As Resident Evil 7 approaches, we look back on the series' true origins.
Theres always a lighthouse.
Theres always a man.
Theres always a city.
With this simple credo, Ken Levine and theBioShockdevelopment team defined their franchise.
A lighthouse, a man, a city.
At no point in theResident Evilfranchise did any character utter a similar statement.
If someone had, they certainly would have saved theResident Evil 7development team a lot of grief.
The moment thatResident Evil 7was revealed, you could hear the misgivings of franchise fans.
Thats notResident Evil, they declared with the absolute certainty expected of fans closed off to change.
Thats not myResident Evil.
Capcom left a lot of room in their marketing strategy for fans to fear the worst.
Pundits will tell you thatResident Evil 7represents Capcoms forfeiture of the franchise.
It doesnt.Resident Evil 7represents Capcoms best chance yet to bring the franchise back home.
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There were too many properties that already had the nameBiohazardlocked down.
Instead, the studio held an internal contest to determine what the name of the international version ofBiohazardwould be.
I voted against the name I thought it was super-cheesy, said Kramer in aninterview with GamesRadar.
[I] cant remember what I felt was a better alternative, probably something stupid about zombies.
In fact, the game was initially conceived as a simple remake ofSweet Home.
WhileResident Evildid retain all of those qualities, nobody considers it to be a remake ofSweet Home.
Somewhere along the way, designer Shinji Mikami was forced to alter his vision.
The problem was that the technology of the time didnt allow him to make that game for the Famicon.
Sadly, the PlayStation also wasnt quite capable of running such a game.
Instead, Mikami elected to adopt the fixed-camera system from 1992sAlone in the Dark.
[It made] the player feel a bit more detached.
To a degree, some of that may be true.
After all, Theres always a shotgun.
Theres always a green herb.
Theres always a jump scare isnt exactly the kind of motto that franchises are built on.
Resident Evilcertainly rewarded its initial group of adopters.
The sight of this shambling nightmare, which was blissfully off-frame mere moments ago, confirmed their worst fears.
This is what he intended to deliver.
Soon, Mikamis idea of what horror gaming was capable of became an industry standard.
That same vision also turnedResident Evilinto an incredible success.
Once that happened, everything was destined to change.
Their intention was to turnResident Evil 2into the storys finale.
However, legend has it that Capcom producer Yoshiki Okamoto had other plans.
He sawResident Evilas a future franchise and felt that the sequel should expand upon the games world.
As such, he brought in a new screenwriter to help craft this new world.
You cant entirely fault Capcom for their approach.
In fact, some of the best games in franchise stemmed from this new philosophy.
However, they never really found where the franchise needed to go from there.
Theres an intimacy to haunted houses that few other horror sub-genres can recreate.
They force us to confront the intimacy of the average home by filling it with our worst nightmares.
Honestly, that wouldnt be the worst thing in the world.
For now, though, it sure does feel good to come back home.
Matt Byrd is a staff writer.
