Q2) FLAGSHIP was known for handling the scenarios in the series at the time. Was there a particular reason you were chosen to write BIO3?
In 1998, FLAGSHIP's lead scenario writer Noboru Sugimura was busy working on "BIOHAZARD CODE:Veronica" and other FLAGSHIP scenario writers already had their hands full working on "biohazard 0 (ZERO)".
Director Hideki Kamiya's team was already working on the next title in the series, BIOHAZARD 3. The game was loosely set on a luxury cruise liner and had a general plot where HUNK was attempting to bring back a sample of the G-Virus. I was assigned to a newly formed team that was working on a spin off title called "BIOHAZARD Gaiden" ("gaiden" is Japanese for side-story or spin-off). *Editor's Note: In this instance, "Gaiden" was the initial name for LAST ESCAPE, it is not referring to the GameBoy Color game of the same name.
The director of "Gaiden" was Kazuhiro Aoyama, a game designer who was responsible for the designing the levels in BIO1 and BIO2. The rest of the members, with the exception of the programmers and sound crew, were comprised of newly hired staff.
In place of FLAGSHIP, I was chosen to write the scenario and assist Mr. Aoyama in designing the game. "Gaiden" was intended to be a small scale game made in a short time span so even though I was new to the company, it was deemed that I would be capable of handling the scenario.
However, things started to change mid-1998 when we received word about the impending transition to the PlayStation 2.
Mr. Kamiya's team was working hard building a top quality game, but alas it was targeted for the PlayStation 1. By the time the game launched, the market would have shifted towards the PlayStation 2. Furthermore, the PlayStation 2 was a powerful system and without sufficient time for development, the "BIOHAZARD quality" that everyone expected would not be achievable.
Forced to make a change in plans, Yoshiki Okamoto, who was general manager of development at the time, announced that "BIOHAZARD Gaiden was going to become the last numbered release in the BIOHAZARD series for the PlayStation 1". What this meant was that from that moment on, "Gaiden" was no longer just a side story, but a part of the official plot line.
CODE:Veronica was a Dreamcast exclusive game, the scenario for ZERO was just getting started, and Mr. Kamiya's team was forced to go back to the drawing board to design for the PlayStation 2. This meant that fans on the PlayStation would have to wait several years for the next sequel, a scenario that CAPCOM wanted to avoid. On the other hand, it would've been unacceptable for a game designed by Mr. Kamiya to be any less than perfect in quality, and besides, it would be unthinkable to rush the development on a brand new hardware like the PlayStation 2.
So, the decision was made to promote the "Gaiden" team into the new BIOHAZARD 3 team and the staff size was significantly increased to work towards a launch on the PlayStation 1. This allowed us to release a BIOHAZARD game on a consistent schedule while providing Mr. Kamiya's team enough time to concentrate on the capabilities of the new platform. Mr. Kamiya's team was reorganized into the BIOHAZARD 4 team, and was tasked with creating a top-notch game for the PlayStation 2. When BIOHAZARD 3 was finished, a large portion of that team, including myself, joined in to help. This BIOHAZARD 4 project eventually changed directions and finally saw completion as the game "Devil May Cry 1".
Now, with the sudden promotion of the "Gaiden" game, I was forced to expand the scale of the content. The story was initially supposed to just be an escape chronicle from an infected Raccoon City, but after discussions with the producer and director, it was decided that instead of introducing a new character, Jill Valentine will play the role of the main character. It was also decided that Raccoon City would be wiped from existence. You can say that in a sense, the launch of the PlayStation 2 ended up taking the lives of one hundred thousand Raccoon City citizens.
This is the story behind the making of BIOHAZARD 3 LAST ESCAPE.