CH: Our special guest tonight is a true icon of the survival horror genre, working extensively on the creation & design of both Resident Evil and Resident Evil 2, leading to him becoming the Director of Resident Evil 3. A Capcom legend. This evening’s exclusive interview is with Kazuhiro Aoyama and it’s a gamer’s privilege to say ‘Aoyama-son thank you from the bottom of our hearts and welcome’!

KA: Thank you. I’m Kazuhiro Aoyama, hello everybody. It’s been 20 years since the release of the original Resident Evil and 18 years since the release of Resident Evil 3. And there are hundreds of games released every year but even now there are people who love Resident Evil and enjoy talking about it. So as a game developer having to release something that people haven’t forgotten even after all this time, is something that is by far the most valuable of it all. It’s more valuable than money, it’s more valuable than fame. And I feel that even if you make games, if there aren’t people out there who enjoy playing games, then there’s no point in doing it. There are people out there who maybe don’t like games or who don’t think very highly of games, but I do feel that it’s great there are people out there who can enjoy them. So to all the players out there from the bottom of my heart, thank you very much.

Regarding Crimson-Head the website, it’s been around for over 8 years and part of the reason why Biohazard/Resident Evil has been unforgettable is because of websites like yours, and the fans who like to read it, so to George Trevor the webmaster of Crimson-Head, thank you very much. So even now I really enjoy playing retro games such as Asteroids and Shoplifter.

CH: Ah Asteroids one of our favourites.

KA: Yeah and I still respect the people who made the game Asteroids, and it would be nice if I could go do something with them sometime. That’s how I felt for a long time and I think all the players can identify with that to some extent.

CH: Asteroids was my (George Trevor) first true love and first experience of video games. I wasn’t even tall enough to see the screen. I also have to say that the passion of those fans you mention, the responsibility on myself to present this interview to those fans, was why I was so nervous but my nerves have completely gone, and I’ve just sat here with a huge beaming smile on my face, it’s wonderful to hear you mention our website! Thank you so very much for coming and being with us it’s a true honour.

KA: So the history of video games has spanned about 50 years, and there’s always a new generation of game creators coming up who are tasked with the responsibility of creating new games, so I am hoping this interview will inspire or move people and help them create a new generation of games.

I would just like all of our listeners to understand that I worked on Resident Evil but I left Capcom in 2004, and the Resident Evil series is still an ongoing series, but as you all should know the direction has changed over the years with various different people who have worked on it. I would like everyone to know that with regards to the current Resident Evil, what happens these days is something for Capcom to decide. Capcom is the company that is setting that road so please be aware of that as you listen to this interview.

CH: I stated in my introduction your role working for Capcom as the Director of Biohazard 3, but you were also very much part of the teams working on Resident Evil and Resident Evil 2. How did you come to work for Capcom, a leading company in the industry and what was your role for that first game?

KA: I would like to tell you a little bit about my background which might surprise some people, but before I joined Capcom I was actually studying acting, and I had done some acting gigs. But I also liked games growing up, such as Asteroids as I mentioned earlier. Before I joined Capcom I actually thought about becoming a Pro Wrestler. I also studied martial arts such as Judo & Karate. So I did have that sort of background, but I injured myself at some point so I gave up on the dreams of becoming a wrestler, and became an actor. Then as luck would have it I saw a job opening at Capcom and that’s how I ended up joining the company.

I joined Capcom around the time Street Fighter 2 had become a very big game, and the reason why I actually applied to work at Capcom was because I wanted to make fighting games like Street Fighter 2. So when I joined Capcom my co-workers who were at the company before me told me don’t expect to make the game you specifically want to make, you have to be a game making professional, you have to make them as a professional, and not do something you want just because you like it. Those are the things that were told to me when I first joined the company.

