Hiroyuki Kobayashi may be renowned as the producer of Resident Evil 4 and the Devil May Cry series, but right now in Japan he’s probably best known for his role in Sengoku Basara (aka Devil Kings), a series of Dynasty Warriors-y action games that has become wildly popular in Japan in recent years.
“We came up with the project plan for Basara around the time game sales began to slow down in Japan,” Kobayashi recalled in an interview printed in Famitsu magazine. “We thought a lot about how to to make a game sell here, and during the trial-and-error phase, we went to a bookstore and found a section devoted to the Warring States period. Stuff like that has a very constant sort of popularity; something set in that period is easy to get into, and it’s better to have a base to work with anyway, even with an original game.”
What was Kobayashi’s inspiration for Basara? Mainly, to make a game that sold more than a handful of copies. “Before Basara, I was producer on a couple of games that didn’t sell at all [P.N.03 and Under the Skin],” he said. “The people on the development teams decided they wanted to make a game that sells for a change! It was tough for all of them, making good games that don’t find an audience, so that’s what they wanted to do. That’s what connected to Basara. It’s certainly rare for me to get inspired because I was frustrated by sales figures — but I felt like the first Basara had to succeed, no matter what, or else I’d have three games in a row that didn’t sell!”
