The Revelations Interview

In bringing Resident Evil to the 3DS, what is the most important thing to keep in mind?

MK: Well, obviously, the thing that we had to pay the most attention to, and think about, was the 3D effects on the 3DS. We definitely had to think about making the game comfortable to play for a long time, without making the player's eyes get too tired -- but at the same using that 3D effect to create a real sense of presence, and to help the player get a really good sense of the space that they're in. It's really good for that.

Also, for the 3DS, there's another title that already came out: Mercenaries 3D. The controls of Revelations are very, very similar to what we have in Mercenaries, so that kind of is a common point, in terms of making the controls of a Resident Evil game for this new hardware. If you play Mercenaries before you play Revelations, you'll get an idea of where we're going.

Other than that, we didn't really do anything different because it's a portable game. We're basically making a normal, full-scoped Resident Evil game for the 3DS, so it's not any different from a full game you would see on a home console.

Of course, the big difference between this and the most recent big Resident Evil game, Resident Evil 5, is the fact that this is much, much more focused on horror and a scary atmosphere.

When you're creating an atmosphere of horror, is that setting? Is that the monsters? What creates the atmosphere of horror?

MK: There certainly are a lot of different kinds of horror, but, in terms of Resident Evil horror, the thing that I think makes horror very Resident Evil is having a situation or a place where you're in that is a normal place that you might find yourself in, but that has something just a little bit different about it, that makes you feel a little bit uncomfortable when you're there.

In the case of Revelations, we've got this very, very large ship that I think you've seen a little bit. To a large extent, it's a normal ship; however, there's something that's a little bit different. There's something that's not quite right about this place. You go into, say, a cafeteria; it seems kind of normal, but just under the surface there's something that doesn't feel quite right. That's something that we've really tried to bring out in Revelations.

Resident Evil: Revelations

I feel like, going back, the first game was the most horror-focused in the series. You're in that mansion; that sense of being trapped in an enclosed environment adds a lot to the horror. Is that something that you're talking about with the ship?

MK: Absolutely. That enclosed space that you cannot escape from, with the ship, is very similar to the mansion in the original Resident Evil. There's no way that you can escape from the horror, basically.

It would seem to me that, when you're looking at a portable game, since it's small, it's not as easy to create an atmosphere of horror. But, at the same time, you can focus very intently on it when you're alone. I'm interested in what your thoughts are in creating an atmosphere of horror that affects the player, given the system itself.

MK: The thing about the 3DS is that it's really, really easy to get sucked into the screen. You end up concentrating very hard on what you're doing, and that actually helps to bring out the feeling of presence and the horror.

Is that because it's 3D?

MK: Yes, the 3D certainly does bring that out. A lot of it is visual, but with that added dimension -- you kind of going into the game, the feeling of presence in the game -- really does enhance the horror in a way that you can't really do with just a 2D screen.

Also, the sound of the 3DS is really, really great. Certainly, if you're really wanting to immerse yourself in an environment, maybe the speakers of the 3DS aren't 100 percent up to the task, but if you get some headphones, and experience the environment that way, it's really quite immersive.

How did the game being 3D affect the creative decisions that you took with the project in general?

MK: To be perfectly honest, because it's 3D, we didn't actually need to change too much in terms of the design. The 3D didn't really influence the design all that much. Obviously, there are options like -- since it's 3D -- being able to actually go into a first-person perspective does present a little bit more information to the player about where enemies are and things like that.

But the basis for this game was creating a full-fledged Resident Evil experience with all the trappings on the 3D console. I think it's not so much that, because of 3D, we did too many things differently; the 3D enhanced our ability to tell an interesting story -- an interesting Resident Evil story that will, hopefully, resonate with fans.

I think that playing through the game on the 3DS will show players that 3D doesn't really make too many fundamental changes to the gameplay and how we make games, but it definitely does enhance that and make it better.