As for my role on Resident Evil, at the very beginning I managed or organised a lot of the game materials related to the development. I had joined the company in 1995 as a new grad straight out of university and had joined the team right when Capcom had expected the games development to become busier and more intense. After I joined the team I had spent all that time gathering materials and organising them, and I came up with some final ideas that influenced the game’s direction. One of the things they had been thinking about at the beginning of the game was to have these still images that depict the games cut-scenes, so not like what we ended up with in the final game with the movie cut-scenes, but more like still scenes. But since the game was going to be made using 3D polygons, I suggested that we should use movie sequences instead. I suggested that to the team and it was accepted, so what ended up happening was they asked me to make concept documents or planning documents that allowed us to figure out how we could implement these news features. The team also asked me to take care of a lot of the system planning related elements of the development, so that’s what I ended up doing at the end of the process.

“I was responsible for the in-game scenes, for example when the dog bursts into the hallway or when Barry says “What’s this?”. You have me to thank for those dogs jumping through the window into the hallway!”

CH: Are you aware how that scene has become part of Resident Evil folklore, and that it’s truly an iconic moment in the Resident Evil series and video game history?

KA: I have an interesting story about that. After we had implemented that scene into the game Mikami-san asked someone completely unrelated to the project to test the game. Mikami-san had that person go through the hallway and they weren’t expecting anything, but when the dog burst into the hallway that person ended up panicking and screaming ‘Aaahh’!

CH: There are lots of parents who will now want to speak to you for all the all the children across the world you’ve scared to death!

KA: I guess a popular term in gaming would be ‘violence scenery’, I think that term popped up around the time of Resident Evil’s release. I even heard from time to time people complaining about getting a little too shocked when playing the game.

CH: Some of our team are not drawn to the series or Resident Evil 3 as fans of gore, it’s more about the atmosphere, like with the dogs jumping through the windows, and how as a gamer it makes you feel, rather than over the top gore on screen.

KA: Yeah, if you think about it, at the time the game came out, freely directing and controlling the character to influence where they go, was a rarity back then. I can see why you would have found those elements to be interesting.

CH: Joe Whyte, the actor for Chris Redfield says that scene with the dogs bursting through the windows is his favourite moment from any video game.

KA: (Laughs) Thank you.

CH: Moving onto Resident Evil 2, did you take on a similar role? What were your responsibilities for the sequel?

KA: I was placed in direct control of how the players and enemies would move, all those types of calculations, and I also designed the map for the sewer levels.

CH: Initially Shinji Mikami had an idea for the first Resident Evil to be in first-person. With you being responsible for player controls, was that perspective ever discussed for the sequel?

KA: There was never any intention to turn it into a first-person shooter. I was in charge of the controls, there was no talk about first-person. Since the ‘Licker’ was a blind enemy, we nicknamed the enemy ‘Blind’. In the Japanese magazine Famitsu we ran a competition for fans to name this and the winning entry ended up being the person who choose the name Licker.

CH: You created the mini-game, ‘The 4th Survivor’, staring ‘Hunk’, accessed as a bonus after completing Resident Evil 2. Were you responsible for creating the Hunk character? There’s a theory that the name means ‘Human Unit Non Killable’ and is there more to his biography we don’t know, that was cut from the game?

KA: Let me first tell you about how we came up with the character. As you know Hunk first appears in the CG cut-scene, so his design had already been made for that movie. Toward the end of game development we had some extra time, so Kamiya-san and I who talked about making an extra game for Resident Evil 2. Kamiya-san had asked me to pick a cool looking character, so when we saw the cut-scene with Hunk we thought he was cool and decided to have him as the star of the mini-game. Unfortunately, Hunk does not stand for Human Unit Non Killable. It was Kamiya-san who thought the name sounded pretty cool, and gave all the other characters their names - Chris, Jill, Rebecca etc. I think it’s pretty remarkable someone came up with ‘Human Unit Non Killable’. Amazing stuff!

CH: The forums at the fan sites are packed full of many heated debates.

KA: (Laughs) Well it’s good that people can become friends, and have these kinds of discussions, and that they can have fun doing them.

