Speaking during an interview with MCV, Capcom’s European CEO Katsuhiko Ichii admitted that he finds playing Resident Evil 7: Biohazard in VR a little too scary.
"Honestly, I find it a bit too scary," said Ichii-san. "It depends on the person. Some people might play part of it in VR, some might play it entirely in virtual reality, and some might play it entirely on the screen. It’s a choice."
As Ichii-san mentions, Resident Evil 7 can be played regularly if you don’t fancy strapping on a PlayStation VR headset; you won’t be missing out on any content if you choose one experience over the other.
"When creating the game, the entire development team approached it as a normal non-VR game, and put in plenty of frightening jump moments," Antoine Molant, Capcom’s Marketing Director. "Having said that, obviously from a testing standpoint, we are making sure we are not putting people in danger for real."
Resident Evil 7 is due out on PlayStation 4, PC, and Xbox One on January 24, 2017. The game completely revamps the core mechanics of the venerated survival horror series, switching to a first-person viewpoint for the first time in a mainline Resident Evil title.
Capcom is making a concerted effort to bring the franchise back to its horror roots with Resi 7, and has said the action takes place in a plantation mansion somewhere in rural America. Despite the presence of supernatural elements in the playable demo, the publisher has insisted it won’t be a ghost story.
Resident Evil 7: Beginning Hour is now available to download for PlayStation Plus users, and serves as a tonal teaser for the main game. The demo has been downloaded over two million times since its launch at E3 2016 last month.
While brief, Beginning Hour offers more than its fair share of secrets, with multiple endings and items available to uncover. In fact, the infamous Dummy Finger item is still a hot topic of debate to this day, as players continue to comb through the demo to ascertain its use.
Resident Evil celebrates its 20th anniversary this year, having first launched on the PlayStation back in March 1996. The franchise has sold over 61 million units worldwide as of 2015, making it Capcom’s most financially successful series to date.
Read our Resident Evil 7 VR hands-on impressions.