In February 2012, we came into contact with Mr. Yasuhisa Kawamura, the scenario writer of BIOHAZARD 3 LAST ESCAPE, and requested the opportunity to interview him on his work on the series. Mr. Kawamura was very kind to accept, and we gathered 22 selected questions (through a rather painful process, considering the amount of things most people would like to know) with some chosen by the Resident Evil community. Mr. Kawamura answered all of our questions in an extremely detailed and informative manner, touching on his past at CAPCOM, the development of BH3, the scrapped versions of BH4 and more.
Please Note: All of the story information below is based on the information at the time of BH3 during Mr. Kawamura's tenure. Although the information can be presently accepted as fact, subsequent games may change or remove some information at any time and there may be some discrepancies between the information below and the present series storyline.
Please Note: All of the story information below is based on the information at the time of BH3 during Mr. Kawamura's tenure. Although the information can be presently accepted as fact, subsequent games may change or remove some information at any time and there may be some discrepancies between the information below and the present series storyline.
Interview Transcript
Q1) Did you work on the series before your appointment as scenario writer for BIO3?
No, I didn't. I applied for a staff opening for "BIOHAZARD NEXT PROJECT" that I saw in a video game magazine, and was hired in August of 1998.
Shinji Mikami, Hideki Kamiya, and others interviewed me at CAPCOM in Tokyo. Although at the time I had no experience in video game development, I did have experience working under Yukito Kishiro assisting in the creation of the manga series "Battle Angel Alita" for two and a half years. Eventually, I was requested by Mr. Kishiro to write a novelized version of "Battle Angel Alita", which was published by Shueisha.
This experience caught their eyes and I was successfully hired as a game designer for one of CAPCOM's development studios, Planning Room 2. I eventually became a part of Production Studio 4, managed by Shinji Mikami, when CAPCOM reorganized their development studios and Planning Room 2 was disbanded.
Q2) FLAGSHIP was known for handling the scenarios in the series at the time. Was there a particular reason you were chosen to write BIO3?
In 1998, FLAGSHIP's lead scenario writer Noboru Sugimura was busy working on "BIOHAZARD CODE:Veronica" and other FLAGSHIP scenario writers already had their hands full working on "biohazard 0 (ZERO)".
Director Hideki Kamiya's team was already working on the next title in the series, BIOHAZARD 3. The game was loosely set on a luxury cruise liner and had a general plot where HUNK was attempting to bring back a sample of the G-Virus. I was assigned to a newly formed team that was working on a spin off title called "BIOHAZARD Gaiden" ("gaiden" is Japanese for side-story or spin-off).
*Editor's Note: In this instance, "Gaiden" was an early nickname for LAST ESCAPE, it does not refer to the GameBoy Color game of the same name.
The director of "Gaiden" was Kazuhiro Aoyama, a game designer who was responsible for designing the levels in BIO1 and BIO2. The rest of the members, with the exception of the programmers and sound crew, were comprised of newly hired staff.
In place of FLAGSHIP, I was chosen to write the scenario and assist Mr. Aoyama in designing the game. "Gaiden" was intended to be a small scale game made in a short time span so even though I was new to the company, it was deemed that I would be capable of handling the scenario.
However, things started to change mid-1998 when we received word about the impending transition to the PlayStation 2.
Mr. Kamiya's team was working hard building a top quality game, but alas it was targeted for the PlayStation 1. By the time the game launched, the market would have shifted towards the PlayStation 2. Furthermore, the PlayStation 2 was a powerful system and without sufficient time for development, the "BIOHAZARD quality" that everyone expected would not be achievable.
Forced to make a change in plans, Yoshiki Okamoto, who was general manager of development at the time, announced that "BIOHAZARD Gaiden was going to become the last numbered release in the BIOHAZARD series for the PlayStation 1". What this meant was that from that moment on, "Gaiden" was no longer just a side story, but a part of the official plot line.
CODE:Veronica was a Dreamcast exclusive game, the scenario for ZERO was just getting started, and Mr. Kamiya's team was forced to go back to the drawing board to design for the PlayStation 2. This meant that fans on the PlayStation would have to wait several years for the next sequel, a scenario that CAPCOM wanted to avoid. On the other hand, it would've been unacceptable for a game designed by Mr. Kamiya to be any less than perfect in quality, and besides, it would be unthinkable to rush the development on a brand new hardware like the PlayStation 2.
So, the decision was made to promote the "Gaiden" team into the new BIOHAZARD 3 team and the staff size was significantly increased to work towards a launch on the PlayStation 1. This allowed us to release a BIOHAZARD game on a consistent schedule while providing Mr. Kamiya's team enough time to concentrate on the capabilities of the new platform. Mr. Kamiya's team was reorganized into the BIOHAZARD 4 team, and was tasked with creating a top-notch game for the PlayStation 2. When BIOHAZARD 3 was finished, a large portion of that team, including myself, joined in to help. This BIOHAZARD 4 project eventually changed directions and finally saw completion as the game "Devil May Cry 1".
Now, with the sudden promotion of the "Gaiden" game, I was forced to expand the scale of the content. The story was initially supposed to just be an escape chronicle from an infected Raccoon City, but after discussions with the producer and director, it was decided that instead of introducing a new character, Jill Valentine will play the role of the main character. It was also decided that Raccoon City would be wiped from existence. You can say that in a sense, the launch of the PlayStation 2 ended up taking the lives of one hundred thousand Raccoon City citizens.
This is the story behind the making of BIOHAZARD 3 LAST ESCAPE.
Q3) What were some of the changes FLAGSHIP made to your scenario?
Actually, FLAGSHIP had no involvement in the making of BIOHAZARD 3. They requested storyboards and we exchanged information with each other, but FLAGSHIP and I ended up finishing each of our projects as independent works.
Also, for clarification purposes, I would like to point out that FLAGSHIP and I are in good relations. After working on BIOHAZARD 3 and Devil May Cry 1, I had an opportunity to work at FLAGSHIP for an extended period as the co-director of motion capturing for the game "Clock Tower 3" under Mr. Noboru Sugimura and Mr. Kinji Fukasaku.
Q4) Do you have any examples of things you wanted to include in the scenario that were either unable to be put in, or were cut?
Well, I did toy with the idea of adding a mode where the player could control a zombified Brad Vickers in the game, but that had to be scrapped due to excessive cost.
With regards to the scenario, upon creating BIOHAZARD 3 I made a decision to reinterpret the plot line of BIOHAZARD 2, and created a background story where Dr. William Birkin gradually fell out of favor with the Chicago branch of Umbrella Corp. Fearing assassination, he holes up in the biohazard conditions of Raccoon City and plots an "escape" to the safety and protection of the United States government. To tie the story closer with the previous games, I wanted to have Jill infiltrate Umbrella Corp's laboratory from BIOHAZARD 2 and cross paths with Leon, Ada and Dr. Birkin, but had to give up, as it would end up affecting the original plot too much.