CH: Was there a reason for mini-game ‘The 4th Survivor’ starting with Hunk lying face down in the water and have you followed the inclusion of Hunk’s character in the series after Resident Evil 3?

“This is inside information into the development off a Resident Evil game! The reason why Hunk is facing down at the beginning is because there were no unique animations created for Hunk when Resident Evil 2 was in development.

All of Hunk’s animations were from Leon’s animations!”

KA: So there was no specific animation in the game where Hunk could wake up, only the same internal data used for Leon. And on that note, originally the sewer water was at a higher level than in the final game, but after feedback from the development team they realised that if the water levels were higher Hunk would not be alive to begin with, so they ended up lowering it, and did some tweaking with the water animations to make the event look cool. So you can say Hunk is Leon from a certain perspective! We had to make the mini game using existing assets we didn’t have the luxury of creating. And for the story, all we had written at that time, was that he would retrieve the G-Virus and then escape.

CH: In the early concept stages of Resident Evil 2 there was a discussion surrounding a stage where Leon and Claire would return to the Spencer Mansion, whilst escaping Raccoon City. This stage included a Giant Worm, eggs and cobwebs, depicting a dilapidated Spencer Mansion. Labelled by the fans as ‘Biohazard Dash’ is there anything you can add regarding this scrapped scenario?

KA: I have never heard the name ‘Biohazard Dash’ but during the early development concepts of Resident Evil 1.5. there was talk of revisiting the destroyed Spencer Mansion.

CH: Onto Resident Evil 3, and it’s the pinnacle of the series some would say, in taking the best parts of previous instalments, and then improving on them without any detrimental deviation from that classic survival horror gameplay.

KA: I am very happy to hear you say that and Resident Evil is a series I personally hope everybody can see the good points of each game, and see the balance of each particular game, for all instalments in the series.

CH: Were you instructed to pay attention to specific details from Resident Evil 2, to achieve continuity between it and Resident Evil 3, therefore avoiding conflicts in the timeline?

KA: It’s a little bit of a difficult question to answer for various reasons because the games are connected yes, but I didn’t make Resident Evil 3 with the specific purpose of making sure it wrapped around Resident Evil 2. I think a lot of stuff that eventually did connect between the two games was thanks to Kawamura-son joining the development team, and I think that he was the brain child of a lot of interactions the two games had.

CH: What does the letter ‘G’ stand for in G-Virus, and what was the reasoning behind the name?

KA: As an idea at the time G would have stood for ‘Golgotha’, the biblical location of where Jesus Christ was pinned to the cross. I guess that’s a very sensitive topic amongst certain people, so we didn’t end up using that name officially, but that was the idea back in the day.

CH: Two improvements to Resident Evil 3 over its two predecessors were the quick-turn control, and a role playing element of a menu choice at specific stages offering an alternative outcome. What was the inspiration and thought process for these new inclusions and why do you think neither were progressed as features for instalments after Resident Evil 3?

KA: I must explain the history of the development of Resident Evil 3, because as many people might know Resident Evil 3 was not originally going to be the third main title. It was supposed to be a spin-off title, and in being so it was supposed to be a smaller game with a smaller budget, and a smaller scale overall. We were tasked to develop this small spin-off game. This Gaiden type title was to create a game in a short development time, and when you play the game you would be able to play through it in a short amount of time. I guess similar to arcade games. You would be able to play this game multiple times to get most enjoyment out of it. That’s why Resident Evil 3 might seem a little different to some people.

CH: When that decision was changed, how much more additional content was then added?

KA: Well it’s probably not as much as you would imagine (Laughs). Not as much as you might imagine.

CH: Who created the ‘Water Sample’ puzzle, it’s notoriously known to be by far the most difficult puzzle in the entire series?!

“OK I will admit that it’s probably my fault! As the Game Director, during development if something wasn’t quite right I would be the one to fix it because I was the most experienced person on the team, and I remember people coming up to me about the water sample puzzle complaining about it!”

