Go Nintendo wrote:A portion of a CVG interview with director Yusuke Hashimoto...
CVG: Why is Bayonetta the first Platinum series to earn a sequel? What tempted you back?
YH: Whenever we create a new IP it's always very challenging, and so as a game developer I feel that whenever we are able to successfully do that it's really important to be able to nurture it. That's what the company wanted to do with Bayonetta and also there were a lot of people who wanted to see a sequel to the original game.
I personally also wanted to create a second game as well. It's because these expectations for a sequel matched that this game came about. Should the opportunity arise I'd definitely like to keep nurturing this franchise. It might not be me [directing], but should somebody else take over I would definitely be there to support and help just as Mr. Kamiya has for me. Though there's a chance I could direct in future as well!
CVG: Do you think there's a danger when Japanese developers worry too much about appealing to the Western audience, in terms of diluting some of their creativity?
YH: Yes, there is a danger. I feel like there are a lot of times when you'll be told, 'this is expected in a certain region, so please put something like that in the game', but when you take that kind of approach your creativity gets impacted - what you're creating becomes the same as everyone else. There are many companies that enforce that.
I feel that it's important to let your creativity flow and Nintendo has been able to provide us with the freedom to do what we had originally envisioned. We were able to have a lot of back-and-forth between Platinum Games and Nintendo and they were able to provide objective feedback; 'Maybe that's a little too much', or, 'maybe you should try this'. I feel that was really good and helped push Bayonetta 2 to even higher quality.
We started out with a fundamental freedom, with Nintendo telling us to go and create the game as we saw fit. But as the game started to take shape and we were starting to put all the pieces together, they were able to point out some things that we didn't realise ourselves. That was really helpful for us.
CVG: You touched on the future of the Bayonetta series earlier... what role does Nintendo have in the next Bayonetta games? Have the two become intertwined?
YH: In terms of nurturing the content of this game, there's a lot that we learned from Nintendo and if possible we would love to do it again and keep nurturing our child.
CVG: Where did the idea for the Nintendo-themed costumes come from? Are there any more we haven't seen yet?
YH: It was Mr. Kamiya's strong desire to put costumes into the original Bayonetta and they're all from his favourite games of that generation. As far as costumes you haven't seen yet... it's a secret! Please look forward to this.