This is why Resident Evil's English dialogue became so notoriously terrible

If you played the first Resident Evil back when it came out on PlayStation and Sega Saturn, you surely remember an astonishingly innovative and visually stunning game that completely redefined the horror genre in the gaming world, and to some extent, those standards still hold true today. But you might also remember some utterly baffling dialogue, some of which was so terrible that it's now considered equally cult and iconic.

Poor translations were commonplace back then, but Resident Evil was so exceptional that Time Extension has now interviewed Tom Shiraiwa, former localisation manager at Capcom's Osaka office, to find out how timeless lines like "You were almost a Jill sandwich" or "It might be handy if you, the Master of Unlocking, take it with you" came to be.

It turns out the project was so important to Capcom and the series' creator, Shinji Mikami, that standard procedures were bypassed so the Japanese division could have full control. Normally, Shiraiwa would send his drafts to the U.S., where other staff would take over and handle the English, but in this case, Mikami dealt with it himself:

"Mikami actually went to a studio in Tokyo to record those English voices. And I think maybe the same company worked on the English text as well. [...] I think the reason for that is that Mikami wanted to be directly involved in the recording session and also give it that very Western horror-film kind of atmosphere. [...] So he actually bypassed me on that project, which was very rare at that time."

The reason was that, as mentioned, Mikami wanted to retain creative control throughout the entire process and feared that his vision might otherwise be compromised. Shiraiwa continues:

"Mikami's Resident Evil team really wanted to do everything internally. They were even hesitant to use people from overseas, and other departments within Capcom, other than Capcom Production Studio 4. Their philosophy was that if you use external people, they will not be able to fully convey what they are trying to achieve in the game because they are outsiders."

It wasn't until Mikami became aware that people were laughing at some of his lines that he and the team realised they had likely succeeded in doing exactly what they feared others would do. For Resident Evil 2, they therefore sought outside help, and since then, the series has consistently featured significantly better English.

Time Extension has verified Shiraiwa's claims with Chris Kramer, who worked at Capcom in the U.S. during the 1990s, and he confirms the claims, adding that the worst lines definitely did not come from him or his colleagues.