How Resident Evil 2 fell apart, but was able to become the biggest hit of Capcom

In the late 80s and early 90s, Capcom released games that reached a decent level of sales. Mega Man and Street Fighter did not make huge hits in 1987, especially when compared to the success stories of other companies like Nintendo and Sega, but they showed themselves well enough for Capcom to release sequels, thus creating franchises. Mega Man 2 , which many consider to be the best in the series, overtook the first part in sales and reached worldwide a circulation of one million copies. The success of Street Fighter 2 was even more remarkable: it so surpassed the first game that the original is barely noticeable in the history of Capcom.

Unlike Mega Man and Street Fighter, the first part of Resident Evil immediately became successful, disrupting Capcom's historical trends. Therefore, Resident Evil 2 was inevitable. But for Capcom to keep up with the development of the Survival horror genre it created, Resident Evil 2 had to become better than its predecessor, as happened with Mega Man 2 and Street Fighter 2 . The developers wanted the sequel to become what James Cameron’s “Aliens” had become for its predecessor, the “Alien” : a more revolutionary and ambitious project.

Ideally, the development of a sequel of any video game is based on the experience of its creators, obtained when creating a predecessor. The creators seek to improve the quality of the sequel, usually adding elements that were previously unavailable due to lack of time, technology or budget, while at the same time increasing the scale of the game to increase the attractiveness for the players. However, even before the beginning of the development of Resident Evil 2, it became clear that due to personnel changes in Capcom, the game would be created in completely different conditions.


Tokuro Fujiwara

The first change was the departure from Capcom Tokuro Fujiwara in late 1995, before the release of the first part. Since 1983, he was the Grand Master of Capcom console games and mentor of the younger creators of the company, so his departure marked the end of one era and the beginning of another. Fujiwara’s decision to quit was explained by his desire to create new and original games, which he, he said, could not do at Capcom. “In addition to Resident Evil , Capcom wanted to continue creating franchise projects such as Street Fighter. I wanted to develop original games, but I did not see such an opportunity in the foreseeable future, ”Fujiwara says. Officially, he retired from Capcom immediately after the release of Resident Evil , but actually ceased to appear in the office in December 1995 to spend all his accumulated weekends, which for his thirteen-year career had accumulated a lot. He had thousands of hours of processing and unused weekends, which was standard practice for Capcom at that time.

Fujiwara set about creating his own independent development studio Whoopee Camp. In it, he put together a team to develop a 2D platform for PlayStation called Tomba! (in Europe known as Tombi! ), released in December 1997. Despite the lack of huge commercial success, he showed himself well enough to receive a sequel to Tomba two years later ! 2: The Evil Swine Return (in Europe - Tombi! 2 ). Unfortunately at Whoopee Camp Fujiwara did not achieve the same level of success as at Capcom. No Tomba game sold out well enough to support the company's costs, so Fujiwara hibernated Whoopee Camp. The company continues to exist, but essentially inactive.

Fujiwara worked on many games as a freelance consultant, such as the 2001 survival horror Extermination for the PlayStation 2. For the first time in ten years, he reunited with Capcom in 2006 to create a platform for the PlayStation Portable Ultimate Ghosts' n Goblins - remake of the game He created twenty years ago. In 2009, as a designer, he worked with PlatinumGames on a beat-'em-up game called MadWorld . Later Fujiwara took a break for several years, and stopped creating games due to health problems. After recovering, he quietly returned to the gaming industry in 2015 as a consultant. To carry out such work, he brought Whoopee Camp out of hibernation; in 2018, he continued to work under the banner of this company. Now it may seem that his participation in the Resident Evil series is short-lived, but this is not so: for seven long years he cherished the dream of creating real horror gameplay in video games, and if not for his ability to recognize the talent of Shinji Mikami, then Resident Evil could not be as we know it today. Mikami is often called the father of Resident Evil, but Fujiwara definitely became her grandfather. When it was time for Resident Evil 2 , the grandfather was no longer there.

Another notable loss was Resident Evil screenwriter Kenichi Ivao. Ivao came to Capcom in the early 1990s, after the release of Street Fighter 2 , and initially worked on games such as platformer for Demon's Crest Super NES. While Fujiwara’s influence as an executive producer was rather invisible, the contribution to the Ivao series was more direct and tangible. Ivao created the basic elements of the Resident Evil game universe: T-virus, Umbrella Corporation, STARS members, zombies, Tirana and all other enemies. In addition, he wrote game notes, including the famous “Itchy. Tasty. "(" Itches. Tasty. ") From the caretaker's diary. In Japanese, this phrase is written as kayui uma (か ゆ い う ま), which approximately can be translated as “Itches. Delicious. ”This phrase has become a popular cultural reference in Japan, because the word kayu is a homonym, meaning both“ itch ”and“ rice porridge ”, and the word uma (ま) is a homonym, meaning either“ tasty ”or“ horse". Thanks to Ivao, Japanese Resident Evil fans sometimes joke that the game is some sort of a combination of delicious cereal, itchy cereal, delicious horse, or a itchy horse.

