Yes. It certainly was a decision from myself and from the development team that we really wanted to push the next part of the series as far as it could be pushed. That included the graphical aspect of the game. So that was the reason that we went with the 360 and the PS3.
How long exactly has the game been in development, and how large was the development team at its peak?
In terms of the development time, the actual development time itself has been just about three years. If we were to include the time spent in the concept and planning stages, then I guess it would be close to four years. We have pretty much been working on it since Resident Evil 4 itself came out. As for the team size, at the biggest it was about 110 people.
Was there anything that held you back from taking another huge leap with this game, or do you think it is a pretty significant leap as it is?
There are enough new elements in the game that it can be considered a very big leap forward. |
In terms of it being a leap forward, certainly I do think there are enough new elements in the game and it does enough new things that it can be considered a very big leap forward. Of course Resident Evil 4 is a huge name itself in the games industry, especially when it comes to action games. It is a huge milestone. So I think Resident Evil 4 in itself is a complete game and I think people should look at Resident Evil 5 as a complete game in itself and look at it as a whole package.
Did Resident Evil: Outbreak have any influence in the online play that we will be seeing in Resident Evil 5?
I do get asked that question quite a lot. But as a matter of fact, we didn't really look that closely at Resident Evil: Outbreak when we were making the game. I think that the type of online title you had when Outbreak came out and the type of game that you have now are actually quite different.
If we were to look at it form a technological perspective, we probably looked more closely at games like Lost Planet and learned more from that than Outbreak itself.
Speaking of Lost Planet, did working on that title and Onimusha influence development of Resident Evil 5 at all? Did you learn anything that was helpful?
Any time you approach making a new title, there are going to be a lot of things that you have learned from previous titles that you have been involved in. So certainly we did learn a lot from Onimusha and from Lost Planet. In particular, Lost Planet was one of the first games that Capcom brought out on the 360. So from that perspective, obviously there was a lot that we learned from making that game; from making games on this generation of consoles.
Resident Evil 4 went through several revisions before it actually became the final game that we saw. Has that been the same process with this game?
There was nothing quite on the level of Resident Evil 4's revisions during the development period. But there were a lot of periods where we would make small changes and small revisions to the game, so much so that the title we have now I guess is quite different from the title that we started making in the beginning.
Interesting. In what way?
In terms of the main concept of the game, it is quite similar to what we started making at the start. But there have been a lot of revisions we have had to make to things like level design, where the level design wasn't good enough, so we had to start that again to remake some of the design. There have been a lot of changes like that.
Was creating the game as a fully co-op-compatible adventure always the goal, or was that something that was added mid-way?
It was I guess something that we included part way through the development of the game. I always had the idea that co-op was something that was going to be necessary in Resident Evil 5. But just when we started planning and making the game right at the start, the pressure to outdo Resident Evil 4 was so strong that it was difficult to get everybody in the team behind the idea of doing a co-op focused game.
Once we got everybody on the same page and decided that this was the way to go, things went pretty smoothly after that. But just getting everybody to realize that it was something that was necessary took a little bit of time.
Has the lack of Shinji Mikami involvement affected this game? Do you think it is something that he would want to play? Would he approve?
Obviously the fact that Mikami is not involved in the title, especially in the early stages of making the title, did have a big influence on us, and it put a lot of pressure on us right at the start. As for what he would say if he was to play the game, I guess I can't really say. Of course because he is not involved in the game, it has gone in a different direction than I am sure he would have taken it himself.
So I am not really sure I want to know actually what he thinks of it. Probably, he is the last person whose opinion I want to ask about the game.
In the development process, did you all travel to Africa for location research?
We did go to Africa before we started full development of the title to research and get a feel for where the game was going to be. We took a couple thousand photographs and we brought those back. We used them as a big part of the research and development.
Did you respond at all developmentally when the demo came out and people were talking about racism? Did anything change, or did development continue exactly the same?
