m talking about the one in Famitsu, of course.

I was able to share a few words with Sakurai-san at this year’s TGS, but I had never really talked to him before that, and this new opportunity was kind of the first chance for the two of us to really sit down and chat. I’m sort of a shut-in, so I don’t really spend much time hanging out with other people in the industry; however, getting the chance to talk with him was quite stimulating, and I took much from our discussion. The details will have to come another time…

Other than that, I had a little time to meet a lot of other people in the industry. I was able to link the games that I see to the people that make them, with moments like “Oh, he made that game…” “So what?” you ask? Well, it’s kind of hard to explain, but it was a really useful experience for me.

This month, I will also be appearing on Enterbrain’s live internet program, MIDNIGHT LIVE 360. It seems the plan is do to a one-on-one with none other than Hideo Kojima… The stuff that we talk about off-the-record is the most interesting, but we can’t really air that, can we!? (LOL) I have to be a good boy on this one, but I will still try to make it fun.

Finally, I forgot to mention this previously, but the Bayonetta Xbox 360 Premium theme is now available in Japan. It should make old-school gamers shed tears of joy, so if you got the guts to give it a try, definitely buy a copy on the Marketplace. Just to give you a hint about the theme… We created a concept called “Witch Girl Angel-land,” based around the idea of what would happen if Bayonetta was a 2D side-scroller. If Bayonetta was a 2D side-scroller, I would have definitely played the heck out it on release. You know, not buying any extra items in the game and saving up all the coins to show my true skills… The next concept is called “BAYO,” and it is based of the idea of Bayonetta as a strategy shooting game. If times hadn’t changed, this one would have definitely been ported over to the Master System… I would have played it to death along with my younger brother. The final concept was “Umbran Fighter,” or “what would happen if Bayonetta was a 3D fighting game?” I really want to play this one. For real.

So the theme is loaded with tons of little easter egg images based off wild ideas that make me happy. Let me get away with this one, OK. (LOL) Of course, our staff put hard work into the theme, so I can promise you it will be quality!

That wraps up it for this blog… See you soon!

Picture: Oh yeah, the other day, we sent off the prizes for the fan site contest we held in Japan. I went out and bought some iron-on transfers, printed out a special image at home, and brought it in for Shimazaki to do her magic with the iron, turning them into great t-shirts! Made with love at PlatinumGames.

Picture: A delighted Kai-san, the man in charge of making the Bayonetta pose for our special image. We were able to use this design by getting permission from Capcom. Thank you very much to all those who made this possible.

220218 Comments http%3A%2F%2Fplatinumgames.com%2F2009%2F12%2F16%2Fmore-exciting-announcements%2FMore+Exciting+Announcements2009-12-16+05%3A14%3A22Hideki+Kamiyahttp%3A%2F%2Fplatinumgames.wordpress.com%2F%3Fp%3D2202 / / Read More

Tagged: Atsuko Tanaka, Bayonetta, Hideki Kamiya, Hideo Kojima, Majo Saiban, PS3, Xbox 360

Filed: Bayonetta, Community, Games, PlatinumGames

Hi. I’m JP Kellams. While I normally blog about other things, this time I’d like to talk about my role in the English adaptation of BAYONETTA here at PlatinumGames.

I suppose the first thing that stands out is why I did not use the word localization. Localization is a very software specific term, and while games are software, you have to consider what really comprises the bulk of getting a Japanese game into English. Sure, translating menus and such are classical localization tasks; however, the most important part of the job I had on Bayonetta was taking the compelling script that Kamiya-san had written for the game and getting it into English.