After leaving Capcom, Ivao returned to his native Tokyo and joined Square, where he became director of Parasite Eve 2 - a sequel inspired by the Resident Evil survival horror, the plot of which was based on a novel. He also worked on the MMORPG Final Fantasy XI and Final Fantasy XIV . It is difficult to imagine the universe of Resident Evil without the foundation laid by Ivao. His departure meant that the Resident Evil 2 team would have to look for a new script writer, which had a huge impact on the development of the game.


Hideki Kamiya

Now Shinji Mikami, who has become a significant figure in Capcom thanks to the successful leadership of the Resident Evil project, decided to play a different role in the sequel and become a producer. This task is more concerned with budgeting and project management than with creativity. Therefore, as the director of Resident Evil 2, you had to choose another person. Mikami wanted to pass the reins to a younger colleague in order to develop his professional and creative skills. Among the many talented people in his team, Mikami noticed the 25-year-old Hideki Kamiya, who recently joined the company.

Kamiya, like many creators, had a modest origin. He was born in Matsumoto, from childhood he loved games, he had a NES and he played arcade machines. He also liked drawing. After completing the university, Kamiya wanted to work in the gaming industry, so he sent resumes to several companies. He received a job offer from two major publishers: from Capcom, to the position of designer, and from Namco, who needed an artist. In the end, Kamiya chose the first and went to work in April 1994. Soon he underwent a reshuffle, like most new employees in Japanese companies in the first year of work. After professional training, Kamiya performed simple tasks like quality control and simple planning, and then he joined the team of the original Resident Evil . There, Kamiya was the designer of the environments at the Spencer Manor, but his most important contribution to the ENT series was the names of the characters, including Jill, Chris, Wesker and others. “I drew inspiration from various sources, including porn magazines,” Kamiya told me on a rainy autumn evening in October 2017, trying to remember how he came up with these names.

Of course, Kamiya’s talent was much more than the ability to give names to characters, so Mikami soon noticed his potential. One evening in mid-1994, Mikami said to Kamiya : “You are a dark horse among newcomers. Either you fail miserably or you will achieve great success. ” Although Kamiya admits that he was quite violent in his twenties, all his colleagues described him as diligent, thinking and hardworking: Mikami considered these properties vital for successful project management. When it was time to choose the director of Resident Evil 2 , Mikami summoned Kamiya to a meeting in the spring of 1996 to make his decision official, almost the same as Fujiwara chose Mikami about three years before. For reasons that he still did not fully understand, Kamiya became director of Resident Evil 2 .

"Resident Evil 1.5" and the appearance of Noboru Sugimura

Games in the genre of Survival horror are not designed for everyone. Not to mention the fact that they are intended for an adult audience, their eeriness and frightening images require a certain level of preparedness to avoid screams and panic. Therefore, it was rather ironic that Hideki Kamiya was now sitting in the chair of the director of Resident Evil 2 . Despite his new position as head of the creative development of the acclaimed sequel to the most successful horror of the time, Kamiya was never a fan of movies and horror games. He admits that it is easy to frighten him, and when he sees violent and grotesque scenes, he is troubled, and even the dark death scenes from Resident Evil , in which people are eaten by zombies or decapitated by Hunters, may be too strong for him. However, Mikami chose him to lead Resident Evil 2 , that is, Kamiya needed to overcome his dislike of horror, or to transfer this duty to someone else. Over the next two years, Kamiya tried to keep his best.

Unable to completely distance himself from his horror horror, Kamiya decided that Resident Evil 2 would adhere to the basic gameplay of its predecessor, but still focused on action. This development of the game was a reflection of his love for Hollywood action films. In the original Resident Evil , which became an early game for the PlayStation, the heroic combat abilities were weakened, which resulted in a slow gameplay. By making minor additions like automatic weapons and faster enemies, Resident Evil 2 basically continued to stick to the original. But instead of an isolated mansion in the forest, the action was moved to the streets of Raccoon City. This meant that there would be more zombies on the screen (up to seven at a time, which is twice as large as the original, where there could be a maximum of three zombies). In the sequel, the new characters of the two scenarios were to appear, including characters such as officers Leon S. Kennedy and Marvin Branag, civilians Ada Wong and Robert Kendo, young motorcyclist Elsa Walker and teenage girl Sherry Birkin (most of the names on the early development stages were different). Kamiya invented unique long scenarios for Leon and Elsa in the same way as the individual scenarios of Jill and Chris in the first part. In an effort to make Resident Evil 2 a unique product, Kamiya decided that the game would be weakly connected with the plot of the original game, although it would develop in the same universe.


