Guardian writes:
Honestly. A few flakes of snow and you'd think it was the apocalypse. Walking through West London today was like wandering into Cormac McCarthy's The Road, re-written as a knockabout farce. Couples clutched together for warmth, cars skidded into post boxes, I wouldn't have been surprised to see groups of feral children scrabbling in the bins for dead pigeons.
It was perhaps a fitting backdrop to my interview with Resident Evil 5 producer, Masachika Kawata, who I met at Capcom Europe's office in Hammersmith today. Both Resident Evil 4 and 5 deal with societies on the verge of collapse; it's just that in London the problem is snow, not brain-controlling parasites or zombifying pandemics. Driving through the slushy streets of the capital seems to have had a profound effect on Kawata - when I asked him if he had any locations in mind for the next Resi title, he replied 'Why not London?'. Apparently he enjoyed the contrast of the ornate neo-classical buildings with the many dark alleys and shadowy side streets. It is perfect Resi stuff really. Perhaps he wasn't joking.
I won't go through the rest of our interview - I'm hoping to post it as a video soon. But it was interesting to meet him. Like Kojima, he has a great sense of cinematic detail; he thinks and talks in terms of images and visual moments. While discussing the use of sunshine as a source of horror, he talks about how some enemies will reveal themselves initially as looming shadows, coming out at you from behind walls. Often, enemies will be obscured by the brightness at first.
He also talks about how Resi 5 is very much an evolution, rather than a revolution. The key aims were to update the graphics for the current generation consoles, and to introduce the concept of co-op play (all Jun Takeuchi's idea apparently). However, Kawata-san doesn't expect these to reproduce the epoch-shattering impact we saw with Resi 4. He hints that there will be a Resi title in the future that will catapult things to a new level once again, just as RE4 did. That isn't what Resi 5 is about. The changes, when they come, will be more drastic than, say, a slightly tweaked interface. First, a big decision needs to be made on the future direction of the brand - back toward horror, or onward into action adventure...
With RE5, there was also a concern to get back to the core story of Resident Evil, after Resi 4's Las Plagas diversions. Hence the return of Chris Redfield and of Wesker. It sounds like the climatic fight between these two will be the mother of all boss battles.
Oh and finally, just for the Gamesblog community, I asked Kawata-san what his weapon of choice will be when the zombie apocalypse comes. "Shuriken" is his almost instantaneous reply.
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