Hideaki Itsuno – the director behind games like Devil May Cry 5 and Dragon’s Dogma 2 – has given some indications of what he wants to do with his next title. In an interview with VGC, Itsuno spoke about how he doesn’t want his next game – being developed at his new studio after having left Capcom – to be a Soulslike. Rather, Lightspeed Studio’s ambitions are to create an action game that isn’t like what we already have in the market.
“I didn’t create a company to make a high-end version of existing games with a similar gameplay, story and character design,” said Itsuno when asked about the gaming market being oversaturated with Soulslike titles. “I came to LightSpeed Studio to create an action game with a different value, gameplay than the existing ones. I appreciate their contribution but I’m not going to create the same thing.”
As for what Itsuno might have taken with him from Capcom in terms of experience and knowledge about making action games, he said that, rather than making yet another title that might be like Devil May Cry 5, he’s more interested in games that break the traditional action game mold, citing titles like Indiana Jones and the Great Circle.
“After Devil May Cry 5, many single-player games were released,” he said. “Leaving aside whether they were a hit or not, I don’t have any particular thoughts about the games of that same style. There were many games with a style between Dark Souls and Devil May Cry, but there was nothing too surprising. I got more impacted by games outside of that range, like the recent Indiana Jones game.”
However, Itsuno did mention that his next game through LightSpeed Studio will be something like what he had previously made at Capcom. He noted that this was what he meant when he said that he was making a “Japanese-style” action game at GDC earlier this year.
“This is not a game with samurai and so forth,” explained Itsuno. “When I talk about ‘Japanese style,’ I mean like the type of action games I made at Capcom. Strong animation, character design, creativity, a high skill ceiling, and a variety of action are the focus of the game. So I hope that players who love action games love this game too.”
Itsuno had announced that work on his new project had started all the way back in January through a social media post. In the post, he said that the studio was looking to hire more developers for the project, and that more details about the title will be announced to everyone as soon as it is possible for the studio to do so.
“A new project has already started,” said Itusno when he announced the project. “We will do our best to announce it to everyone as soon as possible. We are also looking for people to join us in developing the game!”
This action game will be the first project that Itsuno has worked on since his departure from Capcom back in August last year. Before he left the company, he had completed work on open-world RPG Dragon’s Dogma 2, more details of which can be found in our review.
