Hideki Kamiya wants Capcom to add an optional non-horror mode to Resident Evil. The director of the original Resident Evil 2 told VGC that Resident Evil Requiem was too frightening for him to play through, even though he wanted to see Leon Kennedy return to Raccoon City.
Kamiya is not asking Capcom to turn the series into an action game. His idea is a separate set of options that would let people keep the puzzles, combat, and story while turning down the blood, lighting, and disturbing enemy designs.
Kamiya was not joking this time
In the September 1 interview, Kamiya said he was “one hundred percent serious” and had told people on the Resident Evil team that the newer games had become too scary. He has made similar jokes before, but this time he explained the request as a way to let players who avoid horror actually finish the games.
Kamiya has a strange relationship with the series. He worked on the original Resident Evil and directed Resident Evil 2, yet he has always been open about not liking horror. Knowing how a game is built does not make its monsters easier to meet in a dark hallway.
What would a non-horror mode change?
His examples are deliberately simple: less frightening faces, brighter or friendlier lighting, and no blood. He even suggested covering enemy faces with paper bags. The joke made the idea easy to picture, but the underlying proposal is practical: a few visual and audio switches could change the experience without removing the game.
Kamiya pointed to Bayonetta’s Very Easy Automatic mode and Bayonetta 3’s Naive Angel option as precedents. Those settings change how approachable or visually explicit the games feel without replacing their combat systems. He sees room for Resident Evil to offer the same kind of choice.
Requiem gives him a strong example
Capcom describes Resident Evil Requiem as the ninth mainline Resident Evil game and a survival-horror title built around cinematic realism. It released on February 27, 2026, returning the story to Raccoon City with FBI analyst Grace Ashcroft and series veteran Leon Kennedy. The high-fidelity faces, dark interiors, and close camera work make its scares more immediate than those in the fixed-camera games Kamiya directed.
That tension is part of Requiem’s identity. It wants the physical weight of modern horror while still giving players weapons, puzzles, and action. For fans, the intensity is the appeal. For Kamiya, it is the barrier that keeps him from seeing what happens to characters he helped create.
Capcom has not announced this mode
Nothing in Capcom’s public Requiem materials promises a non-horror setting. In March, the official Resident Evil account responded to Kamiya with a playful visual and clarified that it was not a full game mode. There is still no announced toggle, accessibility option, or patch based on his latest comments.
Would it ruin Resident Evil?
Some players would say yes. Fear is the reason to manage ammunition, hesitate before opening a door, and listen for movement instead of charging ahead. Remove too much of that and the series risks becoming a shooter with spooky wallpaper.
An optional mode would leave the default game alone. It would give people who cannot handle gore or sustained scares a way to experience the characters, puzzles, and setting. That is a different audience, not a replacement one.
Resident Evil 2 remains the clearest comparison. Its remake kept the survival-horror structure while adding modern controls and a new level of visual detail. Our Resident Evil 2 coverage looks at why that version still defines the series for many players.
Kamiya’s request is not a plan from Capcom. It is one veteran designer admitting that the series he helped shape now scares him away from the controller. For a franchise built on choosing whether to fight, hide, or run, letting players choose how much horror they can take would be a surprisingly fitting option.
