Keiji Inafune Talks About His Contribution To Azure Striker Gunvolt

Back when Inti Creates announced Azure Striker Gunvolt, they said that Keiji Inafune was helping them create the game. Inafune, who helped created the Mega Man franchise at Capcom, has a long history with Inti Creates, who worked on the Mega Man Zero games, as well as on Mega Man 9 and 10.

In a new developer diary video shared by Inti Creates, Inafune—who is credited as Executive Producer and “action director”—shares how he came to be involved with the project. Gunvolt looks like a fun game now, but according to Inafune, it wasn’t always that way.

“I was approached by [CEO] Mr. Aizu of Inti Creates, who showed me this game and asked me how to go about selling it,” Inafune says. “So, I told him to let me play through the game. I didn’t think much of it. It was just really dull and not worth releasing as a product.”

“The potential was there,” Inafune adds. “Mr. Aizu really just wanted to know how to market the game, and all I did was criticize the action. But then he said, ‘Okay, we’ll change it.’ [I] couldn’t believe it. I told him my ideas and he agreed to them. So, I thought, might as well get involved.”

“There was room for change, since it wasn’t done yet. That’s why I ended up being so frank about the action.”

Inafune and Inti Creates are also collaborating on Mighty No. 9, although if you remember our various talks with Inti Creates CEO Takuya Aizu, you’ll recall him saying that Gunvolt actually began active development before that game did.