Hideki Kamiya says Resident Evil developers have lost sight of how scary their games are

Hideki Kamiya, director of the original Resident Evil 2, says Capcom should give players the option to turn down the horror in future instalment, arguing that the series’ developers have become too numb to how frightening their games are.

Clovers boss Kamiya has previously expressed his dislike of horror games, including calling for a ‘non-scary’ mode and brainstorming a ‘cozy’ Resident Evil spin-off featuring a retired Leon Kennedy walking his dog.

Speaking to VGC in a recent interview, the designer – who also worked on the original Resident Evil game 30 years ago – clarified that he was “one hundred percent serious” with his proposal that horror be made optional in the Capcom series and said that he’d shared his feedback with members of the Resident Evil team.

Kamiya said he was unable to play through this year’s Resident Evil Requiem, despite wanting to experience its return to Raccoon City, where Leon Kennedy revisits the events of the original Resident Evil 2.

“Speaking about that tweet the other day, specifically, I’ve never been a fan of horror. I mean, even from the time I was young, I could never handle it,” Kamiya said. “I don’t like horror, and I don’t like scary things. I’m not able to make it through scary movies, and that was even the case back in the day.

“But nowadays, with how photorealistic and high-fidelity video games have gotten, the amount of crazy, horrifying things that people are able to put on the screen is absolutely insane, and I think anybody who’s on the Resident Evil teams at Capcom, at this point, they must all be completely numb to how scary the thing they’re making is.”

He continued: “This is not a joke; I’m being one hundred percent serious when I say that I wish they would make it so that their games can also be enjoyed by people like me, who can’t handle scary games at all.

“I mean, just recently this year we had Resident Evil Requiem and the big return of Leon Kennedy, and he went back to Raccoon City, and he’s reliving all of those memories and all of those experiences. As somebody who directed that original game, Resident Evil 2, I was curious to know how that panned out for him. I wanted to experience that myself as a player, but the game was way too scary, and I couldn’t.

“And so, it’s not a joke. I legitimately wished it would include some kind of non-horror mode for people like me, because I talk to folks who are on the Resident Evil teams at Capcom just privately, and I tell them that their games are way too scary, and they’re like, ‘what, come on, they’re not that scary’. They seriously seem to have no awareness of how scary the things they make actually are, so I really hope they address that at some point.”

Kamiya says Resident Evil can learn from his Bayonetta options

Kamiya isn’t calling for Capcom to make Resident Evil less frightening by default, but argues that horror could be treated like other optional elements of a game, pointing to the accessibility and content options he introduced in Bayonetta.

“[Bayonetta is] obviously a game that at its core is an extremely technical action game targeting the most advanced action game players, but I also wanted anybody to be able to pick up the game and enjoy it, which is why we included the Very Easy Automatic mode,” he explained.

“Also with Bayonetta 3, we upped the exposure or nudity factor when she does her attacks, and her clothes come off, but we know that some people might object to that, so we also included in the Naïve Angel Mode where we toned down a lot of that exposure.”

Kamiya said he doesn’t “see any reason” why Resident Evil can’t do the same thing with “just turning down the horror dials a little bit”.

“I mean, it doesn’t even have to be anything super elaborate. You could just make it so that the zombies’ faces aren’t so scary. Why not have a mode that just puts, like, brown paper bags on all of their heads, or instead of having these dark, dingy rooms everywhere, they could have really pleasant mood lighting.

“I think even just making a few tweaks like those, it would make it so that somebody like me could make it all the way through the games. Oh, and no blood!”

Kamiya said that, because he knew the original Resident Evil and Resident Evil 2 “like the back of my hand”, the games lost their ability to scare him.

“Which is precisely why I don’t think the teams at Capcom fully understand how scary the games that they’re making actually are!” He continued. “I told [series producer] Takeuchi-san to his face, ‘your games are too scary!’ And he was like, ‘what? Seriously?!’

“I get codes for every new Resident Evil when it comes out and it always comes with an email saying, ‘hey, we hope you enjoy the game!’ And I’ll send back an email thanking them for the code, and say, ‘well, I’d love to play the game, but unfortunately it’s too scary for me, so I’m not going to be able to’, they come back with, ‘Oh, come on, it’s not that scary, you can do it!’”