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[Zaku]

Alright GAF, simple thread with a simple premise. Which game director do you feel is better and why do you feel that way? I'll be counting the votes and presenting the findings when the dust settles.

Last time, on Game Director Faceoff!

In the last thread, Hideki Kamiya squared off against his mentor and friend Shinji Mikami. After a stunning series of back and forth gains, when the dust finally settled Hideki Kamiya had taken the lead with a final tally of 86 to 82, with a ridiculous number of people who couldn't possibly decide.

Relevant Info

Hideki Kamiya has directed Resident Evil 2, Devil May Cry, Viewtiful Joe, Okami, Bayonetta, and most recently, The Wonderful 101.

Hideaki Itsuno has directed Star Gladiator, Rival Schools: United by Fate, Powerstone, Powerstone 2, Project Justice: Rival Schools 2, Capcom vs SNK 2, One Piece Mansion, Auto Modellista, Devil May Cry 2*, Devil May Cry 3, Devil May Cry 4, and Dragon's Dogma.

*Note: Hideaki Itsuno is listed as director, but post-release reviews indicate he was brought in last-minute to try to right a sinking ship. Just tossing that out there.

While nobody can deny Itsuno is facing a tough fight to dethrone Kamiya, the sheer breadth of his game director credits indicate a man with far heftier directing chops than one would think out of someone who stuck to the Devil May Cry comfort zone for so long in recent years. Will the nostalgia for Rival Schools and Power Stone fuel his victory, or will Kamiya be triumphant for a second round?

So cast your votes, GAF.

The winner (in a week or whenever this thread finally dies) will go on to face another game director (and so on) until we finally figure out the best game director overall.

Due to how close this has been I'm going to clarify terms, because this vote could easily be rigged if I choose the cut-off time. For the purposes of this thread, the thread dying entails it going a full 24 hours without a post made by anyone except me, and should the thread lumber on for the full week, the cut-off for votes will be at exactly one week from this posting time.

 

[BakkaGames]

Kamiya. Easily.

 

[Silky]

Itsuno is responsible for the finest fighting game ever.

He also directed Star Gladiator.
Gonna give it to Itsuno.

 

[LiamR]

Kamiya, no contest!

 

[Hypron]

I really like Kamiya but I'm going to with Itsuno on that one. As far as action games go I prefer his output (I didn't play all the games both directors created though).

 

[Kanann]

Kamiya for swag.

Itsuno is great too, but Dragon's Dogma need to fix things a lot to become legendary, and he will never got a chance to do it.

 

[Tenki]

My vote goes to Kamiya. I love Bayo and TW101 too much. And his Twitter.

 

[Magicgamer101]

Itsuno easily. Devil May Cry 3 is a masterpiece much better than Bayonetta personally. Also I loved Dragon's Dogma so there's that.

 

[ZeroX03]

CvS2 though...

 

[KooopaKid]

lol Kamiya, no question. Only someone from Nintendo can top him.

 

[SgtCobra]

Itsuno, no contest. CvS2 is the GOAT crossover fighting game and for that alone he wins.

Also, Dragons Dogma. C'mon son.

 

[Zaku]

Nice to see the first signs of this aren't as one-sided as I'd thought.

Kamiya might have more staying power, but Itsuno's not going to be a David Cage or Tameem as far as this matchup goes.

Also, I'll get my vote out of the way.

Itsuno.

While I respect Kamiya and he is easily my favourite games director, I can't legitimately call him the best. He's getting there, but he's not quite there yet. Also, he really needs to get out of his comfort zone.

 

[Acquiescence]

Itsuno, the man responsible for some of the finest fighting games ever created in Rival Schools and Power Stone. And a total shot in the dark here, but I'm willing to bet he doesn't act like a juvenile twat on Twitter either

 

[Tenki]

A bit off-topic but did they add fast travel to Dragon's Dogma? I remember quitting the game and that was one of the reasons.

 

[gigantor21]

Hideaki Itsuno has directed Star Gladiator, Rival Schools: United by Fate, Powerstone, Powerstone 2, Project Justice: Rival Schools 2, Capcom vs SNK 2

:O

I'm gonna have to say Itsuno by a wide margin.

 

[Finaika]

Kamitsuno.

 

[Zaku]

A bit off-topic but did they add fast travel to Dragon's Dogma? I remember quitting the game and that was one of the reasons.

Dark Arisen had it, not sure about the original release. As good as Dragon's Dogma was, apparently Dark Arisen fixed a lot of missteps.

 

[Slixshot]

Kamiya!

 

[Arttemis]

Bayonetta and RE2 are some of my favorite games...

But DMC3 is still the ultimate technical action game, so Itsuno gets my vote.

 

[shiftplusone]

Kamiya

 

[Fattony12000]

Hideki Kamiya.

 

[antitrop]

Devil May Cry 1 is my favorite in the series, making this even easier.

 

[Silky]

Until Kamiya makes a fighting game, he's not cool

 

[theusedversion]

Itsuno. Powerstone and Dragon's Dogma. Nuff said.

 

[Auto-Reply]

Kamiyas only weakness is talking before an audience in english!

 

[Fandangox]

Kamiya again.

