Video game designer Hideaki Itsuno has left Capcom after 30 years at the company, during which he directed games including the recent Devil May Cry 5 and Dragon’s Dogma 2, among dozens of other credits. Itsuno hasn’t revealed exactly where he’s headed, but in announcing his departure, he says that he will be remaining in game development, but in “a new environment.”
Itsuno’s hope to create games “as memorable as, or even more memorable than” his work with Capcom is certainly a tall order. He worked on some of the company’s most beloved games in his decades there, and even when he worked on projects that weren’t hits, they were at least ambitious. Just look to Auto Modellista, a realistic racing sim with cel shaded graphics that ended up as a fascinating flop, for proof of that.
But more often than not, Itsuno’s work performed well for Capcom and earned legions of fans. His most popular work is probably on the Devil May Cry series, to which he had a contentious introduction. Itsuno started work on the series with Devil May Cry 2, which Capcom saw as struggling to finish development, taking over as director with just six months left before release. In 2021, Itsuno told Famitsu that he wasn’t happy with how the game launched and requested to direct a followup that he could be happier with. He would go on to direct every other entry in the series, all of which were met with a far warmer reception than Devil May Cry 2.
With Itsuno gone, it’s not clear exactly what’s in store for the Devil May Cry series. The widely loved series is almost certain to continue in some form, but there’s no telling what form it will take without Itsuno’s involvement.
It’s even harder to say what will become of Dragon’s Dogma. While Itsuno took over Devil May Cry as a result of its development issues, the Dragon’s Dogma series wouldn’t exist at all without him. Itsuno started planning Dragon’s Dogma even before moving to Devil May Cry 2, but wouldn’t get the chance to make the game until after Devil May Cry 4’s release five years later. The open-world action RPG — an unusual genre for Capcom to tackle — launched to positive reviews and quickly gained a devoted following.
After the release of its expansion, Dark Arisen, Itsuno was ready to make a sequel.
“Dragon's Dogma 2, give me a way to make it now,” he told Eurogamer in 2018. “If someone would let me, it's what I'd want to do.”
It may have taken a lot longer than he wanted, but Dragon’s Dogma 2 finally launched this year. Despite a lot of player-driven controversy (most of which is frankly a bit ridiculous), it reviewed well and massively outsold the original game. In many ways, it can be seen as the culmination of work that began with the first Dragon’s Dogma, which had to be significantly cut down from Itsuno’s original vision. As Itsuno told Inverse earlier this year, the Beastren race, more realistic monster interactions, and the wildly controversial Dragonsplague mechanic were all planned for the original game, but only came to fruition in its sequel. It’s hard to imagine a more fitting finale to Itsuno’s 30-year career at Capcom.
Even as he moves to the next stage of his career, Itsuno’s work lives on at Capcom. His early days at the company were mostly spent working on fighting games, including directing Power Stone and Power Stone 2 for the Dreamcast. Though it hasn’t gotten a new title since the early 2000’s, the fantastically fun brawler series has plenty of fans to this day. Revealed during August’s Nintendo Direct Partner Showcase, Capcom Fighting Collection 2 will include both Power Stone games when it launches in 2025, bringing a bit of Itsuno’s legacy with it.
As for Itsuno himself, we don’t know yet what he’s getting up to next. So far, he’s only said that he’s set to start development on a new game later in September. The only thing we can say for sure is that after 30 years as one of Capcom’s most interesting directors, it will be worth keeping an eye on what he does next.
