In a very personal feature/interview of Shinji Mikami done by Polygon, we’ve learned that he has followed in the footsteps of his mentors more than we could have ever imagined.

You see, when Mikami started at Capcom way back in 1989, he was mentored by Tokuro Fujiwara, the head of Capcom’s consumer development division and the creator of the classic and iconic Ghosts ‘n Goblins series. Since there weren’t that many veterans to turn to, Fujiwara handed over projects to newcomers like Mikami. Naturally, this was a huge opportunity for Mikami at the time, but it was also a giant challenge.

As he grew into his own at Capcom through the years, he did the same with other new developers within the company. One of the most notable of his proteges is the director of Resident Evil Code: Veronica, Hiroki Kato. Despite the success of the game across multiple platforms, it seems being a game director was just not in his future.

Later Kato moved on to design games like God Hand and Vanquish, both of which had close proximity to Mikami as the director. Apparently, developing games seems to have just slipped his future entirely, as revealed in an email he sent to Mikami. After Vanquish was published, he left the games industry entirely – to become a farmer.

Mikami shared the news with the rest of the team like a proud father, which is in part, one of the reasons why he still makes video games.