Resident Evil 7 – beware the lantern’s light

GameCentral plays the new Lantern demo for Resident Evil 7, and talks to its producer about combat, co-op, and cheese…

The Beginning Hour demo for Resident Evil 7 was not quite what it seemed. For a start it wasn’t taken from the actual game, but was instead created separately as a general indication of the tone and style of gameplay that Capcom are aiming for. And when we played it at E3 in June it was while using PlayStation VR, which was interesting but did inevitably distract from the core experience.

But at Gamescom last week there was a new behind closed doors demo, called Lantern. This was played on a normal TV and is taken from the actual game. However, it was still very similar in style and atmosphere to Beginning Hour, and started with a VHS tape being inserted into a recorder and your taking the role of an unseen female character named Mia.



The implication is that much of the game will play out this way, but the identity of whoever’s watching the videos has not yet been shown. Although if we’re any judge of the poker faces of PR people, we’d say that the promise it will be revealed ‘soon’ almost certainly means the Tokyo Game Show next month.


The demo proper opens with an endearingly blunt text instruction: ‘Don’t get caught’. Which is not the sort of encouragement you’d normally need when being pursued by a murderous Louisiana hillbilly. She, apparently, is Marguerite Baker and the small sliver of backstory we’re given suggests that she and the rest of her family have been missing for a while and only recently returned.

Why Mia is creeping around their house (similar to the one from the first demo, but perhaps not exactly the same one) isn’t clear but Marguerite clearly isn’t happy about her being there. And so not getting caught is not something we need any encouragement over. Without the VR headset the graphics are a lot clearer than the first time we played the game, although there’s a VCR style scanline effect that purposefully degrades the quality and enhances the video nasty style atmosphere.

As Marguerite rants and raves, including something about feeding her ‘babies’, it all feels very influenced by Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Although she also refers to some sort of female leader, or perhaps godhead, that apparently Mia has upset. With no weapons to defend yourself the only choice is to crouch down and try and avoid her, the glow from her lantern the best clue as to where she is and where she’s going.

Resident Evil 7 – is Marguerite still entirely human?

There is a puzzle in the demo as well, involving a typically convoluted method of unlocking a door. This has you picking up an odd-looking piece of modern art and then shining it in the light so that its shadow creates the image of a spider. In other words, a textbook example of Resident Evil impracticality, that nevertheless has you panicking that you won’t solve it in time before Marguerite comes back.

But getting through the door there’s apparently no way to escape her in the end, and the short demo ends with Mia’s capture and possible demise. We speak to producer Masachika Kawata, and promotion producer Tsuyoshi Kanda, later on and they explain that the idea is to trickle out information, and examples of gameplay, from now until the game’s release in January. So exactly what happens next is left purposefully unclear.



In the end the Lantern demo doesn’t tell us a whole lot more that we didn’t already know from E3, but talking to Kawata we’re very encouraged by his comments and the suggestion that the final game will feature far more in the way of classic Resident Evil elements…

Formats: PlayStation 4 (previewed), Xbox One, and PC

Publisher: Capcom

Developer: Capcom

Release Date: 24th January 2016

GC: The reception to Resident Evil 7 seems to have been generally very good since E3. Are you pleased with the fan response, and did people like what you expected them to like?

MK: Yeah, the reaction at E3 was really the best we could’ve hoped for. It was almost an emotional experience for people.

GC: Ever since the release of Resident Evil 6, fans have been making very detailed suggestions about what direction they think the series should take next. How much attention did you pay to that advice? It certainly seems as if the call to return to the series’ survival horror origins has been heeded.

MK: It’s kind of a combination of seeing the fan feedback in that direction, about a return to horror roots. But it was also something we were feeling strongly amongst ourselves, at the company. That it was a good time, the series had reached its 20th anniversary, and it was a good chance for us to look at what makes Resident Evil, Resident Evil. I think the timing was good, I think the fans were really hungry for a return to the roots as well.


GC: I think many were surprised this wasn’t a full reboot though, what was your reasoning for that?

MK: We did want to bring a new direction to the series, not just the gameplay but if you’ve been following the news of the title it’s got a different setting than before, and there’s new characters. At the same time I think we appreciate that there’s a lot of investment out there, in the history of the series – and the legacy. So, we didn’t want to just discard all that. We want to take it in a new direction, as much as we can, while at the same time saying, ‘This is still that same universe that you know and love’.

