Despite Clovers being a relatively young studio that hasn’t yet made any games, Okami sequel director Hideki Kamiya said that Capcom trusts the studio to make the title the best it can be. In an interview with VideoGamesChronicle, Kamiya spoke about the partnership between Clovers and Capcom, and spoke quite fondly about the latter.
“One thing I will add in terms of our situation right now is that we are very fortunate to have an amazing relationship with Capcom. They are very aware of what our philosophy is when it comes to creating games, and they’re very much in support of that approach and very understanding.”
As for the Okami sequel, Kamiya spoke about the two companies being well aligned on how to approach the title, and that Capcom has quite a bit of confidence in Clovers. Thanks to this, he said that he doesn’t have much to worry about and can spend all of his time and attention on making the game itself.
“I think both Clovers and Capcom are very well aligned when it comes to making Okami the greatest game that it can possibly be. All games consist of both a creative side and a commercial side, but I think that both of our companies are very much aligned in terms of the correct balance between those two aspects for this particular game and making Okami the best game it can be.
“And so, because we have that mutual relationship of trust, I’m able to sit back and just enjoy my time actually creating and developing the game, knowing that Capcom is supporting us every step of the way.”
Further in the interview, Kamiya also spoke about how Capcom is fairly hands-off with Clovers for the development of the Okami sequel. He noted that, when the studio pitches a new feature to the company, Capcom patiently waits until this new feature can be demonstrated by the developers.
“One thing that I feel very strongly as the director working on development from day to day is that Capcom really trusts us a lot. If we say, ‘Hey, there’s a new feature that we’re thinking about’, or, ‘we want to do this kind of thing’, they just sort of implicitly trust us and let us cook, and they’ll wait for us to show them when we think it’s in a ready state.
“So rather than trying to second-guess every single decision, or trying to kind of rush us along and expect these frequent updates along the way, it’s very much the case that when we say, ‘Hey, we’d like to do this’, they say, ‘Okay, great… Show it to us when you think it’s ready to be shown’. And so, I feel like there’s a lot of not only trust, but also respect.”
In the meantime, Clovers has been quietly working on the Okami sequel while also slowly growing its team. Just last month, it filled out quite a bit of its audio department with many game industry veterans who have worked on titles like the original Okami, The Wonderful 101, and Bayonetta, among others.