I once had the opportunity to read a (CAPCOM supervised) Chinese comic version of BIOHAZARD 3 and found that the author added many exciting twists to the original plot. For example, Leon and Carlos team up to recover the vaccines from the hospital and an intense fight breaks out between Nemesis and G, with Tyrant joining in the fray. I have to say the author did a superb job in capturing and augmenting the excitement of the game.
Q5) The early story files in the game were written using a lot of Katakana instead of Hiragana, and were later changed. Was there a particular reason for this?
I'm afraid I'm not quite sure I understand the meaning of the question.
In the Japanese language, the combination of Kanji and Hiragana are used to express words and ideas, and Katakana is used to express foreign words, or foreign ideas. Both Hiragana and Katakana can be used to simplify the expression of complicated Kanji words, making them easier to read. Since these games are usually played by children, it would be natural that there would be more uses of Hiragana and Katakana.
Also, you had to use textures to display words on the PlayStation console because it does not have font capability. Since Kanji characters require more textures to render and are generally not very reusable, that may have been another reason that Katakana was used more often.
Q6) In the BIOHAZARD 2 Drama Albums written by FLAGSHIP, Raccoon City was incinerated with flamethrowers by Umbrella and the U.S. Government, Sherry escaped to Canada and Ada quit the spy business after a mission in France. Were these stories considered true and "canon" before your work on BIO3 and the Epilogue Files?
*laughs*
All BIOHAZARD games are written according to the settings that were presented in the official game series.
For example, even though the novels written by American authors have permission from CAPCOM, the details of the setting such as the organizational structure of Umbrella Corp and the key characters are completely different from the game. The Chinese comic book version that I referred to earlier also diverges significantly from the official plot. The Drama Albums are similarly different, and is written so that fans can enjoy it as a parallel "what-if" universe.
Speaking of changes, the game settings that I'm talking about right now is always changing and growing with each new game release. You can say that the "canon" would be what is expressed and explained in the latest games. I mean, have you noticed how Jill and Chris seem to have suddenly grown taller in BIO 5?
Q7) Can you explain the process of the development of the Nemesis parasite by Umbrella? How was it created?
I will tell you the complete background of Nemesis as I envisioned in BIOHAZARD 3 - if this contradicts anything in the games that were released later, please go by that setting.
Nemesis is a relatively new B.O.W. (Bio Organic Weapon) that was born as a result of intense rivalry between the different research divisions within Umbrella. Although Umbrella is an organization that is based in Europe, most of the research and development at the time took place in North America. Working under Dr. James Marcus, Dr. William Birkin played a breakthrough role in stabilizing the T-Virus and developing the Tyrant B.O.W. With their success, the Chicago branch and Umbrella America gained significant influence within the corporate hierarchy.
Not to be outdone, the many research laboratories scattered across Europe joined forces and were successful in creating a variety of prototype B.O.W.s such as the Hunter β and Hunter γ. Of particular note was the parasitic organism Nemesis, created by Umbrella Europe's Sixth Laboratory.
Nemesis was designed to enhance the capability of any B.O.W. by leeching off of the host's spinal cord, taking over its brain and artificially strengthening the body using special fluid excrements. While Nemesis itself isn't overly intelligent, it has the capability to boost its intellect by simultaneously using its own brain as well as the host's brain - sort of like a dual-core CPU.
Although a Nemesis-T Type B.O.W. (a hybrid B.O.W. that combined a Tyrant with Nemesis) was sent into Raccoon City under the guise of "combat performance analysis", the ultimate goal of the Nemesis project was to hunt down and defeat the humans that managed to defeat the American made Tyrant, thereby establishing Umbrella Europe as the superior branch. It was all part of an ongoing power struggle, and that was why the European researchers chose to use the Greek goddess of revenge, "Nemesis" for the project's code name.
Q8) Was the stronger form of the T-Virus within the body of Nemesis-T called the "NE-T Virus" or was it not named?
The virus found inside Nemesis-T Type is essentially the same T-Virus that was created by Dr. William Birkin. However, due to the fluids excreted by Nemesis, the virus is highly active.
Note: There are several categories of the T-Virus, the oldest being the original Progenitor Virus. The next oldest is a primitive strain of the T-Virus developed by Dr. Marcus, which was created when the Progenitor virus mutated within the host bodies of the leeches he infected as an experiment. These leeches showed signs of rapid mutation and gained intellect and camouflaging abilities as a result of the infection.
Next is the T-Veronica strain developed by the young genius Alexia Ashford. This strain was designed to increase the physical skills of the human host, but required the subject to be placed in a long period of hibernation to stabilize the virus. If the virus ever became out of control, it ended up transforming the host into a giant monster that looked like a queen bee.
Finally, Dr. William Birkin was successful in creating a relatively stable strain of the T-Virus that went on to become the basis for creating a number of B.O.W.s such as the Hunter, and the Tyrant.
Q9) What was the story behind the dead U.S. Special Forces soldiers in the hospital? Were they a separate team from the one in the Waste Treatment Plant, and why were they in the hospital?
If you're talking about BIOHAZARD 3, the only people in the hospital were Umbrella agents sent in to recover medical data. No U.S. Special Forces soldiers should have been there.
Now, if members of the U.S. military were supposedly present in the hospital, they probably would have had a mission similar to the one the Umbrella agents had. The U.S. knew that Umbrella was conducting secret research regarding B.O.W.s (they were, after all, secretly purchasing B.O.W.s from the company), and if they were able to get a hold of this research, it was possible that they could break ties with the shady corporation and manufacture their own B.O.W.s.
Q10) Did you have an explanation for how Leon & Claire were able to enter Raccoon City despite the military blockade?
Leon and Claire were fortunate (or perhaps unfortunate) in that they were able to slip by the blockade when the military forces quarantining Raccoon City retreated after facing an attack from the zombies.
Raccoon City is located in an isolated area in the mid-west, and is surrounded by stretches of wasteland with nary a building in sight. Since the majority of the citizens had been confirmed dead, the military decided to quickly back off to prevent any unnecessary casualties.
Q11) Could you please explain what sort of rivalry existed between the American and European branches of Umbrella at the time of BIO3?
Umbrella Corp. is always seeking to commercialize stronger and more efficient B.O.W.s. The organization places heavy emphasis on results, and the division that contributes the most gains the largest voice within the company.
With Dr. Marcus dead and Alexia Ashford gone, Dr. Birkin gained power and influence as the scientist responsible for creating and successfully mass-producing the Hunter and Tyrant B.O.W.'s. With Dr. Birkin's success, the power of the American branch gradually increased, forcing the European branch to have to bend to its will. Furthermore, Dr. Birkin's announcement regarding his next evolution in B.O.W. research called the "Creation of G-Organisms" enabled the Chicago branch to assume what essentially amounted to dictatorial control over the corporation.
Alarmed, the European laboratories joined forces and created a variety of successful enhancements to existing B.O.W.'s such as the Hunter β, and started the "Nemesis Project" which intended to enhance existing B.O.W.'s, all in an attempt to restrain the growing influence of Umbrella America.
Disturbed by the European "threat" the Chicago branch placed enormous pressure on Dr. Birkin into completing the G-Virus, but this only resulted in increasing his displeasure with the corporation.
