When I look back at the Resident Evil series, and specifically the older games, Resident Evil 2 stands out as one of the best. That makes it a little surprising to hear the game actually had a very troubled period of development, according to its director, Hideki Kamiya.
In the latest Iwata Asks, Kamiya had much to reveal about the game, and specifically his role in the problems it faced. More after the jump.
Hideki Kamiya told Iwata he joined Capcom after being turned down by Nintendo, where he worked under famed director Shinji Mikami on the Resident Evil games. Everything was gravy until Mikami promoted him to director on Resident Evil 2.
“I messed up in a big way,” said Kamiya. “As a result of saying okay to everything that came up, it turned out horrible. We had to scrap what we had spent a year and a half making.”
This isn’t new to games industry, especially for games that spend a long time in development. Sometimes a studio gets a little too ambitious and they’re eventually forced to cut content or scale back their vision. For Kamiya, it was a learning experience.
“So everything that didn’t work out was my fault as director. Resident Evil 2 was receiving attention as one of Capcom’s new big titles, so the news quickly spread throughout the company. I felt like people were staring at me in the company cafeteria and saying, “That’s him! That’s the guy who ruined Resident Evil 2!” It was a shock, and very hard.”
“I gave a lot of thought to what had gone wrong. I was making decisions without vision, and amidst all the pressures, I had lowered my criteria for giving approval. And, above all, it was important how I personally suffered the disastrous results of that.”
Despite this, I think the game turned out pretty great. Don’t you?
Big thanks to TheGeckoNinja for the tip!
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