GameDaily: Why is Chris Redfield so huge?

Jun Takeuchi: Well actually, in terms of the storyline, Chris is now 35 years old and if he hasn't done a lot of training and been keeping [himself] up the last few years, I don't think he'd be able to do what he's expected to do in this game. He's been doing a lot of training and drinking protein shakes. [laughs]

In all seriousness, in the storyline, Chris really is 35 and he's had to do a lot of training to accomplish the goals he's set out for himself in order to do what needs to be done.

GameDaily: How was the decision made to set the game in Africa?

JT: The main reason that we chose Africa is, as we said earlier, in Resident Evil Code Veronica, it is mentioned that Africa is the origin of the Progenitor virus, which is the virus from where all the other viruses in the Resident Evil series appear. So we decided pretty early on in development that we wanted to make the story of this game about solving the mystery of where this virus came from. In order to do that, we felt that we needed to go to Africa and go back to its roots.

GameDaily: Is everyone you encounter in the village a zombie, or are there uninfected?

JT: All of the enemies that you'll see in the game, they're not zombies exactly. It is a different infection that has taken them over, but none of them are human any longer. They've all been changed.

GameDaily: What sort of research did you do in order to design the African environment, and what is your reaction to the controversy that appeared after the recent trailer?

JT: Well, first of all, in terms of the research that we did before we started making the game, we sent some of the staff to Africa to do a lot of research and they took a lot of photos, saw a lot of things, and we're trying to put what we saw during that research trip into the game itself. You may have seen in the trailer today that some of the enemies that appeared were not all Africans. Other races appeared. That's because, when we went to Africa, we saw that people were not all Africans. We saw people of all different races, Arabic and also Caucasians as well. We're trying to put what we saw with our own eyes into the game.

In terms of the reaction we had to the trailer, we're in the business of making entertainment here, and we're not trying to make any political message or say anything with the game. We're just trying to make something that's fun and enjoyable. We will leave the politics to the politicians and leave our hands out of it. We did feel that there was a little bit of maybe a misunderstanding that people had when they saw the trailer. They were maybe reading something into it that wasn't really there. We hope that people will understand the game a little bit more as time goes on.

GameDaily: Were there any retroactive design decisions based on some of that controversy? Did that affect the design of the second character that we've seen?

JT: No, not really at all. It didn't have any affect on the game design. I think everybody understands that we are focused on making a game here and I don't think there is anybody out there who really thinks that we're trying to make something that's racist or anything like that. We're just trying to make something that's fun, and as I mentioned before, put down what we saw with our own eyes. Right from the beginning of the development and design stage of the game, we wanted Chris to have a partner who would be familiar with the local area. That character has been there from the start.

GameDaily: Will we see Quick Time Events like in Resident Evil 4, like where you're running from the boulder? Will there be similar mechanics in the game?

JT: Yes absolutely, and you'll also see that they'll be more interactive than they were before.

GameDaily: In terms of the second character, will there be any co-op play involved?

JT: If I talked about that, then I'd have to start talking about the new system that I mentioned earlier on today and I'm afraid I just can't do that, so please hang on till E3.

GameDaily: With the demo, is that the beginning of the game? It bears a striking resemblance to the beginning of Resident Evil 4. Is that intentional? Are you following a cookie cutter pattern with that? Will it end the same way? The guy with the hammer looks like the guy with the chainsaw.

JT: No, we have no intention of following the cookie cutter approach to it. What we brought to you today is just a part of the game to show you what the game is like and the advancements the game has made. That part itself superficially looks like Resident Evil 4, but there's going to be a lot more new elements and a lot more surprises for you as time goes on.

GameDaily: We remember early on when the game was announced you talked about light and dark and heat playing into the design. Is that still an element in the game or has that been changed?

JT: Absolutely. We fully intend to have the light and dark in it. What we showed you today was obviously one of the brighter areas. We wanted to show you one of the more action oriented parts of the game. A lot of time we'll be using the bright areas for more bigger action areas. A dark, enclosed area will be more horrific and more tense than the brighter areas. Going from both of those back and forth and using both of those combinations and contrasts between types of gameplay will be one of the major parts of Resident Evil 5.

GameDaily: It's not like the heat is a physical drain on him or anything like that?

JT: The heat and the sun won't have any effect on the player. If we going to go down that route then you wouldn't be sure whether you should fight the creatures or the heat of the sun. The light itself will just be for atmosphere. Obviously, [Chris] he's pretty buff so the heat's not going to have any effect on him.

GameDaily:Will we see green and red herbs, or inventory limitation by the size of the case?

JT: In terms of the inventory system, we're actually still working on that at the moment, and the build we showed you earlier on today really doesn't have the inventory system. It was hidden because we are still working on it. We didn't want to show you it at this stage. So we are working on that and there will be some sort of system like that.

As far as the herbs go, those herbs are pretty weird. Whatever country you go to they seem to be growing there. We're pretty sure they will make an appearance in Africa too.

GameDaily: Do you feel a pressure, as games visually become more realistic, to abandon the old systems, like the herbs and inventory system? Or do you find that part of the charm of the Resident Evil series is that those things are included no matter how realistic things are?

We do change a lot of parts of the game as we go along and we keep updating different parts of it. More so than us, that feeling pressure to change it, we get a lot of calls from the fans to keep in elements, like the herbs. You expect to have those herbs, and when they find them in the game they're like, "Oh great, herbs!" We do feel a need to keep some of those elements, and also as the development team, we like to play around.

GameDaily: With the creature designs, where do you draw your inspiration from? We noticed in the cut scenes that some of the monsters' faces open and it reminds us of Blade 2.

JT: The creature design, when you get to the fifth title in the series, it's pretty hard to come up with interesting and new creatures that you're going to be able to fight, so it's a pretty difficult process. We come up with lots of different ideas, and the designer has a giant stack of designs and we choose the best ideas out of that. In terms of Blade 2 inspiration, I haven't heard anything about that myself, but it's certainly a possibility. I think that designer just came up with something like that himself.

GameDaily: Is the inventory system reflected on Chris' back, because it looked like what he had on he was changing in real time?

JT: I cannot really say at the moment, but it's not exactly going to be as you described it.

GameDaily: Fair enough. Thanks for your time, and good luck with the game.