TK: You can even see this approach in the choice of title, where we’ve merged the legacy titles from two different regions. Where it was always called Resident Evil in the West, but Biohazard in Japan. And by making it into Resident Evil 7 biohazard for the West and Biohazard 7: Resident Evil for Japan we’re saying that we’re taking the legacy but putting a new twist on it.

Resident Evil 7 – will it have zombies in it?

GC: In terms of specific gameplay mechanics what are you keeping, and what is being discarded? Green herbs have been mentioned, but beyond that there doesn’t seem to be anything that is specifically tied to the original games?

MK: The game is definitely taking place within the same universe as the previous titles, so that’s one aspect that makes it not just a scary game that happens to be branded this way. Even though this is a new series of events happening to new people in a new location, at the same time somewhere in the world, all the characters everyone knows from previous games are out there doing their own thing. It’s taking place parallel to those things.


You mention green herbs, that’s just one of the things that are going to be featured in it that will make you think of past titles. And even the gameplay system, even though it’s being substantially refreshed and updated we are keeping that link to that legacy – whether it comes from stuff like inventory management and so forth it’ll be the sort of thing you expect from a Resident Evil game. Even though we haven’t necessarily shown off all those aspects just yet, in the content we’ve shown you so far.

GC: Another legacy aspect to Resident Evil, which I imagine is the most difficult to maintain, is the cheesy tone of a lot of the dialogue. Even having spoken to Mikami-san I’m still not really clear how intentional this aspect was originally, or whether it’s the sort of thing you’d want to retain for this new game.

MK: We do take it seriously when we’re making it, so it’s definitely not taken out.

GC: [laughs]

MK: There’s this sort of perception that the series gets in the West sometimes, of having a certain B-movie quality. But I don’t really know how to explain where that comes from. We’re trying to take things that are inherently unrealistic and trying to make them seem realistic in the context of the game, because we think you’re be scared by them.

We’re not showing just a thriller with a serial killer, it’s always something that couldn’t really exist in the real world. But inside the universe it’s treated as real. So maybe that gap between reality and unreality… somewhere in the middle this thing you’re calling cheese can kind of grow.

GC: [laughs] Do Japanese gamers laugh at the same things? Jill sandwiches and all that? Or is that just normal dialogue in the original? I’ve never got a straight answer on the differences.

Translator: Well, the original game is in English and they just subtitled it in Japanese.

MK: Back then it was written in Japanese, and then, for some reason, it was being sent to Canada for localisation and it came back in a kind of Canadian dialect, possibly… I don’t know.

GC: Well, that makes sense. Canadian cheddar is the best.

All: [laughs]

MK: Scenes like the Jill sandwich scene, Japanese players do laugh at that as well. So there’s not necessarily a huge difference there.

TK: We’ve moved on from that process though. What we’ve done this time around is to make sure we have a really high quality English script. The storyline outline is written in Japan, by our Japanese team, and then an English writer has written the entire screenplay. So our methods have matured over time.

GC: Is that another cheese joke?

Translator: [laughs]

Resident Evil 7 – don’t open that door!

GC: So in terms of influences, there seems to be some fairly obvious nods in terms of films such as Texas Chainsaw Massacre and The Blair Witch Project. As well as games such as Amnesia: The Dark Descent, and other Western indie horror games, and Silent Hills. How closely did you look at other recent horror titles before starting this game?

MK: We do keep our eye on a wide variety of culture, when it comes to making games, whether it be movies or games. But I don’t really think we see it as, we’ve seen certain things out there and we’ve thought let’s put that in our game. It’s more that there’s different approaches to horror, and when you want to create a certain kind of atmosphere there are certain answers people can reach independently on how to show horror.

We decided to go with first person perspective as an answer to our own internal question: how can we make the feelings people had in 1996, with the first game, happen again in a new game? In a way that makes sense for the modern gamer. And the answer to that, for us, was to take this progression from fixed camera to third person to, now, first person.

And that’s the kind of reasoning we take when it comes to making something. I think, you know, while we end up in a place that kind of looks to have similarity with certain other games it’s not as simple a case as Game A does this and so then we follow suit.

GC: Another aspect of Resident Evil is that although there is limited ammo you do usually have access to quite powerful weapons. Whereas most other survival horrors give you little or no means of defending yourself. Is that still your approach for this game?

MK: So, we’ve shown you the Beginning Hour at E3, then this new Lantern demo at Gamescom. The concept of these demos hasn’t been to show an overall slice of the game, with all the gameplay elements in place. We wanted to show people the concept of what we were trying to achieve, take the essence of the game and distil it into a little piece of content and show the atmosphere people can expect.

