Fear in Japan

An interesting point to note about the Resident Evil series is that during its development, Japan was in a state of fear. 1995 was not a good year for Japan, beginning with the Great Hanshin Earthquake which caused the equivalent of $102.5 billion in damages and claimed 6,434 lives with roughly 300,000 left homeless.

Later that same year a controversial religious group known as Aum Shinrkyo (now called Aleph) terrorized Japanese citizens with a string of Sarin Gas attacks on the Tokyo Metro. These attacks first began in June of 1994, but the attack in May of 1995 was of the largest scale. 12 people died, with 1,034 people injured (50 severely; 984 with temporary vision problems).  Before this, Japan had never really had a terroist attack, never mind one of bioterrorism.

I bring this up because a large number of the people working on this game were Japanese.  Capcom is a Japanese company, the producers were Tokuro Fujiwara; Masayoshi Kurokawa; and Masayuki Akahori, while the director was Shinji Mikami.  All  of these people would have been aware of the attacks during the development of the game.  Considering a huge section of the plot line is actually about bioterrorism, the original game title being Biohazard, these attacks must have played some sort of role conciously or not.

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Fixed View

One of the most memorable features of the original Resident Evil game was its game play.  It combined the traditional RPG vibe (inventory included), with mind-bending puzzles, real-time puzzles, and of course the fixed camera view.  Players controlled their character, either Jill Valentine or Chris Redfield, from a third-person view with every area having its own unique camera angle.

  While the camera first appears to be just another part of the system, it adds a lot to the feel of the game.  Enemies could appear from any point, but the fixed camera kept the suspense high as you can hear the enemy far before you are able to see it on screen.  This greatly affected interaction, making the game much harder with a feel that no other game had at the time of its release.   The Resident Evil series had kept this fixed camera position as an iconic part of their games, appearing in every incarnation of the series until Resident Evil 4 in which the viewpoint was changed to the over the shoulder view.  This change was most likely due to the increase in the popularity of first-person shooters at the time of Resident Evil 4's creation, 2005. 

Though the fixed camera views was a staple of the series, and dictated gameplay for all who attempted the game, not everyone was so enthused....




Video by G4 back in the day.

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