Resident Evil captured the imagination of players back in 1996, so the sequel attracted considerable attention from the press and consumers in North America and Japan. Publicly Resident Evil 2 was first shown at the spring Tokyo Game Show 1996. Although the game was still in development, players could already see improvements in graphics and gameplay. Among the fans, the excitement began to grow and expectations rose strongly, which in turn increased the pressure felt by Kamiya and his team. The pressure was also exerted by the Capcom management. Having avoided the threat of bankruptcy due to the success of the original game, Capcom now felt much better, although it recovered and not completely. One or two mistakes could again bring serious problems to the company. Therefore, Capcom could not lose its advantages. Resident Evil 2 had to become successful, just as it was with Street Fighter 2 . All summer and autumn of 1996, the Kamiya team continued to develop environments, a scenario and a gameplay system. By the end of this year, they were able to complete about 70 percent of the project.


Yoshiki Okamoto

Coming to a close, Resident Evil 2 was supposed to pass Yoshiki Okamoto's check, as it did with the original in late 1995. In fact, at the time of coming to the position of executive producer Tokuro Fujiwara, Resident Evil had a rather rough look, but Okamoto turned out to be even more dissatisfied with the state of Resident Evil 2 . In particular, it seemed to him that the visual component with its surroundings filled with bright neon light and the Hollywood action elements were in conflict with the true horror gameplay. Simply put, the game is not very scary. Also, the project was hampered by many other problems with the staff, which Mikami, in an interview with the 1998 book Research on Biohazard 2 -final edition, associated with a large number of young and rather inexperienced developers in the team.

In addition, history was a much more serious than expected obstacle. Okamoto believed that the plot and the script were mediocre and uninteresting, and the game as a whole lacked originality. The Resident Evil series was the first Capcom game in which the plot became an important part of the universe. In the Mega Man, Street Fighter and Ghosts' n Goblins series, the plots were simple and with few dialogues. In these games, the plot could be completely abandoned. The goals set for the Resident Evil 2 team have become unprecedented for the entire Capcom story. After Ivao left, responsibility for the plot fell on Kamiya. He carefully tried to work in the style of Ivao, while at the same time adding his own style. Nevertheless, the lack of real experience in writing scripts was obvious to Kamiya. In its current state, Resident Evil 2 was not close to Aliens , which Capcom originally wanted to create.

The team needed to change the script, but no one else from the company had a reliable replacement. Therefore, Capcom decided to seek help outside the company. Okamoto made the decision to contact Noboru Sugimura, a well-known writer in Japan, who by 1996 had accumulated an impressive portfolio of works on Japanese television for two decades, including Super Sentai Zyuranger (adapted in the West as Mighty Morphin Power Rangers) (“Mighty Rangers ") ) And Kamen Rider (adapted in the West as Saban's Masked Rider (" Masked Rider ") ). Sugimura was a fan of the first game, so he accepted the invitation from Okamoto. At the end of 1996, Sugimura visited the Capcom Tokyo office and met with Mikami and Kamiya, who came from Capcom headquarters in Osaka.

Sugimura played the last build of Resident Evil 2 . After passing, he immediately offered Mikami and Kamiya to give their feedback. As writer Sugimura, it seemed that the plot lacked the depth and integrity of the subject matter, which he considered to be key elements of creating the universe, attractive to gamers, and superior to Capcom’s achievements in the first part. The idea of ​​"integrity themes" Sugimura considered vital, so he criticized Kamiya for creating the plot without reference to the original. "It's horrible! We need a close connection between the two games! ”, Sugimura stated . He believed that Resident Evil should turn into a full-scale gaming brand, in which games should be linked to each other deeper than it did with the Mega Man and Street Fighter series, whose minimalistic plots did not define their individuality as gaming franchises. Sugimura suggested a provocative idea to stop developing the current build and start all over again. Mikami and Kamiya during this meeting could not decide on this. They told Sugimura that they would discuss it with the team and then contact him.


Shinji Mikami

After the meeting, Mikami and Kamiya took the express train, which reached Osaka in three hours. During the trip, they discussed Sugimura’s proposal. Although he spoke badly about the game, both agreed that Sugimura pointed to the right moments that are hard to ignore. It was at that moment that Mikami and Kamiya realized what needs to be done: the entire existing assembly of Resident Evil 2 needs to be completely redone, and Sugimura should be taken on board so that he points the ship in the right direction. Such a serious move led to the fact that the game was postponed for a year, which was still a long time in the era of PlayStation. Although the creation of a game on schedule today can take from three to five years, in the 1990s such long development periods were infrequent, and often served as a signal of problems in production. Despite the wasted efforts and financial damage to Capcom, Mikami and Kamiya made a decision. Okamoto analyzed Sugimura's feedback, many of which reflected Okamoto’s original aspirations. He supported Mikami and Kamiya, thus making the decision official: Resident Evil 2 will be thrown away, postponed and created anew. “We decided to cancel the game because we knew that it would not meet the expectations of the players,” Okamoto said.

