I think what a lot of people are mistaking for the horror roots comment is three separate smaller things. Before Resident Evil 6 was officially revealed, there was a lot of rumors, none of them ended up being true. The most famous was a combo of a a teaser image, 'insider information', and this fake teaser trailer:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uzTR3ggWYmM
The rumor claimed that the world was becoming almost post-apocalyptic and would be returning to the, 'isolated, horror roots of the originals,' or something along those lines. This was all hogwash, however.
With Resident Evil Revelations 1, they talked about how they were going to make a survival-horror game that would appeal to newer fans, but notable they never said this was returning to the series roots, they just said the game would mix things from the newer and older games on handheld, and they think fans of the older games may appreciate it. For Revelations 2 they said a similar thing, but also talked a lot about testing the episodic format I quote Revelations 1 a bit ago, here's what they said on Revelations 2:
Q: Revelations 2 seems much slower paced than a lot of current Resident Evil titles and it harkens back to the series survival horror roots. Does its episodic structure allow you to make it a more initimate, old school horror game than if you were working on one of the franchises bigger titles?
A: If you break down the series history, Resident Evil 1-3 are the classic era and the titles that came after that kind of modernized the series. Some players prefer the classic era and others like both. Youre right in saying Revelations 2 is a kind of back to basics title in the series. Its very much following on from the concept that was core in the first Revelations; we wanted to merge the more up-to-date feel of the gameplay in the franchises later entries with the classic horror atmosphere of the earlier titles.
Its episodic structure gives us the chance to unfold the story at a slower pace and take our time with it a bit more. It also allows us to concentrate on making the atmosphere more oppressive. The game has been designed to make just walking down a corridor with nothing there as creepy and inherently scary as possible. Its a great experience to play the game in a dark room with headphones on!
"Revelations, the place where it lives in the pantheon of the Resident Evil franchise, it's sort of serves as a bridge," he said. "It's got the best of both worlds: We've got the more traditional horror elements ... and the gameplay of the post-Resident Evil 4, action-centric era. it strikes a nice balance between the two. We're definitely focusing on the horror, but it kind of lives between those two extremes. "
^IS what they said for Revelations 2, though Revelations 2 was arguably the Resident Evil game that most recalled to the classics in both literal and design terms since RE4, I say this since I don't think what they were saying there was a lie, even if it may not have gone as far as some people would of liked it to.
People also keep saying they said this for Resident Evil 5, but to show what they did say, they never said it was returning to series roots:
Q: When you're working on making a horror game, are there pinpoints -- or tenants -- that you use to create the proper horror experience?
I think one thing that sets Resident Evil apart from other games where shooting is very important is that you often can't see where the enemies are in our game. Often in more typical shooting games it is very important that you be able to see all your enemies so you can maintain a line of sight and shoot them. But because we're making a horror game, it's very important to us that you can't see everything that's going on. It's one of our most important horror elements.
Another element is this set of limits we impose. A good horror doesn't allow you to do all the things you want to do. That's not scary. So the obvious example from RE5 is that you can't move and shoot at the same time. By imposing that restriction on the player it creates the feeling of horror and tension in the game. Creating that feeling is very important to us.
^But to notably, this is in response to a question about the horror in RE5. They originally advertised RE5 in part to being overswarmed by angry mobs who mutate, and later begin to sell the co-op angle, but they were banking on RE4's success, not 'going back to the classics,' and talked far more about it interviews.
Also to clarify, a member of
Capcom actually said the OPPOSITE before Resident Evil 6 released, so all those saying Capcom said RE6 was returning to the roots is silly:
Some long-time Resident Evil fans might long for the "good old days" of the franchise, when early games in the series were deliberately-paced, nerve-wracking explorations into a "world of survival horror." Today, the series' emphasis is on action that rarely lets up.
But while there are those who'd love to see a return to classic Resident Evil gameplay, the market for that style -- "survival horror" -- just isn't viable enough to warrant the biggest investments, Capcom's Resident Evil: Revelations producer Masachika Kawata told Gamasutra in an interview.
"Especially for the North American market, I think the series needs to head in that [action-oriented] direction," Kawata said. "[Resident Evil's primary games] need to be an extension of the changes made in Resident Evil 4 and Resident Evil 5.
"RE4 started in that direction, and RE5 kept going in that direction," he said. "And I think that especially for the North American market, we need to keep going in that direction, and take that a step further. And that's exactly one of the reasons that Revelations is the way it is," he said.
That's what a producer said in March of 2012, before RE6 had released. People who think Capcom said RE6 was a return to the series roots are just mis-remembering completely.
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Which leads to the main thing I think everyone is mistaking, and this is the most sensible one. Capcom refers to all of the Resident Evil games as horror games. I don't disagree with them being horror games,but horror is a broad stroke, there's a lot of sub-genres and types under that name. They're also very much action games, and action-horror is a thing. But Capcom advertised the action in the games too, even in the case of the Revelations games.
However, and this is to note, Capcom has never once claimed they were 'going back to the series roots.' In many cases, they actually argued against that claim, including the 'survival-horror is not liable' Capcom person I linked above.
Now I'm not expecting Resident Evil 7 to be exactly what a lot of people want, but I do think it'll be toned down a lot and darker than RE6, and I do think they'll try to make a more serious horror game. Not just because of what the guy on Twitter said again, I collected all the interviews for RE7 recently from 2017 onward, and what I've picked up from going through all of them is that they have said they think horror is liable again, they think the main series should be more experimental than the spin-offs for some reason, and they think people thought RE6 was too bloated.
My bets for a while is the game will probably still have action, which is fine as even the older RE games did and I don't think they should get rid of good gunplay in horror (and they can, in fact, make a horror game with good combat systems if they tried, but need to make more interesting/atmospheric locations and pacing, better diversity in gameplay away from shooting and a willingness to slow down, make twisted powerful things that aren't always the best option to shoot through, etc.), I doubt they're getting rid of co-op as that definitely helped RE5 and RE6 sell (I don't actually want them to get rid of co-op either, the number of good campaign co-op games is incredibly overstated, and I think Resident Evil 5 & 6 are some of the best, despite what people complain about them), but I think it will try to change the tables up again a lot ala RE4 and try some completely new systems, setting, and scenarios that tries to evolve the series again. They have talked about wanting to experiment in the main series and focusing on horror again, but I take it they aren't trying to make a classic-styled RE, or trying to make a RE4/RE5/RE6 game. My stance is they're probably trying to completely reinvent the series again, which we will see if that's true and what it looks like at E3 probably, I guess.