Hideki Kamiya, creator of Bayonetta and Devil May Cry, believes Japanese developers should be “proud” of the term JRPG.
Debate around the term recently resurfaced following comments from Final Fantasy 16 producer Naoki Yoshida in an interview with Skill-Up. Yoshida stated the term “wasn’t a compliment to a lot of developers in Japan” and was seen as “discriminatory”.
Kamiya, however, is more positive about the term, believing it reflects the “unique sensitivity” of Japanese creators in the games they make.
In an interview with VGC, Kamiya cited the difference between Bayonetta and the original God of War as an example of cultural differences.
“When you look at God of War, you have Kratos,” he said. “He’s muscly, he’s huge, he’s bald, he looks really kick-ass, basically. So we thought, ‘okay, we have games like this which are becoming more popular globally, could we create something similar from a Japanese standpoint?’