"Zwei" New survival horror gamer from Shinji Mikami

[Pikminister]

Can you name one thing Mikami did in BH1?

I could do that... And... that would only be the start of us writing and reading huge walls of texts. Derailing this topic in the process. Not really feeling like doing it that, honestly. Getting a bit old for that sort of thing.

But I've read too many interviews. Read and saw behind the scenes material. Where practically every dev would go out of their way to give praise to Mikami-san. Even on games where he clearly was not suppose to be involved, like in Zero. The director of that game credited Mikami for giving him tips on how to get the game done and how it should look. The guy was clearly an influence on them.

However, if you have any material for me to read on the matter, please give me some links. I would love to read it. And be corrected on the matter if possible. I'm quite open to learning new stuff.

Hoping this new game shapes up nicely. That trailer, well... not enough to form an opinion on.

[AsteroidBlues]

I could do that... And... that would only be the start of us writing and reading huge walls of texts. Derailing this topic in the process. Not really feeling like doing it that, honestly. Getting a bit old for that sort of thing.

But I've read too many interviews. Read and saw behind the scenes material. Where practically every dev would go out of their way to give praise to Mikami-san. Even on games where he clearly was not suppose to be involved, like in Zero. The director of that game credited Mikami for giving him tips on how to get the game done and how it should look. The guy was clearly an influence on them.

However, if you have any material for me to read on the matter, please give me some links. I would love to read it. And be corrected on the matter if possible. I'm quite open to learning new stuff.

Hoping this new game shapes up nicely. That trailer, well... not enough to form an opinion on.

You obviously don't know how the employee/superior dynamic works in Japan. Basically, if you don't treat upper management like gods, you get screwed professionally.

[Pikminister]

You obviously don't know how the employee/superior dynamic works in Japan. Basically, if you don't treat upper management like gods, you get screwed professionally.

I know that. And guess what? I stand by what I said.

Because those devs were very specific over what Mikami did for them and the game itself. But I'm not gonna do a transcript of those interviews either just to prove a point.

Anyways... why are you getting on my case about this issue? How did you get involved in this?

[News Bot]

I could do that... And... that would only be the start of us writing and reading huge walls of texts. Derailing this topic in the process. Not really feeling like doing it that, honestly. Getting a bit old for that sort of thing.

But I've read too many interviews. Read and saw behind the scenes material. Where practically every dev would go out of their way to give praise to Mikami-san. Even on games where he clearly was not suppose to be involved, like in Zero. The director of that game credited Mikami for giving him tips on how to get the game done and how it should look. The guy was clearly an influence on them.

However, if you have any material for me to read on the matter, please give me some links. I would love to read it. And be corrected on the matter if possible. I'm quite open to learning new stuff.

Hoping this new game shapes up nicely. That trailer, well... not enough to form an opinion on.

One thing isn't much. Come on dawg. Just one.

BH0 was actually developed by TOSE, so it's difficult to pin down exactly who did what on that game. I've spoken to devs who've praised him and yet at the same time never worked with him directly. Praise doesn't mean much in terms of what he did, he's just respected generally for different reasons to different people. Some because of his work, some because he is a personal friend or simply because he was their superior. Now I'm not saying he's bad in any way, I respect him greatly myself. But when it comes to what he did/didn't do, there's some misconceptions floating around the intertubes.

For BH1, he was ordered to create a game like Sweet Home by Tokuro Fujiwara, his boss and mentor. During development, he relayed Fujiwara's instructions to the team (who handled all the creative aspects while almost all of Mikami's own ideas were rejected).

Resident Evil was based on Sweet Home, was it not?

Yeah. Once the Playstation was released, conversation turned towards the idea of launching an original franchise. The basic premise was that I’d be able to do the things that I wasn’t able to include in Sweet Home. It was mainly on the graphics front that my frustration had been building up. I was also confident that horror games could become a genre in themselves.

Was Resident Evil an example of one of the things Mikami didn’t want to do?