When Kamiya was asked about his feelings at the time of the official cancellation of Resident Evil 2 and whether he regretted it, he unequivocally stated that starting all over again was the right decision. “The game really was a piece of manure. Boring, with a lack of vision, a pathetic copy of the horror game, ”Kamiya explains colorfully. “To be honest, after its cancellation, I was relieved. It was my first project as a director, so I lacked experience. I like to experiment with different ideas to see what works and does not work. Another reason for the failure of the game was the lack of my vision. When I take on a project, I usually do not have any specific vision. I love to experiment and see what suits us. ” When asked if he was thinking about giving up his position, it was an unheard of case in Japan, where the only failure could end his career prematurely - Kamiya answered stoically: “No, not once”.

When the news of the cancellation spread inside Capcom, many team members were confused. A whole year of development has been thrown away, and the morale of the team has fallen. Some went so far as to privately meet with Mikami and ask him to change Kamiya to another director. But Mikami did not impress such requests. He rhetorically asked: "Why then do not you become a director?" No one decided to take the place of director. Kamiya was safe, at least at that time. However, everyone had to go back to the very beginning. During the second round of development, Kamiya could not just rest on his laurels. No one would have suffered another failure, not even Mikami, who supported Kamiya and became his only defender in front of disappointed team members.

The original version of Resident Evil 2 was destroyed, but not forgotten. The developers gave her the codename “Resident Evil 1.5”, so as not to confuse it with the release version that they were working on. The number “1.5” should have meant the development of a prototype that occurred between Resident Evil (“1”) and Resident Evil 2 . Most games change over the period of time between the original concept and the finished release; such transformations are usually hidden from the public until the game reaches the release date. But since “Resident Evil 1.5” was actively covered in the press before the project was restarted, Capcom recognized and openly declared its existence as a canceled Resident Evil 2 prototype. For Capcom, this was evidence that it was necessary to start from scratch if the situation required it. The games have evolved so much that external assistance (in this case, Sugimura) can increase the chances of the project and uncover previously inaccessible opportunities. The cancellation of the project was a turning point in the history of Resident Evil, because it was the first step in creating a holistic and interconnected narrative. continuing to this day. Capcom also learned that not all of its games should follow the path of different parts of Mega Man or Street Fighter, which had weakly related plots. Part of the prototype development engine even gained a new life in another action game - Onimusha: Warlords , released in 2001 for the PlayStation 2.

The edited trailer “Resident Evil 1.5” was included as a bonus material in the Japanese version of Resident Evil: Director's Cut Dual Shock Ver. released in August 1998 (after the final release of Resident Evil 2 ). He gave fans an idea of ​​what the game could be. Fifteen years later, in 2013, the unfinished, but playable demo of the prototype managed to be leaked to the Internet. A community of modders with varying degrees of success tried to turn the demo into a playable product that matches the initial vision of the development team. Although gamers may consider the prototype an important relic of game history, Kamiya sees the idea of ​​returning Resident Evil 1.5 without enthusiasm: “To be honest, no one should play such a bad game.”


A remake of Resident Evil 2 for PC, PS4 and Xbox One adheres to the same structure as the original game, but with reworked graphics and gameplay.

Kamiya Strikes Back: Restarting Resident Evil 2

Hired by Yoshiki Okamoto as a screenwriter for Resident Evil 2, Noboru Sugimura did not waste any time. Considering the importance of well-written stories for games, Okamoto established in April 1997 the independent company Flagship Co., Ltd., which was to develop game scenarios. Okamoto became the head of the new company, and Sugimura was appointed head of the scripting department. Although theoretically they worked in a separate company from Capcom, Flagship and Sugimura were closely associated with the Resident Evil 2 team and stood at the helm of developing a new project.

First, Sugimura learned what can be removed or redone from Resident Evil 1.5 for a new game. Although the design of Resident Evil 2 was created from scratch, not all of Resident Evil 1.5 was completely rejected. Sugimura decided to re-use the design of some characters to match the chosen new direction. He also decided that the composition of the characters of Resident Evil 2 should be directly connected with someone from the first game. As a result, he decided to replace Elsa Walker with a similar, but new character: 19-year-old Claire Redfield, who became the younger sister of Chris Redfild. Now the game had a direct connection with the first part, which was lacking in “Resident Evil 1.5”. The design of Leon S. Kennedy, Ada Wong, Marvin Branag, and Robert Kendo was transferred from the prototype almost unchanged, and they were given expanded or altered roles.

