Resident Evil Requiem director Koshi Nakanishi says Resident Evil 7, which he also directed, might’ve been a little too scary, which is part of the reason Requiem will have a potentially less-scary third-person view as an alternative to the first-person camera.
Right away I’d like to say: yes, Nakanishi-san, Resident Evil 7 is too scary. I love it, but my blood pressure doesn’t. I’ll freely admit there were times in the first half of the game that I contemplated giving up. I’m super glad I didn’t, but hot damn that is one terrifying game.
It’s for that reason that I’m genuinely relieved to hear Nakanishi acknowledge this as a potential issue in Resident Evil Requiem. It seems counterintuitive to suggest there should be some limit on how scary a game should be, but it’s absolutely true! Imagine, for example, the stress of the House Beneviento sequence from Resident Evil Village, but sustained over the course of a 20-hour campaign. Stop acting tough. No one wants that.
Thankfully, it sounds like Nakanishi is keen to deliver a Resident Evil that stands up there with 7 in terms of scares, but with the option to tone it down a little by switching to third-person and thus removing yourself from the action somewhat.
“Looking back at Resident Evil 7’s first person perspective, I implemented that as a way to make it more immersive and more scary than ever before, which I think most you know media and players agreed it was an incredibly scary game, but it was possibly too scary,” Nakanishi told GamesRadar+ during Gamescom 2025.
“I think some people couldn’t handle it, and either couldn’t finish or didn’t even start it. And that’s something that I look back