Resident Evil Creator Explains Why the Series Stopped Being Scary

[GAunderrated]

Pretty much what they are doing. Trying to blame it on the fans because we enjoyed how refreshing RE4 was. So they then take the worst parts of 4, add horrible co-op and interface, and then wonder why people don't like their game anymore.

I bought RE5 and its the last one I will get ripped off by. I didn't touch 6 with a 10ft pole. Hell I didn't even watch others play it because the gameplay is so dull. :/

Maybe it's just me but I read this as "Resident Evil stopped being scary because of you people! It's not our fault, despite our sloppy writing and continued focus on things that players have already expressed distaste in!"

Always great when a dev blames their screwups on their players.

Except that's not what's happening. Shinji Mikami had no hand in Resident Evil 5 or 6, and his point about why the control scheme of 4 was so vastly different is a good one; People were likely tired of tank controls. I know that personally, that's one of the biggest reasons I can't get into the older Resident Evil or Silent Hill titles.

It sounds more like he equates a clunky, unintuitive control scheme with a "scary" game, which is a bit of a double-edged blade because clunky controls alone won't make something tense and frightening, it'll just make it tedious and frustrating. He's not blaming the fans, simply stating that the development of Resident Evil 4 was altered because of the market. Arguably, due to Capcom's hilariously poor writing department, Resident Evil 4 probably could've been "a more scary, horror-focused game" even with the new control scheme if Resident Evil's writing hadn't always been B-movie quality.

He is actually right, giving the player a handicap creates the tension that leads to horror. I have yet to see a single great horror game that didn't handicap the player in some way..

Amnesia TDD made it so you never really saw the enemy until you were about to get attacked that second, took away your weapons, and had a limited source of light with an insanity meter.

RE made its money on clunky controls and sounds. Basically you could hear the zombies roaming around but because of the clunky controls, camera angles, and limited ammo that was able to create some genuine feeling of horror.

Now RE 4 got rid of some of the clunky controls, but they still kept not being able to move when you shoot and the 180 degree turn. However, it was the rich and lonely setting that made the game tense and exciting.

The second you rely on massive gunfights with no handicap and co-op (limited ammo, camera angles, or limited controls)the game becomes another generic 3rd person shooter which is what RE 5 and 6 ended up doing because like I said earlier they had no clue what made RE4 so good and decided to take the worst parts and crank it to 11.

 

[Kanova]

I just hate how Resident Evil isn't Resident Evil anymore. It is just some over the shoulder action game that has the name pasted on it.

 

[bjj hero]

I really like re2 until you left the mansion. I lost interest then and never bothered to finish it. Ive not bothered with RE after that.

Its hard to be scared of zombie you can easily dispatch with an uppercut or spin kick.

 

[Gitty101]

Maybe it's just me but I read this as "Resident Evil stopped being scary because of you people! It's not our fault, despite our sloppy writing and continued focus on things that players have already expressed distaste in!"

Always great when a dev blames their screwups on their players.

Couldn't have put it better myself. It can't be the fact that Capcom lost focus to try and CODify it, it's all our faults for buying it!

 

[loa]

Resident evil was scary at some point?

 

[Fat Hippo]

The sales to the Resident Evil remake were lackluster? Wow, I must be living in BizzaroWorld or something! I thought the remake was great! Obviously not many other people did. Perhaps it was it's GC exclusivity which were the cause of poor sales.

It's all such a damn shame, really. I thought the REmake was the best entry in the entire series, one of the best games on the cube, and one of the best looking games of the entire generation. Hell, it STILL looks incredibly good, and it's gotten pretty old at this point. I'd love another game like it, not even necessarily a game in the Resident Evil series, but just a survival horror game on par in terms of gameplay, puzzles, atmosphere and visuals. And yes, I really DO mean gameplay. It might feel very basic and clunky these days, but it served its purpose very well, and as far as the REmake goes, has also aged surprisingly well.

 

[DjinnFor]

I've been saying this FOREVER, glad to see Mr. Mikami fessing up to it. Am I the only person on the planet who disliked Resident Evil 4? Or who liked Resident Evil 6?

Anyone who enjoyed RE4 but not RE5 or RE6 because they "weren't scary" or "they were action games" or "stupid B-movie action plot" or "no conserving resources anymore" or "it was boring" or "not survival horror anymore" are complete and utter hypocrites. I said the same thing about RE4, but apparently RE4 was the pinnacle of the series to everyone. But suddenly, in RE6 everyone is suddenly making these same complaints? Suddenly people are realizing they haven't been buying a survival horror game, that their beloved survival horror series is just an action game franchise with the same B-movie plot and voice acting now?

At least I wasn't deluded enough to think RE6 was ever going to be a survival horror game. It was expecting a solid action adventure game and that's exactly what it delivered. It deserves a good 9/10 for it, too.

Resident Evil 4, on the other hand, was a disappointing mess of a game. Reasonably fun, as an action game, but did not deliver anything like the games before it and should not have been called Resident Evil. And worse, poorly mixed action with a poor attempt at horror and suffered for it.

