Capcom has released a new ‘Making Of’ video series for Resident Evil 7: biohazard, revealing a number of scrapped ideas for the critically acclaimed survival horror game that failed to make it into the full game.
Chief among these canned features was the ability for the player to hold their breath in order to sneak past enemies. Jun Takeuchi, the game’s executive producer, explained that this was ultimately given the chop as he felt players would most probably tense up in real life, making the experience uncomfortable.
"There would be a limit to how long you could hold it, with a breath gauge on the screen which would go down as you held the button, and if you didn’t get past them in time, then the zombies would find you and grab you," said Takeuchi-san.
"It was a really fun idea, but we found people tended to tense up and hold their breath for real, making it very tiring to play! It was a great idea on paper, but we ditched it because we thought doing that for 15 hours would give people hypoxia."
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Elsewhere, Resident Evil 7 Game Director Koshi Nakanishi said the game originally featured a recurring canine foe.
"One thing that I kind of wish we could have kept was that the family used to have a pet dog," he said. "It was part of the dinner scene, I think. For one reason or another we had to cut it, which is a shame. Thinking back now, I wish we could have kept that."
Resident Evil 7 was released on PS4, PC, and Xbox One back in January and has gone on to ship over three million copies worldwide to date. Capcom has released two DLC expansions to date in the shape of Banned Footage Vol. 1 and Vol .3, with a third piece of content due to drop later this year. In addition, the publisher has also confirmed that it will roll out a free story mission, Not a Hero, in spring 2017.