Going by Capcom veteran Hideaki Itsuno's resume as the director of multiple fighting games and steward of Devil May Cry since 2003, it's clear he loves action games, and is very good at making them. But Dragon's Dogma, an RPG, was his true passion project—a game he originally came up with the concept for in 2000, then had to wait eight years to make. "Every single open RPG that’s been released in Japan, I’ve played them all… or I own them, and I plan to play them!" he told Videogamer.com in an interview in 2012.
Dragon's Dogma was Itsuno's big chance to make something brand new at Capcom, a wholly original RPG of his own design. In the first 10 years Itsuno was at Capcom, his credits showcased a range of Capcom's most beloved series: early on he worked on Street Fighter Alpha, then co-directed cult favorites Rival Schools and Power Stone. He directed an all-time great fighter, Capcom vs. SNK 2, and a not-so-well-remembered racing game, Auto Modellista, before taking charge of the Devil May Cry series. And since then, for 20 years, he's either been working on DMC or Dragon's Dogma.