Sugimura also decided to keep Racoon City as a background, especially since it was one of the few elements linking the game to the original. As in the original concept of Hideki Kamiya, the scale in comparison with the original has become much larger. Unlike the quiet, isolated, and claustrophobic corridors of Spencer's estate, Racoon City was filled with zombies. Three months after the events of the first part, Leon and Claire arrived in Raccoon City, where they unintentionally fell into the center of a zombie epidemic. They seek refuge at the Raccoon Police Department (RPD), one of the most iconic entourage of the series along with the Spencer House. There all fun begins. Sugimura suggested that RPD have a background explaining how the building turned into a cluster of puzzles. “During the development of Resident Evil 1.5, the RPD structure had no meaning,” explains Kamiya. "Sugimura suggested the idea that the police station used to be an art museum, and therefore strange riddles are scattered throughout the building."

Another element taken from Resident Evil 1.5 was the presence of two main characters. However, unlike the original game, now their stories did not develop in complete isolation. Камия и Сугимура вместе разработали новую механику под названием «zapping system» («система перемычек»). Леон и Клэр исследуют одинаковые локации, и многие головоломки для них одинаковы или похожи, но так как их сюжеты происходят одновременно, то чтобы увидеть весь сюжет и истинную концовку, игроки должны завершить оба сценария. Время от времени пути Леона и Клэр пересекаются, поэтому иногда действия в одном сценарии непосредственно влияют на то, что происходит в другом. Самым значимым становится решение о том, кто из них, Леон или Клэр, получит определённое оружие; игроки должны взвесить все «за» и «против», потому что это может упростить прохождение первого сценария, но усложнить второй, и наоборот.

Zapping system добавила ещё один уровень глубины: наличие сценариев «A» и «B». В сценарии A выбирается Клэр, а в сценарии B — Леон. Обратное: Леон в A и Клэр в B, тоже возможно. Элементы сюжета и геймплея (враги и предметы) меняются в зависимости от выбранной комбинации сюжетов. В целом получилось две комбинации из четырёх различных сценариев. В сценариях B появляется уникальный враг-преследователь, одетый в плащ T-102 Tyrant, которого западные фанаты обычно называют «Мистер X». Он станет одним из наиболее известных монстров серии. Хотя zapping system в результате определила индивидуальность Resident Evil 2 , ярко выделяя игру на фоне других частей, на самом деле её реализовали на поздних этапах разработки. Камия решил интегрировать концепцию двух пересекающихся сюжетов, идея которой пришла ему в конце разработки первой игры, когда реализовывать её было уже поздно. Камия признаёт, что во всех сценариях встречаются повторяющиеся элементы, например, оба персонажа должны открывать одни и те же двери одинаковыми ключами, но также замечает, что одержимое стремление к максимальному реализму сделало бы игру менее увлекательной.


С технической точки зрения команде удалось внести в движок игры незначительные изменения, в основном касающиеся графики и анимаций. Первая Resident Evil стала экспериментом по созданию трёхмерной видеоигры на PlayStation, но теперь команда набралась навыков и опыта, что проявило себя в технических улучшениях Resident Evil 2 . Модели персонажей и фоны стали более детализированными, а персонажи при получении ран теперь замедлялись и держались за бок. Враги благодаря улучшениям игрового ИИ стали быстрее и агрессивнее. Это заметнее всего в анимациях боссов, более быстрых и угрожающих, чем в первой игре.

Одной из случайностей процесса разработки стало то, что Resident Evil 2was released on two CDs. The finished game on disc 1 contains Leon’s script, and disc 2 contains Claire’s script. From a technological point of view, it was possible to place all the data Resident Evil 2 on a single 700-megabyte CD, as in the original. Initially, Capcom planned to do so. Nevertheless, the team made a miscalculation in the algorithm for calculating the size of the audio data of the game, which was noticed too late. Mikami recalls how he learned about this problem from software developer Yasuhiro Anpo. Anpo called Mikami, who was working on a separate floor from the rest of the team. “Anpo told me that there was a problem. But he did not have time to explain, because I hung up! ”Laughs Mikami. "Anpo had to come to me and say that for Resident Evil 2It will take not one but two disks, ”Mikami recalls the unexpected news. He was a producer, which means he was responsible for the budget of the game. The problem absolutely required a recalculation of expenses. The Capcom manual was not at all enthusiastic about the development process. This led to higher costs for manufacturing and transportation, because a thicker double-disc jewel case was required. However, given the fact that Resident Evil 2 на этом этапе и так отставала от графика, команде не стали давать время на перепрограммирование алгоритмов звука. Capcom уступила и позволила выпускать игру на двух дисках. Камия, размышляя в январе 2018 года о двадцатилетии игры, заявил, что этот ход был вызван его молодостью и безрассудностью, но эта случайность всё-таки оставила свой след. Даже несмотря на то, что команда изначально не рассматривала Resident Evil 2 как двухдисковую игру, в итоге это положительные результаты: игра стала ощущаться с точки зрения рядового потребителя более масштабной, а значит и более качественной по сравнению с однодисковым оригиналом.

