A special PlayStation Portable port of the game was planned called "Transformers: 2nd Strike", but was cancelled by Atari due to the Transformers video game publishing license being given to Activision by Hasbro after the Transformers live-action film was announced.
According to the consumer marketing director at The Pokemon Company JC Smith, one of the big hurdles that Game Freak and other Pokemon devs have to endure is the balance between massive fan demand and the developers' own specific vision for each game.
“...there’s also a vision for what the creators want to provide, and it’s [a matter of] finding that delicate balance throughout. We have a group of creators and professionals working at the Pokémon Company that have been through a lot – seen, heard [a lot]. They have thicker skin than many people do because they’ve heard it.”
Smith also revealed that the company does listen to fan demands of wanting a grander and more sophisticated game in the series, but he also revealed that Game Freak very much strives to make future games extremely accessible at their cores as well.
According to Terence J. Rotolo, the series voice actor for Frank West, he was not asked by Capcom Vancouver to reprise his role for the eighth installment in the series due to Dead Rising's asset manager, Trant Lee-Aimes, changing Frank West's character development. Lee-Aimes was asked by fans regarding the lack of Rotolo's involvement within the game, to which he responded in a fan Q&A:
"We wanted to work with someone to provide a more grizzled, older take on Frank at this stage. It's no disrespect to history or previous actors--TJ Rotolo has done a bang-up job."
Rotolo shared a Change.org petition made by fans through social media to have him return back for this game, but to no avail.
According to the game's art director, Tatsuya Yoshikawa, The Order of the Sword is based on the Amish religious sect as a means of blending the medieval elements within the modern setting.
"We brought up the Amish early on, although the goal was never to focus on emulating them too much. I think any given religion represents a closed-off space, in a way. The Order tends to dress its knights in these flashy costumes, but there's a slightly modern sense to them. If they were really shut off from the world, there wouldn't be any modern elements in their costumes at all, right? Those designs were meant to show that the Order has adapted to modern times while stilt retaining their gaudiness. That was our goal there."
Santus was originally going to be named Benedict. The name was changed when, coincidently, Pope Benedict was elected in real life during the early development of the game.
Gloria was going to be a fully-fledged character. According to Bingo Morihashi, he begged to be included in the game, to which they humored him. She was going to be one of the antagonists, but due to a number of problems, she was simply modified to be Trish in disguise.
According to Bingo Morihashi, he originally planned to have Agnus speak in a drunken fashion. However, the voice actor suggested that he speak with a stammer instead. The dialogue for the intro sequence to his second boss fight was also adlibbed during the recording session.
"When recording his lines, his voice actor suggested inserting the stammer, which I thought added to his characterization. Having the musical-like scene came from another impromptu suggestion during a recording session. The staff in the studio at the time thought it was a great idea, so we went with it. That helped Agnus come into his own as a character. I originally thought to have him talk almost drunkenly, which seems pretty standard for mad scientist characters. But the voice actor's suggestions brought the character to an entirely different level of likability."
According to Bingo Morihashi, Credo was originally planned to be the final boss of the game, similar to Vergil in Devil May Cry 3: Dante's Awakening. The idea was abandoned due to writing complications.
"We actually planned to make him the final boss at one point. Final bosses are rarely young men, so that would have been exciting. But that would have been really hard on poor Kyrie. and she would come to resent Nero, so we realized that Credo shouldn't be an out-and-out villain. Besides ruining Nero and Kyrie's relationship, making him a villain would have been a rehash of the "family betrayal" plot from "DMC 3". So rather, he starts off doing questionable things but later has a change of heart. Credo was easy to craft, in that sense."
According to Bingo Morihashi, the game was originally planned to dedicate a lot more time to Nero's story, rather than the semi-even split that ended up in the final game.
"At first, the intent was more of a 70/30 split, with Nero taking the larger role. Giving Dante nothing was unthinkable from a sales perspective, so we were bouncing around between 70/30 and 60/40. In the end, though, they each received an equal slice. We somehow gave Dante more missions and weapons than we expected to. (laughs)"
According to Bingo Morihashi, Red Queen and Blue Rose were created as a means to visually differentiate Nero's movement and gameplay from Dante.