KA: I really wanted the game to have an element of challenge to it. I didn’t want to make it too easy, but I also wanted to make it quite magical. I remember looking at the puzzle and indeed it was quite difficult so I did end up leaving it in. I do apologise to the people who might have had a tough time with that puzzle!

CH: Apology accepted! It’s the one puzzle for which I (George Trevor) always have to refer to a guide book to get me through it.

KA: (Laughs) Going back to how we conceived Resident Evil 3, it was supposed to be a shorter game that you could play multiple times, which is why this is the Resident Evil game that has all the randomised puzzle elements. They changed from playthrough to playthrough. The reason why we ended up having the puzzles the way they were, instead of fixed puzzles from Resident Evil 1 and 2, was that I wanted gamers to have something to fall back on. If you tried all the patterns one of them would stick, and that would help you get through the game, so that was an intentional design element.

CH: We respect the differences of Resident Evil 4, 5 and 6, but many fans miss the fact that these games have omitted those types of cerebral puzzles you reference as giving gamers something to think about. Some gamers experience in subsequent instalments many of the puzzles being extremely easy, to the point where they provided no challenge.

KA: In terms of designing games with puzzle elements in game design, that’s something you have to plan from the very beginning, and that’s the best way to implement them. It’s something that’s harder to do during mid development. We thought about that at the very beginning and this is the design we wanted to go with. That’s why Resident Evil 3 is the way it is, but if you think about the direction that Resident Evil 4 took, that game had more action elements, more emphasis on attacking enemies with a large amount of ammo. Of course it’s important to stop periodically, you don’t want to keep going and going, but I think the reason why the puzzles were quite simple comparably was because the action orientation was the main axis of that game. That’s probably why that game turned out the way it was, but I think it was well made.

KA: One of the most iconic creatures in video game history was the stalker Nemesis. How was that design and the way you decided to structure him into the game with repeated stalking elements conceived?

KA: If I could explain the history of Nemesis, originally we were planning on having a slime creature in the game! That would have been the main stalker enemy, however there were a few issues with the slime character. Firstly, the slime character could penetrate through doors, he could liquefy and go through the door cracks, under the door, around the door, or through the door knob. But there were problems in terms of setting, like you wouldn’t know if the slime creature you were fighting in this room was the same as the one you fought in the other room. The element of it being a stalker creature was lost by being a slime creature. There wouldn’t be that sense of continuity and cohesion between encounters if it was a slime enemy. So we decided to implement an enemy far more recognisable, and we decided to go back to one of the designs of the Tyrant, and ended up using that so people would recognise that it’s the same creature.

CH: So who was Nemesis? Did the development team create any backstory prior to being a B.O.W. ?

KA: We didn’t really think that much into it, but I guess whoever it is you could probably say it’s very interesting.

CH: We were talking earlier about the water puzzle, and having that perfect difficulty balance. Why is the first Nemesis encounter so hard, and we know you will sympathise because you discussed with us before the interview that in preparation for it you played Resident Evil 3 and kept dying at that spot too! This first encounter for many fans is the most difficult of all the Nemesis encounters.

KA: (Laughs) We wanted Resident Evil 3 to be the game were you run away, you were supposed to, hence the Japanese subtitle ‘Last Esape’. If we didn’t make that first encounter so difficult players would think OK I can take this guy down. If we didn’t give players the sense of urgency to run away, the game’s direction would change quite seriously.

“So when you have that first boss battle, when you are foolish enough to try and fight him, you soon realise you have to run away or you are going to die!

That was the kind of feeling we wanted to give players early on in the game so there would be no misunderstanding!”

CH: Absolutely from that very first moment you are in great fear, you feel in great peril and when you hear that music each time it really does strike fear into you.

KA: Yes in preparation for this interview I did play Resident Evil 3, for around 10 hours, and even as the game’s Director I was unable to complete it! I made it to the Clock Tower, but the problem is the game is quite difficult and I died after not having saved for a long time, so I ended having to repeat a lot of the same parts over and over again.

