Invitation to the Darkside

Invitation to the Darkside was a Capcom development blog published 4th September 2009. It is the twentieth in a series of some twenty-three blogs detailing the development of the game.

Transcript
Now I’d like to go back to the meaning of “Darkside Chronicles” for just a moment.

Even when we started this project as the sequel to Umbrella Chronicles, the Resident Evil 2 and Code: Veronica scenarios were to be the primary focus. These stories were left out of Umbrella Chronicles, and I had some regrets about that. But now, since we were doing a sequel, I didn’t want to just tell a story in the traditional way. I wanted to be a little unorthodox.

When I reexamined the scenario of Resident Evil 2 and Code: Veronica, I noticed some things they had in common.

Claire plays a major role in both titles, and both titles take place very close together on the Resident Evil time line, so there is a good deal of continuity in their storylines. And, neither title is solely about a corporation or organization, per se; they both are narratives about individuals who find themselves caught up in terrifying situations. At the time, there were some things that were a little confusing and unclear, but I think Leon and Claire, the star characters of these two titles, did a good job of helping to tie up loose ends.

Umbrella Chronicles is, as its name suggests, an objective documentary-style account of past events, which tries to do away with any human emotional elements. The basic style of Umbrella Chronicles is to not depict the emotions of the characters more than is necessary.

But, I like emotional stories, and I believe that since horror evokes in us the emotion of fear, it isn’t altogether different than say a dramatic story of the lives of people. So with that in mind, I thought for the next “Chronicle”, why not tell a dramatic personal story?

When you look at Resident Evil 2 and Code: Veronica as an emotional, dramatic story, underneath you’ll notice something ominous and dark that is not just viruses and zombies. At their core, both of the stories are about human weakness and desire. It is the darkness inside of people that makes us fear.

In Resident Evil 2 there was the darkness in the Birkin household. In Code: Veronica there was the darkness in the Ashford Family.

The darkness inside. That is one of the themes of this game. Why did the Raccoon City incident occur? Why wasn’t the development of Biological Weapons stopped? Why does darkness seep in? Where does the darkness come from? That is how we as developers want you to feel when you finish playing Darkside Chronicles.

■About me Eel is one of my favorite kinds of fish... To eat, that is. There are several types of eel, each with a unique taste. I like variety, you know? There is even an eel called a “lamprey” that has a round funnel-like mouth and looks like some kind of sea monster. It’s really cool, but it doesn’t taste very good.