Mikami hated it. This is how our conversation went:
“You hate being scared?”
“Yep.”

So I figured we should do it. [laughs] If he’d answered that he never got scared, I couldn’t have trusted him with the project. People who aren’t afraid of anything don’t understand what’s frightening. In my view, you can’t make a horror game if you don’t have any fear.

So, you came up with concept of zombies and an old mansion, and Mikami was in charge of the actual work? Is that how things were divided up?

You got it. The hardware had just debuted, and we hit a wall with the technology. Originally, the game wasn’t going to use a fixed camera, and the environment would have changed in real time. We continued to investigate the possibilities. In the end, it took us almost a year to realize we wouldn’t be able to pull it off and then abandon the idea.

At first, Resident Evil used a 1st-person view, meaning players would get a subjective view of the game world, being able to see it through their own eyes. However, once the camera was changed to an objective 3rd-person view, the controls were altered, allowing players to move the characters around via a system similar to remote control.

I was the one who ended up making that judgement call. With the first-person viewpoint, my desire was to generate fear by using figures. When I actually tested it out, however, I found that I had to reduce the quality of the graphics. Aligning the characters’ movements with the directional button meant that when the player moved to the next screen, the controls would be reversed. Getting the remote control system working was no easy task. The style of play wasn’t the most intuitive, but, provided players were able to get used to it, I think it was the best way we could have done things. We were weighing the pros and cons of the different control systems right till the very end.

[AsteroidBlues]

I know that. And guess what? I stand by what I said.

Because those devs were very specific over what Mikami did for them and the game itself. But I'm not gonna do a transcript of those interviews either just to prove a point.

Anyways... why are you getting on my case about this issue? How did you get involved in this?

Soooo... It would be impossible for one of these guys to go back to their memories of developing the game, pull a moment out of the bag as it were regarding a problem they solved themselves and then add Mikami into that scenario? If one guy actually had a moment when Mikami helped him and retold that publicly, then all the other employees' hands are forced and they have to match suit to look good in the social structure.

And how did I get involved in this? This is a public discussion forum, not a private forum just for you. XD

[chrisliam2]

from what I have seen it looks awesome to me I cant wait to see some game play.

[Pikminister]

Soooo... It would be impossible for one of these guys to go back to their memories of developing the game, pull a moment out of the bag as it were regarding a problem they solved themselves and then add Mikami into that scenario? If one guy actually had a moment when Mikami helped him and retold that publicly, then all the other employees' hands are forced and they have to match suit to look good in the social structure.

The interviews I was speaking of, were done during the actual time the games were being developed. So there was no need for them to drag something from their past just to make Mikami look like a Kamisama-san-san.

And how did I get involved in this? This is a public discussion forum, not a private forum just for you. XD

I though it was my own personal blog! But then you posted this here:

Damn. I was looking forward to watching that.

And that gave me the impression that you were just disappointed that me and NB there didn't go at each other like some bitches in heat.

But that's what you really want? You want entertainment? So be it... lets see what News Bot posted... behold, the first wall of text I warned you about (Just kidding, I did ask to read stuff didn't I?)

One thing isn't much. Come on dawg. Just one.

BH0 was actually developed by TOSE, so it's difficult to pin down exactly who did what on that game. I've spoken to devs who've praised him and yet at the same time never worked with him directly. Praise doesn't mean much in terms of what he did, he's just respected generally for different reasons to different people. Some because of his work, some because he is a personal friend or simply because he was their superior. Now I'm not saying he's bad in any way, I respect him greatly myself. But when it comes to what he did/didn't do, there's some misconceptions floating around the intertubes.

Right. But you can't deny that he was an influence. That's what I said he was on Zero.

For BH1, he was ordered to create a game like Sweet Home by Tokuro Fujiwara, his boss and mentor. During development, he relayed Fujiwara's instructions to the team (who handled all the creative aspects while almost all of Mikami's own ideas were rejected).

But the thing was that they were working pretty much in uncharted territory. You can't blame Mikami for having a lack of vision at the time or not being brave enough. That doesn't disqualify him from getting credited for his work in RE1.