CH: That’s interesting that the very Director of the game suffers the same heartache as the players.

KA: I was playing in Heavy mode. Hard in English and Heavy in Japanese. That’s why at some point I gave up and I ended up watching a playthrough video instead. Very sorry!

CH: We forgive you, if the Director can’t do it, then who are we to criticise! From that gamer point of view, do you have any favourite locations?

KA: My favourite area in the game were parts where we encounter lots of zombies, so I think the initial city streets. Like at the beginning of the game, and the reason is, in terms of some of my favourite horror movies, I am a big fan of ‘Dawn of the Dead’ and ‘Day of the Dead’.

“The start of Dawn of the Dead is the atmosphere I was aiming for with Resident Evil 3. I really like those scenes & when they’re riding the elevator and it starts to slow down but suddenly zombies appear from above. I’m also a fan of scenes where it’s quiet and suddenly you’re chased by enemies aiming right for you. I love those scenes for the tension!”

CH: Many fans will be delighted to hear you reference those areas because for them it’s the highlight of the series, more than any of the other instalment it provides that atmosphere, you can feel a George Romero theme with those early scenes of the game, battling through the streets of Raccoon City. Here Resident Evil creates that atmosphere perfectly, also emphasised by the music playing during those street scenes.

KA: Since we are on the topic of zombie movies, in terms of the design of Nemesis you might remember the scene from the end of Day of the Dead, where the scientists are in the laboratory and they have been nurturing and teaching these zombies, but the zombies end up shooting and killing the researches, so that was something that also went into the design of Nemesis, those kinds of elements.

CH: Why did your team decide to discard the beta images from the Biohazard 3 prologue? It would have been interesting to see what happened to S.T.A.R.S. just after the mansion incident.

KA: I did see that video on YouTube and the more people talk about this the more shy and embarrassed I get. But I think the reason why we ended up not using was because as a prologue it didn’t seem to be moving at the right pace. We thought about what would be the best way to portray this prologue and we wanted something a little more relaxing, and something not as intense for the purpose of a prologue. This why we ended up making that decision.

CH: There has been much debate among fans regarding the opening scene with Jill bursting out an exploding building abruptly. Could you shed further light on the nature of that scene, and the identity of that particular building?

KA: In regards to the prologue and Jill’s cut-scene of bursting out of the building being connected, the prologue was made long before the scene that we are talking about. Resident Evil 3 was developed to reuse the assets of other Resident Evil games. So in terms of why the scene was crafted in the way it was, we wanted Jill to appear from somewhere very abruptly and quickly, that’s why she is shown bursting out a building. We didn’t specifically make it so that she was busting out of her apartment, but if that’s what people want to assume then that’s perfect fine. There is nothing wrong with assuming she went through a lot of stuff before bursting out of there, and this should be pretty obvious but the prologue shows scenes of Jill’s apartment, so you can make a connection between those two. But if you ever wondered why we had that crate at the very beginning of the game that Jill had to climb over, it was placed there because we wanted players to see they could climb onto objects.

CH: Did you have jurisdiction and input into the character epilogue files from Resident Evil 3? If so can you please explain Chris’s bloody knife that can be seen.

KA: It’s actually Jill’s apartment. There is really nothing to it, we just wanted fans to see that Jill was concerned about Chris and was wondering what happened to him through that scene. There wasn’t something particular that happened, Jill found his knife and she is wondering what happened and what she should do next.

CH: Is there a particular reason why Rebecca Chamber’s doesn’t have an epilogue file?

KA: (Laughs) As you can see from the screen there are only nine slots. We wanted to go with the nine most important characters that had the most significance. That said Rebecca was also quite significant, we aren’t saying she is not important but Resident Evil Zero was also in development at the time and we figured people would find out what happened to her in that game instead. Because with it being a prequel if we talked about what happened to Rebecca after, we might accidentally spoil the game, so we didn’t want to do that. Our mentality was we should let Zero’s story take care of Rebecca’s storyline, and let the other people take the spotlight. We could have had a prologue for Carlos as well but there were only nine slots!