The rest of the story is told within the game.
Q12) Can you shed some light on the rival company of Umbrella and its background at the time of BIO3?
Well, I don't think I should get into too much details of anything I wasn't directly in charge of...
Albert Wesker was a character created by Mr. Mikami and was further developed by Director Hiroki Kato and FLAGSHIP.
The organization that Albert Wesker was associated with owned H.C.F. (Hive or Host Capture Force), but not much is known beyond that. Using Umbrella's know-how acquired by H.C.F., the organization eventually managed to produce their own line of B.O.W.'s, but since there's no mention in BIOHAZARD 5, I don't know if they went out of business or were bought up.
Q13) What inspired the creation of the U.B.C.S.?
U.B.C.S. or Umbrella Biohazard Countermeasure Service is a private special operations force owned and operated by Umbrella Corp. As such, all U.B.C.S. military personnel are under contract and work for Umbrella.
Umbrella specializes in selling biological and chemical weapons such as B.O.W.s to any nation in the world that can afford it. Due to the volatile nature of such weapons, accidents can and do occur from time to time. Since the use of biochemical weaponry is classified by nature, in such cases it may be difficult for a nation to utilize its own military to intervene. This is where U.B.C.S. comes into play. U.B.C.S. is responsible for neutralizing "products" that have gone out of control, decontaminating the affected areas and rescuing civilians in danger.
Due to the nature of their mission, U.B.C.S. face an enormous amount of risk and suffers from an extremely high mortality rate. The members are comprised almost exclusively of mercenaries and convicted felons with military experience who serve in the force as an alternative to capital punishment. However, they are provided with reasonably good equipment. In the 1990's M4A1s and SIGPROs were standard issue arms. Members are vaccinated to be able to withstand a certain amount of infection and are given proper training on counter-B.O.W. warfare so they are by no means just a ragtag group of fighters.
Now of course, no amount of equipment and training could have ever prepared them for a nightmare scenario with a city of 100,000 zombified citizens and mutant creatures...
The circumstances under which the U.B.C.S. was deployed into Raccoon City is very complicated. Their primary and most important objective was the successful recovery of the "G-Virus" samples that Dr. Birkin held. Umbrella's Chicago branch was slowly losing control over Dr. Birkin and was plotting an assassination to get rid of him. Dr. Birkin, who had already become distrustful of the corporation, figured that he would eventually be held responsible for the Spencer Mansion Incident (the plot of BIOHAZARD 1) that resulted in the leaking of sensitive research data. He expected that an elite team of agents would be sent into Raccoon City under the guise of hunting down Jill and Chris, with their real motive being to kill him and steal the G-Virus samples.
Preempting this assault, Dr. Birkin increased the amount of toxic waste generated by his research facility to such levels where it overwhelmed the waste treatment plant creating a state of biohazard. The biohazard conditions ended up unleashing the T-Virus zombifing the employees and researchers working within. The damage didn't stop there and the infection quickly spread throughout the city, transforming the place into an inhospitable zombie wasteland. Successfully holed up within this biohazard zone, Dr. Birkin negotiated with ranking officials within the United States government, requesting protection in exchange for providing the G-Virus and its research data.
The U.S. government, keen in acquiring Umbrella's top scientist and the research data for the latest B.O.W., quickly agreed to send in a team of U.S. special ops forces to extradite Dr. Birkin. Learning of this development, Umbrella airlifted six Tyrant B.O.W.s into the industrial area of the city (per scenes from BIO 2), where they fought with the U.S. special ops team. The special ops team waged a heavy battle, but was annihilated before they had a chance to use their anti-B.O.W. weapon, a rail gun called "Paracelsus' Sword". (The Tyrants were also annihilated, as you would know if you've played the final stage of BIO3.)
In the event where the extradition mission failed, the U.S. military had plans in place to destroy the entirety of Raccoon City with a nuclear missile, but in an attempt to buy time Umbrella leaked video feeds of the U.B.C.S. operating within the city, promoting a "humane rescue mission" to the public. This tactic succeeded and while the entire U.B.C.S. team perished, enough valuable time was bought to allow Umbrella agents to successfully recover samples of the G-Virus before the city was destroyed.
Additionally, the U.B.C.S. is also used at times to conduct performance analysis and collect combat effectiveness data of the various B.O.W.s that Umbrella developed.
Q14) In Leon's epilogue, he is in a discussion with an agent from a "U.S. Government intelligence agency". Can you specify which actual United States agency this referred to?
This is an undisclosed organization whose primary mission is to gather information about biowarfare weapons and to produce effective countermeasures. There is a very real threat of deadly biological weapons going out of control, and this is clearly evident not only from incidents involving Umbrella, but with other groups such as H.C.F. and Tricell.
The incident at Raccoon City played a large role in the creation of this unit, and Leon's extensive involvement led to his recruit. It's also important to note that this was also meant as a means for the U.S. government to keep a close eye on Leon and Sherry, who have learned too much about the existence of biological weapons and B.O.W.'s.
Sherry's position is more than a "hostage" that ensures Leon's cooperation - she has a very important meaning not only to the U.S., but to the world... but that's all that I can reveal for now.
Q15) Were you or FLAGSHIP aware of the story inconsistencies in "Wesker's Report" written by Mr. Hiroki Kato? Such as Leon joining an underground anti-Umbrella organization and Sherry being captured by Wesker, which contradicted the Epilogue Files you wrote?
*laughs*
Mr. Kato wrote Wesker's Report around the same time that BIOHAZARD 3 was being developed, so there may be some inconsistencies between his work and the world that I created.
The content of each BIOHAZARD universe is complete and independent from each other. We pour our hearts into each work, and are passionate about creating the best entertainment possible. I hope the fans of the series are able to enjoy each and every one of them as they are.
Q16) I've heard that you also wrote the "Hookman" version of BIO4. Can you elaborate on the outline of the scenario and how complete it was before the game was canceled?
Hookman was merely an experiment and there was no true back-story.
I wanted to make biohazard 4 scarier and suggested using a particular scene from the film "The Lost Souls", where the main character (played by Winona Ryder), while washing her hands in a bathroom, suddenly finds herself in a derelict building with a killer on the loose. An arranged version of this idea eventually turned into Hookman.
The idea went through several iterations as Mr. Sugimura and I carefully refined this world (which, I have to say, was very romantic).
Leon infiltrates the castle of Oswell E. Spencer seeking the truth, while inside a laboratory located deep within, a young girl wakes up. Accompanied by a B.O.W. dog, the two start to make their way up the castle... Unfortunately, there were many obstacles that needed to be overcome and the cost of development was deemed too expensive.
In the end, what ended up becoming biohazard 4 was the best idea out of all of them.
Q17) How did you feel when BIO4 was scrapped in favor of the version written by Mr. Mikami?
I felt very sorry. You can even say that I was ashamed.
While I felt that I put in much effort, refining the idea to the best of my abilities, my mentor Mr. Mikami had to intervene in the end. Mr. Shibata, who was the director at the time, was very talented, but I felt that he was unable to exercise his full potential because my lack of skill was holding him back.
