Resident Evil 5: Capcom Interview

Here's a fresh and brief interview with Capcom's Resi 5 producers, Jun Takeuchi and Masachika Kawata. Awesome new screens included.

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By Kikizo Staff December 18, 2008

Resident Evil 5 has endured a pretty lengthy development cycle - it'll have clocked up something like four years by the time it's released in March 2009. However, it's recently become crystal clear that the wait will be worth it. It's been the most striking title shown off at recent consumer game shows, and the new demo to hit Xbox Live has lit up forums with positive feedback.

Chris Redfield returns as the main playable character, and the story takes place ten years after the events of the original Resident Evil. Chris is a member of the Bioterrorism Security Assessment Alliance - the BSAA - tasked with the investigation of an 'incident' out in the sticks of Africa.

We recently met with the game's Chief Producer, Jun Takeuchi, along with Masachika Kawata, who is producer on the game. Although time was limited thanks to the busy final stages of their production schedule, we managed to quiz them on the particulars of making the game, how they plan to keep the series truly scary, pick their brains on certain controversy surrounding the project and find out how they like to handle dual development on PS3 and 360.

Kikizo: What does it take to make a Resident Evil monster?

Takeuchi: Being the fifth title in the series, at this point, it's actually become more difficult to create cool, scary-looking monsters that remain faithful to what fans and longtime players expect from the series. It's just a matter of the designers burning the midnight oil and making a ton of stuff for us to look at and decide on.

Kikizo: The humans that you fight don't all look African any more - there seem to be multiple ethnicities. Is there a storyline reason for this, or were things changed as a response to some of the controversy regarding race in the game?

Takeuchi: When we went to Africa to do research for the game, we took a lot of photographs and notes to try and recreate the scenery and atmosphere. When we got there, we found that - contrary to our expectations - the people there were not all African in ethnicity. There were Arab people, and a few Caucasian people as well. So what we're trying to do in-game is to recreate, as accurately as we can, what we saw with our own eyes.

Kikizo: So does this take place in a real African nation? After all, Resident Evil 4 took place in Spain...

Takeuchi: The place the game takes place in isn't real - it's something we made up for use in the game. However, the language they're speaking is Swahili.

Kikizo: The animation is extremely visceral. When Chris gets smashed with that hammer it looks excruciatingly painful...

Takeuchi: Haha! Actually, the first unit director on the game used to be involved in motion capture. He actually put on the motion capture suit and took one for the team when came to getting hit by really big things. [laughs] But yes, we've really gone the extra mile in terms of taking motion capture for RE5. The director is very committed and wants to make sure all the animation and motion the player sees suit the game perfectly.

Also, the camera system is designed in such a way so that, when you get attacked by something, it makes it look like it hurts more than it would if the camera simply remained static, so make note of that when you get a chance to play for yourself. We're very pleased seeing everyone's reactions today, like when you all saw the enemies getting smashed by the axe and were going "oh my god!".

Kawata: He's just trying to make excuses for his poor play. [laughs]

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