 

[Silentpony_v1legacy]

I can't really argue with the success of RE4. Everyone played it and everyone loved it. i mean I played RE0 and I thought it was good, but what do I know? Even though RE6 was still a success, no matter what Critics tell you, I'm excited to see a return to origins horror game. There really have been too few of them.

 

[Metalrocks]

I've been saying this FOREVER, glad to see Mr. Mikami fessing up to it. Am I the only person on the planet who disliked Resident Evil 4? Or who liked Resident Evil 6?

Anyone who enjoyed RE4 but not RE5 or RE6 because they "weren't scary" or "they were action games" or "stupid B-movie action plot" or "no conserving resources anymore" or "it was boring" or "not survival horror anymore" are complete and utter hypocrites. I said the same thing about RE4, but apparently RE4 was the pinnacle of the series to everyone. But suddenly, in RE6 everyone is suddenly making these same complaints? Suddenly people are realizing they haven't been buying a survival horror game, that their beloved survival horror series is just an action game franchise with the same B-movie plot and voice acting now?

At least I wasn't deluded enough to think RE6 was ever going to be a survival horror game. It was expecting a solid action adventure game and that's exactly what it delivered. It deserves a good 9/10 for it, too.

Resident Evil 4, on the other hand, was a disappointing mess of a game. Reasonably fun, as an action game, but did not deliver anything like the games before it and should not have been called Resident Evil. And worse, poorly mixed action with a poor attempt at horror and suffered for it.

no, you are not the only one who dint like RE4. as i have posted a page back, i enjoyed RE6 but hated RE4. cant really agree that RE6 deserves 9/10 but thats every once opinion i guess.
but yes, it was pretty obvious that RE6 will be an action packed game, so i also i knew there wont be much horror. but you have to admit that its understandable that people do expect the horror elements being this title as we have at hte beginning.

 

[Snotnarok]

That...doesn't really make sense, I didn't see RE 2 & 3 as more action-y or even CV...there were more zombies perhaps but 4 was the next RE game on a next gen platform, of COURSE it's going to sell more. RE on PS2 after you just came from PSOne? That's gotta be amazing! And it was pretty damn fun......hell I loved RE5 co-op, it was a shit as a RE game but the co-op was great. 6? .......No.

The point being that it wasn't that the games were sold based on action, it was the next RE on the next platform, there was excitement to be had and we wanted to see where it would go. No one expected RE to suddenly become a shitty action movie with god awful stories and generic action.

RE6 was super well made but the game was just bad, it looked great, had great effects but if the gameplay didn't bore you the constant explosions and bosses that NEVER DIED did ruined the game entirely.

Revelations is a lot more interesting so far as I progress.

 

[KingdomFantasyXIII]

And this is why I don't trust Capcom with games ever again.

If you need me I will be with Square Enix. At least the FF13 trilogy, Kingdom Hearts spinoffs and Dragon Quest games had dignity to stick with what it was doing. Reading this was just sad and made me angry.

 

[ObsidianJones_v1legacy]

I'm sorry, am I the only one who sees the word 'remake'?

1.36 million copies a failure. They added better graphics, some new puzzles, a defense weapon, and crimson heads. Very little new in plot development. They asked full price for a graphically revamp and a lot of people ponied up the dough. And it was a failure.

It was a remake of a game that didn't come out that long before. Six years time difference between the titles. That means a lot of us who liked Resident Evil still owned a copy. A copy that we could very well play, as Resident Evil was released on the PS, and the PS2 was almost fully backwards compatible. I would have to buy another system to play a game that I pretty much already have? And I'm to blame because of the shift of mood?

Really, sir. Say that again. to all of our faces. We stuck by the system you originally put it out for. We had the disk for a while now, and we were probably still playing it. And you know, we might have bought it if you kept it on the original system. But even though you did great sales for the time... it was still a failure.

Spin more, sir. Lose more credibility.

 

[newwiseman]

So they couldn't get rid of the horrible controls without turning it into a pure "action" game... *cough cough bull$*%! ah.. sorry, allergies.

 

[Warachia]

I see a lot of people saying that the reasons RE0 and the RE1 remake failed was because they were on the gamecube, except so was 4 (at first anyway) and that one sold really well, so that excuse doesn't hold up.
I also don't see how this is him blaming the fans (as others have said) they chose to go after a different audience where they can make more money, and if you had a choice between successful and bankrupt most people would choose to be successful, regardless of what that does to their series, other people turn out like 38 Studios and Platinum Games, where you can make a really interesting product that sells horribly.

 

[Strazdas]

So i played Resident Evil 1 recently. For the first time. The game was HIDEOUS. not scary, not hard, jsut hideous. And i dont mind bad graphics, i enjoyed the early silent hills and still do, but this game, how it got so popular is beyond me.
So no, your game was never scary to begin with, it was just poorly designed.