Capcom removed an entire chapter from Resident Evil Requiem before its release, the game’s director has revealed.
In an interview with Denfaminico Gamer, Koshi Nakanishi recalled how Resident Evil 7: Biohazard had a “Chapter 2” that was scrapped during development, and stated that the exact same thing happened with Requiem.
“Of course, we don’t suddenly cut things out in the final stages of development,” Nakanishi said (via machine translation).
“We often make repeated revisions during the early, rough prototyping phase. In that process, it’s quite common for entire chapters to disappear.”
Nakanishi compared the process to editing a video, where lots of footage ends up being cut from the final result.
“It’s actually surprisingly common for the overall result to be better without something. Subtraction is truly important,” he explained.
“Of course, it’s disappointing for the people who created it, and they might get angry, but if the result is better, everyone comes around to accepting it. Conversely, that means we have to take responsibility for that result.”
The director explained how it is always important to him to make Resident Evil accessible to all players, so content gets removed if it overcomplicates the end result.
“The more the development team gets worried and tries to explain things by adding details, the more confusing it tends to become, and players end up thinking it’s a hassle,” Nakanishi said.
“The same goes for gameplay – the more features you add, the more the game becomes obscure and unfriendly. Even if we’ve worked hard to create something, if we judge that ‘it’s easier to grasp without it,’ we’ll choose to cut it.”
In the same interview, Nakanishi, along with producer Masato Kumazawa, discussed the new minigame coming to Requiem via DLC in May. The duo stated that it will be “strictly based” on combat, and that it is only accessible after players have finished Requiem’s story.
Resident Evil Requiem is available now on Nintendo Switch 2, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, and Steam. We said in our review: “Resident Evil may be revisiting the past with this latest entry, but for the most part, it manages to avoid its previous mistakes – and more importantly, capitalizes on what the series does best.”
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Written by Reece Heather
A veteran Zelda Universe editor and First-class journalism graduate, Reece emerged with a Nintendo 64 and a lifelong obsession after a narrow escape from Santa’s Naughty List in 1998. Outside of games, he’s reading Punisher comics, being bossed around by his cocker spaniel, and cornering innocent bystanders to rant about the importance of game preservation.
