This was something I found on silent cheif. It's old but still something interesting I read.
Hiroyuki Kobayashi: Devil May Cry 4 Was Made to Appeal to Women Gamers
The staff that worked on Devil May Cry 4 is currently hard at work on Capcom’s upcoming hack-and-slash for the PS3 and Wii, Sengoku Basara: Samurai Heroes.
During an interview with Siliconera , producer Hiroyuki Kobayashi revealed that, like Sengoku Basara, which has quite the female following in Japan, Devil May Cry 4 was developed with female gamers in mind.
Hiroyuki Kobayashi: Devil May Cry 4 Was Made to Appeal to Women Gamers
The staff that worked on Devil May Cry 4 is currently hard at work on Capcom’s upcoming hack-and-slash for the PS3 and Wii, Sengoku Basara: Samurai Heroes.
During an interview with Siliconera , producer Hiroyuki Kobayashi revealed that, like Sengoku Basara, which has quite the female following in Japan, Devil May Cry 4 was developed with female gamers in mind.
S: It’s quite amazing that the Basara series, an action game series with a bunch of male leads, is so well received by both genders. It seems like companies are trying to figure out how to appeal to women, but are resorting to gender stereotyped games instead.
HK:I took similar steps while making Devil May Cry 4 as well. The first thing was to take away things girls don’t like, things that are disgusting and violent graphics or events. Also, big, buff, macho guys. There are girls that like that, but most girls like a realistic nice, sweet guy.
If we made someone like the Hulk, a big overly muscular guy, girls probably won’t be into that. If you take that character and tone him down a bit, make him more of a smart type, that little difference can change the perception of how females receive that character.
S:As a personal opinion, do you feel this is cross cultural or something just for Japan?
HK:With the characters we tested in Devil May Cry 4 the responses were very good. There wasn’t anyone saying ‘oh we wish you had this type of character’ and nobody said ‘oh we really wish you didn’t have this kind of character’. We were able to take the response from Devil May Cry 4 to fine tune the characters for this game.
I don’t think too many people that played all of the Devil May Cry games can argue with the fact that DMC4 was obviously made with girl gamers in mind.HK:I took similar steps while making Devil May Cry 4 as well. The first thing was to take away things girls don’t like, things that are disgusting and violent graphics or events. Also, big, buff, macho guys. There are girls that like that, but most girls like a realistic nice, sweet guy.
If we made someone like the Hulk, a big overly muscular guy, girls probably won’t be into that. If you take that character and tone him down a bit, make him more of a smart type, that little difference can change the perception of how females receive that character.
S:As a personal opinion, do you feel this is cross cultural or something just for Japan?
HK:With the characters we tested in Devil May Cry 4 the responses were very good. There wasn’t anyone saying ‘oh we wish you had this type of character’ and nobody said ‘oh we really wish you didn’t have this kind of character’. We were able to take the response from Devil May Cry 4 to fine tune the characters for this game.
