Resident Evil 7 Will Feature New Character, New Perspective, Still Not A Reboot

Resident Evil 7 was one of the biggest announcements this E3. It wasn’t much of a surprise for most of us to see a new numbered Resident Evil title. The series is far from being dead and fans were waiting for a sequel to the disappointing Resident Evil 6 and hoping for something to bring back some excitement back to the series. What we got was a little different than most of us had in mind. It was a first person game that reminded a lot of us of Amnesia or Outlast. The demo only brought more questions than answers. It was short, ambiguous, and perfect for building more hype for the game. This is where Capcom’s blog post with Resident Evil 7‘s producer Masachika Kawata and director Kōshi Nakanishi were clarifying a few things.

When asked about one of the most glaring changes in Resident Evil 7, the first person perspective, Mr. Kawata had this to say: “Both myself and the director, Mr. Nakanishi, felt if we want people to experience horror and experience it in the most direct, visceral way possible, then literally putting yourself in the position of seeing what the character sees is the best way to do that and so it was our motivation for the first-person camera change.”

Another interesting question was about which character(s) the player will get to control in the game. Mr. Kawata confirmed that it’s a new character “Just to confirm – it isn’t an existing character whose eyes you’re seeing through. We’re not really talking in too much detail about who they are right now, but they’re an ordinary person stuck in an extraordinary situation.” He then added “It’s sort of a powerless, ordinary person you’re playing as.” This really is starting to give me a Silent Hill vibe to the game’s protagonist, and that’s a good thing in my book.

Another interesting piece of information was if Resident Evil 7 was a reboot or not. Well, it simply is not. The story will pick up after Resident Evil 6. “It’s not a reboot and we’re not throwing away the series’ canonical storyline.” said Mr. Nakanishi “It’s the new numbered title in the series and it’s a sequel to the existing mainline series titles.”

To read the full blog post you can check it out on Capcom’s website here. Resident Evil 7 will be released on PC, Playstation 4 and Xbox One on January 24, 2017.