Capcom’s community blog has posted an extensive video interview from Famitsu with Jun Takeuchi, producer of Resident Evil 5. The video contains a look back at the Resident Evil series thus far, and has some brand-new footage of the upcoming sequel.
Resident Evil 5 has come under a lot of fire lately for its African setting and racial issues, and Mr. Takeuchi takes some time to explain what inspired these decisions. The main impetus, he explains, was to tell the story about the origins of RE’s horrible zombie virus, and the team agreed to focus on the “birthplace of mankind”–Africa. The team also wished to explore more freedom within the gameplay, setting a great deal of the game in outdoor environments with sharp contrasts between light and shadow.
Takeuchi doesn’t offer his thoughts on the race issues, instead speaking at length about the game’s combat system, the return of Chris Redfield, and more. As excited as I am for this game, I did rather cringe when the interview promised to “escalate the player’s fear of the darkness.” Someone’s going to interpret that in an unfortunate way, methinks.
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