CH: What were your intentions for Hunk’s personality in his epilogue file? It mentions that he plays with the G-Virus in the palm of his hand. Was this to suggest he was careless or invulnerable? His epilogue at the end of Biohazard 3 makes him sound immortal and leaves his story open.

KA: That’s a very interesting analysis but that wasn’t the intention at all. All we wanted to portray in the epilogue file was that Hunk took the G-Virus and escaped. There was no grand motive.

CH: From the ‘biohazard 3 Trial Disk’ we extracted three different coloured coins, with a curious inscription of a troll face! Can you give details on such things and perhaps other unused items from that beta?

KA: I guess this goes back to what I was saying about how the game had a smaller scale than the other Resident Evil games, and that the game’s development started before it became Resident Evil 3. New team members were recruited and some of them were quite new to the experience so we had asked them to create elements just to gain some practice and research, to get a feel for development design. So there were things made for the game by new team members, including those coins but they were never intended to be used, and they remained on the trial edition.

CH: What can you tell us about the beta scenario for Biohazard 3 set on a cruise ship, for which lead designer Satoshi Nakai created concepts for ‘Plant Zombies’? Possibly a continuation of 4th Survivor, involving Hunk delivering the G-Virus to Umbrella. Can you give any details on this build, and why was it was scrapped?

KA: Just to explain the background first, you all know my version of Resident Evil 3 that was released. But as I mentioned before it was not always Resident Evil 3, so at the same time multiple Resident Evil games were in development. One of those earlier versions was being directed by Masaaki Yamada and that was a PlayStation game and that’s the one that took place on a boat with a G-Virus plot. However I was not on that project, that was a different team. After Resident Evil 2 a bunch of people got separated into different teams, so we were on different floors and I had no idea what was going on with the Resident Evil 3 project by Yamada-san. But what I do know is Yamada’s Resident Evil 3 was cancelled and Kamiya-san took over, and that was right after the time my game became Resident Evil 3. So the ‘Resident Evil 3’ that was in development with the other team was then moved to PlayStation 2 and Kamiya-san took over and that became Resident Evil 4. But before it could come out as Resident Evil 4 it became Devil May Cry. So long story short, I had nothing to do with the very first ‘Cruise Ship’ version of Resident Evil 3.

KA: Going back to what you were mentioning about things like the coins, and things about the Cruise Ship, as developers we are quite shy when people tell us about these development anecdotes. It’s like somebody is looking at your private parts! The point is the things that people know can be quite remarkable. You might think that we know all these things about the game development but it’s quite possible the fans do know more. We know how you feel but the more detailed things become, the more shy we then become.

CH: You were part of the development team that created & designed the ‘Licker’, so why was such an iconic enemy not featured in Resident Evil 3?

KA: Well there are a few reasons why the Licker was not included from a story perspective, since Resident Evil 3 takes place before 2, so Lickers didn’t exist, but if you are going to bring up the fact that it also takes place after, then that’s where we came up with the excuse of technical related stuff! We did reuse the Resident Evil 2 engine, but there were certain limitations that meant implementing Lickers in the game difficult. Given the scale of the game we didn’t think it worthwhile to re-design Lickers back in, so that’s why they aren’t in the game unfortunately. It was specifically system related.

CH: What are your thoughts on the remaster of Resident Evil 2, would you like to see the same for Resident Evil 3, and if so what is your opinion on whether to include or omit the classic survival horror gameplay from the original game?

KA: In regards to the remake of Resident Evil 2 I think there is some merit in remaking a game that is faithful to the original, so you can see it reborn in a new kind of fashion, but at the same time I do believe there is merit to remaking a game and envisioning it in a different way. Even something considerably different from the original I think that could be quite a cool thing even in regards to the Resident Evil 2 remake. I do have to wonder on a personal level why they announced the game so long ago and we haven’t seen anything yet. So I wonder how development is progressing, and if they are having any trouble. If we did end up remaking Resident Evil 3 I guess I would have the same mentality, I would skew toward changing things up a bit to keep it fresh.