Prior to joining PlatinumGames, I worked on a variety of titles, including the English script for Shinji Mikami’s God Hand, but this is my first opportunity to work with Kamiya-san. In fact, I was a bit intimidated, as it seems to me that the worlds his games encompass exist fully realized in his head, and to deviate even a little would be both a disservice and unacceptable. Yet, one of the lessons I learned from God Hand was that deviation is necessary and productive to adapting these stories into English (especially since God Hand was basically a love letter to obscure 70s and 80s Japanese pop culture). Surprisingly, Kamiya-san was very open to my ideas, and we would collaborate on ideas ranging from character and location names to the little details like what should be written on Rodin’s apron (“I love chicks” with a small baby chick logo). In fact, during translation, Kamiya-san would sit with me at my desk going over my day’s translation work, discussing lines, doing rewrites, and approving/rejecting additions or rearrangements I had made. His time and input really helped me, and it is incredibly rare for that kind of attention to be paid by the Japanese director.

So what were the challenges of realizing Kamiya-san’s story in English? Well, Bayonetta herself presented a number of issues. How would a European witch from 500 years ago talk if she had been exposed to grimy pseudo-American urban culture for 20 years? Kamiya-san was very specific about making sure Bayonetta spoke in a British accent, and while I have a basic understanding of the King’s English, I was blessed with the input of numerous British editors. Also, the Americanisms that would surely come into her vernacular aren’t something that can’t be accounted for in a Japanese script, so I was always thinking of how to incorporate those into her lines.

Then there was the issue of Bayonetta’s character.（Sorry for throwing in my own interpretation…）To me, Bayonetta had to be posh, sassy, and totally aware of herself. When Bayonetta is cheesy, she knows she is cheesy. When she is teasing, she knows she is teasing. Her inner monologue is fast enough to get out the line a normal person only wishes they would have said, and she exudes confidence in everything she does. There is nothing subtle about her, but that is exactly what you want her to be, and she knows it. This proved to be the hardest part of the translation to balance.

To counter-balance her you have Jeanne, who is more reserved, more sinister – an ice queen’s ice queen – with far more going on behind her eyes than you realize. Throw Luka, a not-so-innocent character (he does love chasing the girls), but ultimately a driven, passionate, kind-hearted soul, into the mix and you have the makings for some interesting situations. You also have your full compliment of character types with the child (Cereza), the wise old man (Rodin), the jester (Enzo), and the trickster (I’ll leave this one to your imagination). Kamiya-san’s interesting Japanese script, with its strong characters, and the wonderful direction of Yuji Shimomura, really lent itself to a compelling story. I hope you all enjoy the ride.

There were also copious amounts of in-game text, background text, and non-story lines that had to be translated, and in many cases written in English with Kamiya-san’s direction. They all hold meaning, both literal and hidden, so make sure to look over them thoroughly. This meaning extends to one of my favorite parts of the game, the Angels’ voices. Kamiya-san first asked me to come up with sounds for when Bayonetta would summon demons for her Infernal Demon attacks – something disconcerting but powerful. Research led me to an answer not only for her Wicked Weaves, but also for the Angels themselves. A dead, invented (?) language known as Enochian. Transcribed or invented by mathematician and occultist John Dee, a 16^th century advisor to the English throne, Enochian is said to be the language of Angels. Dee spent the latter part of his life trying to arrive at a universal language spoken prior Babel and the confounding of language. In Bayonetta, we use Enochian in various places. All of Bayonetta’s summons, both torture attacks and Infernal Demons, are triggered by an Enochian phrase, and all the angelic enemies in the game speak in Enochian.

There are few resources for Enochian, other than some simple dictionaries, so I tried to create an idea of syntax and semantics in my head based loosely around interlinear glosses (in this case a morphophonemic transliteration) used in linguistics. Here is an example of how we did things:

Kamiya-san would then go back to my original English translation for all of the lines and rewrite the Japanese subtitles for readability and to match the nuance of the English translation. I think his work here gave the game an even higher level of polish for Japanese users, and was another one of the many times I was happy I could rely on Kamiya-san’s above average English abilities. Thanks for that, Kamiya-san! …Even though he would always get on my case about things! Hehe.

BTW-Here is another bit of Enochian. For Joy’s torture attack, Bayonetta is saying Piadph (in the jaws of [death]). Sorry to disappoint some of our Japanese fans.

