Kojima and Mikami talk horror

Two of most influential creators in Japanese gaming, Shinji Mikami (Resident Evil and The Evil Within) and Hideo Kojima (Metal Gear Solid and Silent Hills) sat down together last week and talked horror in an interview with Weekly Famitsu (and translated by Kotaku).

"Looking at current survival horror games as entertainment, I feel they lean too heavily on action." Mikami revealed, explaining his approach to The Evil Within. "I thought that I wanted to make a game that would stand up on both the fear as horror and on the enjoyment as a game."

Then Kojima chimed in with some praise for his peer: "'Survival horror' is Mr. Mikami's child, so I believe The Evil Within will be his showdown with the genre in terms of both content and sales."

Kojima then commented on the reception to P.T., a demo that was released on PS4 during this year's Gamescom: "Honestly, the response to P.T. has been so positive, I'm currently pondering 'what should I do for Silent Hills.'"

Mikami then had a suggestion for the Metal Gear Solid creator: "I think you should make Silent Hills an extension [of P.T.]. I felt truly 'pure' horror from [P.T.]."

Both creators then offered their thoughts on the changing tastes of audiences. Kojima started the ball rolling on that particular topic.

"Making people mad or sad or especially scared isn't that hard. Actually, making them laugh is the most difficult thing. For P.T. I decided against using a ruin as the stage and had it take place instead in a simple hallway. That way, I didn't have to worry about the cultural background of the player. I wanted people to experience the fear of not being able to escape in a world where there was almost no information on the screen."

"With the hardware specs we have now, it's possible to put a whole lot of information into the background, so creators have a tendency to develop a 'gap-phobia.'" Mikami added. "But if there's too much information, even if the atmosphere is scary, you don't know where to focus on. A single chair sitting in a white room can often be scarier."

The pair, unsurprisingly, had nice things to say about each other.

"[Mr. Kojima] is the game creator representative of Japan. I truly admire him." Mikami said.

Kojima followed that up by adding: "We're both crotchety old men. Mr. Mikami fights to make the games he wants to make. I believe he is one of Japan's few real 'creators.'"

Mikami's The Evil Within is set to launch on PC, PS3, PS4, Xbox 360 and Xbox One on October 14. There's no release date for Kojima's Silent Hills, but you can still download the P.T. demo on PlayStation 4 if want to see it for yourselves.