Why the First Resident Evil Almost Failed: Hideki Kamiya’s Account

11.12.2025 Comment Views: 27

Hideki Kamiya, a developer on the original Resident Evil and the game director for Resident Evil 2, said on X that the first Resident Evil was hampered by a series of problems that stemmed from the cancellation of another Capcom project.

This song was brought into Resident Evil after another project — intended as a collaboration between Capcom and Toshiba EMI — was cancelled. The entire team was floored when we heard the demo.

Kamiya was referring to “Yume de owarasenai…” (“I Won’t Let It End in a Dream”) by Fumitaki Fuchigami, the final track on the Japanese release that had originally been composed for the scrapped project. That song was replaced in every other version, including the Director’s Cut.

But the complications went beyond the music. Kamiya pointed out that the cancelled title had an exclusive arrangement with V Jump for early coverage, and those terms were applied to Resident Evil — which meant features about the game ran in a magazine aimed at elementary-school readers.

Resident Evil was intended for an adult audience, while V Jump is a children’s magazine, so we couldn’t reach our target readers. We couldn’t place a single piece in Famitsu, the era’s most popular gaming publication… and that set off a chain of setbacks.

Despite the obstacles, the game evolved into one of the most recognizable horror franchises, and that final song now stirs nostalgia for Japanese players who experienced it on the PlayStation at launch.

Source: iXBT.games

Comments - Cackle

Related articles