Тем временем Сугимура переписал сюжет сиквела, сделав его более масштабным и увлекательным, чем сюжет оригинала и «Resident Evil 1.5». Он улучшил историю, создав более глубокие роли персонажам второго плана, например Аде, загадочной шпионке, работающей на неизвестную организацию, и Шерри, 12-летней дочери исследователей корпорации Umbrella, ответственных за разработку G-вируса, который мог создавать ещё более мощное биоорганическое оружие, чем заражённые T-вирусом зомби из первой игры. В противоположность довольно одномерным взаимоотношениям героев в оригинале, вызванным ограниченным бюджетом и плохой озвучкой, отношения между всеми персонажами в Resident Evil 2 стали более разнообразными; они содержали такие элементы, как страх, напряжённость, травмы, наивность, любовь, дружба и семейные связи.

Благодаря улучшенному качеству звука, сюжет Resident Evil 2 излагался лучше, чем в оригинале. Resident Evil 2 стала первой игрой, для которой Capcom передала озвучку профессиональной звукозаписывающей студии за пределами Японии. При создании первой части Миками и другим сотрудникам приходилось работать с любительскими и непрофессиональными англоязычными актёрами озвучки, найденными в Японии. В сиквеле же состав актёров был значительно улучшен. В частности актриса Элисон Корт озвучила Клэр, и эту роль она будет много раз исполнять на протяжении следующих 14 лет. Саундтрек, сочинённый Масами Уэда, Сюсаки Утияма и Сюн Нисигаки, состоял из угрюмых и мелодичных композиций, которым удавалось выжать из звукового чипа PlayStation оркестровое звучание. Музыка была так хорошо воспринята игроками, что в 1999 году саундтрек Resident Evil 2 наряду с треками из других игр Resident Evil, был исполнен знаменитым Новым Японским филармоническим оркестром. Многие фанаты и сегодня помнят такие известные темы, как рок-н-рольную композицию в титрах концовки B или темы боссов, связанные с мутировавшим Биркином и T-102 Tyrant.


Кроме того, в Resident Evil 2 было больше дополнительных игровых режимов, чем в её предшественнице. Самым известным стал «The 4th Survivor», главным героем которого становится загадочный агент Umbrella под кодовым именем HUNK. Этот режим был создан планировщиком систем Кацухиро Аояма как бонусный сценарий, разблокируемый при соблюдении определённых условий в основном сценарии. Благодаря этому игроки впервые могли сыграть за одного из «плохих парней». Идея мини-игры появилась на поздних этапах разработки, когда у команды создателей оставалось как раз достаточно времени для добавления дополнительного режима перед выпуском мастер-диска. «The 4th Survivor» был сшит из готовых ресурсов основного сценария, и анимации HUNK, по словам Аояма были полностью идентичными анимациям Леона. Чтобы избежать создания полностью нового персонажа, команда решила использовать персонажа в маске. В другой мини-игре «The To-fu Survivor» главным героем, как можно понять из названия, становится персонаж, напоминающий огромный кусок соевого творога с висящими в воздухе руками, вооружённый только боевым ножом. Это бонусное создание является рудиментом этапа тестирования багов, в котором кусок тофу использовался для тестирования распознавания коллизий персонажа с врагами.


Из-за того, что имя персонажа состоит только из заглавных букв, фанаты долгие годы размышляли о том, что означает «HUNK» — аббревиатура ли это для чего-то конкретного. Аояма говорит, что HUNK — это просто его имя. Американец из команды Resident Evil, пожелавший остаться анонимным, утверждает, что «изначально HUNK должны были звать Hank (Хэнк), но разработчики опечатались, и к тому же написали имя заглавными. Именно поэтому его имя стилизовано таким образом, хотя это не имеет никакого смысла». И в самом деле, в японско катакане «Hank» и «Hunk» пишутся совершенно одинаково, ハンク ( hanku ), из-за отсутствия в японском языке различий между звуками /æ/ (A) и /ʌ/ (U). В Японии существительные, будь то имена собственные или нет, часто пишутся заглавными буквами. Большинство японских разработчиков плохо знает английский, а потому менее внимательно к грамматике и пунктуации; многие говорили мне, что запись заглавными буквами позволяет разработчикам проще находить ключевые понятия в многословных концепт-документах. То же самое можно сказать и про слово «To-fu», которое могло возникнуть потому, что кто-то из команды разработки не понимал, что на английском «tofu» пишется без дефиса. Камия опровергает предположение об ошибке написания HUNK/Hank.

