Just how involved is Resident Evil creator Shinji Mikami in the development of Ghostwire: Tokyo? He’s producing Ghostwire through his studio Tango Gameworks, but the game is more the baby of director Kenji Kimura and creative director Ikumi Nakamura, who left the project around a year ago to have a child. Has Mikami perhaps stepped up to take on a greater role following Nakamura’s departure?
It seems that’s not the case – in a new interview with Variety, Mikami says he’s mainly leaving Ghostwire to director Kimura and his team, only “doing troubleshooting whenever there is trouble to shoot.” So, he’s playing the mentor, which Mikami has always insisted was the point of Tango Gameworks.
That said, is it possible Mikami could step into the role of director again? It seems there may be a chance. Mikami has said 2014’s The Evil Within would be his last fully hands-on project, but it seems he might consider directing one more game, if it was “completely his vision.”
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 a director. It would probably be more fitting as that “last game I direct” kind of thing.
According to Variety, The Evil Within originally started as a prototype named “Noah,” which was quite different from the finished game. Mikami hints that getting the chance to make the original version of Noah might be the thing that would bring him back.
Ghostwire: Tokyo is coming to PC and PS5 sometime in 2021. Do you want to see Mikami direct one more game? Games like Resident Evil and Vanquish are among my favorites of all time, but The Evil Within wasn’t quite his best work, so I’d definitely like to see him take another crack at that big farewell game.
