unusual condition of being safe amid
such a dangerous world, by contrast,
can’t help but remind you of what is
still left to face. “Effective horror is all
about the balance and rhythm of
tension and release; you can’t have all
tension, all the time, or it just
becomes tiring,” reflects Uchiyama. “I
think if you left the room silent or
just had environmental sounds
playing, it would actually play into
the horror trope
of the quiet
moment before a
shock, and
players would be
unable to relax
because they
would think
something was
about to happen.”
But even Resident Evil, as horrifying
as it can be, understands the
untouchable nature of safe rooms. As
Kadoi reflects, “I don’t think we
should ever break the rules as far as
letting the player be attacked and
hurt in the safe room. We’re
supposed to establish rules by which
you play and complete the game, and
it would be unfair to break them like
that just for the sake of a twist.”
Resident Evil’s iconic safe rooms and
themes have undoubtedly gone on to
inspire a large number of those we
see in gaming today. But I still have a
very important question to ask Kadoi:
Why a typewriter? “I recall that we
simply thought at the time of original
game that we needed an object
whose function was to make a record
of things, ie your progress, and which
would not look
out of place in an
old mansion, and
a typewriter
seemed to fit the
bill on both
counts.”CLOUD
COVER
If ever there was a game in need of a
safe room, it’s Rain World. Sneaking
through the ruined city and its
futuristic ecosystem, your animal
protagonist, Slugcat, has to stay sharp.
At any moment a lizard could jump
out of a nearby pipe to grab you, a
vulture may swoop down and haul
you off into the sky, or you could even
just fall into some carnivorous“EFFECTIVE
HORROR IS ALL
ABOUT THE
BALANCE”CALMING TUNES
The theory behind the theme
“It’s a bit technical, but bear
with me!” says Uchiyama. “A
chord is made up of multiple
notes; for a basic major chord,
the first note determines the
basic sound (eg the note C),
and then two more notes at
the third and fifth intervals
above this note make it a
chord. So for C, that would be
C-E-G. Major chords sound
upbeat or happy to us,
whereas minor chords (in this
case C, E flat and G) sound sad
or scary. I intentionally
removed almost all thethird-interval notes (in the
above example, that would be
the E note) from the chords in
the save room theme and
added an unsettling element
by sprinkling in some sixth and
seventh interval notes, and
sometimes seventh or ninth
chords as well. I also added a
haziness to the sound with
pads and drones. In Resident
Evil 7, an effect was used to
make the music sound like it
was playing from an old
record, which was a way to add
another layer of atmosphere.”Safe rooms provide a
well-needed break
from Resident Evil’s
hellish game world.