Resident Evil Creator Could Return To Directing Games

Shinji Mikami, famed horror game director and the man behind the first and fourth Resident Evil games, said he might direct games again--if he could completely envision the project.

Discussing his 30-year career in a profile by Variety, Mikami commented on what was supposed to be his last directing effort, 2014's The Evil Within through his own Tango Gameworks studio. The project started out with the codename "Noah" before ballooning into the survival horror title Mikami didn't expect it to become. If he could do it over, with the concept of the original "Noah" and his vision intact, Mikami said he'd direct games again.

"My thinking is that if I had a chance to make a game from the beginning to end that's completely my vision, then definitely, that would be my big last project as director," Mikami said. "It would probably be more fitting as that 'last game I direct' kind of thing."

It's worth noting that Mikami means he'd be interested in directing games again in general, not specifically that he'd return to directing Resident Evil since he's no longer with Capcom.

Mikami and Tango Gameworks are currently working on GhostWire: Tokyo, an action-adventure game dropping next year on PC and PlayStation 5 that Mikami is executive producing with one of the Metal Gear Solid 4 scriptwriters, Kenji Kimura, directing.

The Variety profile contains a few other interesting tidbits about Mikami, his stint at Capcom, and the critically acclaimed Resident Evil 4. In particular, Capcom greenlit a remake of Resident Evil 4, though Mikami isn't involved with the project and hasn't heard from Capcom about it. Mikami also shared details about a canned Tango Gameworks project that saw players controlling a cockroach that would walk around and pick up guns to kill humans.