"For the main weapon, motion artist [Yuichiro] Hiraki-san said he wanted a motorcycle-like sword. What does that even mean, though? He explained that the sword's handle would rumble and sputter like an engine, and everyone loved the idea. Using that sword was important for Nero's characterization, because it gave him this "biker gang" element. That plus his wildness signaled the shift to the current Nero."
According to the game's writer, Bingo Morihashi, Nero was originally envisioned as a noble and sophisticated demon hunter, akin to the likes of Sherlock Holmes. However, the idea was rejected, and the team heavily debated the type of character Nero should be.
"I think he came out all right in the end, but he actually started out as a Sherlock Holmes-type character, sipping tea as he fought off demons. (laughs) But they decided that wasn't such a good idea. (laughs) That was the angle I was gunning for, though. He wound up being your typical wild and crazy kid, but in that sense he resembles Dante quite a bit, so I thought we needed ways to distinguish between the two. I gave him one part Dante's wildness and one part Vergit's sophistication, which gave him a refined, noble nuance. But that wasn't well-received either. So I was told to simply write the scenario as if the character was Dante, and once the team was satisfied with the story's direction, we began to flesh out Nero; his childishness, his unexpected serious moments. I believe this anecdote has been mentioned in some interview somewhere, but the team debated over whether Nero would be the type to cover up his privates in a public bath or let it all hang out. The base for Nero's design is undoubtedly Dante, and if you aged him ten years, Nero would basically resemble Dante physically. After a lot of discussion, though, I was convinced that Nero would definitely cover up his junk in a public bath, whereas Dante wouldn't have ever cared about that from a young age, and it wouldn't make a difference to him as an adult in "DMC 4". either. But Nero begins as a more reserved young man, so the big questions were, 'Is that enough of a difference?' and 'Are we implying that he'll grow up to be just like Dante?'"
According to the game's writer, Bingo Morihashi, Lady was originally envisioned as an older seasoned demon hunter. However, Hideaki Itsuno rejected the idea in favor of an idea that would resonate with Japanese audiences.
"We originally planned to have her be older than Dante; that's how I would have liked it. (laughs) But Itsuno-san said, "No way." (laughs) He wanted a character that would go over well with the Japanese audience. My original proposal was a cigarette-smoking demon hunter who could act like a mentor to Dante, but Itsuno-san's response was, "No way. The only way she'll be popular with the Japanese audience is if she looks like a high-schooler." I had no choice, so I agreed to make the change. Trish already felt older than Dante, and the Dante in "DMC 3" is much younger, so it was decided that Lady should be slightly younger than Dante. Her appearance was up in the air for much of development, so I ended up writing her without a clear visual in mind. All we knew from the start was that she'd have black hair. Trish was blonde and Lucia was a redhead, so this almost Scandinavian-looking European should definitely have black hair; that's what the team decided on. Because what the Japanese audience definitely didn't want was more blondes or swarthy girls. The whole team agreed that "DMC 3" was a game made for the Japanese. We were happy to worry about the rest of the world later, because first and foremost, we - the creators - would have been in a bad place if the game wasn't a hit in Japan. Sure, we could have moved millions of units overseas and only tens of thousands in Japan, but focusing on the numbers like that and aiming for foreign sales would have been abandoning the Japanese fans who had supported us this whole time. That was the thought process, so we buckled down and concentrated on making a game that would do well in Japan. Vergil's katana and sword-draw techniques were also nods to the Japanese fans; we figured that most foreigners probably wouldn't understand that sleek, simple aesthetic. Lady's black hair, too. It wasn't easy. but we appealed to the audience we were aiming for."
