sisslethecat
What a wonderful time it is to be a Resident Evil fan.
With every new piece of information we get regarding the future of my favorite gaming series of all time, I’m more and more excited to get my hands on the newest numbered entry to the series. Capcom Europe has opened up a little on the series and what we can expect from both Resident Evil VII: Biohazard, and the foreseeable future of the Resident Evil brand as well. EMEA marketing director Antoine Molant explains,
“We know that Resident Evil 6 was a bit of a let down for core fans, but when you consider the whole universe, we do cater for different tastes, for the main series it is definitely a good move to go back into survival horror. But perhaps there’s not a lot to prove exactly, because there have been good games, although not necessarily in the genres that fans wanted.”
It’s hard to argue with that. Regardless of sales numbers, Resident Evil 6 proved to be incredibly divisive for fans and critics alike. Hell, when I first played it I loved it, but over time I’ve come to regard it with a sort of resigned fatigue. Is it the worst Resident Evil game out there? Hell no. But it’s a confused game that feels drastically different than any of the previous numbered entries, and is alienating as hell to anyone who truly wanted a classic horror experience from it. So that said, they’re clearly taking RE7 in the perfect direction – and maybe more beyond even that.
“After Resident Evil 6, we asked what is Resident Evil? What is its essence? And what are our fans expecting? Resident Evil VII is our conclusion.
We’ve been listening more to the community over the last few years. The first Resident Evil was about fear in the face of danger, it was more on an emotional level than on a gameplay or story level. The team in Japan said: ‘How do we recreate that emotional response today?’ So the first person perspective was a natural direction.
We will talk about the game in the coming weeks, and link the game with the wider series. But ultimately Resident Evil is survival horror, and VII is a survival horror game.
I won’t give much away, but VII is very much a survival game, there are lots of different types of Resident Evil titles, and there will continue to be the case. But the main series will be survival horror.”
So yeah, I’m just a little bit over the moon. Resident Evil VII‘s demo was incredible, and I can’t wait for the next trailer/update/demo/whateverjusttellmemore. But on top of that, these comments seem to suggest that, like I had been thinking before E3, RE7 will be the start of a new era for the numbered series, and that from here on out, horror will be the main focus of the games ending in a digit. Resident Evil will clearly still have action-oriented titles for fans of that part of the series, we just got Umbrella Corps… such as it is, and there’s even an un-announced RE game still coming. VII, of course, comes out next January across PS4, Xbox One, and PC, and we’re just as excited as you, so expect news as soon as we get our hands on it.
[Source]
