Capcom had a women-led “Diana Police” on the Pragmata team to make sure Diana was cute in an “uncontrived and childlike” way
Pragmata, Capcom’s latest effort in fostering a brand-new IP, launched on April 17, selling a whopping 2 million copies in less than three weeks. With Father’s Day just around the corner, this was the perfect occasion for the developers and cast to come together and celebrate the big milestone in a commemorative YouTube livestream held on June 18.
The reason why Father’s Day was picked for such an occasion is probably obvious to anyone remotely familiar with the title, whose story explores the “found family” dynamics of protagonist Hugh and his android companion Diana. Upon the game’s release, many players agreed that Diana’s cute and “daughterly” demeanor definitely triggered their parental instincts.
However, balancing this Diana’s cuteness was apparently quite a serious task for the developers, producer Naoto Oyama revealed in the livestream. Apparently, Pragmata’s development team had what he nicknames a “Diana Police,” who conducted thorough checks to make sure that her character was expressed with natural childlike innocence, without becoming too contrived or potentially annoying to users. This includes voice acting direction, as well as instructions to the motion capture actors.
When asked about the Diana Police in a subsequent interview with Game*Spark, game director Cho Yonghee revealed that most of its members were actually women. “It’s easier for women to detect the “cunning” kind of cuteness in female characters, whereas men would probably go What’s the difference? (laughs) So I’m pretty sure all of the Diana Police members were women,” Cho commented.
Nao Toyama, the voice of Diana in the Japanese dub of Pragmata, shared in the livestream that she was directed “not to make it too cute, but speak like a child would naturally speak.”
Interestingly, when developing Resident Evil Requiem, Capcom had a similar “board” of female developers who were there to review the new, aged-up design of Leon Kennedy. According to director Koshi Nakanishi, they were the ones who made sure that his design was “just right,” to the point of checking every single wrinkle on his neck.
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