In 2021, a widely undocumented Easter egg during the "Enter the Battle Dome" mission in "The Umpire Strikes Out" level in the Rocket Channel was uploaded to YouTube. When the player reaches the purple energy tower, you will need to climb the tower up to the square platform area with two air tanks on it. Just to the right of those air tanks, an invisible path marked by vague star textures and small red lights will appear in view once reached, leading to a hidden area with a floating metallic cube featuring a photo of programmer Evan Wells behind a blue background. Like the production baby cameo found in the same level, the object will slowly spin around showing the photo on each side, can be jumped on, and can be destroyed with Gex's attacks.
According to Street Fighter V director Takayuki Nakayama, Ed's name was the result of a mix up from the development staff at the time.
"Oh and I just remembered, the origin of Ed's name," wrote Nakayama. "Our designer had him jotted down in his notes as 'The boy from the ED (ending)', and that got mistaken by someone who read the note as ED being his name. We started thinking 'Hey, that's kinda cool' and decided to use it as his name."
In 2020, a widely undocumented Easter egg near the start of "The Umpire Strikes Out" level in the Rocket Channel was uploaded to YouTube. From the level's checkpoint, there is a platforming section consisting of floating metallic walkways. If the player karate kicks from the second walkway into the abyss, you should land on a mostly invisible platform, only marked with vague star textures and small red lights. Going south of the platform will lead the player back to the start of the level. If the player goes north, mindful that you jump over a hole in the platform on the way there, a small area can be found that contains an oxygen tank, some crates, two Green Fly TVs, and a floating metallic cube with an image of a newborn's face on two sides. The cube will spin in place slowly unless the player destroys it with Gex's attacks. The cube even has some collision that allows the player to jump on top of it. It's unknown who this infant is, but it is presumably a production baby raised by one of the game's developers.
There is an unused Splitscreen mode in the game's data that seems to imply that the Story Mode was going to support Local Co-op instead of just the Online Co-op it supports in the final release.
According to the game's character designer, Hiroyuki Nara, the model for Dante was repurposed data for Trish from Devil May Cry 2.
"The characters' speed in the backup data was completely different from how it was in the retail release. The final motions had also been programmed in separately by the software guys, so in order to replicate them, I had to place a television running the original game next to my work monitor and eyeball it. (laughs) So the Dante in "DMC 3" was actually made using Trish's data from "DMC 2". (laughs) We had all sorts of problems with that damn backup data from "DMC 1"... "
There were originally going to be 100 Legion demons that fought during the Arkham boss fight, but due to hardware limitations, the modelers could only make about 20.
A special PlayStation Portable port of the game was planned called "Transformers: 2nd Strike", but was cancelled by Atari due to the Transformers video game publishing license being given to Activision by Hasbro after the Transformers live-action film was announced.
In 2021, a widely undocumented Easter egg during the "Enter the Battle Dome" mission in "The Umpire Strikes Out" level in the Rocket Channel was uploaded to YouTube. When the player reaches the purple energy tower, you will need to climb the tower up to the square platform area with two air tanks on it. Just to the right of those air tanks, an invisible path marked by vague star textures and small red lights will appear in view once reached, leading to a hidden area with a floating metallic cube featuring a photo of programmer Evan Wells behind a blue background. Like the production baby cameo found in the same level, the object will slowly spin around showing the photo on each side, can be jumped on, and can be destroyed with Gex's attacks.
In 2020, a widely undocumented Easter egg near the start of "The Umpire Strikes Out" level in the Rocket Channel was uploaded to YouTube. From the level's checkpoint, there is a platforming section consisting of floating metallic walkways. If the player karate kicks from the second walkway into the abyss, you should land on a mostly invisible platform, only marked with vague star textures and small red lights. Going south of the platform will lead the player back to the start of the level. If the player goes north, mindful that you jump over a hole in the platform on the way there, a small area can be found that contains an oxygen tank, some crates, two Green Fly TVs, and a floating metallic cube with an image of a newborn's face on two sides. The cube will spin in place slowly unless the player destroys it with Gex's attacks. The cube even has some collision that allows the player to jump on top of it. It's unknown who this infant is, but it is presumably a production baby raised by one of the game's developers.
