Resident Evil VII’s surprise reveal as a first-person, grim, slow-paced horror game has immediately taken the internet’s attention. After playing the demo, we spoke to Capcom about it. They told us that not only is it not a part of the main game, simply a teaser that sets it up, you’ll have more aggressive options in the full thing.
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“We really wanted to give that atmosphere of horror to people to reassure them that it had come home with this title, but it doesn’t mean that what you see is what you get for the whole game in this little teaser,” saysMasachika Kawata, producer on the game.
Meanwhile, game director Koshi Nakanishi explains “For the demo in particular, it gives you a tonal preview of the game rather than specifically giving you a certain slice of the content that actually appears in the final game, it’s very much a bespoke experience in the demo that we put together to show you what kind of things happen in the game, but it’s not strictly speaking a slice of gameplay from the main game.” We were also specifically told us that what was in the demo wouldn’t appear in the game “in that exact form.”
“I think when I play a first person horror game I think give me a weapon, you know what I mean?” continues Nakanishi. “Like, we want to have the cycle of release where you have tension and fear, but also you will ultimately be able to fight back and have that satisfaction of not just being a recipient of horrific experiences, you’re going to be able to hold your own eventually.” This is the main area that the Capcom team believe they can improve on other first-person horror games.
The VR element won’t be available on all platforms, however. While it will be first-person everywhere else, only PSVR will allow the headset experience. Kawata says that Capcom “feels that the VR platform that provides the best development experience and let us get the VR experience into players hands is being provided by Sony’s PSVR.”
This may prove a disappointing move for a series that has already seen its popularity wane in recent years. On that topic, Nakanishi thinks that “we’ve seen in recent years some user dissatisfaction with the series growing. When you’ve been around this long – 20 years – you want to try all kinds of new challenges with each title, but I suppose, I think if you try to please everyone you’ll end up losing focus, and you end up with something that please no-one.”
We’ll have more info from our full interview up shortly.