Dante’s new look in DmC has been controversial among fans, but developer Ninja Theory has stuck by their guns. Creative director Tameem Antoniades noted that Japanese character design can somehow get away with more “campiness.”

“We did a thought experiment suggested by [former Capcom exec Keiji Inafune] early on. It went like this: imagine this game as a contemporary movie,” said Antoniades. “What would it look like What would Dante look like We went from there.”

“Japanese style ethos does tend to involve make characters look cool for the sake of looking cool, adding odd accessories, crazy hairstyles and color, cowboy boots and so on simply because they look cool,” noted Capcom’s Alex Jones. “We in the West tend to be more functional adding things that have meaning and being able to explain that meaning. Why does Dante have white hair I want to make a little story around that and explain it. And so on for the rest of his design choices.”

“We’ve not so much done away with any of the Japanese aspects of the series,” Antoniades resumed. “But are more building on the foundations of the franchise to develop a game that has a different flavor. We grew up on U.S. and European movies, comics, music and general culture. That’s what we’re tapping into. We’re not pretending we are Japanese nor making apologies for that.”

Source: OXM