Resident Evil: Revelations should have number in title - producer

By Tom Phillips Published 24 January, 2012

Wanted to "remove any dissatisfaction from before".

Resident Evil: Revelations should have been a numbered release to promote the fact it is a "full-on" Resident Evil game and not another spin-off, its producer has admitted.

In other words, Resident Evil: Revelations would have been Resident Evil 6. It would also have had that logo.

"Maybe I shouldn't say this, but looking at the finished game makes me think why we didn't slap a number on the title," Revelations producer Masachika Kawata said in a new Iwata Asks interview.

"It's a true-as-can-be Resident Evil game from head to toe, so please enjoy it."

While praising Resident Evil 4, Kawata explained that the Revelations team wished to "remove any dissatisfaction from before".

The series' last numbered release, Resident Evil 5, received a lukewarm reaction from fans and critics alike.

"The first thing I thought was I wanted to make a full-on Resident Evil game rather than just port the series into a handheld system and set that as my goal," Kawata added.

"Another thing was that, whereas Resident Evil 4 had changed the model for the series of the numbering titles from there on out, I wanted to get back to the origins of the series by returning the direction to its horror roots. We created a team that could create a truly frightening Resident Evil."

Picture of Tom.

About Tom Phillips

Tom joined Eurogamer in 2010 and has quickly made his mark writing news and columns and coming up with puntastic straplines. Questionable beard. @TomPhillips151 on Twitter.

Read more articles from Tom by visiting the Tom Phillips archive page.

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Comments (30) Latest comment 4 months ago

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  • Osahi #1 4 months ago

    When is the review due? I enjoyed the demo, but I'm not sure if the game is overall as fun.
    Edited by Osahi at 24/01/12 @ 09:36

  • Lunatic4ever #2 4 months ago

    I wasn't dissatisfied with Resident Evil 4 and even though a lot of people criticize the developer for the new approach, I very much enjoyed the last two installments. Co-op in Resident Evil 5 was super fun even though it toally wasn't scary anymore. It's an action game now and I'm okay with that as long as its fun.

  • chiptoon #3 4 months ago

    I don't think an 84 on metacritic is lukewarm reception from critics, although a 7 from Eurogamer is less warm than the average. Many fans hated it, many critics had a convenient case of amnesia regarding their review score and jumped on the "its mediocre" bandwagon.

  • GiarcYekrub #4 4 months ago

    The AI in RE5 single player was a nightmare to control, you had to do work arrounds like withhold weapons just to stop it wasting ammo still it was likely to pick up a grenade and waste it on a single zombie. At least RE4 had a "sit there do nothing" option, I personally think the single player should have played more akin to Resi Zero with character switching

  • Kami #5 4 months ago

    RE5 lacked many of the things that made RE4 great - thrills, spills, and lashings of dark, twisted humour. RE4 was self-aware, and made a massive joke out of Ramon Salazar, Saddler and his massively stretchy scorpion appendage and just the general concept. RE4 was FUN. It knew it was meant to be FUN. At no real stage were you unaware of this - from Ashley's skirt and being able to get a brief glimpse up it to the "I'm sending my right hand to dispose of you!" "Your right hand comes off?!" line, THAT is what made Resi 4 memorable above and beyond its control scheme. It's a riot. It's meant to entertain and entertain it does.

    I hope the humour isn't forever lost on the series as I think even Capcom have forgotten that its been such a massive part of the Resident Evil franchise for so many years. Resident Evil doesn't really work without some light-hearted dialogue or a raft of double-entendres.

    Good news is Jill is more guilty of this than most, so I assume she has some inappropriately funny lines in Revelations. I hope so, in any case. It's not Jill otherwise...

  • TarickStonefire #6 4 months ago

    So it's not so much that it was supposed to be number 6, but rather that the producer wishes that Capcom had taken his game more seriously and made it number 6.

  • GamesConnoisseur #7 4 months ago

    ^

    AI of Sheva wasn't that great and thus would except 7/10 84/100 to be a bit kind, but on the other hand, I played through the campaign 8 or more times in co op with mates and were a blast every time.

    Solo or co op in this game really radically changes the game for me.