I left the team right before Mr. Mikami intervened, and ended up enjoying the finished biohazard 4 game as just a fan. When I saw the quality of the finished product, I realized what an amazingly skilled person Shinji Mikami is. The experience I gained from this helps keep me going even to this day. It was an invaluable experience as a game designer.
Q18) You are credited under "Special Thanks" for the BIOHAZARD DEGENERATION movie. What were your contributions to the movie's production?
I answered questions about the different variations of the virus - what the original Progenitor Virus was, what the T-Virus is and what the G-Virus is - as asked by the producer, Mr. Kobayashi.
I shouldn't really talk about the Progenitor Virus as there are recent developments in that area.
The T-Virus is essentially a mutagen virus that is capable of inducing sudden mutations on the subject. Upon infection, it rewrites the DNA of the subject and mutates it into a creature with different properties. By figuring out how to carefully control this mutagenic property, Umbrella was able to craft their various bio-weapons. Even so, because each creation is the result of a mutation, if one wanted to reproduce an identical result, the use of cloning was necessary.
The G-Virus on the other hand, is different. The purpose of the G-Virus is not to just induce random mutations like the T-Virus does, but to induce mutations that can evolve the subject into a new breed, or a separate stable species. In other words, if two dogs were to be successfully infected with the G-Virus, the resulting G-Dogs should be capable of breeding with each other.
The ultimate goal for Dr. Birkin was to create and breed G-humans, an evolved superhuman species, by using the G-Virus. This is the reason this virus would sometimes be referred to as a "godly virus", or a divine virus. Unfortunately, the G-Virus never properly stabilized onto Dr. Birkin and the scientist himself was unable to become a G-Human.
Though Wesker later gained superhuman abilities, because he went through a different process, he is technically not considered to be a G-Human. Theoretically, a true G-Human is expected to have equivalent superhuman traits while maintaining reproductive capabilities as a species. It is unknown whether Wesker possessed similar reproductive capabilities.
Q19) Do you have a favorite aspect of the series, such as the story or gameplay?
During my orientation interview with CAPCOM, Mr. Mikami asked me the same exact question. I immediately answered "The 4th Survivor". Puzzled, Mr. Mikami inquired back "Not BIOHAZARD 1 nor BIOHAZARD 2?" and when I answered yes, he chuckled and commented that "I was an odd one."
During the development of BIOHAZARD 3, Mr. Aoyama, the director, called me over and said, "So, I heard you liked The 4th Survivor. I want you to make me a mini-game that is better than the one that I created". (Mr. Aoyama was responsible for designing The 4th Survivor).
So I did, and thus "THE MERCENARIES OPERATION MAD JACKAL" was born.
Q20) Have you played any of the later games in the series? If so, are you satisfied with the direction of the storyline?
I thought the quality of BIOHAZARD 4 was amazing. Revolutionary, even. BIO 5 and later are created by a completely different team, so all I can do is support their work. Besides, it would be absurd for me to say anything as I have quit CAPCOM a long time ago.
Q21) Do you have any current projects?
I worked at Sony for a while after leaving CAPCOM. Then I joined Ignition as a designer helping out on the game "El Shaddai: Ascension of the Metatron".
Right now, I am a freelance game designer and scenario writer, working on various different projects. Once a week I teach a course about game development at HAL Tokyo.
Recently I have worked as a designer for SEGA's "Rise of Nightmares." I was responsible for adding the human-dog "Marchocias" to the game. There is a mystical weapon called Azoth that the main character acquires during the latter half of the game, and the fact that the origin of the name is the same as "Paracelsus' Sword" seen in BIOHAZARD 3 is a little bit of playfulness that I added in.
Currently, I have some ideas and plans about a zombie themed game and am looking for a development company to sponsor me. If this piques anyone's interest, please feel free to contact me. I cannot speak English, which makes it difficult for me work overseas, so ideally I would like to create a development team here in Japan. My goal is to create a high caliber zombie game that doesn't just aim for the Japanese audience, but can be enjoyed by players worldwide.
Q22) Finally, do you have any messages for fans of BIOHAZARD?
BIOHAZARD is an amazing game. I'm a big fan of it myself, and its quality is one that I always aspire to reach. I hope that one day I too would be able to create such games that everyone knows about. Cheer me on!
No, I didn't. I applied for a staff opening for "BIOHAZARD NEXT PROJECT" that I saw in a video game magazine, and was hired in August of 1998.
Shinji Mikami, Hideki Kamiya, and others interviewed me at CAPCOM in Tokyo. Although at the time I had no experience in video game development, I did have experience working under Yukito Kishiro assisting in the creation of the manga series "Battle Angel Alita" for two and a half years. Eventually, I was requested by Mr. Kishiro to write a novelized version of "Battle Angel Alita", which was published by Shueisha.
This experience caught their eyes and I was successfully hired as a game designer for one of CAPCOM's development studios, Planning Room 2. I eventually became a part of Production Studio 4, managed by Shinji Mikami, when CAPCOM reorganized their development studios and Planning Room 2 was disbanded.
Q2) FLAGSHIP was known for handling the scenarios in the series at the time. Was there a particular reason you were chosen to write BIO3?
In 1998, FLAGSHIP's lead scenario writer Noboru Sugimura was busy working on "BIOHAZARD CODE:Veronica" and other FLAGSHIP scenario writers already had their hands full working on "biohazard 0 (ZERO)".
Director Hideki Kamiya's team was already working on the next title in the series, BIOHAZARD 3. The game was loosely set on a luxury cruise liner and had a general plot where HUNK was attempting to bring back a sample of the G-Virus. I was assigned to a newly formed team that was working on a spin off title called "BIOHAZARD Gaiden" ("gaiden" is Japanese for side-story or spin-off).
*Editor's Note: In this instance, "Gaiden" was an early nickname for LAST ESCAPE, it does not refer to the GameBoy Color game of the same name.
The director of "Gaiden" was Kazuhiro Aoyama, a game designer who was responsible for designing the levels in BIO1 and BIO2. The rest of the members, with the exception of the programmers and sound crew, were comprised of newly hired staff.
In place of FLAGSHIP, I was chosen to write the scenario and assist Mr. Aoyama in designing the game. "Gaiden" was intended to be a small scale game made in a short time span so even though I was new to the company, it was deemed that I would be capable of handling the scenario.
However, things started to change mid-1998 when we received word about the impending transition to the PlayStation 2.
Mr. Kamiya's team was working hard building a top quality game, but alas it was targeted for the PlayStation 1. By the time the game launched, the market would have shifted towards the PlayStation 2. Furthermore, the PlayStation 2 was a powerful system and without sufficient time for development, the "BIOHAZARD quality" that everyone expected would not be achievable.
Forced to make a change in plans, Yoshiki Okamoto, who was general manager of development at the time, announced that "BIOHAZARD Gaiden was going to become the last numbered release in the BIOHAZARD series for the PlayStation 1". What this meant was that from that moment on, "Gaiden" was no longer just a side story, but a part of the official plot line.
