And G-gill, they were forced to pay him the money they owed him; then he flipped them off and said goodbye. He had every piece of tangible evidence he needed to win his case.
having him gone is a mixed bag. He didn't listen to the fans much, true, but he didn't have to as much as modern TN. A great example in NG. BOth NG1 and NG2 were great games, even though he didn't really consult the fanbase. Then NG3 comes along without him, and is utterly shit. Then TN listens to fan feedback for RE, and it got better (its OK) but still far inferior to NG1 and 2.
I personally feel that Itagaki is overrated. He did great with the TN games on Xbox and any systems prior, but he was shit this generation. DOA4 was rubbish and NG2 was incredibly meh compared to NG Black or Sigma. Hayashi isn't exactly much better but DOA5 is miles better than DOA4. NG3:RE's isn't too shabby a game either, though far from perfect.
NG2 is way better than RE, and in my personal opinion Sigma is rubbish. The only things it did well are the things copied from Black. Every alteration made was for the worse.
As for DOA5,it seems like mechanics-wise it was mostly Shimbori running the show (Shimbori wasn't a part of NG3). Hayashi is to thank for the dumb marketing, obsession with boobs, lack of Ryu's face, etc.
Sigma is essentially Black in HD with a few changes. Pretty much the same game. RE is not bad and a blast play, but NG2 still pales in comparison to NG1 by a long shot. by. Hayashi does seem douchey but I am certain that DOA5 would've been worse than it is if Itagaki was running it gameplay-wise. Though maybe we would've gotten arcade endings..?
"Sigma is essentially Black in HD with a few changes. Pretty much the same game." - When you're as obsessed with the game as I am, the differences are pretty glaring and frequent. I could play NG:B at nausea. Sigma I can hardly stomach for more than one playthrough.
NG2 is not NG:B, but it's easily the second best in the series.
I think Itagaki cares more about quality of his games. He was in his prime during Dead or Alive 3, Dead or Alive Ultimate, Ninja Gaiden and Dead or Alive XVB (yeah, I said it).
During the DOA4-NG2 period, I'm pretty sure Itagaki envisioned the destruction of DOATEC as what he wished was done to Tecmo. The only reason he chose to work there in the first place (instead of Sega) is because it was closer to his house.
DOAU was pretty awesome and same to DOA3 (though its overall product felt a bit rushed), but DOAX was just... no lol. I'm still not sold on Itagaki because I still found NG2 to be a rather large step back from NG2, and gameplay-wise, DOA4 is a large step back from DOA3.
So he stepped back from his own products, so you don't like him? At least he made good ones to begin with. Hayashi just seems to take steps back and doesn't have a good anchor for comparison. Again, advances in DOA5 probably are from Shimbori.
Lol, yeah I typo'ed. Hayashi does seem like a bit of a douchebag, but Itagaki didn't exactly listen to fan feedback. Everytime I play NG Black or Sigma, the experience just flows so much better than NG2. NG2 was a clusterfuck at times with a shitty framerate. Itagaki was awesome during the PS2/Xbox generation but he's been pretty off this generation IMO. Anyway, let's see how Itagaki's future games turn out.
Lol, you know what I mean Brute..... Itagaki was good for anything revolving around visual appeal and flash but gameplay was kinda hit or miss. It either worked nicely or felt off. I wouldn't mind if Itagaki was still at TN and just handled things related to production values.
His games judged by gameplay: DOA1-no comment, DOA2-good, DOA3-very good, DOA4-not good, NG:B-amazing crowning jewel of all gaming, NG2-great, DOAX-shit.
Now for Hayashi: sigma-bad (compared to Black), Sigma 2-good stuff carried from vanilla, NG3-worst piece of shit ever, RE-meh, DOA5-good, but probably due to Shimbori, DOA5U-meh.