An article on 4Gamer in memory of legendary Dead or Alive and Ninja Gaiden director Tomonobu Itagaki, who passed away last October, featured several of his former colleagues sharing their memories of working with him.
One of those colleagues was Kengo Aoki, the representative director and CEO of Soft Gear, a company that specializes in contracted development for online video games. Soft Gear, still known under the name Phoenix Soft at the time, provided their services to Itagaki’s Valhalla Game Studios, with whom they helped develop the online component of Devil’s Third, the ill-fated 2015 Wii U exclusive that would prove to be the studio’s only original game and Itagaki’s swan song.
Aoki shared several anecdotes that exemplified the outspoken, boisterous personality that Itagaki was known for, including an incident during a business trip to China in which he “got completely wasted and started picking fights with random taxis passing by and shouting loudly in the middle of the street.” Aoki got into an argument about game development with Itagaki at their hotel later that night and was sure that he had ruined their business partnership. However, while nursing a hangover on the flight home, Itagaki tearfully made amends with Aoki and declared that they were “brothers.”
Although news of Itagaki’s death came as a shock to the public at large, Aoki revealed that he had been struggling with his health since at least the mid-2010s. “Even in Los Angeles, where he was scheduled to speak at E3, he wound up hospitalized in an emergency. The night we arrived, we were having a pre-E3 party in our hotel room, and Itagaki stepped out onto the balcony and started shouting “I’m gonna take over the world! Come on, you guys join in too!” Before long, there were about 10 Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) patrol cars surrounding us, and the officers had their guns drawn. It was a real Dead or Alive situation.”
While Aoki did not reveal how this outrageous situation was resolved, he said that while spending the following day at Universal Studios Hollywood, he got a call informing him that Itagaki had been urgently admitted to the ICU and would remain hospitalized for 40-50 days.
Despite his declining health, Aoki says Itagaki still had faith in Devil’s Third’s concept and believed that the day would come when a sequel could be successful. As Itagaki entered his 50s, he began to show interest in “nurturing the next generation of game developers.” Aoki describes that there were “two sides to Itagaki,” one which didn’t want to give up on being a creator, one which strived to pass on the knowledge and love towards video games to the next generation.
Itagaki’s life may have been cut tragically short, but his influence on the people he worked with and the fans of his games all over the world is not to be underestimated. In Aoki’s own words, “For me, he lives on in my heart as not only a game creator, but as a mentor in many other ways as well. I can still feel that “Itagaki-ism” firmly rooted within me.”
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