Backstories of RE4 Development

[xfactor]

Eurogamer has a lengthy article with Yasuhisa Kawamura, the guy who was responsible for the early (hookman/fog) version RE4. The article shines light on may interesting tibits, such as how Silent Hill inspired him to get Hiroshi Shibata to inject the hallucination element into the game.

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2015-01-18-inside-the-resident-evil-4-that-never-was?

[Rombie]

Great article... explains more not just about the development of four but the mess the development teams were in at Capcom by the later part of 1998 with so many departures.

[yurieu]

Amazing article man, it is wonderful to see it was published just today!

It is a little sad there is no reference to the Fog version of RE4 or Sugimura, but i can understand now kawamura lead the team to a point with no way back.

They could not bypass the technical issues with scenario and characters, and there was no guarantee that it would be good enough:

" I didn't know how to stage a balanced yet varied horror performance," laments Kawamura. "Even if it were possible for a game to create a hallucinogenic atmosphere, if the horror trigger isn't scary for the player, it's over."

This statement is funny though:

"The Biohazard series is created by Capcom's most elite members"

[Lanzagranadas]

Awewome article. Too bad Kawamura didn't reach his goal with RE4 due to hardware limitations, I truly hope he has more chances in the future to create the horror experiences he want to.

[Sly]

I think Kawamura did a great job in BH3, it's one of my favorite episode, but I'm also glad that his version of BH4 didn't make it. As said in the article, BH is about weird science, not paranormal activities. Silent Hill is great and all, but BH has to stay BH. I do not fancy Ganados and over the top action, but it's still better than evil dolls and guys coming out of paintings, even if it is undoubtedly scarier.

Fog version, on the other hand, is much more interesting.

[Rombie]

This statement is funny though:

"The Biohazard series is created by Capcom's most elite members"

Makes perfect sense to me. Generally the only people in charge of the franchise are those who've stayed long enough to be given those roles these days. It's the same with Street Fighter. Capcom mangement doesn't trust in handing over the set of keys to directing spot on it's major franchises without some sort proven track record of success in the company or with the brand somehow before hand.

[News Bot]

I believe it was Welsh who was responsible for making this interview happen. He also introduced Kawamura to Kenichi Iwao.

Kawamura is my favorite developer in the series. Sadly very under-utilized.

[yurieu]

Jacob's ladder, my next film. I did not like sweet home at all.