New Japanese interview with the Resident Evil 7/series producer since RE5:
http://www.gamespark.jp/article/2016/12/02/70314.html
It's a... Weird interview. Since for some reason the interview is half about RE7, and half about Ash vs Evil Dead... Like, that's fine but I don't know why they talked about Ash vs Evil Dead so much? I don't think he has anything to do with it, it sounds from Google Translating like the interviewer just viewed both RE7 and Ash vs Evil Dead as revivals of a series and wanted his opinion on it for some reason, but anyways some of the interesting bits...
-He talks about how it was fun to see Bruce in Ash vs Evil Dead, and thinks the appeal is similar to how people are happy to see characters from the series return in their own franchise. People like learning more about characters they form a connection with. Also thought it was interesting how the series tackled certain elements, despite being a TV series there was a very big Video Game feel to it, and some techniques they used, like the still mouth with a blurry body of the monster in episode 3 of Evil Dead was interesting and did have him thinking how such techniques could be translated to games.
-Talking about horror design, he discusses one of the most important aspects is "How to draw a person in", to make them maybe confused or even mystified or scared, but wanting to continue to learn more. He talks about how part of this can be due to liking a character, or an enemy being terrifying but interesting.
-He comments that in development of Resident Evil 7, one of the films they looked at an analyzed was Evil Dead. The producer wanted them to focus on how low-budget horror can be enjoyable through the raw passion and execution of ideas, one of their goals with RE7 was to simulate this sort of passionate, raw take on horror.
-He talks about balancing a world view for a series like Resident Evil and Evil Dead. On one hand you have this absurd world wit absurd ideas, and various elements of it which are just stupid, but there's these realistic settings mixed in or character moments that are realistic, it's a balancing act of making it grand and bigger than life, but grounding it in life, he says.
-He talks about how episodic structure does interest him and how they tackled in in the Revelations games. He also talks about how when a new character comes to an established franchise, there's always a concern of what kind of character they are, how they fit in, and what effects they may have on a series. Also talks about how sometimes being condensed in episodic format might be a good idea, he though Ash vs Evil Dead was an hour long show, but it's only 30 minutes, and that sort of cutting of fat maybe helped to deliver a more compact but memorable experience.
-Asked about how RE7 seems to be pulling from 'Splatter" films as they're known in Japan, which are popular in America & Europe but not Japan, how they think RE7 may be received in Japan. He mentions that Ash vs Evil Dead doesn't use blood as a way to transfer 'infection', so they can get away with drenching characters in buckets of blood. In Resident Evil, the series isn't really a 'splatter' series, they try to make characters bleeding not too flashy. They think RE is a 'horror' rather than a 'splatter', Thinks the entertainment of 'horror' and 'splatter' may seem similar, but are adversely different in where the entertainment comes from.
-About laughing in horror, he says with RE7 they are trying to make it a horror and not a comedy, but if all it is happens to be horror then there's no balance and not only can be a detriment to horror but also entertainment. So there are lighter moments in RE7, but even in scary scenes at the peak of it sometimes people may laugh or even cry, and it's not bad for it to be experienced like that as it's an emotional moment that impacts different people differently, and sometimes there's an odd allure to horror that makes us want to smile at it.
-Talks about how in games you have to create things from the ground-up instead of film or TV where you have to scout for the best locations. In both you want t o capture an 'image' of being near death, of having a threat, something to enrapture the audience. He thinks it's easy to sometimes in games build something up until it's too much, or want to get bigger and better that it takes away from the horror, since you have so much control over what happens you can overdo it. But it's important to think of what may leave the most impact, sometimes less is more. There is a restriction in expression in a TV series grounded by the world around us, but they use this to their advantage to make immersive stories, characters, dramatic situations, etc. But if you do too much of this as a video game, players will think too much control is taken away from them and may think the game is too simple or forced. He describes it as with Film you need to push something to be enjoyed, and with games you need to pull something to be enjoyed; TV series need to express, while games need to draw in. In Film you have no agency, so you need to enjoy what's in front of you, while in games you have agency so you need to make players want to fill the role. Very different distinctions and one of the big differences in the medium he feels.
-Talks about how the character in RE7 isn't a "strong" character like Ash from Evil Dead. Part of the role of Ethan in RE7 is to help the player become part of the world, but also want to express how Ethan is a normal person in peril and to care about Ethan, so he isn't a blank slate. Something they did for RE7 was an important balancing act of having Ethan have enough personality to make him interesting while also not being an outlandish personality, but also allowing the player to fill the shoes enough to help them make decisions as themselves and not strictly their character.
-He says there's some similarities to RE7 and Ash vs Evil Dead, he recommends if you like one to check out the other, they have their differences but I guess somehow they have a relation?
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...The big thing I'm still confused about is what connection RE7 & Ash vs Evil Dead even has? Do they have some sort of deal in Japan? It sounds like maybe Ash vs Evil Dead got super popular in Japan and so they ask the RE7 guy about it since the series is really taking off in Japan as a guy in the Japanese horror industry.