Resident Evil's Creator Thinks Capcom Has Gone Numb to Horror

Hideki Kamiya, who directed the original Resident Evil 2, has been vocal about a concern that might sound unusual coming from someone so deeply tied to survival horror: he thinks the series has become too frightening. In conversations with Capcom, Kamiya has suggested the studio consider developing a less-scary version of Resident Evil Requiem, arguing that the developers themselves may have lost sight of just how unsettling their own games have become.

The worry, as Kamiya frames it, isn't that horror is inherently bad—it's that Capcom's team has grown desensitized to the fear factor they've engineered into these titles. When you're building something day in and day out, the shock and dread that lands so hard for players can start to feel like just another design element to the people making it. Kamiya has pitched the idea of a "non-scary" mode, a way to let players experience the Resident Evil universe without the full weight of its horror machinery bearing down on them.

It's an interesting tension. The franchise has always been defined by its ability to unsettle—that's been the core appeal since the beginning. Yet Kamiya's suggestion hints at something worth considering: that accessibility to horror, like accessibility to anything else, might mean offering different thresholds for different players. Not everyone wants to be terrified, even if they're curious about the world and story.

Capcom hasn't moved on these requests, and given the studio's commitment to horror as the series' foundation, it seems unlikely they will. The company is already moving forward with a remake of Code Veronica, which will presumably maintain the franchise's established tone. Still, Kamiya's voice here—thoughtful rather than dismissive—raises a fair point about the gap between how creators experience their own work and how audiences do. Sometimes the people closest to something need a gentle reminder of its power.

Source: IGN