Resident Evil 7 Developer Reveals How The Last of Us Inspired the Game and Details Its Troubled Development

It’s difficult to believe that nearly ten years have passed since Capcom breathed new life into Resident Evil with its seventh mainline entry. After the fallout from Resident Evil 6, the once-mighty horror franchise looked like it might be finished for good. Then the studio pulled off something close to a miracle with Resident Evil 7, a soft reboot that restored the series’ standing. That doesn’t mean the game was flawless. A former developer has now explained in detail that many of its shortcomings came from a turbulent production.

Responding to a lengthy discussion of Resident Evil 7: Biohazard, former Capcom manager Miguel Corti wrote an even longer thread about the behind-the-scenes story of how the series was reinvented. If you have the stamina, you can read the full 66-post thread. It wanders through everything from Call of Duty and The Last of Us to additional Leon Kennedy material.

Resident Evil 7 Was Never Meant to Be a Soft Reboot

Image: Capcom

Corti says the first concept for Resident Evil 7 was far less radical than the finished game. Crucially, it wasn’t a reboot at all. It was meant to continue directly from the widely criticized Resident Evil 6. “What was going to be the solution for RE7?” Corti wrote. “More Leon and more Umbrella connections!” At one stage, the return of Rebecca Chambers and Jill Valentine was reportedly on the table too. As for why Capcom wanted to keep building on Resident Evil 6, Corti explained that the game “sold like gangbusters” regardless of its poor reviews.

Naughty Dog’s The Last of Us served as a major influence on these early drafts. Capcom’s leadership were “more than happy with RE6,” but the developers craved critical praise, which they believed a more story-driven single-player game would earn them. The insistence on tying everything back to the franchise’s tangled lore eventually left the team stuck. The deadlock only broke after Capcom restructured, and “a mandate came down to redo RE7 from scratch.”

The Reworked Version Had Troubles of Its Own

When work resumed after the restructuring, Capcom assembled a fresh team, appointed a new director, and hired an outside writer. It was at this stage that the decision was made to turn the game into a first-person experience. “That was a bombshell of an idea for an RE game, but actually slots right into the gaming trends at the time.” According to Corti, the single-house setting and the Baker family also emerged around this point. Several ideas survived into the final game even though they didn’t make “a lick of narrative sense.” Corti believes this is one reason the story never fully comes together.

Capcom

The relationship between protagonist Ethan and his wife Mia was drawn from yet another Last of Us influence, since that game opens with Joel losing his daughter. Capcom figured that sending Ethan in search of his presumed-dead wife would hit the same emotional notes. Mia’s character reportedly caused plenty of headaches, though. Corti felt players had no genuine bond with her, and her backstory simply didn’t hold together. The eventual fix was to wedge in a link to the broader Resident Evil universe, namely the appearance of Umbrella.

The game we know today was ultimately finished. Even though it is remembered as the title that revived interest in the series, Capcom was let down by its initial sales. Fortunately, it has “been a top seller for Capcom in the intervening years.” Corti also disclosed that many of the game’s obvious weaknesses were visible during development but were “roundly ignored,” and that numerous team members fought to “not let it fail without a fight.”

Corti’s sprawling thread provides a rare glimpse of how a major publisher goes about rescuing a franchise on the brink. Fans are largely pleased with the Resident Evil 7 they received, but it’s fascinating to learn how much effort it demanded and how many abandoned versions came before it.

Source: Polygon