and
Hiroyuki Kobayashi
BIOHAZARD Director's Cut
Hiroyuki kobayashi, Planner/Programmer talk about
"How Resident Evil Director Cut born"
M: Shinji Mikami
K: Hiroyuki Kobayashi
--: Interviewer (Unknown)
-- How Resident Evil Directors Cut Planned?
M: That was started because in the middle of development, we had to start all over Resident Evil 2 plan, so programmer and other staff didn't have things to do, then, we started to think about what we can do in those days.
First, I thought re-release the original Resident Evil on best sales correction, include my apologies to the users for the late release of Resident Evil2. But if I re-release the original Resident Evil, I wanted the users to play with a fresh feelings and I wanted for people who couldn't finish the game to be able to see the ending, also I wanted to promote Resident Evil 2 with Resident Evil 2 demo disc.
K: It was like "Sorry the Resident Evil 2 release date was delayed."
M: The release date was 9-25 because I took the balance of the Time people were waiting Resident Evil 2 couldn't wait anymore and the timing of Resident Evil 2 development coming together, so we could put enough volume on demo. I put my feeling of "Please play demo and Resident Evil-Directors Cut until Resident Evil 2 comes out, also I made it cheaper..."
K: I had a job to do on development of Resident Evil2 but I kind forced somebody else to do that job and stuck with Resident Evil-Directors Cut.
M: We can't say this in front of the staff who were forced to do that job.. *Laugh*
-- What was the biggest difference on Resident Evil-Directors Cut?
M: I can't say that, I changed a lot of things, so I wanted the player to feel how much totally changed.
To say some specific things, playable characters costume, view on about 17 rooms and difficulty.
-- Enemies are so tough.
M: Yes, they are tough and a lot more enemies than the original Resident Evil, also I changes enemies appear point and added scary visual essence too. I feel like to just change the difficulty is not enough to make players to feel fresh, we anted to change as much as we could. But, one thing, I couldn't change the Music... That was only thing I feel like I still have an unfinished job.
Die-hard Resident Evil fans have already beat the game in less than 3 hours and unlocked the Rocket Launcher or even some of the fans have beat the game with only use the knife. I think for those die-hard fans, original Resident Evil has became just zombie killing game. So, I wanted to make those die-hard fans to feel the fear again on Resident Evil-Directors Cut. Especially, arrange mode-Chris is hard. I think if first time player try to beat the arrange mode-Chris, it is impossible to beat the game.
K: Chris' ammo is really limited on amount so if you use it without care, you run out ammo quick.
-- I know, you have to change the strategy, if you don't have enough ammo.
K: I say, arrange mode-Chris is not for ordinary people *Laugh*
M: Difficulty is high, really high. Even arrange mode-Jill is hard to beat.
K: We didn't put "Hard" or "Easy" choice on playable character choose screen, because they are both HARD!! even Jill is hard to beat.
--But Jill has more ammo than Chris.
K: But Jill's stamina is week. Got one bite from zombie and already half of her life is gone...
-- There is one really tough hyper zombie in the game.
K: That was Shinji's idea. Players think "easy play" and shoot handgun kind of weak weapon but... *Laugh*
M: The zombie moves first too.
K: Maybe people thought that the hyper zombie is a bug. Shotgun upper shot doesn't work for the zombie. We expect players panic and get bitten. *Laugh*
M: We at least had to do that. *Laugh*
-- Item place changed and more rooms you have to go in to beat the game.
K: Yes, and in some cases, you don't have to go to the room, which you had to in the original Resident Evil. I wanted players to feel fresh by changing the strategy. Some of the player thought they have to go back to the start point and do all over again. It was the best to change the whole stage but we couldn't, still players feel a lot of change by item placement and enemy appear point.
We changed the whole enemy appear point.
K: We put a lot of time in it.
M: I didn't want to leave the "smell" of original version. First, I thought just change the important points but still I could "smell" the original Resident Evil, so I changed enemy and item.
K: I think if we change the enemy appear points, it changes whole timing in the game, so I thought people have to think about a new strategy.
M: Changing the enemy appear point is a hard job.
K: In Resident Evil, we have to examine the whole direction and camera view change point to put enemies on, if we don't, the whole game is going to be messed up. So, we even have to think about which direction the enemies are facing.
M: Talk about enemy, when player come back from resident, everybody saves in the east side save room, when we develop the game, I put 3 Hunters in front of the save room. I was saying "This is the hard part!!, if you can't overcome this hard part, you can't save the game!!!" *Laugh*
But everybody died in there, and complained hard to me....
