When Shinji Mikami was a very young boy, his elementary school teacher sat in front of the class and read out the well-known Japanese ghost story, Yotsuya Kaidan. This chilling tale of betrayal and supernatural revenge (no doubt an indirect influence on the Ring and Grudge movies) was Mikami’s first experience of horror. He never forgot it.

Twenty years later, as a rising star at the Osaka-based game development studio Capcom, he was asked to design a spooky adventure game for the Sony PlayStation and Sega Saturn consoles. It would update a previous hit title, Sweet Home, about treasure hunters exploring a haunted mansion. Mikami retained the setting, but swapped the loot seekers for a Swat team, and the ghosts and monsters for zombies. Inspired by the movies of George A Romero, he concocted a story about a devastating virus, created by the sinister Umbrella corporation, and capable of turning humans into undead murderers – the ultimate bio-weapon. The result was the multimillion selling Resident Evil series, and a whole new sub-genre of game: survival horror.

Revenge of horror



Although out of favour for the past few years, thanks to the arrival of more accessible fare like Assassin’s Creed, Grand Theft Auto and Uncharted, the gaming style that Mikami invented is creeping back from the grave. Cult Japanese studio From Software has prepared the way, reigniting interest in esoteric and difficult games with its Demon’s Souls and Dark Souls titles. Now, after leaving Capcom to work on a series of interesting projects with idiosyncratic studios like Grasshopper Manufacture and Platinum Games, Mikami has his own team, and a new horror project. It is called Evil Within. It is pure survival horror, updated for modern tastes certainly, but pure nonetheless.

“Video game design has changed quite significantly since Resident Evil,” says Mikami, sitting in the pristine conference room in his new Tokyo office. He’s in his late 40s but doesn’t look it. Relaxed in his trademark baseball cap and polo shirt, he has a boyish, but thoughtful demeanor. I’d been warned that he is not exactly garrulous in interviews, but with the game almost complete, he seems open and affable.



“Back in the 1990s, games rarely provided free camera movement,” he continues. “But now players are used to being able to move both the character and the camera; we need to cater to what they have become accustomed to. Also, the pace, the locomotion speed of player characters, is faster now – and the cut-scenes need to be seamlessly integrated, both in terms of graphical style and continuity of action. I had to bear all of this in mind with Evil Within.”

Certainly the game’s set up is classic survival horror. Downbeat detective Sebastian Castellanos is called to an abandoned mental hospital, where dozens of police officers have been slaughtered by an unknown force. Gradually, a sordid tale of human experimentation unravels, leading Castellanos to the gothic mansion of a disturbed young scientist named Ruvik, and eventually inside his twisted mind.



I ask Mikami about his approach to horror game design. His characters, for example, are always strong but also vulnerable. They’re not gung-ho meatheads, packing enough heat to take down a whole army of the dead, they are confused, afraid – and usually very low on ammo.



“I’m interested in vulnerable characters, in normal human beings,” says Mikami. “The horror experience is most scary when the player really isn’t sure whether their character is going to live or die – death and survival need to be on a constant see-saw. If there’s a situation where you’re not 100% sure that you can avoid or defeat the enemies, if you feel maybe there’s a chance you’ll make it – that’s where horror lies. Creating that situation is vital. Also, I don’t want to just stand there shooting dozens of enemies. Die! Die! Die! I don’t have the energy for that.”

Instead, Mikami has an understanding of horror imagery and symbolism: the use of relaxing classical music in extremely tense moments; the way enemies seem to reflect our deep-seated fears of death and transmogrification. Is he a student of psychology?



“Back in the early days, when I was making the first Resident Evil, I spent three months studying the psychology of horror,” he says. “But what I’ve learned is, horror is instinctive - the things that scare me take precedence over any theory of horror. With Resident Evil, we went with human and human-shaped enemies because people are generally more interested in and scared by other people, rather than some obscure creature that we don’t recognise. Evil Within is the same.”

Women, horror and video games



Aside from gothic architecture, lumbering monsters, sparse resources and jump shock, Mikami’s games have always been known for something else: strong female characters. The likes of Jill Valentine and Claire Redfield fought alongside their male counterparts in the Resident Evil games, dressed in similar combat fatigues, rarely succumbing to the usual overtly sexualised stereotypes.

It’s something Mikami is clearly passionate about. “I don’t know if I’ve put more emphasis on women characters, but when I do introduce them, it is never as objects,” he says. “In some games, they will be peripheral characters with ridiculous breast physics. I avoid that sort of obvious eroticism. I also don’t like female characters who are submissive to male characters, or to the situation they’re in. I won’t portray women in that way. I write women characters who discover their independence as the game progresses, or who already know they are independent but have that tested against a series of challenges.”

I think he’s done with this, but as I’m about to ask another question, he interrupts. “If I had to name the woman character I most disliked in my games it would be Rebecca Chambers,” he says. “She’s submissive, she’s not independent. I didn’t want to include her but the staff wanted that kind of character in the game, for whatever reason. I’m sure it made sense to them. And in Japan, that character is pretty popular.” He shrugs despondently.

Evil Within will be out within a few weeks; who knows what is next for Mikami and his studio, Tango Gameworks. If things go well, it’s likely this will be a series – this is no doubt what Zenimax had in mind when it bought the studio four years ago. But then Mikami has been successful in every genre he’s tried. Since Resident Evil he has been a director or executive producer on critical hits like Devil May Cry, Vanquish, Killer 7 and Viewtiful Joe. It’s a fascinatingly disparate and offbeat back catalogue.



Despite all that, he seems much more grounded than other well-regarded game directors. When we arrive in the studio to meet Mikami, he is standing with junior members of staff in the vast open working area, watching one of them play the game. He converses quietly with the other spectators, exchanging observations and ideas. This is, apparently, how he works. Although horror is such an idiosyncratic thing, he seems to have found a way to make it while staying collaborative and approachable.

“I am open to ideas from staff,” he says. “If it fits the scope and tone of the game, then I’ll accept most of the ideas that come in.”

He then turns to his translator and says something else. They both laugh. “Mikami has added that if he were to start the production of Evil Within again, he would probably accept less ideas,” he says. Looking at Mikami again, it’s obvious – he isn’t relaxed, he’s exhausted. The game has been in development for over three years.



And yet, he has talked enthusiastically about the process of development, and about horror. He chats about the influence that the Hellraiser films have had on both him and his lead concept artist, Ikumi Nakamura. When he talks, the spark is obvious; whatever it was that the ghostly tale of Yotsuya Kaidan ignited in him all those years ago is still alight. While Mikami is making games, there will always be horror and survival, and all that creeps up on us in between.

Evil Within is released on PC, PS3, PS4, Xbox 360 and Xbox One on 14 October.



Keith Stuart attended a press trip to Tokyo to visit Tango Gameworks, with accommodation and travel expenses met by Bethesda.