The producer of Resident Evil 5 said recently that he wouldn’t return for the next game. This further promotes speculation that the next major entry will be another drastic change for the franchise.
Jun Takeuchi told Xbox 360 Magazine that he is leaving the series for a while. “As far as the series is concerned I’m not planning to return until at least two more Olympics have passed!”
He said this after noting the pressure he felt from the series’ legacy while producing RE5. “Yes, it’s true we did feel extreme pressure – and [Shinji] Mikami-san’s shadow – after Resi 4,” he said. “However, because we were creating the sequel to this huge franchise we wanted to make our fresh direction clear.”
Takeuchi didn’t specify if “two more Olympics” meant summer or winter. Counting both means at least another six years before he could return. Because Capcom hasn’t officially announced Resident Evil 6 though, there’s no telling when production on that game could start.
The main producer of one game leaving probably doesn’t translate to a full staff change for the next game. Although Takeuchi did some work on almost every Resident Evil game, RE5 and Umbrella Chronicles are the only ones for which he served as producer.
Resident Evil has mainly only been worked on by one or two groups within Capcom over its entire lifetime. Shinji Mikami and Capcom Production Studio 4 (some of which became Clover and now Platinum Games) started the series with the first game and then reinvented it with Resident Evil 4. Other, unspecified members of Capcom maintained the series with every game in-between, including RE5 and ports of Mikami’s games.
It isn’t impossible for Mikami and Platinum to return on a contract basis, but it’s still unlikely. Mikami is currently working on Vanquish with Platinum and another unrevealed title with Grasshopper Manufacture and EA Partners.
Nevertheless, the makers of the series agree that it needs to be changed once again. Mikami said as much to Official PlayStation Magazine last November. “Resident Evil 6 will have to reinvent the series with another full model change or else it won’t be able to keep on going.” Takeuchi agreed in an interview with 1up.
Since RE4 and RE5, the franchise’s biggest problem has been identifying itself as an action game or an adventure game. The old titles were essentially puzzle adventure games that happened to have a lot of guns in them, but weren’t really suited for action. The two most recent main entries behave more like action games but are still stuck on the old adventure mechanics like the controls and menu interface. One suggested avenue for the franchise is a return to its adventure roots but in a more modern fashion.