So, I reconsidered it and I just put 2 in the final version.
K: Everybody died..... Even the staff members of biohazard development. *Laugh*
-- Mr. Mikami, you always get to the save room no problem?
M: Almost, but sometime, I die too, about once in three times. I think it is not fun to play game if you don't get a thrill. Hunters jump to you and you scream, you are talking to yourself "I'm gonna die? NO! I can make it!!!!" kind of high tension feeling is what I want., and what I love. I personally wanted to put 3 Hunters in there but I saw a lot of people died so easy, and I thought maybe a little too much....
--Even you get to save room, sounds like you'll run out of ammo.
M: Chris runs out of ammo anyway. Players have to think about how to use ammo. I think a lot of people quit the game because they only had handgun ammo when they had to fight Tyrant. I think requirement of beat the arrange mode is "have to have experience to beat original Resident Evil less than 3 hours."
-- So, people have to start with play original mode.
K: Yes
M: I should put warning sign in beginning of arrange mode. *Laugh*
In original game, we didn't need ink ribbon, but this arrange mode, even people didn't use ink ribbon or handgun in original Resident Evil, have to search hard to survive. I checked guide book to find handgun ammo. *Laugh* I think Resident Evil-Director Cut will refresh the game play.
K: Yeah, I went back to the mansion to get herbs.
M: If you like easy game, just play beginners mode, or if you like high tension game, you can play arrange mode with Chris. Even in the arrange mode, if you pick Jill, you have a lot of ammo and maybe easier to beat the game.
-- Yes, if you have a lot of ammo, it makes the game so much to easier to beat.
M: I think you have to have guidebook to play arrange mode with Chris.
K: I'll give you one cheat idea. Do you know the "cancel cheat" that we call? When the character is aiming the gun at the enemy, you release R1 button and aim back, you can shoot hand gun quicker.
M: Just keep pressing shoot button and tap the R1 button. This cheat is really popular way to play inside Capcom.
-- How long did you take to beat the game?
K: I tried so hard and made it in 2hours and 10minutes. Chris 2 hours and 10minutes and Jill is 2hours and 20minutes.
M: I beat it with Chris in about 4hours.
-- Do you like horror movie?
K: No, I don't watch horror movie, too scary. I don't even go in to haunted house, but I like roller coaster kind of scary.
I'm OK with biohazard, maybe because I know what is going to happen. I don't like horror stuff but I try to watch that kind of movie or TV-show because it is part of my job. I always think about how we can use the different kind of directions from movies in the game.
M: I always thought the 2nd movie with the same director is no good.
-- How about Resident Evil 2?
M: OH!! That word hurts me!! *Laugh* but Resident Evil is OK because director changed.
-- Mr. Mikami, you are producer of Resident Evil 2
M: Yes, I was the director of RE1 and producer of Resident Evil 2. About Resident Evil-Directors Cut, I'm producer and director.
-- What kind of the game is Resident Evil 2 going to be?
M: Basically, after story of original Resident Evil. Same game system but power of the game increase. I'm always telling people it is like a car, same concept but model changed, when you give the gas, you'll realize the power difference.
The director changed, so type of the fear changed too.
In RE, I have a lot of unsatisfied points, for example, even if you are quick enough to sane Richard, he dies anyway, or decision of Barry's life is only pick by Yes or No. People get confused from that, so, we tried to be careful about it in Resident Evil 2.
-- How about play difficulty of Resident Evil 2.
K: In Resident Evil 2, we also have 2 playable characters, but difficulty is same.
In original Resident Evil, some people wanted to play Chris in first time, but pick Jill because Chris is HARD MODE. I hope in Resident Evil 2, same amount of people will pick either characters.
-- Do we need separate strategy for each character?
K and M: Yes, more than original Resident Evil.
M: If you play both story of original Resident Evil, you can see the big difference, but many users thought same and some of the users only play one of the character.........
-- They thought only difficulty is different.
M: Maybe, I don't want people to think that way. So, we made big difference in each character's story on Resident Evil 2. I think you can enjoy Resident Evil 2 twice more than Resident Evil.
-- Thank you very much.
Sep 2nd 1997
At Capcom Osaka building
Published Date 2001 Oct 15th (2nd edition)
Published by Capcom
Original Japanese text all rights reserved by Capcom and related publishers.
English version of text rights reserved by doughboy and written permission required to re-use text.
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