CODE:Veronica was a Dreamcast exclusive game, the scenario for ZERO was just getting started, and Mr. Kamiya's team was forced to go back to the drawing board to design for the PlayStation 2. This meant that fans on the PlayStation would have to wait several years for the next sequel, a scenario that CAPCOM wanted to avoid. On the other hand, it would've been unacceptable for a game designed by Mr. Kamiya to be any less than perfect in quality, and besides, it would be unthinkable to rush the development on a brand new hardware like the PlayStation 2.
So, the decision was made to promote the "Gaiden" team into the new BIOHAZARD 3 team and the staff size was significantly increased to work towards a launch on the PlayStation 1. This allowed us to release a BIOHAZARD game on a consistent schedule while providing Mr. Kamiya's team enough time to concentrate on the capabilities of the new platform. Mr. Kamiya's team was reorganized into the BIOHAZARD 4 team, and was tasked with creating a top-notch game for the PlayStation 2. When BIOHAZARD 3 was finished, a large portion of that team, including myself, joined in to help. This BIOHAZARD 4 project eventually changed directions and finally saw completion as the game "Devil May Cry 1".
Now, with the sudden promotion of the "Gaiden" game, I was forced to expand the scale of the content. The story was initially supposed to just be an escape chronicle from an infected Raccoon City, but after discussions with the producer and director, it was decided that instead of introducing a new character, Jill Valentine will play the role of the main character. It was also decided that Raccoon City would be wiped from existence. You can say that in a sense, the launch of the PlayStation 2 ended up taking the lives of one hundred thousand Raccoon City citizens.
This is the story behind the making of BIOHAZARD 3 LAST ESCAPE.
Q3) What were some of the changes FLAGSHIP made to your scenario?
Actually, FLAGSHIP had no involvement in the making of BIOHAZARD 3. They requested storyboards and we exchanged information with each other, but FLAGSHIP and I ended up finishing each of our projects as independent works.
Also, for clarification purposes, I would like to point out that FLAGSHIP and I are in good relations. After working on BIOHAZARD 3 and Devil May Cry 1, I had an opportunity to work at FLAGSHIP for an extended period as the co-director of motion capturing for the game "Clock Tower 3" under Mr. Noboru Sugimura and Mr. Kinji Fukasaku.
Q4) Do you have any examples of things you wanted to include in the scenario that were either unable to be put in, or were cut?
Well, I did toy with the idea of adding a mode where the player could control a zombified Brad Vickers in the game, but that had to be scrapped due to excessive cost.
With regards to the scenario, upon creating BIOHAZARD 3 I made a decision to reinterpret the plot line of BIOHAZARD 2, and created a background story where Dr. William Birkin gradually fell out of favor with the Chicago branch of Umbrella Corp. Fearing assassination, he holes up in the biohazard conditions of Raccoon City and plots an "escape" to the safety and protection of the United States government. To tie the story closer with the previous games, I wanted to have Jill infiltrate Umbrella Corp's laboratory from BIOHAZARD 2 and cross paths with Leon, Ada and Dr. Birkin, but had to give up, as it would end up affecting the original plot too much.
I once had the opportunity to read a (CAPCOM supervised) Chinese comic version of BIOHAZARD 3 and found that the author added many exciting twists to the original plot. For example, Leon and Carlos team up to recover the vaccines from the hospital and an intense fight breaks out between Nemesis and G, with Tyrant joining in the fray. I have to say the author did a superb job in capturing and augmenting the excitement of the game.
Q5) The early story files in the game were written using a lot of Katakana instead of Hiragana, and were later changed. Was there a particular reason for this?
I'm afraid I'm not quite sure I understand the meaning of the question.
In the Japanese language, the combination of Kanji and Hiragana are used to express words and ideas, and Katakana is used to express foreign words, or foreign ideas. Both Hiragana and Katakana can be used to simplify the expression of complicated Kanji words, making them easier to read. Since these games are usually played by children, it would be natural that there would be more uses of Hiragana and Katakana.
Also, you had to use textures to display words on the PlayStation console because it does not have font capability. Since Kanji characters require more textures to render and are generally not very reusable, that may have been another reason that Katakana was used more often.
Q6) In the BIOHAZARD 2 Drama Albums written by FLAGSHIP, Raccoon City was incinerated with flamethrowers by Umbrella and the U.S. Government, Sherry escaped to Canada and Ada quit the spy business after a mission in France. Were these stories considered true and "canon" before your work on BIO3 and the Epilogue Files?
*laughs*
All BIOHAZARD games are written according to the settings that were presented in the official game series.
For example, even though the novels written by American authors have permission from CAPCOM, the details of the setting such as the organizational structure of Umbrella Corp and the key characters are completely different from the game. The Chinese comic book version that I referred to earlier also diverges significantly from the official plot. The Drama Albums are similarly different, and is written so that fans can enjoy it as a parallel "what-if" universe.
Speaking of changes, the game settings that I'm talking about right now is always changing and growing with each new game release. You can say that the "canon" would be what is expressed and explained in the latest games. I mean, have you noticed how Jill and Chris seem to have suddenly grown taller in BIO 5?
Q7) Can you explain the process of the development of the Nemesis parasite by Umbrella? How was it created?
I will tell you the complete background of Nemesis as I envisioned in BIOHAZARD 3 - if this contradicts anything in the games that were released later, please go by that setting.
Nemesis is a relatively new B.O.W. (Bio Organic Weapon) that was born as a result of intense rivalry between the different research divisions within Umbrella. Although Umbrella is an organization that is based in Europe, most of the research and development at the time took place in North America. Working under Dr. James Marcus, Dr. William Birkin played a breakthrough role in stabilizing the T-Virus and developing the Tyrant B.O.W. With their success, the Chicago branch and Umbrella America gained significant influence within the corporate hierarchy.
Not to be outdone, the many research laboratories scattered across Europe joined forces and were successful in creating a variety of prototype B.O.W.s such as the Hunter β and Hunter γ. Of particular note was the parasitic organism Nemesis, created by Umbrella Europe's Sixth Laboratory.
Nemesis was designed to enhance the capability of any B.O.W. by leeching off of the host's spinal cord, taking over its brain and artificially strengthening the body using special fluid excrements. While Nemesis itself isn't overly intelligent, it has the capability to boost its intellect by simultaneously using its own brain as well as the host's brain - sort of like a dual-core CPU.
Although a Nemesis-T Type B.O.W. (a hybrid B.O.W. that combined a Tyrant with Nemesis) was sent into Raccoon City under the guise of "combat performance analysis", the ultimate goal of the Nemesis project was to hunt down and defeat the humans that managed to defeat the American made Tyrant, thereby establishing Umbrella Europe as the superior branch. It was all part of an ongoing power struggle, and that was why the European researchers chose to use the Greek goddess of revenge, "Nemesis" for the project's code name.
Q8) Was the stronger form of the T-Virus within the body of Nemesis-T called the "NE-T Virus" or was it not named?
The virus found inside Nemesis-T Type is essentially the same T-Virus that was created by Dr. William Birkin. However, due to the fluids excreted by Nemesis, the virus is highly active.