Resident Evil 2 бьёт рекорды продаж

И вот, после затратного и длительного цикла производства, в котором был выброшен в мусор один прототип и разработка снова началась с нуля, в декабре 1997 года Resident Evil 2 наконец была готова. Выпуск в Северной Америке был запланирован 21 января 1998 года, а в Японии — 29 января. Capcom надеялась продать за короткий промежуток времени два миллиона копий — очень высокая планка для видеоигр в 1990-х, когда индустрия была намного меньше современной. Resident Evil 2 была выпущена под внимательным контролем и Capcom, и фанатов Resident Evil со всего света.

Реакция оказалась намного лучше, чем могла надеяться Capcom. Сразу после выпуска Resident Evil 2 продалась огромным тиражом и получила отличные отзывы критиков. В Японии всего за четыре дня было продано почти 1,4 миллиона копий, что мгновенно сделало игру платиновым бестселлером; для достижения этой планки первой части понадобился целый год. В 1998 году тиражом в миллион копий в момент выпуска продались только Final Fantasy компании Square и Dragon Quest компании Enix, что показывает уровень популярности бренда Resident Evil, достигнутый с 1996 года. Resident Evil 2 оказалась очень популярной и в США, где было предзаказано более 380 тысяч копий, что составило 60 процентов от изначального производственного тиража в 633 тысяч. Игра заработала 19 миллионов долларов, получив место в Книге рекордов Гиннесса редакции 1999 года. Она даже обогнала Final Fantasy VII и Super Mario 64 . Несмотря на то, что отделение Capcom USA в то время по-прежнему имело очень маленький масштаб и ограниченные маркетинговые ресурсы, Resident Evil 2 превратила серию в одну из самых доходных франшиз Capcom, в результате повторив то, что сделали Street Fighter 2 и Mega Man 2 в своих сериях: взяла отличную основу и сделала её ещё лучше. Capcom успешно создала аналог того, чем стали «Чужие» для «Чужого» .


Успех игры обеспечил Capcom финансовую прибыль, позволившую выплатить сотрудникам дивиденды. К моменту выпуска Resident Evil 2 Capcom ввела систему бонусов на основе стимулов, в которой зарплаты сотрудников зависели от продаж разрабатываемых ими игр. Продавшись по всему миру тиражом 4,96 миллиона копий, Resident Evil 2 оказалась очень доходной для команды разработчиков. Миками и Камия особенно сетовали на то, насколько низкими были зарплаты во время создания первой Resident Evil . В интервью, данном в 2014 году Polygon , Миками признался, что "[его] зарплата при создании Resident Evil была наверно ниже, чем сегодня получает сотрудник, работающий первый год. На самом деле [Миками] не смог жениться из-за [своего] финансового положения". Resident Evil 2 позволила каждому члену команды достичь значительной финансовой стабильности, хотя игровая индустрия печально известна в Японии низкими зарплатами и большой продолжительностью рабочего дня".

Resident Evil 2 добилась успеха и у критиков. Она получила положительные отзывы от всех современных ей популярных игровых СМИ в США, в том числе от IGN, Electronic Gaming Monthly, GameSpot и Official US PlayStation Magazine. На Metacritic она заработала рейтинг «89 из 100» и средний пользовательский рейтинг «9.2 из 10». Невозможно переоценить то, каким прогрессом был сиквел по сравнению с оригиналом: он стал больше и лучше почти по каждому из параметров. Возможно, исключением могут быть сами элементы хоррора — кто-то считает, что в оригинале они сильнее. Но Resident Evil 2 тоже нельзя назвать в этом плане недотёпой, в игре есть своя доля пугающих и отвратительных моментов. Если учесть также более драматичную и сложную сюжетную линию, созданную при помощи Сугимура, то можно утверждать следующее: несмотря на то, что Resident Evil зародила этой серии в жанре survival horror, именно Resident Evil 2 в результате превратила её в полномасштабную игровую франшизу.


Ремейк Resident Evil 2 — один из наиболее впечатляющих ремастеров на сегодня.

Спроси у своей мамы: размышления Хидэки Камия

The tremendous success of Resident Evil 2 was exactly what Hideki Kamiya needed after such a difficult experience. The abolition of “Resident Evil 1.5” rejected the project one year ago, instilled in the minds of some of its colleagues doubts about its leadership capabilities and almost led to a decline in the Capcom franchise. Thanks to the unshakable support of Shinji Mikami Kamiya did not abandon his goal - the release of a revolutionary and high-quality Resident Evil 2 . Kamiya won, but he was still waiting for a further successful career. Kamiya always reminded that he would never have coped without the support of Mikami. “Without Mikami-san, I would not have become the person I am now,” says Kamiya.