  • AdamAsunder #8 4 months ago

    My experience of co-op was trying to keep my partner focused on the 'cutscenes' as you never knew when a shoddy QTE was about to rear its ugly head.

    They should have probably released this on console and maybe they still can in the future as I'm not keen on handheld gaming at the best of times, especially for something as involved as this. I don't thing these full blooded titles are really cut out for these platforms. On the move you want quick and easy, this screams sit at home and thus might as well be played on a home console. Madness.

    And internet: notice how I wrote 'should have' instead of 'should of'?
    Edited by AdamAsunder at 24/01/12 @ 10:38

  • -cerberus- #9 4 months ago

    Damned if you do, damned it you don't. Revelations does look better than RE6 but with that run 'n' gun formula that the series has been using since RE4, no number in the title is going to save it from being mediocre.

  • cyacomini #10 4 months ago

    I actually thought RE5 was a little too fast. All too easy to get backed into a corner with arms flailing in a panic. I'm not saying it was a bad game, I enjoyed what I played of it (not much!).

    I preferred the more measured pace of RE4 and it's predecessors which gave you time to carefully consider your next move - I think the slower pace also gave you more time to soak in the atmosphere.

  • sega #11 4 months ago

    @-cerberus-

    Resident Evil 4 is a high point in the series - not a low one. It shouldn't be labelled along side Resident Evil 5. It's a change from tradition, yes, but at the time of release it was groundbreaking and still remains as one of the best games of all time. It's sequel is flawed, but for reasons completely unrelated to anything in 4.

    RE4 was daring and fresh - it changed with tradition and made an exciting and fun episode to the series at a time when it was growing tired. If you prefer the traditional style of Resident Evil then that's fair enough, but you can't hold that against what is a truly classic and inventive game because of what further sequels did.

  • GiarcYekrub #12 4 months ago

    Quite shocked at the metacritic scores, definately thought Resi 2 would be top rated of the traditional style and thought that CV would have scored higher

    RE 4 GC/PS2 (96)
    RE PS1 (91)
    REmake GC (91)
    RE 2 PS1 (89)
    RE 5 PC (86)
    RE:CVX PS2 (82)
    RE 3 DC (79)

  • Street89 #13 4 months ago

    @Osahi Check out Metacritic, it's had 9/10 by two sites but 6/10 from Games TM

  • -cerberus- #14 4 months ago

    @sega: I respect what RE4 represents from a technical perspective but I don't consider 'rescuing the president's daughter' the high point of the series. True, RE's story always was a silly mess and was never meant to be taken seriously but I'll take 'stop a couple of sadist elitist upper class asshole twins from spreading their reign of terror' over this crap any day.
    Edited by -cerberus- at 24/01/12 @ 11:24

  • Kami #15 4 months ago

    @-cerberus-; Alfred Ashford is for me easily the best baddie the Resident Evil series has thrown up. And reinforces my belief that the dark, camply warped humour of the series is a big part of it - Alfred was brilliant. Sinister and very, very funny in one neat, twisted package.

    I will however keep reminding people it's a tad early to write Resident Evil 6 off. It really could be a great game. I know this may surprise people, but y'know, there's every chance it could be great. It's just, how can you judge from one trailer which probably cobbled together some brief moments? I was more interested in the street scenes, wondering with that big hulking great armoured thing whether or not we're getting hints of Resident Evil 3: Nemesis in there. From what I saw, it's like a blend of the old and the new, and I'm quite intrigued by that.

    That said, I still wonder if one day Capcom will bring back some of the characters that fell by the wayside... RE1.5 for example, Elza Walker. She seemed a great concept - would love to see her in a game at some stage. Heck, part of me would still pay very good money to play 1.5...

  • RoOhDaMite #16 4 months ago

    Well, guess back then when they announced it they weren't that confident in 3DS becoming a success thus they wouldn't want people to feel like they were missing out on the main canon. The same thing happened to Code Veronica I believe.
    Edited by RoOhDaMite at 24/01/12 @ 12:08

  • -cerberus- #17 4 months ago

    @Kami: Fully agree regarding Alfred.

