Resident Evil 4 and 5 didn't desert horror, were "different kinds of scary experiences"

Capcom's Tsukasa Takenaka has stressed the firm didn't ignore Resident Evil's horror roots in the fourth and fifth installments in series, but instead explored a more divergent horror with the addition of pulse pounding action.

Speaking in an interview with Eurogamer, Takenaka said he believed there was a "confused messaging" with what the firm tried to accomplish in both Resident Evil 4 and 5.

"I don't think 4 and 5 are not horror games," he said. "What we were trying to do with those games is explore different kinds of horror. For instance, Resident Evil 4 is not about zombies. It's about the Ganados speaking in human words and coming at you with weapons. That's a different kind of horrific thing than zombies.

"With Resident Evil 5 it was more about the light and darkness and these new things we were finally able to do with the hardware to see the contrast in the environments and those different types of surprising and interesting experiences. It was a kind of new horror.

"It's not so much that we were going away from horror and towards action. It's more that we were trying to do different kinds of scary experiences. That's maybe something that's got a little confused in terms of the messaging."

Back at E3 in June, a Capcom representative noted that fans preferred the more horror-driven style of the series, and having listened to what the fans want, Capcom would indeed be making horror the focus of the next iteration of the series.

“We know that alot of fans want more horror back for the next one," said the rep. "The development team knows that as well and we read a lot of comments, messageboards, and ask for feedback, and there was a lot of critisism about RE5′s focus on action."

“I think that you’ll like the direction the dev team is shifting for the next one.”

In a sense reiteration what the rep said at E3, Takenaka said Capcom takes user feedback seriously, and what the fans want is "very important" to the firm, as it's "always listening" and "making use of" any suggestions or complaints it receives.

However, when Eurogamer asked Takenaka about Resident Evil 6, all he would say was: "I don't know. What's Resident Evil 6?"

In the meantime, until it's officially announced, fans can look forward to Resident Evil: Revelations on 3DS and Operation Raccoon City on PC, PS3 and Xbox 360 - both of which release in early 2012.