Resident Evil: Revelations staff talks canned ideas and more
The Resident Evil: Revelations team had a number of idea that were left on the cutting room floor. Producer Masachika Kawata and Koshi Nakanishi recently divulged some of the things they considered for the game, but were ultimately scrapped.
Head on past the break for their responses.
Kawata on an idea of beginning the game in the port area…
“We wanted a claustrophobic survival horror feel. A ship out on the ocean is the ideal location since once you’re on the ship there’s no easy way to escape. We also took into consideration that a previous Resident Evil spin-off title was set a boat. To ensure Revelations wasn’t too similar, we decided on an abandoned luxury cruise ship with an atmosphere about it that would bring to mind the mansion in the very first Resident Evil game.
“One early idea was to have the virus-ridden ship arriving at a port at the beginning of the game, with the action kicking off in the port area. We ended up using the ship as the main setting, but remnants of that early concept can be found in the Terragrigia and mountain sections of the game.”
Nakanishi on unused enemy designs…
“We were inspired by the incredible variety of real-world marine life, and some of the unused enemy designs were based on octopuses, sharks, sea anemones, tube worms and the extinct abnormal shrimp. We even got as far as designing their attacks but, in the end, we couldn’t include most of them for one reason or another.
“Most of the creatures were created first and foremost as functions of the game’s difficulty curve and level design, but some started out as artists’ rough sketches of ideas that became either brand-new enemies or old enemies with new twists.”
Kawata on how co-op for the story campaign was up and running early on in development…
“We had online co-op for the story campaign up and running in the early stages of development, but feedback from testing indicated that single-player Resident Evil was scarier, so we left it out and focused our attention on improving the single-player survival horror experience.
“Since we’d done the groundwork and it would have been a shame not to utilise the 3DS’s wireless features, we added Raid Mode.”
Nakanishi on an idea to capsize the ship…
“One idea that we tried and ultimately dropped was having the ship capsize and turn over 180 degrees, like in the movie The Poseidon Adventure. It was a fun concept, but it didn’t work for a number of reasons.”
