Capcom Five
Though not directly related to each other, they were all overseen by Resident Evil director Shinji Mikami and, except Killer7, developed by Capcom's Production Studio 4.
Capcom USA later clarified that only Resident Evil 4 was intended to be exclusive; the initial announcement was due to a miscommunication with their parent company.
[4] Due to increased manufacturing costs and severely limited cartridge memory capacity, many third parties—Capcom included—moved to the PlayStation to start new series, such as Resident Evil.
[1][4] On this new platform, developers could create bigger games while avoiding the restriction of ordering expensive proprietary cartridges through Nintendo, which could lead to under- or overstocking inventory that might eat into profits.
With the GameCube, Nintendo tried to reclaim third-party developers and catch up to Sony's PlayStation 2 by featuring disc-based media and powerful system hardware.
[7] In this climate of flagging sales, Capcom held a surprise press conference in Japan in November 2002, announcing five new titles for the GameCube: P.N.03, Viewtiful Joe, Dead Phoenix, Resident Evil 4, and Killer7.
[5] The games would be developed in-house by Capcom's Production Studio 4 with Resident Evil director Shinji Mikami as supervisor.
The title character is a parody of tokusatsu superheroes and is trying to save his girlfriend, who has been trapped in "Movieland" by a group of supervillains known as Jadow.
[27][28] Producer Atsushi Inaba considered the game a success, achieving his goals of training staff, keeping a small budget, and selling well.
[29][30] This version sold 46,000 copies with a slightly lower Metacritic score of 90 owing to the lack of progressive scan and frame rate slowdown generated by the porting process.
[33] The game was believed to be canceled by May 2003, but Capcom stated at a press conference prior to the 2003 Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) that it was still in development.
[36] IGN speculated that the game may have been retooled as a new Kid Icarus title, based on Nintendo's trend in the early 2000s of licensing properties to third parties.
[40][41] Taking over directorial duties, Mikami made the fifth and final version very different compared to previous Resident Evil games, with an over-the-shoulder camera perspective and an increased emphasis on action and combat.
[42] Resident Evil 4 was the only game of the five to remain confirmed as a GameCube exclusive; Mikami claimed that he would "cut his own head off" (a Japanese colloquialism for quitting his job) if it were to be released on another platform.
Players control the members of an elite group of assassins who are actually physical manifestations of a god-like being named Harman Smith.
[53] This back-loading of development resulted in several delays, the last of which was due to an artistic desire to release the game on July 7 (7/7) in North America.
Some reviewers praised the game for its complex noir plot involving a political conflict between Japan and the US, while others panned it as confusing and incomprehensible.
[1] Luke Plunkett of Kotaku noted that despite best intentions, Capcom's five even at their full potential could not have made up for the GameCube's failings in that generation's console wars.
[64] The separation was in part due to Resident Evil 4's PlayStation 2 release, which caused significant tensions between Capcom and Mikami, who had touted the game's console exclusivity.
[43][46] However, the studio only produced two new IPs before Capcom closed it in late 2006, following the resignations of Atsushi Inaba, Hideki Kamiya, and Shinji Mikami.
[66] The former Clover developers charged that Capcom's corporate management was reluctant or actively opposed to risky new ideas, a complaint shared by Inafune.
[67] In 2008, they announced the "Platinum Three", referring to MadWorld, Infinite Space, and Bayonetta, which would attempt to carry on the Capcom Five's ambitious and creative original spirit.
[16] Reviewers have also called P.N.03's "combat...with stylish dance-inspired movements" and "flashy, energetic, intense" gameplay and character design a spiritual predecessor to Bayonetta.
[76] On the other hand, Adam Sorice of Nintendojo suggested that the commercial failure of the game which so prominently featured a female lead character made Capcom reluctant to attempt it again for a number of years.
[78] Its "over-the-shoulder" perspective inspired third-person shooters and action games as diverse as Gears of War and Batman: Arkham Asylum.
[78] Leon's precision-aiming laser sight has also found its way into Dead Space and Grand Theft Auto, as an alternative to "lock-on" targeting.
[81] Following Resident Evil 4's lead, many "horror" games in the next few years would shift toward more combat-focused gameplay, including Silent Hill: Homecoming and Alone in the Dark.
[88][89] Super Smash Bros. Brawl was released in 2008, featuring third party characters like Solid Snake from Konami and Sonic the Hedgehog from Sega as a selling point.
Kotaku reported on a rumor that Nintendo refused to include a character from Capcom as a direct result of Resident Evil 4's multi-platform release.
