Exclusive interview with Kenichi Iwao. Working alongside Shinji Mikami, Iwao-san was Resident Evil lead writer & designer, creating iconic characters, files, and game mechanics, devising cut-scenes including the iconic zombie head turn!
Crimson-Head 10th Anniversary Interview with Kenichi Iwao [Not to be reproduced (c) Crimson Head Elder 2021]
“The essence of Resident Evil is the fear of losing consciousness & free will”
CH: How would you define survival horror, and what game mechanics would you focus on, for a true survival horror experience?
KI: Most people enjoy their own choices and freedom, but when we are in difficult situations our choices become limited. Currently our freedom is curtailed because of coronavirus. So, what would you do if your life was in such danger? Run, fight, or other means? These are the feelings of fear, frustration and sadness I wanted to create. For example, the experience of entering a cave that is getting smaller and smaller around you.
The elements of Resident Evil, such as zombies who have lost their humanity and free-will, co-workers who have lost their lives and options, doors that you have to open even though you have a bad feeling about what awaits you on the other side, and bullets & medicine being lost. I created scenarios, designs, and game elements to provide these types of fears.
CH: What were your ideas and techniques for producing a distinct atmosphere for Resident Evil and what type of atmosphere did you want to create? What emotions did you want to illicit for players and what ideas did you consider to induce those feelings?
KI: I will break this down into the different elements of Resident Evil:
World-view & scenario: To make a game that may be seen as comical due to low-polygon zombies & monsters feel truly scary, I focused on a realistic setting. Referring to the theory of ‘viral evolution’, which states organisms evolve under the influence of viruses, I designed an artificial viral weapon that rapidly transforms organisms, developed by a multi-national corporation ‘Umbrella’ (We chose this name because it has the hidden meaning of an umbrella protecting the world from germs & viruses). I then came up with the idea that the virus would be leaked.
I set the story in Raccoon, a typical American city, and designed S.T.A.R.S as a local force to fight the viral outbreak. I didn’t make it a real city or a known force because I thought it wouldn’t feel realistic to people connected, or living there. By using fragments of information like conversations of people turning into zombies, newspaper articles and diaries, I tried to provide further elements that would spark gamers’ imaginations.
System: I like RPGs and gamebooks, so I decided on a similar type of game system that gradually depleted the number of remaining bullets. I also like guns, so I gave a lot of instructions on how to represent guns in the game, including the use of shell casings. In fact, I wrote a proposal for a claymore mine that would defeat zombies with traps, but I had to abandon it due to schedule constraints.
Sound: Sound is very important in horror, and I decided on the sound effects for all the locations, including faint sounds of footsteps, rushing wind, and creature noises. I also used a lot of ambient music and contrasting silences so the atmosphere would get deep inside the player’s mind.
CH: You referred to your interest in RPGs, would we be right to think an inspiration for the exterior design and interior atmosphere for Spencer mansion, was RPG book 'House of Hell' (‘Fighting Fantasy’ series by Steve Jackson)?
KI: Yes (laughs) I know that book very well and I love it so much. The atmosphere of this book is definitely within the Spencer mansion!
CH: Can you provide the fans with a personal insight into the inspiration for, conception and design of Resident Evil's most iconic of all enemies, series signature B.O.W. the ‘Tyrant’, by the man who created this little piece of video game history?
KI: What is the true purpose of this powerful enemy? Its strength & fighting are tactical skills, but not core characteristic. The Tyrant's true identity is ‘living strategic weapon’. Unleashed they rampage behind enemy lines or across a city. During battle, and after death, they spread a multitude of t-virus. Eventually the enemy army and cities become zombies, their forces so overwhelmed by the task of fighting, they lose the ability to continue the war thereby having no choice but surrender.
The first Tyrant has a heart-like organ, for refining airborne t-virus and I designed a mechanism in which airborne t-virus would be dispersed from a broken blood vessel type tube. I asked the character designer Mr. Oishi to add to this. I came up with the idea because on the battlefield, snipers will shoot enemy soldiers legs to disable them, allowing the sniper to then target those comrades sacrificing their lives attempting to rescue the wounded. It’s a cruel strategy, but…
When I asked the staff why this setting was not used in the series, they said the setting had been forgotten. However, when I now think about the current world where fatal viruses are increasingly spreading, I am glad the Tyrant setting had been forgotten.
I was inspired by the movies, ‘The Thing’, ‘The Return of the Living Dead’, and ‘Poltergeist’. The heaviest influence was ‘The Thing’, and my favourite monster is still the zombie!
CH: What was your opinion of Shinji Mikami's draft narrative written before you arrived, with less horror and more science-fiction themes, and why did you want changes? Were your changes needed to increase the horror and did all the team agree your amendments were required?
KI: It was a simple rescue story, and felt like a children's game. I don't remember there being any themes to do with viruses at that point. I argued that the story and setting needed a more mature theme, and I made those changes. I don't remember anyone, including the director, being opposed to my more adult ideas.
