Shinji Mikami is Dragonborn
Pictured: Resident Evil’s creator Shinji Mikami chilling with the Dovahkiin statue at his company’s office.
Mikami is apparently a pretty big fan of Bethesda’s Skyrim. “It’s a fantastic game. Just amazing. To have such a huge open world and so much freedom is wonderful, and the gameplay too is so varied,” says Shinji. “It’s so time-consuming - but that’s a great thing. If I was still a student I’d be all over it.”
Now that Mikami’s new studio, Tango Gameworks, is apart of the ZeniMax corporate fold (which includes Bethesda and their epic fantasy works), the game designer can’t help but ponder on an open-world game of his own. “It would be a game that mixes the best of the old kind of games with this relatively new open-world concept,” he muses while also admitting the hypothetical project would have to work within the boundaries of limited staffing (“We don’t have hundreds of staff, so I’d keep it simple”).
Tango Gameworks is currently headlong into development on a new survival horror title codenamed Zwei. Last we heard, Shinji wanted Zwei to be his last directorial gig. I guess that all hinges on whether or not wide, open expanses of virtual fields draws him back in.