    We've had this discussion about RE6 a few days ago, Kami. So I'm not going to repeat myself.
    Revelations seems to go back to the slow-paced exploration bits, which was exactly what I loved about the old-school RE games. I don't mind the modern over-the-shoulder perspective, it worked great in Mask of the Lunar Eclipse so I welcome it here as well.

    Oh, and I'd pay double for an actual RE0 copy on N64 and RE1.5 on, let's say, Sega Saturn! And, of course, RE3.5 on Cube; I'd very much like to battle the ghost with the hook.
    Edited by -cerberus- at 24/01/12 @ 12:24

  • Gearskin #18 4 months ago

    The demo released on the eShop was much more Resident Evil than the last few games.

  • Darren #19 4 months ago

    How about Resident Evil 6/10: Revelations which is the score gamesTM magazine awarded the game this month? ;)

  • Kami #20 4 months ago

    @-cerberus-; Indeed. Let's not. But The RE0 on N64 looked nice, and I agree - were there not two prototypes of Resident Evil 4 before what we know as the main game? I remember some creepy haunted house with dolls and stuff, and then there was a promo with Leon walking through a very high-tech looking labratory tunnel made of glass/see-through perspex/something else durable and transparent. Both looked interesting.

    I think 1.5 is the one that troubles me as it was practically a full game that got scrapped at the last minute, and the youtube videos of the promo/in-game footage suggest it was - technically, if nothing else - miles ahead of what we now call Resident Evil 2. Trapping zombies under grates and weights, zombies were somewhat smarter - and would eagerly climb up from a lower point to get a nibble.

    I wonder sometimes why they ditched what looked to be a really good, pretty, advanced game. Did they feel it was maybe too far ahead of RE1? Maybe the series as we know it would have been very different.

    Ahh, rambling over old Resi games. Was it just me who got a very dark vibe from the Police Chief and the dead Mayor's Daughter? You know... I always felt the game was insinuating something there, although that could purely be me looking way too deep...

  • tuGs #21 4 months ago

    Besides the inner conflict of the producer I think a number in the titel also would sell the game better...

  • -cerberus- #22 4 months ago

    @Kami: I remember seeing early gameplay of Leon inhaling some sort of black smoke and also a short segment of him exploring some sort of zeppelin/aircraft.

    1.5 was scrapped because the developers simply were unhappy with the end result. It was scrapped at 85% completion according to several sources.

    We only saw the Mayor's daughter for one cutscene but not a trace of her afterwards. One can only speculate about her (body's) whereabouts...

    What bothers me most were the last words of Wesker's Report regarding Sherry Birkin: 'There's something about this little girl.'
    Unless I've missed something in the main series, she's never mentioned again. Ever.

  • INSOMANiAC #23 4 months ago

    Dont tell us you want to go back to the roots etc then make us shoot fucking monsters instead of zombies and have a dodge move!

    Still looking forward to playing it

  • levitate #24 4 months ago

    Revelations is a day 1 purchase for me. I loved the demo. Unfortunately I haven't played many of the older games, I do recall playing one of the earlier ones on PC back in the days, so I'm not fully updated on the whole timeline thing.

  • Kami #25 4 months ago

    @-cerberus- ; I say Sherry is the last piece of the puzzle - like Jill, Sherry is equally as important. Jill has a dormant strain of the T-Virus... Sherry has a dormant strain of the G-Virus. The series cannot really go on very much longer without explaining what became of Sherry - conveniently forgotten, yet the ever-present elephant in the room for long-term fans.

    1.5 was probably too action-packed. From what I've seen it was doing a lot of what CV:X and RE4 would do later, and that's not really giving your series much room to grow. Or maybe they'd have improved on it. It's a curious thing. :)

    RE4 prototypes, I remember the zeppelin thing - think it was tied to that glass tunnel. The smoke thing I believe was the spooky house with dolls. I liked that, although arguably that looked way more Silent Hill than Resident Evil. Understandable they dropped that angle.

    And I know, but it's those tiny details and insinuations that make the series so darkly camp. I mean, the little mutant spawns that decide to jump down Mr Chief and Ben's throats - I was 16 and a little sheltered but even I knew what was being insinuated there.