Combat is obviously something that’s really important in a Resident Evil game, we’re just kind of showing a little bit at a time with different aspects. Beginning Hour was really just the feeling of atmosphere and exploration, which is another classic Resident Evil element, and now you’ve been able to see a little bit more of the fear of escape from an enemy. And also we’ve had a little bit of puzzle element in it.

So we’re taking it one step at a time here. Some people have got the impression that combat is missing from this game, because of the content we’ve shown so far, but actually combat is definitely in there. The main character is not one of these gun-toting heroes that we’ve sort of gone towards in the recent entries. It’s very much a normal person, a normal guy who’s put in an extreme situation and has to survive.

And we’re going to be showing off some more around that, but for the time being we haven’t got around to that yet. But rest assured we know what people want from Resident Evil: it’s exploration, puzzle-solving, managing limited resources, and combat in a horrifying situation. And you know, we’re gonna get there.

GC: You’ve mentioned there the other pillars of the series – exploration and puzzles – but puzzles are another aspect that feels very different from most other similar games. They’re very… impractical, very Japanese I might almost say. And yet they’re another part of what gives Resident Evil its distinctive charm.

MK: I think impractical but satisfying to solve puzzle solutions are something we’re definitely keeping in the game. And it’s also one of the things that probably helps to create this – I don’t know if you could call this cheesy as well…

GC: It kind of is, yeah.

Resident Evil 7 – there were no guns in the demo…

MK: That sort of meta element… We like that and we think it’s a very Resident Evil-ish thing to do. You’ve seen the puzzle in the Lantern demo, and there’s more of that to come in the main game. Even something in Beginning Hour, when you find it in the fireplace to open up the little hidden door. When we made that we were kind of having a discussion about, ‘Well, if we’re being totally realistic you should be able to see the logic where there’s a wire or a chain or a rope or something’.

Some actually, like you say, practical, executable system exists where this switch could open that door. But we didn’t want to go down that road. That wouldn’t have been Resident Evil, to have it be this thing where you follow the real-world logic of how the switch works – it wouldn’t really make sense for our game.

So we wanted to make it so that following a ‘game-y’ logic will lead you to the right answer, rather than considering what you’d do in real life. That’s the feeling we want to keep alive in Resident Evil 7.

GC: That’s very reassuring.

MK: It’s like the new Mad Max movie. Throwing logic out of the window in service of having a good time.

GC: That’s even more reassuring!

Both: [laughs]

GC: In terms of VR, I have to say the E3 demo gave me one of the worst headaches I’ve ever had with a headset. Is that how it’s going to work in the final game?

MK: We’ve learnt a lot from our E3 showing, of that content in VR. And actually the Gamescom version that we’re showing here on Sony’s booth is an improved version. It’s not the same one as E3. We’ve learned through that kind of experience what kind of adjustments and optimisations we need to make in order to make it as comfortable as possible for as many people as possible.

GC: If you have the time I’d go and have a look at Square Enix’s Tomb Raider VR demo, which is set in a very Resident Evil-esque mansion. But it uses a teleporting style movement system, expect where you can pick the spot to move to. Is that something you’ve considered?

MK: That’s one solution that’s out there, and works for certain kinds of games. But, again, we want to explore the environment and teleporting around the place in Resident Evil wouldn’t really make too much sense.

But we’ve made optimisations such as characters’ walking speed; restricting the camera turning to set angles you switch between, rather than totally smooth movement; and separating the horizontal axis movement, on the stick, to the vertical axis movement. All these little adjustments we’ve made since E3 have, I think, really added up to a lot more comfortable experience.

GC: And what about co-op? I assume there’s none in this game, so does that imply that if it is to return it will only be in spin-off games such as Revelations?

MK: It’s not something we set in stone as a policy, per se. But by deciding, for this title, to focus on a pure horror experience we decided to focus on single-player. Rather than having some rule in place that says we do or don’t have that.

GC: And just finally, I wonder what your very first memories of playing Resident Evil were? You seem pretty young to be a producer.

MK: I actually joined the company at the time Resident Evil was being made. The guy sitting next to me was working on Resident Evil, I was doing bug-checking for a different title and he was working on that. I was looking at what he was doing and I was thinking, ‘That looks amazing!’ So that was my first experience with Resident Evil.

GC: That’s not quite the darkened bedroom of my experience, but that’s great. Thanks a lot for your time. I’m sorry we’ve overrun a bit.

TK: [in English] Thank you very much!

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