Note: There are several categories of the T-Virus, the oldest being the original Progenitor Virus. The next oldest is a primitive strain of the T-Virus developed by Dr. Marcus, which was created when the Progenitor virus mutated within the host bodies of the leeches he infected as an experiment. These leeches showed signs of rapid mutation and gained intellect and camouflaging abilities as a result of the infection.
Next is the T-Veronica strain developed by the young genius Alexia Ashford. This strain was designed to increase the physical skills of the human host, but required the subject to be placed in a long period of hibernation to stabilize the virus. If the virus ever became out of control, it ended up transforming the host into a giant monster that looked like a queen bee.
Finally, Dr. William Birkin was successful in creating a relatively stable strain of the T-Virus that went on to become the basis for creating a number of B.O.W.s such as the Hunter, and the Tyrant.
Q9) What was the story behind the dead U.S. Special Forces soldiers in the hospital? Were they a separate team from the one in the Waste Treatment Plant, and why were they in the hospital?
If you're talking about BIOHAZARD 3, the only people in the hospital were Umbrella agents sent in to recover medical data. No U.S. Special Forces soldiers should have been there.
Now, if members of the U.S. military were supposedly present in the hospital, they probably would have had a mission similar to the one the Umbrella agents had. The U.S. knew that Umbrella was conducting secret research regarding B.O.W.s (they were, after all, secretly purchasing B.O.W.s from the company), and if they were able to get a hold of this research, it was possible that they could break ties with the shady corporation and manufacture their own B.O.W.s.
Q10) Did you have an explanation for how Leon & Claire were able to enter Raccoon City despite the military blockade?
Leon and Claire were fortunate (or perhaps unfortunate) in that they were able to slip by the blockade when the military forces quarantining Raccoon City retreated after facing an attack from the zombies.
Raccoon City is located in an isolated area in the mid-west, and is surrounded by stretches of wasteland with nary a building in sight. Since the majority of the citizens had been confirmed dead, the military decided to quickly back off to prevent any unnecessary casualties.
Q11) Could you please explain what sort of rivalry existed between the American and European branches of Umbrella at the time of BIO3?
Umbrella Corp. is always seeking to commercialize stronger and more efficient B.O.W.s. The organization places heavy emphasis on results, and the division that contributes the most gains the largest voice within the company.
With Dr. Marcus dead and Alexia Ashford gone, Dr. Birkin gained power and influence as the scientist responsible for creating and successfully mass-producing the Hunter and Tyrant B.O.W.'s. With Dr. Birkin's success, the power of the American branch gradually increased, forcing the European branch to have to bend to its will. Furthermore, Dr. Birkin's announcement regarding his next evolution in B.O.W. research called the "Creation of G-Organisms" enabled the Chicago branch to assume what essentially amounted to dictatorial control over the corporation.
Alarmed, the European laboratories joined forces and created a variety of successful enhancements to existing B.O.W.'s such as the Hunter β, and started the "Nemesis Project" which intended to enhance existing B.O.W.'s, all in an attempt to restrain the growing influence of Umbrella America.
Disturbed by the European "threat" the Chicago branch placed enormous pressure on Dr. Birkin into completing the G-Virus, but this only resulted in increasing his displeasure with the corporation.
The rest of the story is told within the game.
Q12) Can you shed some light on the rival company of Umbrella and its background at the time of BIO3?
Well, I don't think I should get into too much details of anything I wasn't directly in charge of...
Albert Wesker was a character created by Mr. Mikami and was further developed by Director Hiroki Kato and FLAGSHIP.
The organization that Albert Wesker was associated with owned H.C.F. (Hive or Host Capture Force), but not much is known beyond that. Using Umbrella's know-how acquired by H.C.F., the organization eventually managed to produce their own line of B.O.W.'s, but since there's no mention in BIOHAZARD 5, I don't know if they went out of business or were bought up.
Q13) What inspired the creation of the U.B.C.S.?
U.B.C.S. or Umbrella Biohazard Countermeasure Service is a private special operations force owned and operated by Umbrella Corp. As such, all U.B.C.S. military personnel are under contract and work for Umbrella.
Umbrella specializes in selling biological and chemical weapons such as B.O.W.s to any nation in the world that can afford it. Due to the volatile nature of such weapons, accidents can and do occur from time to time. Since the use of biochemical weaponry is classified by nature, in such cases it may be difficult for a nation to utilize its own military to intervene. This is where U.B.C.S. comes into play. U.B.C.S. is responsible for neutralizing "products" that have gone out of control, decontaminating the affected areas and rescuing civilians in danger.
Due to the nature of their mission, U.B.C.S. face an enormous amount of risk and suffers from an extremely high mortality rate. The members are comprised almost exclusively of mercenaries and convicted felons with military experience who serve in the force as an alternative to capital punishment. However, they are provided with reasonably good equipment. In the 1990's M4A1s and SIGPROs were standard issue arms. Members are vaccinated to be able to withstand a certain amount of infection and are given proper training on counter-B.O.W. warfare so they are by no means just a ragtag group of fighters.
Now of course, no amount of equipment and training could have ever prepared them for a nightmare scenario with a city of 100,000 zombified citizens and mutant creatures...
The circumstances under which the U.B.C.S. was deployed into Raccoon City is very complicated. Their primary and most important objective was the successful recovery of the "G-Virus" samples that Dr. Birkin held. Umbrella's Chicago branch was slowly losing control over Dr. Birkin and was plotting an assassination to get rid of him. Dr. Birkin, who had already become distrustful of the corporation, figured that he would eventually be held responsible for the Spencer Mansion Incident (the plot of BIOHAZARD 1) that resulted in the leaking of sensitive research data. He expected that an elite team of agents would be sent into Raccoon City under the guise of hunting down Jill and Chris, with their real motive being to kill him and steal the G-Virus samples.
Preempting this assault, Dr. Birkin increased the amount of toxic waste generated by his research facility to such levels where it overwhelmed the waste treatment plant creating a state of biohazard. The biohazard conditions ended up unleashing the T-Virus zombifing the employees and researchers working within. The damage didn't stop there and the infection quickly spread throughout the city, transforming the place into an inhospitable zombie wasteland. Successfully holed up within this biohazard zone, Dr. Birkin negotiated with ranking officials within the United States government, requesting protection in exchange for providing the G-Virus and its research data.
The U.S. government, keen in acquiring Umbrella's top scientist and the research data for the latest B.O.W., quickly agreed to send in a team of U.S. special ops forces to extradite Dr. Birkin. Learning of this development, Umbrella airlifted six Tyrant B.O.W.s into the industrial area of the city (per scenes from BIO 2), where they fought with the U.S. special ops team. The special ops team waged a heavy battle, but was annihilated before they had a chance to use their anti-B.O.W. weapon, a rail gun called "Paracelsus' Sword". (The Tyrants were also annihilated, as you would know if you've played the final stage of BIO3.)
