Anaxïmandrøs
True Gamer
المقابلة كانت في شهر أغسطس.. غريب إنه ولا واحد لاحظها (ولا حتى أنا)
المثير بأحد النقاط إنه جوناس نفسه هو مخرج التشابترز 9 و 10 وليس ميكامي !!.. واللي كان فيهم تصميم مراحل مذهل.. خصوصا العاشر
التشابتر العاشر كان عبارة عن صنعة شخص موهوب بصراحة
باقي النقاط وهي كثيرة تطرق فيها بالحديث عن الdlc والجزء الثاني (اللي كان مخرجه)
المثير بأحد النقاط إنه جوناس نفسه هو مخرج التشابترز 9 و 10 وليس ميكامي !!.. واللي كان فيهم تصميم مراحل مذهل.. خصوصا العاشر
التشابتر العاشر كان عبارة عن صنعة شخص موهوب بصراحة
باقي النقاط وهي كثيرة تطرق فيها بالحديث عن الdlc والجزء الثاني (اللي كان مخرجه)
The Evil Within 1 wasn't meant to be cryptic, even the dev team didn't know what the hell happened in the story and that wasn't the goal for them to finish the game and don't know what happened
They didn't left the story out on purpose so that the DLCs would shed light on it, they wanted to fill the missing pages
Johanas also directed Chapter 9 and 10 of TEW1, which were the mansion RE1-esque level of TEW1 and the boss gauntlet in the chapter right after (you might know them as the chapter with all the traps and everything, and then Laura would chase you)
The DLCs were actually thought of and made after development of the game in order to shed light on the story, they were also directed by John Johanas.
His role as a director on TEW1's DLCs made him transition as the director of TEW2 (maybe because of the reception of the DLCs?)
TEW2 was made to fix that by making the story understandable while still making it bizarre, at least for the basis
The first game was on the lens of the villain, the second game was about Sebastian
They wanted to build on the village section of TEW1 for 2. Lots of exploration possible while still retaining the horror elements.
TEW2 had two big areas, the original map were those two combined, but it was decided that it would detract from the experience and players would forget what they were supposed to do, so they cut it up.
They had a third map happening after Theodore, but wanted to make the end linear so that they would be more involved in the story
They wanted to keep a balance between story and exploration & mystery so they separated the maps in two and it helped out a lot
Johanas believe they shipped the best version of what they wanted to do
One of his regrets is that you couldn't pet the cat in TEW2. They wanted to add in as a patch but they were code problems that made it too hard
Sebastian was almost a non-character in 1. It was the intention of the writer of the first game, such as a self-insert
Johanas says it's his style to make a character you could relate to them. He also says it's the same thing for Kidman in the DLCs to make a personal journey for her.
It was his intention to make sure Sebastian wasn't just like an action hero where his previous adventure wouldn't faze him. It was a big element to make it a trauma for him to have experienced what happened in TEW1.
"There's no one who could go through that sequence of events and remain unscathed to that"
He said it was a bit tongue-in-cheek but he loved that sequence where he gets over his trauma by going through the boss gauntlet of the first game in 2 (he designed it)
He still wanted him to deal with the trauma of his family beyond that, so that he realizes he can't have everything.
Japanese fans resonated a lot more with that aspect of the second game. Mikami-san even said "This is a new genre of Survival Horror. This is Crying Horror." and said how Mikami thought it was very original.
He heard complaints about how they farmed it to a foreign guy to make it accessible but the studio is almost completely Japanese. He said ironically he was a huge fan of Japanese psychological horror games and tried to play to their strength.
TEW2 was a very american setting but it wasn't to feel more american. TEW1 was more european and series like Resident Evil are almost exclusively happening in America. They just did what felt right to the game.
TEW2 was made for people to experience survival horror games for a modern generation. To make it as accessible as possible while still putting limitations inherent to the genre.
They played TEW1 so much that they got good so the difficulty was made too hard for players who played it for the first time. Johanas loves it when a horror game is difficult but he knew that people just enjoy horror without dying too much so they offered more difficulty options in TEW2. Some people said they dumbed it down but it was more about accessibility.
Only 1 in 3 people completed TEW1. People couldn't get even past the chainsaw guy in the prologue of TEW1. For someone like Johanas to do chapter 9 and 10 and for only 1 in 3 people to get there was frustrating.
He knows people used the gameplay of TEW2 to hide in bushes and kill every enemies 1 by 1 but he said it takes a long time to do that. He wanted to offer different styles like TEW1 or taking a more slow and steady approach.
Johanas wanted big areas but he didn't want a standard open world with markers and everything so they made the communicator so it would just show you a general location. They wanted everything to be integrated into the gameplay.
The communicator was a subtle way to have a more indirect way to push you to explore. He wanted to avoid to just go from point A to point B. To guide you without giving you the answer.
All the stuff about Sebastian going back to the hospital was optional. It was a conscious decision to reward exploration and give context to the character organically. Just like you would read notes in the original Resident Evil, but instead of reading it was things that you would experience yourself.
Coffee refill wasn't his idea but it was so cool for him. It was optional so you don't need to drink it but it was there for people who needed a boost.
They went back and forth on making the end linear or not but they really wanted to not lose the sense of motivation for the story when the stakes were so high. He knows people wanted another area but he said he doesn't regret not adding that in because it would have bogged down the pacing.
He said he regrets not fleshing out side characters more but they all had to die since Sebastian had to come out alone. It wouldn't have made sense for side characters to just tag along to the end. Just like horror movies, not everyone can make it to the end.
Nightmare was his favorite difficulty because he loves difficulty and wanted you to be more conservative with your resources since it allows stress to happen.
He was the only one in the office to debug the AKUMU difficulty of TEW1. It was balanced through his feedback because it was nearly impossible. There was a moment in TEW1 that was so hard he had to prepare the entire game for this encounter with this unbalanced difficulty.
AKUMU was made almost as a joke, but people took it as the only way to experience it but that wasn't the intention.
