Resident Evil 7’s Troubled Reinvention Drew From The Last of Us

Resident Evil 7’s troubled reinvention drew from The Last of Us

Capcom’s Resident Evil 7: Biohazard helped revive a horror series that appeared to be in serious trouble after Resident Evil 6. However, the finished game was the result of a major development reset, several abandoned directions and a surprising influence from Naughty Dog’s The Last of Us.

Former Capcom manager Miguel Corti has detailed that process in a 66-post Bluesky thread. His account covers the early plans for the sequel, the push towards a more respected single-player story and the reorganisation that eventually sent the project back to the beginning. You can read the entire 66-post thread for the full behind-the-scenes account.

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The first version followed Resident Evil 6

The original plan was not a soft reboot. Instead, Resident Evil 7 was intended to continue directly from Resident Evil 6, with a stronger emphasis on familiar series connections. Corti says the proposal involved “more Leon and more Umbrella connections”, while Rebecca Chambers and Jill Valentine were also discussed as possible returning characters.

Although Resident Evil 6 received poor reviews, Capcom executives were satisfied with its commercial performance because it sold extremely well. That success helped explain why the initial concept retained the previous game’s direction rather than immediately abandoning it.

The development team, however, wanted a more critically acclaimed result. The Last of Us became an important reference point as Capcom explored a narrative-led, single-player experience. The attempt to preserve increasingly complicated links to the wider Resident Evil story eventually left the project stuck. Following a company reorganisation, the team received a mandate to remake Resident Evil 7 from scratch.

A new team changed the game’s direction

After the reset, Capcom assigned a new team, director and outside writer to the project. The game was also reimagined as a first-person shooter, a dramatic change for the franchise that matched the industry’s broader trends at the time.

The isolated house setting and the Baker family were introduced during this phase. Corti’s account suggests that some ideas survived into the final game even when they no longer fitted the story. He believes this contributed to the uneven narrative and the feeling that parts of the plot do not fully connect.

The relationship between Ethan and Mia also grew from the project’s The Last of Us influence. Whereas Joel begins that game after losing his daughter, Ethan’s motivation centred on searching for his supposedly dead wife. The intended emotional parallel did not translate cleanly, though, with Corti arguing that players had little genuine connection to Mia and that her history was difficult to reconcile.

The story eventually tied Mia more firmly to the established series through Umbrella. That addition helped connect the new direction to the broader Resident Evil universe, even if it also reflected the production’s continuing effort to make different ideas fit together.

Resident Evil 7 eventually found its audience

Capcom was reportedly disappointed by the game’s initial sales, despite Resident Evil 7 becoming the entry that renewed interest in the franchise. Over the following years, it developed into one of Capcom’s top sellers.

Corti says many of the game’s weaknesses were visible during production but were repeatedly ignored. He also describes team members fighting to prevent the project from failing. The result was a successful reinvention, although one shaped by compromises and concepts that had survived from earlier versions.

The story is a useful reminder that a polished final release can conceal a chaotic production. Resident Evil 7 moved from a continuation focused on Leon and Umbrella to a first-person horror game set around Ethan, Mia and the Bakers. That transformation helped restore the series, but it required Capcom to discard a substantial amount of work before the game reached its final form.

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