Is Resident Evil too scary? If you were not able to finish the latest chapter in the series, don’t worry, you are not alone.
Joining you is seasoned developer Hideki Kamiya. Far from being a stranger to the Capcom series, Kamiya directed the original Resident Evil 2 from 1998 and also worked on the first Resident Evil game as a designer and planner. In later years, he worked on games such as Devil May Cry, Viewtiful Joe, and Bayonetta.
In a recent interview with VGC, Kamiya suggested that Capcom has made the Resident Evil games “too scared.” He went on to suggest an optional mode in future releases that could reduce the horror elements. The goal, according to him, would be to allow people who cannot handle tension, monsters, and disturbing settings to still follow the story and finish the game.
The director said he is “one hundred percent serious,” adding that he had difficulty completing Requiem. Leon Kennedy’s return to Raccoon City had made him especially interested, largely because of his connection with Resident Evil 2. However, it seemed the level of fear proved too much for him.
Adding a “non-scary” mode
According to Kamiya, the technological progress of video games has helped make the problem even more noticeable. Growing photorealism now means it’s possible to create creatures, settings, and “crazy, horrifying things” that are much more disturbing than in the past, while those who work on the games every day may have become used to this kind of content and lost their sense of how strongly it affects players.
His idea, however, is not to make Resident Evil less scary for everyone. Instead, Kamiya imagines optional settings, following an approach already used in his own games. In Bayonetta, for example, the Very Easy Automatic mode was introduced to make the combat system more accessible, while Bayonetta 3 allows players to reduce some of its more explicit content through the Naïve Angel Mode.
By “making a few tweaks” to Resident Evil, Capcom could change the appearance of enemies, the lighting of the environments, or the amount of blood. Kamiya even joked about putting paper bags over the zombies’ heads, but behind the joke is a clear suggestion: leave the original experience unchanged while offering an alternative for people who would like to play without the threat of such intense horror elements.
Finally, Kamiya said he’s already shared these ideas with Capcom’s producer Jun Takeuchi, who seemed surprised. Perhaps this shows how comfortable the team has become with the high level of fear and horror in Resident Evil.