CH: Why did you change the original names of many of the Resident Evil cast, and remove others? What were your ideas for these characters? Did you have specific traits and roles you wanted to create that would be ideal for a horror experience?
“Before I joined the team the story & setting seemed like a cartoon, and too childish. The names didn’t feel realistic for a horror scenario. I thought they needed to be realistic for gamers to feel fear, so I changed the setting & names”
— Kenichi Iwao
At the time, the Internet was not as advanced as it is today, so it was harder to conceive fictional names. For example, ‘Redfield’ in ‘Chris Redfield’ was a change of ‘Red’ from ‘Green’ in ‘Greenfield’, but at that time I thought the rarer sounding surname ‘Redfield’ may not exist. So I was surprised to subsequently learn it was also the surname of the director of the CDC, in a virus related news report last year!
I removed ‘Geltzer’ and ‘Dewey’, because I thought they looked too tough to be horror protagonists and would diminish the fear of the players controlling them. Geltzer was designed to be macho like Arnold Schwarzenegger and a cyborg! Dewey was set to be physically strong, tall in stature with long arms & legs. They both looked like street fighters who would easily beat zombies with their bare hands; they didn't look like they were in any danger of dying. I consulted with the character designer Mr. Oishi and changed them to weaker looking fighters; Barry and Rebecca.
At first, we were opposed to having a Bravo team. The reason was simple, it would increase man-hours. However, I pushed it through because I felt the story needed a leading victim. I came up with the name and initial setting for the Bravo team, but I think it was the proceeding games that made them more heroic and popular characters.
CH: It is true at least 50% of Resident Evil's original design was removed before release? Several mansions, an extended graveyard, and a church were all included during early development. Were you unhappy these locations were removed and why were they omitted?
KI: I don't remember the exact percentage of content that was deleted. It seems to me that many of the deleted places were episodes relating to Wesker. I remember feeling disappointed that his actions and motives were not explained in more detail.
“I wanted to portray the fear of losing free-will by becoming a zombie. The zombies originally being humans, was very important to me. ”
CH: You wrote arguably the most iconic file across the Resident Evil series, the 'Itchy Tasty' file. What was your inspiration for this file? What emotions did you want to evoke from gamers reading its contents?
KI: The essence of Resident Evil is the fear of losing your consciousness and free-will. So I wanted to portray the fear of losing free-will by becoming a zombie. That the zombies were originally human was very important to me. I wanted to depict this by having one of S.T.A.R.S. team get infected, but unfortunately I didn’t get the time. So I put my thoughts into this file, depicting a man gradually losing his intellect and free thought.
There is another reason for including this file. Although the enemy is a zombie, the player is still shooting what was formerly a human. We thought gamers would feel guilty and have a hard time with this. We tried to lessen their guilt by showing in this file the zombie had already lost all humanity, no human essence remains. It was a concern that shooting something that looked like a human, albeit a zombie, would be difficult for many players.
At the time, Japanese gamers didn’t play FPS, and many Japanese people had never held a gun. However, I thought it would be difficult to portray zombies simply as bad guys. Yes they are scary, but they are also people who have lost their intelligence and reasoning, and if they have malicious intent, that scares them half as much. Also, zombies are the most basic enemy, so I needed to make them attack the player from the beginning.
So after much deliberation, I came up with an idea to solve this contradictory proposition by having the player misidentify the zombie as a human doing something unintelligible the moment they see it, but then have the enemy turn around so gamers instantly realise it’s not a human that is eating the player's friends, and that they have no choice other than to shoot it. The success of this theme was the most gratifying aspect for me.
As a writer, I'm very happy that people like the extra files they find in the game, without even an image, and I’m sure the fictional man who became a zombie will also be happy!
CH: Your time at Capcom coincided with the release of its most successful influencial series, with you at the helm as lead writer of the original, signature game that started all the success. How did you cope with the pressures of working at Capcom during that time?
KI: I enjoyed my time at Capcom, but the work was extremely hard. I quit the company right after the release of Resident Evil and I remember that initially it wasn't that popular for a while after its release. Also, at that time, the Resident Evil team wasn't considered to be big a deal within the company, so I didn't feel too much pressure.
CH: Do you have a message for all the Resident Evil fans, and for those gamers who consider the original, that you were so significant and influential in designing, to be one of the best survival horror games of all time?
KI: With the original Resident Evil, if there were parts of the game that were unpopular with gamers, it wasn't from any team mistake, because with limited man-hours and personnel, there were many restrictions and causes that were not known to the public. I believe that the characters, organization, and settings of Resident Evil are still alive and well because of the continued creation of subsequent games and related content, and of course because the fans continue to play them. So I can only greatly thank the creators and gamers for that.
SPECIAL THANKS: welsh, George Trevor, The Oracle Dragon, BSAArklay