Resident Evil 7 is a game that many have been looking forward to for a long time, and when it was finally announced at E3 many were excited, yet also cautious. The way the trailer, and even the game demo presented themselves it seemed to fall more in line with a more traditional ghost story with the over the top showing of the occult and other such references.
Understandably this has affected many fans of the franchise as the idea of the game taking a ghost story route would detour from the general idea of the franchise. Yet, you should not despair if this was a concern despite the way the trailer has been presented along with the demo this will not be quite as it seems as director Kōshi Nakanishi said in a Capcom Unity blog post. To specify he said:
“I think you can look at the trailer or the demo and get that impression, but don’t worry, we haven’t just thrown out Resident Evil as it exists and turned it into a ghost story. It will all make sense in the end.”
Furthermore in the blog post Nakanishi explored the upcoming game more expanding upon a previous comment he shared with IGN about the demo. To quote the demo was a “tonal preview” for the full game and a “bespoke experience that isn’t just a slice of gameplay from the main game.”
Through his blog post he expanded upon this talking about the series staples of the genre and other such elements stating:
“In the 20 year history of Resident Evil, you know that the key pillars of the game are fear and horror, exploration of the environment, puzzle-solving elements, resource management, and combat against enemies. Those are all in this game, but we wanted to start off with the first two – horror and exploration – and get you experiencing those two pillars up front.
“If you’re thinking that because those other elements aren’t in the demo, that they won’t be in the game, that’s not the case. We’re focusing up front about the message of horror coming home in this demo.”
Interestingly the way the demo has been presented is meant to be a huge mystery that gets people talking and wondering how it ties into the series and the new game. They have stuck to the series staple of horror but have left the rest a mystery leaving us to wonder about the game, and also it will tie together the lore of the series and the staple elements, Nakanishi has continued to explain:
“After I say that [it’s a new numbered title in the series] and you try the demo, you may say ‘Really?’, because it looks nothing like any of that, but trust me.”
“We need to have a bit of mystery in survival horror, so we’re trying to make you wonder when you play it how could this possibly be connected? That’s part of the appeal.”
They are being pretty sneaky with this game but are also making this one of the more exciting Resident Evil games created as we scramble to piece together tiny insignificant clues to find a answer, you know what it is P.T all over again and that is just great.
Furthermore, it has also been confirmed that Quick Time Events that have been a part of the series since Resident Evil 4 will not be returning, and Resident Evil 7’s producer Masachika Kawata knows that this will please fans adding, “I know there are a lot of people will be relieved to hear that.”