 

[H2intensity]

Kamiya..because his output much more consistent and wonderful 101 itself beat everything itsuno had

 

[Lernaean]

Kamiya.
Even though I proudly declare that Itsuno's DMC > Kamiya's DMC.
We need Itsuno to be back soon.

 

[@MUWANdo]

Remember, Itsuno's games are only good because Itagaki game him a pep talk that one time:

1UP: I'm surprised you rate DMC3 as one of your choices.

TI: You know, just looking at it I mean. I haven't actually played it. By the way, I met the DMC3 director at E3 last year. While I was out drinking at some bar, this Japanese guy comes wading through the crowd up to me, and he says, "You're Itagaki-san, aren't you?" Pretty outgoing for a Japanese guy, wouldn't you say? Anyway, so I say, "Yes, I am. Who the hell are you?" Yeah, there were two of them there then. I remember. I have a great memory [laughs].

So, he says, "I am the director of Devil May Cry 3; pleased to meet you!" and I said, "Pleased about what, dumbass!" I was drunk at the time, after all. He was young, so I slapped him on the back and said, "You just work hard so that one day people will say 'Team NINJA in the East [Tokyo], Capcom in the West [Osaka]'." The product of his labor after that little pep talk was DMC3. It got decent reviews here in Japan, and I think he did pretty well for a young guy. If he's lucky, he might make something even better next time.

 

[Ferr986]

I liked Bayo more than DMC3, so Kamiya for me.

Dragon's Dogma is amazing though.

 

[Triggerhappytel]

Hideaki Itsuno has directed Star Gladiator, Rival Schools: United by Fate, Powerstone, Powerstone 2, Project Justice: Rival Schools 2, Capcom vs SNK 2, One Piece Mansion, Auto Modellista, Devil May Cry 2*

I was all ready to declare this an easy victory until...

Devil May Cry 3, Devil May Cry 4, and Dragon's Dogma.

These two games, holy shit these two games. Dragon's Dogma in particular is one of my favourite games ever, so for that reason I'm gonna have to go with Itsuno.

 

[Zaku]

:O

I'm gonna have to say Itsuno by a wide margin.

Right now this man's dilemma is choosing between a Rival Schools revival which he wants to shake up the fighting games community as much as Street Fighter II or doing DMC5: That crap by Ninja Theory didn't happen. Ignore it.

 

[sublimit]

Itsuno because they are masterworks all you can't go wrong.

 

[Sakura]

Kamiya easy. Don't care for anything by Itsuno really other than Dragon's Dogma.

 

[Harmen]

DMC3? Itsuno for me!

(alltough Okami and RE2 made the choice pretty difficult)

 

[ohlawd]

Kamiya. 100%.

Itsuno did DMC3 tho, awesome game.

 

[TangerineCloud]

Itsuno. Very few games have gripped me like Dragon's Dogma did. Even with all the jank, that game was incredible.

 

[Dark_castle]

Speaking of which, is Itsuno involved in Deep Down?

 

[NeoCross]

Itsuno, easily. CvS2 alone easily justifies the choice, and then you got further down the list to see DMC3 and Dragon's Dogma, oh my.

 

[Syrus]

Its no , dogma was great

 

[Psycho_Mantis]

The one that directed Dragons Dogma.....give him all the money Capcom

Also

so Itsuno.

 

[LaunchpadMcQ]

I will go with Kamiya. I started listing which games I loved from both directors, and unfortunately the only major points to Itsuno's credit are CvS2 (god we need an HD online version of this) and DMC3.

 

[IAmRandom31]

This one is actually tough.

Itsuno did DMC3, which combat system wise was the best of the series by far. Dragons Dogma is top class shit.

Powerstone and Marvel vs. SNK are good.

Interesting matchup but my mind just can't move away from Kamiya.

 

[raven777]

Looking at Istuno's track record, he made some of the best combat systems in games.

If I were to judge purely on combat system, I would say Istuno.

But as overall package, I would say Kamiya.

 

[Zaku]

The number of Itsuno supporters is making me smile a bit. I KNEW he was a good follow up to Kamiya vs Miami.

 

[correojon]

Difficult choice, I´ll vote for Itsuno. As much as I love Kamiya´s games they usually have some big lows (Okami felt like a long tutorial, Bayo & W101 minigames are excessive) while Itsuno´s are a most overall great experience with big highs and no lows.

Kamiya makes great games, but I feel like he needs someone beside him to restrain him from deriving too much from each game´s main concepts.

 

[RyoonZ]

Itsuno.

Dragon's Dogma > ALL

Into the DANGAAAAAAN!

 

[Psycho_Mantis]

The number of Itsuno supporters is making me smile a bit. I KNEW he was a good follow up to Kamiya vs Miami.

Hideaki Itsuno has directed Star Gladiator, Rival Schools: United by Fate, Powerstone, Powerstone 2, Project Justice: Rival Schools 2, Capcom vs SNK 2, One Piece Mansion, Auto Modellista, Devil May Cry 2*, Devil May Cry 3, Devil May Cry 4, and Dragon's Dogma.

Look at this.....Itsuno is a legend definitely up there with the Capcom greats.

 

[Footos22]

Itsuno, Devil may cry 3 is the GOAT

 

[Ramza]

Itsuno gave us Dragon's Dogma and Devil May Cry 3. He wins.