Capcom has a lot riding on the new Resident Evil 7 game, but during an interview with Eurogamer, game director Kōshi Nakanishi explained large golden nuggets of details on Resident Evil 7: Biohazard.
Nakanishi said that Capcom might have reached the original Resident Evil concept, saying: "It almost feels like this time around we were able to achieve the ideal image of what Resident Evil 1 could be. Given that you have all these photo-realistic environments and you're able to traverse through them with a first-person perspective, having that level of immersion, with all the latest technology, it was kind of cool to be able to be like, here's that very, very original concept from the very beginning, and we're able to take that vision and really apply".
Nakanishi talked about the enemy count in Resident Evil 7 "more frequent, more abundant, and at the same time it almost lessened them, almost cheapened the feel of each encounter". The team has put a lot of thought into what the adversary means to the gamer, with Nakanishi continuing: "At the end of the day, each adversary should represent a fear. Something that means when you encounter them you are scared. At the same time, because you're scared, when you do overcome them you feel a greater sense of triumph, so that's definitely something that we were trying to strive for".
Resident Evil 7 isn't some radically different world, as it's still set within the Resident Evil universe, except through a different lens, a new feel. Nakanishi added: "It's the same world. It's not a reboot, but you're getting a fresh perspective on the same universe through new eyes. I think of it as a macro to micro shift, because the scale of global bio-terrorism events from the previous games is so massive that there's almost nowhere bigger to go. So by shifting the focus and spotlight on to a single average person in a single house - well, it's more than one building but you know, a single location - I think we really want to give you a chance to see that".
Nakanishi continued talking about the fresh perspective in the Resident Evil universe with RE7: "But at the same time, it's not like the game opens with a scene where all the existing characters are killed in an explosion or something. In my mind they are out there, doing their own thing, running and gunning, and in the meantime this also happened in the Resident Evil world. It's a fresh perspective on an existing fiction".