In the event where the extradition mission failed, the U.S. military had plans in place to destroy the entirety of Raccoon City with a nuclear missile, but in an attempt to buy time Umbrella leaked video feeds of the U.B.C.S. operating within the city, promoting a "humane rescue mission" to the public. This tactic succeeded and while the entire U.B.C.S. team perished, enough valuable time was bought to allow Umbrella agents to successfully recover samples of the G-Virus before the city was destroyed.
Additionally, the U.B.C.S. is also used at times to conduct performance analysis and collect combat effectiveness data of the various B.O.W.s that Umbrella developed.
Q14) In Leon's epilogue, he is in a discussion with an agent from a "U.S. Government intelligence agency". Can you specify which actual United States agency this referred to?
This is an undisclosed organization whose primary mission is to gather information about biowarfare weapons and to produce effective countermeasures. There is a very real threat of deadly biological weapons going out of control, and this is clearly evident not only from incidents involving Umbrella, but with other groups such as H.C.F. and Tricell.
The incident at Raccoon City played a large role in the creation of this unit, and Leon's extensive involvement led to his recruit. It's also important to note that this was also meant as a means for the U.S. government to keep a close eye on Leon and Sherry, who have learned too much about the existence of biological weapons and B.O.W.'s.
Sherry's position is more than a "hostage" that ensures Leon's cooperation - she has a very important meaning not only to the U.S., but to the world... but that's all that I can reveal for now.
Q15) Were you or FLAGSHIP aware of the story inconsistencies in "Wesker's Report" written by Mr. Hiroki Kato? Such as Leon joining an underground anti-Umbrella organization and Sherry being captured by Wesker, which contradicted the Epilogue Files you wrote?
*laughs*
Mr. Kato wrote Wesker's Report around the same time that BIOHAZARD 3 was being developed, so there may be some inconsistencies between his work and the world that I created.
The content of each BIOHAZARD universe is complete and independent from each other. We pour our hearts into each work, and are passionate about creating the best entertainment possible. I hope the fans of the series are able to enjoy each and every one of them as they are.
Q16) I've heard that you also wrote the "Hookman" version of BIO4. Can you elaborate on the outline of the scenario and how complete it was before the game was canceled?
Hookman was merely an experiment and there was no true back-story.
I wanted to make biohazard 4 scarier and suggested using a particular scene from the film "The Lost Souls", where the main character (played by Winona Ryder), while washing her hands in a bathroom, suddenly finds herself in a derelict building with a killer on the loose. An arranged version of this idea eventually turned into Hookman.
The idea went through several iterations as Mr. Sugimura and I carefully refined this world (which, I have to say, was very romantic).
Leon infiltrates the castle of Oswell E. Spencer seeking the truth, while inside a laboratory located deep within, a young girl wakes up. Accompanied by a B.O.W. dog, the two start to make their way up the castle... Unfortunately, there were many obstacles that needed to be overcome and the cost of development was deemed too expensive.
In the end, what ended up becoming biohazard 4 was the best idea out of all of them.
Q17) How did you feel when BIO4 was scrapped in favor of the version written by Mr. Mikami?
I felt very sorry. You can even say that I was ashamed.
While I felt that I put in much effort, refining the idea to the best of my abilities, my mentor Mr. Mikami had to intervene in the end. Mr. Shibata, who was the director at the time, was very talented, but I felt that he was unable to exercise his full potential because my lack of skill was holding him back.
I left the team right before Mr. Mikami intervened, and ended up enjoying the finished biohazard 4 game as just a fan. When I saw the quality of the finished product, I realized what an amazingly skilled person Shinji Mikami is. The experience I gained from this helps keep me going even to this day. It was an invaluable experience as a game designer.
Q18) You are credited under "Special Thanks" for the BIOHAZARD DEGENERATION movie. What were your contributions to the movie's production?
I answered questions about the different variations of the virus - what the original Progenitor Virus was, what the T-Virus is and what the G-Virus is - as asked by the producer, Mr. Kobayashi.
I shouldn't really talk about the Progenitor Virus as there are recent developments in that area.
The T-Virus is essentially a mutagen virus that is capable of inducing sudden mutations on the subject. Upon infection, it rewrites the DNA of the subject and mutates it into a creature with different properties. By figuring out how to carefully control this mutagenic property, Umbrella was able to craft their various bio-weapons. Even so, because each creation is the result of a mutation, if one wanted to reproduce an identical result, the use of cloning was necessary.
The G-Virus on the other hand, is different. The purpose of the G-Virus is not to just induce random mutations like the T-Virus does, but to induce mutations that can evolve the subject into a new breed, or a separate stable species. In other words, if two dogs were to be successfully infected with the G-Virus, the resulting G-Dogs should be capable of breeding with each other.
The ultimate goal for Dr. Birkin was to create and breed G-humans, an evolved superhuman species, by using the G-Virus. This is the reason this virus would sometimes be referred to as a "godly virus", or a divine virus. Unfortunately, the G-Virus never properly stabilized onto Dr. Birkin and the scientist himself was unable to become a G-Human.
Though Wesker later gained superhuman abilities, because he went through a different process, he is technically not considered to be a G-Human. Theoretically, a true G-Human is expected to have equivalent superhuman traits while maintaining reproductive capabilities as a species. It is unknown whether Wesker possessed similar reproductive capabilities.
Q19) Do you have a favorite aspect of the series, such as the story or gameplay?
During my orientation interview with CAPCOM, Mr. Mikami asked me the same exact question. I immediately answered "The 4th Survivor". Puzzled, Mr. Mikami inquired back "Not BIOHAZARD 1 nor BIOHAZARD 2?" and when I answered yes, he chuckled and commented that "I was an odd one."
During the development of BIOHAZARD 3, Mr. Aoyama, the director, called me over and said, "So, I heard you liked The 4th Survivor. I want you to make me a mini-game that is better than the one that I created". (Mr. Aoyama was responsible for designing The 4th Survivor).
So I did, and thus "THE MERCENARIES OPERATION MAD JACKAL" was born.
Q20) Have you played any of the later games in the series? If so, are you satisfied with the direction of the storyline?
I thought the quality of BIOHAZARD 4 was amazing. Revolutionary, even. BIO 5 and later are created by a completely different team, so all I can do is support their work. Besides, it would be absurd for me to say anything as I have quit CAPCOM a long time ago.
Q21) Do you have any current projects?
I worked at Sony for a while after leaving CAPCOM. Then I joined Ignition as a designer helping out on the game "El Shaddai: Ascension of the Metatron".
Right now, I am a freelance game designer and scenario writer, working on various different projects. Once a week I teach a course about game development at HAL Tokyo.
Recently I have worked as a designer for SEGA's "Rise of Nightmares." I was responsible for adding the human-dog "Marchocias" to the game. There is a mystical weapon called Azoth that the main character acquires during the latter half of the game, and the fact that the origin of the name is the same as "Paracelsus' Sword" seen in BIOHAZARD 3 is a little bit of playfulness that I added in.
Currently, I have some ideas and plans about a zombie themed game and am looking for a development company to sponsor me. If this piques anyone's interest, please feel free to contact me. I cannot speak English, which makes it difficult for me work overseas, so ideally I would like to create a development team here in Japan. My goal is to create a high caliber zombie game that doesn't just aim for the Japanese audience, but can be enjoyed by players worldwide.
