Resident Evil 4 director Shinji Mikami says it's the game that has the least of himself in

By Hirun Cryer
published

The director struggled to shut out his producing side during development

Resident Evil timeline - Resident Evil 4
(Image credit: Capcom)

Resident Evil 4 director Shinji Mikami feels like it's the game that has the least of himself in.

Yesterday on March 30, Keiichiro Toyama's Bokeh Game Studio debuted the first episode in a new interview series called Golden Hour, in which the Silent Hill director sits down for a chat with various game developers. The first interviewee was horror icon Shinji Mikami, who admitted partway through the interview that Resident Evil 4 is "the game where I feel there's the least amount of myself in it."

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Delving further into why this is, the director said there's "Mikami the creator and Mikami the producer inside me." Mikami said that when the creative side of him shares ideas "Mikami the producer shuts me out immediately," telling the other half of him that no one would like what he's proposing, and that he should just quit and pack it in.

"With time, you end up having a dual personality," the director continued. "For Resident Evil 4, I actually didn't stop my frenzy myself. I wanted a producer to step in and stop it for me," Mikami added. The director then went on to talk about there's more of "Mikami the creator" in God Hand, the PlayStation 2 beat-'em-up that launched in Japan in 2006 and worldwide in 2007.

It's a frankly honest discussion from Mikami on how he handles being both a producer and a director, at times on the same project. As Toyama points out in the interview though, Resident Evil 4 went on to set the modern standards for third-person shooters throughout the world, and it's something that directly inspired the Silent Hill director. 

We'd highly recommend giving the 39-minute interview a full listen, as two horror pioneers delve into the details that often aren't discussed about their respective careers. If this is how the Golden Hour series from Bokeh Game Studio is starting off, it should be well worth keeping an eye on over the coming months.

Shinji Mikami previously said he wanted a Resident Evil 4 remake to improve the story he wrote, as he only had three weeks to write the entire thing.

Hirun Cryer
Hirun Cryer

Hirun Cryer is a freelance reporter and writer with Gamesradar+ based out of U.K. After earning a degree in American History specializing in journalism, cinema, literature, and history, he stepped into the games writing world, with a focus on shooters, indie games, and RPGs, and has since been the recipient of the MCV 30 Under 30 award for 2021. In his spare time he freelances with other outlets around the industry, practices Japanese, and enjoys contemporary manga and anime.