So have fun searching the game for Enochian, whether it be hidden in magical seals or spoken by our cast of characters. Next time, I will go more into the dialogue of the game, and introduce you to our outstanding cast of voice actors!

Qaal ovof vomsarg! (More Enochian!!)

218811 Comments http%3A%2F%2Fplatinumgames.com%2F2009%2F12%2F11%2Fbutmoni-coronzon-from-the-mouth-of-the-witch%2FButmoni+Coronzon+%28From+the+Mouth+of+the+Witch%292009-12-11+01%3A53%3A40PlatinumGameshttp%3A%2F%2Fplatinumgames.wordpress.com%2F%3Fp%3D2188 / / Read More

Tagged: Bayonetta, Character Traits, English Adaptation, Enochian, Jeanne, Joy Torture Attack, JP Kellams, Localization, PS3, Xbox 360

Filed: Bayonetta, Community, Games, PlatinumGames

Hi. I’m Kenichiro Yoshimura, Bayonetta’s modeler.

Well… Since Bayonetta is now in everyone’s hands one way or another (released in Japan, and the demo is out worldwide), I thought I would pinpoint a few things on the models I created.

First of all, I wanted to go into the differences between Bayonetta and Jeanne.

Even though the bones (the joints needed to make the model move) are shared between the two, and their bodies share the same basic balance…

…Jeanne’s got smaller boobs!

…And a smaller butt, too!

If you lay them on top of each other, this is what it looks like.

It also seems like Kamiya-san is partial to Jeanne. I’m with Bayo on this one.

Next up is Sapientia.

I took the liberty of throwing in some of the things I like and added a liberal amount of mecha elements that weren’t in the original concept design.

These are the exhausts. I airbrushed on some clear blue and some clear orange to give it that distinctive “scorched” look.

The wings are a brake and clutch setup. When Bayonetta summons the Infernal Demon Madama Butterfly, this is what the demon uses to take hold of Sapientia. (At least, that is how I justified it in my head.)

Part of the head is the command bridge of a warship. There is probably an Applaud at the helm with a crew of Affinities manning the ship. (Again, how I justified it in my head.)

There are caution marks around the body. On the wings, it says “NO STEP.” (But you can’t really read it) The wings are structurally weak, so you can’t stand on them. (Another justification off the top of my head.)

The writing above the heads on each of its legs has meaning. This one says System-E in our angelic font. System-E is the successor to SEGA’s System 16 arcade board. (Or so Kamiya-san devised…) I guess you could say that our mecha-angel Sapientia is powered by a SEGA arcade board.

UPDATE: Sorry! The thing about System-E is actually mistaken!! System-E is apparently the arcade version of the SEGA Mark III (Master System)! What I meant to say was that written on Sapientia’s head (now pictured above) is SG-1000000, which Kamiya-san’s set up as the theoretical follow-up to SEGA’s SG-1000 game system. Never the less, Sapientia runs on SEGA hardware. (And the legs are on Mark III…)

So now you have an idea of some of the small details that I was particular about putting in. If you pay close attention to these sorts of places when playing the game, you might find even more new details. Bye bye!

(NOTE: Higher resolution versions of the concept art in this post can be found on the PlatinumGames Inc. Flickr Page)

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Tagged: 3D Modeling, Bayonetta, Bayonetta's Butt, Character Design, Jeanne, Kenichiro Yoshimura, Sapientia, SEGA, System 16, System-E

Filed: Bayonetta, Community, Games, PlatinumGames

Hi everyone! I’m Yama-chan, a game designer here.

I was told to write about blog about the game design elements of Bayonetta, so here we go…

Even after we finished work, time passed as I got caught up in anticipation of this and that, but somehow, once I finish something, it seems like I have a disposition to forget what I’ve done. This time is no exception, and I feel my recollections may be rather dim…

That’s why I reintroduced myself to some of the old documents and such that I made. While I was looking at them, I would see things that would make me say, “Oh yeah, we had this!!” So I thought that I’d regret… I mean release these things and everyone could experience some of the trial and error that we went through at the beginning of Bayonetta.