Q22) Finally, do you have any messages for fans of BIOHAZARD?
BIOHAZARD is an amazing game. I'm a big fan of it myself, and its quality is one that I always aspire to reach. I hope that one day I too would be able to create such games that everyone knows about. Cheer me on!
Additional Questions
Below are some additional questions presented to Mr. Kawamura:
How are B.O.W.'s controlled? Are they controlled via verbal commands or certain technology?
B.O.W.'s with intelligence are controlled by trainers and learn a few verbal commands in training. They learn more complex commands the higher their intelligence. However, trainers are rarely on the battlefield. They basically act on their own judgement. Verbal commands and sounds in special frequencies appear to have been used. Nemesis-T Type's intelligence is even higher. He remembers the S.T.A.R.S. members through photographs and videos.
How was the European-made Hunter Gamma sent into Raccoon City and captured by the hospital workers?
The testing of B.O.W.'s wasn't something individual branch offices could conduct without permission by order of the Umbrella head office. The Tyrants were carried in by air, and others were carried by land. At first, B.O.W.'s from Europe were sent to the Chicago branch. Then those B.O.W.'s were sent to Raccoon City using the Chicago branch's means of transportation. Even if it's said that the North America branch is in opposition to the European branch, it's the same company.
What role did the Chicago branch play in the Umbrella hierarchy?
Raccoon City exists in the American midwestern district. The Chicago branch is the nearest. And the most powerful American branch office is the Chicago branch.
Why did the U.B.C.S. receive a dispatch order on September 15, but only arrived in the city on September 26?
The U.S.S. started hiding in Raccoon City in mid-September. The U.B.C.S. was called upon in conjunction with that. In their base in Europe, preparations and movement took time. The U.B.C.S. was prepared as an ace in the hole. They were prepared, but it depended on the situation whether they would be sent to the town.
The U.B.C.S. was based in Europe?
The U.B.C.S. is a military unit which the (European) head office managed directly along with the U.S.S.
Was the U.B.C.S. founded on a particular date or was this not written?
I never set up the foundation of the U.B.C.S. However, they had much combat experience before being deployed to Raccoon City. The U.B.C.S. also has a "very high mortality rate for its members".
Why was nothing done by Umbrella to counteract the biohazard caused by Dr. Birkin in the Waste Incineration Disposal Plant?
Dr. Birkin was in charge of the facilities for research in Racoon City. Dr. Birkin stopped taking the Chicago branch's directions.
What were your responsibilities with Dino Crisis? Did you write the scenario?
The director Mr. Takumi (event director, main planner) wrote the scenario of Dino Crisis 1. I dramatized the scenario. Since the original scenario had a gentle tone for the soldiers, I rewrote them to be more aggressive. The story is still his original.
How are B.O.W.'s controlled? Are they controlled via verbal commands or certain technology?
B.O.W.'s with intelligence are controlled by trainers and learn a few verbal commands in training. They learn more complex commands the higher their intelligence. However, trainers are rarely on the battlefield. They basically act on their own judgement. Verbal commands and sounds in special frequencies appear to have been used. Nemesis-T Type's intelligence is even higher. He remembers the S.T.A.R.S. members through photographs and videos.
How was the European-made Hunter Gamma sent into Raccoon City and captured by the hospital workers?
The testing of B.O.W.'s wasn't something individual branch offices could conduct without permission by order of the Umbrella head office. The Tyrants were carried in by air, and others were carried by land. At first, B.O.W.'s from Europe were sent to the Chicago branch. Then those B.O.W.'s were sent to Raccoon City using the Chicago branch's means of transportation. Even if it's said that the North America branch is in opposition to the European branch, it's the same company.
What role did the Chicago branch play in the Umbrella hierarchy?
Raccoon City exists in the American midwestern district. The Chicago branch is the nearest. And the most powerful American branch office is the Chicago branch.
Why did the U.B.C.S. receive a dispatch order on September 15, but only arrived in the city on September 26?
The U.S.S. started hiding in Raccoon City in mid-September. The U.B.C.S. was called upon in conjunction with that. In their base in Europe, preparations and movement took time. The U.B.C.S. was prepared as an ace in the hole. They were prepared, but it depended on the situation whether they would be sent to the town.
The U.B.C.S. was based in Europe?
The U.B.C.S. is a military unit which the (European) head office managed directly along with the U.S.S.
Was the U.B.C.S. founded on a particular date or was this not written?
I never set up the foundation of the U.B.C.S. However, they had much combat experience before being deployed to Raccoon City. The U.B.C.S. also has a "very high mortality rate for its members".
Why was nothing done by Umbrella to counteract the biohazard caused by Dr. Birkin in the Waste Incineration Disposal Plant?
Dr. Birkin was in charge of the facilities for research in Racoon City. Dr. Birkin stopped taking the Chicago branch's directions.
What were your responsibilities with Dino Crisis? Did you write the scenario?
The director Mr. Takumi (event director, main planner) wrote the scenario of Dino Crisis 1. I dramatized the scenario. Since the original scenario had a gentle tone for the soldiers, I rewrote them to be more aggressive. The story is still his original.
Yasuhisa Kawamura
Resume:
Dino Crisis 1 (Movie and Event Part Scenario)
BIOHAZARD 3 LAST ESCAPE (Planning, Scenario, File Text, All Worldview)
BIOHAZARD 4 (Part Planning, Scenario)
Devil May Cry (Part Planning)
Clock Tower 3 (Movie Part Motion Capture Assistant Director)
Dino Crisis 3 (Movie and Event Part Scenario)
Meiwaku Seijin Panicmaker (Planning, Scenario, File Text, All Worldview)
Blade Dancer PSP (Quest Scenario)
biohazard DEGENERATION (Special Thanks)
El Shaddai: Ascension of the Metatron (Designer)
Rise of Nightmares (Designer)
Mr. Kawamura can be found on Twitter (@yas_kawamura). Although he is not fluent in English, he is able to read Twitter messages and sentences which are not too long, so feel free to thank him for his work on the series and for such an amazing interview.
Resume:
Dino Crisis 1 (Movie and Event Part Scenario)
BIOHAZARD 3 LAST ESCAPE (Planning, Scenario, File Text, All Worldview)
BIOHAZARD 4 (Part Planning, Scenario)
Devil May Cry (Part Planning)
Clock Tower 3 (Movie Part Motion Capture Assistant Director)
Dino Crisis 3 (Movie and Event Part Scenario)
Meiwaku Seijin Panicmaker (Planning, Scenario, File Text, All Worldview)
Blade Dancer PSP (Quest Scenario)
biohazard DEGENERATION (Special Thanks)
El Shaddai: Ascension of the Metatron (Designer)
Rise of Nightmares (Designer)
Mr. Kawamura can be found on Twitter (@yas_kawamura). Although he is not fluent in English, he is able to read Twitter messages and sentences which are not too long, so feel free to thank him for his work on the series and for such an amazing interview.