CH: During the development of Resident Evil Zero remaster a ‘Developer’s Diary’ with original director Koji Oda suggested he did have some input with the HD production. Would you like to be involved with any remastered remake of Resident Evil 3?

KA: Yeah, if there is an opportunity then why not.

CH: For Resident Evil 4 and onward, Capcom omitted survival horror features that had pervaded the previous games, including static camera, pre-rendered backgrounds, non-linear exploration, and ammo scarcity. Reasons cited include being incompatible with current gamers, and a desire to progress the series to a broader fanbase, but the removal may have had a detrimental effect on the series as intelligent survival horror?

Aoyama: At the end of the day we make games for people who buy the games. Of course we do value their opinions, but if we keep making the same type of game eventually customers will get tired, and they will eventually grow wary if there is no innovation within the same series. That said I also acknowledge if you change something a little too much it can alienate people, and they might not like that as well, so it’s all about coming up with the right balance. In regards to the view that Resident Evil stopped being a survival horror series after Resident Evil 4, the best thing I can recommend to those people, is too appreciate the different things that Resident Evil 4 was able to bring to the series, and appreciate those things for what they are.

CH: We find ourselves coming full circle with Resident Evil 7 biohazard now embracing many of those classic features innovated during the era of the first three Resident Evil instalments. What are your thoughts on Capcom looking back at those mechanics when attempting to improve on Resident Evil 4, 5 and 6?

KA: There’s an interesting way to look at this. I believe that Resident Evil 1, 2 and 3 and the style of those games were quite good but I also like the style of 4, 5 and 6 as well. If you think about Resident Evil 7 now and how it has VR and how the horror elements are very similar to the original games with enemies coming at you from places you can’t see, that is clearly what Capcom believes to be the most appropriate direction for Resident Evil today, but if you think about it Resident Evil 7 would have never been made if Capcom hadn’t gone through their experiences with Resident Evil 4, 5 and 6. Without the experiences they gained from those games, Resident Evil 7 would never have come out in the form it did today, so that’s something gamers should remember.

CH: Are you happy to talk about any experiences you had working with the late Noboru Sugimura?

KA: Working with Sugimura-san I watched a lot of TV shows like ‘Super Sentai’, he had written the scenarios for when I was a kid, so it was remarkable that I then began working with him. We began working together on Dino Crisis 3. Toward the very end Sugimura was often late with deliveries regarding scenario planning, so it was a bit of an unfortunate last few years. I hope he is at peace since he passed away which was right after that. When Sugimura-san joined the Resident Evil team he brought a lot of great ideas and he was really able to influence the story in a positive way, and not just the story, even from a gameplay perspective he was able to offer up a lot of ideas that allowed us to improve the game, particularly Resident Evil 2.

CH: There is a debate among fans as to whether ‘Resident Evil 4D Executor’ can be considered canon to the series timeline. Even debate as to whether it takes place in Raccoon City. Can you cast any light on this and was there any joint collaboration between your team and the team working on 4D Executor?

KA: Regarding the canon issue, this goes back to what I was saying earlier, that’s pretty much up to Capcom to decide. I certainly was not ever thinking about it when working on Resident Evil. 4D Executioner was a movie that was based specifically for theme parks and other entertainment venues, so in that sense there was no direct collaboration between our team and their team. I do remember providing reference materials for the other team to use.

Thank you very much for the opportunity to have this interview today, I think these last two hours have been very valuable and a very important thing for me, and I hope the people listening to this interview will enjoy it very much.

CH: Thank you so very much.

KA: The pleasure was all mine.

[Not to be reproduced (c) Crimson Head Elder 2017]

SPECIAL THANKS: cvxfreak, GEORGE TREVOR, WELSH, BSAARKLAY