The area around Vigrid Station is 50% larger than the original

The image above is the original size, and below is the same size as the shipping version, or 50% bigger than the upper image. The health bar is also an old version. At the beginning we decided that we wanted to make things real, which guided our decision making on size, but Bayonetta’s actions were much larger than we imagined, and that plan flew right out the window. Thus, we made the change towards bigger areas. Another reason was because we needed extra distance to compensate for Bayonetta’s fast movement and allow us time to load the stages into memory. The image quality differences are due to the implementation of graphical filters.

The Witch Time statues were originally Crystal Skulls

We had planned to let players carry the skull around like a normal weapon, and by pressing Punch and Kick simultaneously, Bayonetta would throw the skull to the ground and activate Witch Time.

We planned to allow Witch Walk in all areas of the game, instead of just limiting it to selected areas

Here is a peek at some of the Japanese design documents from Chapter 2.

The pages above are just pages 6 to 10 pulled from a 13 page design document. Unfortunately, I’m not able to share the full document for some “grown-up” reasons. The historic ruins of the Witch and Sage that appear in the full game was originally a church, and we had planned a stage around it where the player would use Witch Walk to move around the walls and proceed through the level. It was a stage with quite a few puzzles. Whenever we would try to include Witch Walk as a normal mechanic, things would almost certainly head for puzzle-laden territory, effectively bringing down the tempo of the game, or causing other side-effects like filling areas that have no connection to the action with Witch Walk. We kept getting further and further away from our original concept, so we decided to limit Witch Walk to specific situations. I think that Witch Walk, as a gameplay mechanic, would probably best be tried in a slower-paced 3D puzzle game. Oh, I forgot to mention that Shibata-san was in charge of the final Wind (Ancient Ruins) stage. I was in charge of the tutorial, and the opening of the game up until Fortitudo. I also had a hand in an area towards the end, but I can’t share much about it right now because it would be a spoiler.

The Torture Attacks originally went by names like Boredom Breaker, or the Fallen Angel Buster

What can I say, we were all raised on Kinnikuman.

The Witch Hearts were once Blue Orbs

Item names are, surprisingly, pretty all over the place until the very end of production. In-production enemy names usually end up being based on how they look or how we imagine them to be from their concepts, as during development enemies tend to change appearance and the like. When Don-san was writing his blog, he said something along the lines of “I don’t really know the enemy names.” Well, the truth is, I don’t know them either. (Yikes!)

Other than that, we even had ideas for an overworld map at the beginning of the game… But to share it now would definitely be a spoiler, so I will hold off. If they ever put out a Making-Of book, hopefully I will be able to share it with you all then.

I also wanted to share with you some full email conversations with myself and Kamiya-san that we shared while he was on a business trip overseas, but they all got cut out because they said that I was “going too far!” I guess there is such a thing as too long a blog…

So what do you think?

There are lots of ideas that are born and die over the course of a game development cycle, and some of these dead ideas had more significance than others. Spirits also rise and fall. Game development is filled with drama.

Hardware changes and so do the player bases… I suppose you could call it the passage of time. Game design is not just a simple issue of trial and error until you find something fun, as you get wrapped up in not only things like changes in hardware and players, but the many other tasks forced upon you that don’t have anything to do with finding fun. These are both production challenges as well as mental challenges…

But I think we got to this point by always going back to the starting point of “I want to make a fun game!” whenever we hit a wall and questioned whether we could honestly pull this off.

I don’t think that PlatinumGames will change it’s core principle – that of making fun games.

So did you enjoy Bayonetta? I hope you find it fun.

Until next time!

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Tagged: Bayonetta, Crystal Skulls, Game Design, Hideki Kamiya, Kinnikuman, PlatinumGames, PS3, Vigrid, Witch Time, Xbox 360, Yama-chan