Where can I find more from your sources? Do you have links to the complete interviews?

[News Bot]

Being an influence =! doing something. Da Vinci could influence me on how to draw naked men but he still didn't draw the naked men I drew... because I drew them and he's goddamn dead. Not that I'd draw naked men. Whether Mikami was shitting his pants at the time makes no difference; he still didn't do what people think he did. That particular interview is here.

[AsteroidBlues]

The interviews I was speaking of, were done during the actual time the games were being developed. So there was no need for them to drag something from their past just to make Mikami look like a Kamisama-san-san.

If anything, that just strengthens my case. Of course they'll have to talk about how awesome their boss is when they're actually having to work with him daily.

I though it was my own personal blog! But then you posted this here:

Damn. I was looking forward to watching that.

And that gave me the impression that you were just disappointed that me and NB there didn't go at each other like some bitches in heat.

But that's what you really want? You want entertainment? So be it... lets see what News Bot posted... behold, the first wall of text I warned you about (Just kidding, I did ask to read stuff didn't I?)

As attractive as that notion sounds, I had pictured something more to the effect of a one-legged man taking part in an ass-kicking contest. In all seriousness, I was making light of the fact that people forever like to clash with Newsbot on things and the slim statistical probability of said person actually being able to win the debate with fact.

[News Bot]

Plenty of people have proven me wrong in the past, and I always readily acknowledge when I'm wrong. Can't learn anything through stubbornness.

[yurieu]

i dont know. lots of RE4, 13 ghosts, Silent hill...

can not expect lots of blood, due to countries banishment.

[Pikminister]

Being an influence =! doing something. Da Vinci could influence me on how to draw naked men but he still didn't draw the naked men I drew... because I drew them and he's goddamn dead. Not that I'd draw naked men. Whether Mikami was shitting his pants at the time makes no difference; he still didn't do what people think he did. That particular interview is here.

Well I dunno about naked men (is that all Da Vinci did?), but Zero in particular is a great example of the fact that many involved in RE didn't had a clue as to where to go in terms of development. And that Mikami was seen as the alpha-male of the group. Someone they could seek out for help. The director of Zero was grateful that Mikami was willing to help out.

So was Masachika Kawata, when porting RE4 over to the PS2. He asked Mikami for help. That despite the fact that Mikami had publicly said he wouldn't be involved with the port.

That kind of influence you cannot brush off and call meaningless. Neither drawing naked men...I think (who does that now?)

In all seriousness, I was making light of the fact that people forever like to clash with Newsbot on things and the slim statistical probability of said person actually being able to win the debate with fact.

I didn't take issue with News Bot personally. I don't make it a "tradition" (I know some do) to take him up on stuff like canon (that would be foolish). It was just what he wrote about Mikami. It reminded me of how people try to discredit Miyamoto or say that Igarashi has done nothing but ruin Castlevania.

That kind of stuff pisses me off. Sorry about that.

And the reason why I'm not up for a long debate, is because my passion for all things RE went South soon after ORC came out. And RE6 did little to get me going again. I'm not feeling it. The fire is gone. Either that or I'm mellowing out here. Not a teenager anymore...

I guess its too late to ask, but did all this went off topic?

[Spera01]

....ANYWAY!

The game is off to a good start...

Man, this is slightly disappointing. This was actually one of my favorite screens so far. Makes me wonder how many other things in the screens are taken from something else... Hopefully, just this one.

[BrionIrons]

This game is gonna be awsome.I found out Mikami brought the enviornment artist who worked on ReMake to work on the atmosphere and enviornment or The Evil Within

http://www.siliconera.com/2012/11/05/shinji-mikamis-horror-game-coming-in-late-2013-has-resident-evil-remake-artist/

[Wrathborne]

Plenty of people have proven me wrong in the past, and I always readily acknowledge when I'm wrong. Can't learn anything through stubbornness.

Except when it comes to other peoples opinions.