But the most important link in the Resident Evil 2 team was the relationship between Kamiya and Noboru Sugimura. During our interview, Kamiya mentioned the name of Sugimura much more often than the others, including Mikami. It is also noteworthy that Kamiya always called Sugimura a Japanese respectful address “Sensei”, which is usually pronounced in relation to teachers or people who have become masters in their craft. For Kamiya, Sugimura became a master of plot creation, whose leadership helped to bring Resident Evil 2 back on the right path. “Sugimura-sensei was my father’s age,” recalls Kamiya. In Japan, age and seniority are the fabric of society, which largely determines how two people communicate with each other. Preference is given to elders who are often considered sources of wisdom and instruction.

It was Sugimura who carefully created and put in context almost every plot element of Resident Evil 2 , combining them all into a coherent and interesting universe. Nevertheless, few can say that the Resident Evil plot is worthy of the great written masterpieces of our time, but Sugimura did not even strive to achieve this goal. He gave Resident Evil 2 characters and a story to which fans of the game have become attached, as was the case with fans of other Sugimura works, such as Kamen Rider and Super Sentai . More importantly, Sugimura became the leader that Kamiya needed. “He truly loved Resident Evil,” explains Kamiya. "I learned a lot from him." Over the following years, their relationship continued and outgrown just a business connection. Kamiya retells the story of how he got into a moto-accident, because of which he was in the hospital. When Kamiya was lying on a gurney, recovering from the operation, his mother came with a roll from Sugimur. Kamiya, thinking that these were working materials, opened the package in front of his mother’s eyes, and to his embarrassment, he found five pornographic books there.

Today Kamiya is one of the most recognizable creators of the gaming industry. He is a Senior Vice President at Platinum Games. On social networks, he earned a certain reputation thanks to a colorful vocabulary and word selection when communicating with followers of his Twitter account (@ PG_kamiya ). Kamiya, who writes tweets in Japanese and English, often mimics those who send him messages that he considers to be empty, unintelligible, redundant, false or inappropriate. He especially doesn’t like questions about games he hasn’t worked on and the topics he has talked about before. If you want to chat with Kamiya on Twitter, it is better to first study his post history, so that you will not be told to ask your mom for an answer and not be offered “to eat g ...”, or worse, you will not be blocked from viewing and answering his tweets .

At first glance, Kamiya may seem to be a grumpy and inaccessible "star." Even I was a little nervous before our meeting in October 2017, fearing that I would bother him with questions that he had already answered many times. However, in real life, Kamiya is the exact opposite of Twitter personality. He is very friendly, open and friendly. Kamiya, whom most people see on Twitter, is, in my opinion, just a character. His Twitter persona is an alter-ego like an actor-resler. “When I write posts on Twitter, I speak as if I’m chatting and drinking with someone in a bar. I do not want to keep the appearance of decency, as it happens at work, ”explains Kamiya.

Western people are accustomed to the idea of ​​freedom of expression in social networks, but in Japan only a few take such liberties; It is often expected that famous people should express their opinions in a restrained manner so as not to attract undue attention. In the games industry, excessive criticism of fans, customers, competitors and other companies is not approved, which makes Kamiya a very noticeable exception to this rule. Other gaming workers who tweeted at least half as provocative as Kamiya's posts would have been reprimanded, but not Kamiya himself. In an interview for Polygon , taken in April 2017 with former boss Kamiya Tatsuya Minami, he spoke about Kamiya’s tweets like this: “So far, everything he said on Twitter was very close to the forbidden line, but didn’t cross it. I never asked him to delete anything. But he pushes this forbidden line away when he decides to use curses he knows in English. ” Probably, Kamiya's online persona works well due to his status as a successful, charismatic creator in the industry, about whose workers unfair stereotypes have developed as of socially unsuitable and not having communication skills. Be that as it may, Kamiya’s colorful comments amaze readers again and again.

Even if someone does not like his style of communication with people on Twitter, Kamiya deserved the privilege of being so loud and peremptory. In just a two-year Resident Evil 2 development cycle, he has evolved from a novice director, dependent on Mikami and Sugimur, into a charismatic creator who helped Capcom to reach new heights in the era of PlayStation. He managed to feel the bitterness of defeat with “Resident Evil 1.5” and the sweetness of success after the release of Resident Evil 2 . Kamiya will continue to influence the Resident Evil series for many years to come, although for various reasons Resident Evil 2 is still the most visible and important contribution to the franchise.