Over at Siliconera, Sega talks about the boss battles in The House of the Dead 4 and reflects the creation of one the bosses such as Temperance. Here’s a few quotations from the site,
A member of the development team highlighted the genesis of the obese Temperance creature, commenting: “In the House of the Dead series, all of the boss’ names are inspired by Tarot cards.”
“For example, the name of the stage four boss, Temperance, literally means ‘restrict from something.’ We came to the idea that if you did not restrict food you would become overweight, which led to the design.”
This particular enemy is noteworthy for being able to follow the player throughout the entirety of the chapter, as opposed to just showing up as the end-of-level boss.
“From this initial profile, we created a suitable attack method for this large body type – rolling. We also made full use of the game’s unique force feedback system with Temperance. Overall, we tried to make each boss encounter a unique experience for the player,” the firm added.
Source: http://www.siliconera.com/2012/04/16/how-sega-created-bosses-for-the-house-of-the-dead-4/
Funny thing about Sega using the name of Temperance for a large boss with the idea of restricting from food; in the seven heavenly virtues (religion-wise) there is the virtue of temperance, which is restriction or restraint from something. Its opposite, or vice, per se, is gluttony, or overindulgence in something. What most people think about when they hear of gluttony, however, is food, so I’m not sure if Sega knew about the virtues and sins thing, but that’s certainly a neat fact behind Temperance’s creation.