    I've never really been able to take the series that seriously. I always see dirty jokes and filthy humour in it.

  • -cerberus- #26 4 months ago

    @Kami: "I've never really been able to take the series that seriously. I always see dirty jokes and filthy humour in it."

    Now this surprises me because that's exactly why I feel 4 & 5 (and possibly 6) are inferior to the original four because they seem to take themselves too seriously and lack the camp elements that benefited the previous instalments.

  • Kami #27 4 months ago

    @-cerberus- ; I think RE4 was camper than a row of tents filled with Graham Norton clones. It's hardly something you can miss - the game was quite blatantly taking the piss and sending itself up at almost every opportunity it got, from Ashley calling you a pervert to Saddler's massive great big scorpion-tailed appendage (WANGPALED!), from Ramon Salazar (If you can take him seriously you're a far, far better man than I will ever be!) to the fantastic Merchant (Again - can you honestly take that guy seriously?). RE4 was littered with this stuff. The whole thing felt like a send-up of old action movies - complete with Leon from time to time breaking the fourth wall to make a silly quip. I found it all rather glorious.

    RE5, on the other hand, I agree with you. RE5 was srsbsnss. And it didn't feel right because of it. It was played far too straight and as such it kind if tried to take its own - arguably very silly - story seriously. There's a point where they thought, "Jill's gravity-defying cleavage will save the day! Let's spend some time focusing in on it and the device!" and you just think, okay, that's just cheap tactics now. That's Transformers: Dark of the Moon next to RE4's Repossessed.

    RE6 - possibly. But then, if it does return to its roots, look at it this way. Remember the RE2 we did get? Take a look at the first "slutty-dressed" zombie you find. For me, I've always found that zombie to be munching on somethings groin. Without fail. I'm pretty sure that is meant to be a joke and not a painful warning someone on the team was sending to their colleagues...

    ... suddenly I feel like those offices may be rather tense these days...
    Edited by Kami at 24/01/12 @ 17:20

  • MrVengeance #28 4 months ago

    The demo is superb - the max 3D effect is astounding!!

    RE: Resi 5 - the only reason people were disappoointed with 5 was that 4 was so amazing. I adored 5 - one of the best games this generation.

  • Kami #29 4 months ago

    @MrVengeance; I suppose it might be one of the better horror games this generation, granted, but it disappointed me by being so serious. All those tentacles and not one single insinuation?! Even Nemesis insinuated and he only had the one... well, for the most part...

    I also didn't think Excella was an especially good baddie. She was bland and I hate to say it, very boring. There was no real chemistry there for her and Wesker - you'd expect Wesker to play along a little and get her hopes up before so cruelly dashing them, but the two seemed to be reading from entirely different scripts, on different days, on different types of alcohol. That whole side-line was wasted and totally misplaced, with no real thought or care attached. It was something, but not "something".

    I know it is odd to care about that sort of thing but I do believe a good cast and good side-plots make an interesting story more dynamic. When you give a damn, the game gets better - it gets under your skin.

    Excella, Sheva, Wesker, Chris, Irving... not one of them felt worth connecting with. The one character I did sympathise with was Jill, who stole the whole show and then some - her sub-plot was worth reading into...

    But the DLC was good, and so was The Mercenaries mode. Resident Evil 5 wasn't terrible...

    It just lacked flavour.

  • Bulbatron #30 4 months ago

    Damn, I'm way too late for this conversation now, but all I can say is that if Resident Evil Revelations had been a numbered title, it would've made its 3DS-exclusivity even more unbearable than it already is.

    My eyesight isn't really good enough to play games on a screen that small, so I'm quite gutted to have to miss out on Revelations for that reason. I just hooe they will port it to home consoles at some point in the future.

    I don't know how much hope there is of that happening. We got Resident Evil 4 ported from the Wii and PlayStation 3 users will get the Chronicles Collection, but we've still got REmake and Resident Evil Zero still frustratingly stuck as Nintendo exclusives.

    @Kami @-cerberus- There's a pretty in-depth analysis of Resident Evil 3.5 here:

    http://www.relyonhorror.com/in-depth/resident-evil-3-5-in-depth-analysis/