Hideki Kamiya, the Capcom veteran who directed the original Resident Evil 2, says he believes the studio's recent Resident Evil games have become too scary — including this year's Resident Evil Requiem. In an interview with VGC, Kamiya said he has never been a fan of horror, even as a child, and can't get through scary movies.
Kamiya said that as games have become more photorealistic and high-fidelity, the amount of frightening content Capcom is able to put on screen has grown dramatically, and he believes the Resident Evil development teams have become numb to just how scary their own games are. He said he wanted to play as Leon Kennedy in Requiem, returning to Raccoon City to relive the events of the original Resident Evil 2, but found the game too scary to experience himself.
According to Kamiya, he has privately told people on Capcom's Resident Evil teams that their games are too frightening, only to be met with disbelief, with developers responding that the games aren't that scary. He said the teams seem to have no awareness of how frightening their work actually is, and he hopes Capcom addresses this at some point.
As a solution, Kamiya suggested Capcom add a non-horror mode to its games. Ideas he floated included putting paper bags over enemies' heads, replacing dark and dingy environments with pleasant mood lighting, turning blood splatters into cherry blossom petals, cute zombies, and upbeat, feel-good music, so players could focus on puzzles and battles without the horror elements. He stressed this suggestion was not a joke and that he has raised similar ideas before, including earlier this year when he pitched a non-scary mode for Capcom's games.
Kamiya is not alone in raising concerns about the franchise's intensity. Resident Evil 7 director Koshi Nakanishi previously acknowledged that his game was possibly too scary and that some players couldn't handle it.