Resident Evil is back - can it redefine the survival horror genre once more?

Thirty years ago, a game named Resident Evil ushered in the survival horror genre - a blend of nerve-shredding tension, elaborate puzzles, and intricate inventory management.

The series became Japanese developer Capcom's best-selling franchise ever, prompting books, films and TV programmes, as well as more games.

So how does the latest edition, Resident Evil Requiem - released to excited fans worldwide on Friday - keep the scares feeling surprising three decades on?

Koshi Nakanishi, who directed the new release, told the BBC the balancing act between "familiarity and freshness" had been a "huge challenge".

But he added he hoped the new title managed to "redefine survival horror in interesting new ways", while still "respecting the DNA of the series".

Over the years, the franchise has see-sawed between focusing on terror and high-octane action, with mixed results.

After hearing the latest game would try to combine the two, some fans were left fearing it would feel too "jarring".

However, producer Masato Kumazawa told the BBC the team has always been clear on Requiem's and Resident Evil's signature mood - fear.

"Fear is such a human emotion," he said.

"And through entertainment, we find ways to use fear as a thrill, but in a positive way."

"So I think that even with 30 years on the game's legacy, people still want to go through those thrills over and over again, because that's really what makes us human."

"They have escaped into the mansion where they thought it was safe. Yet…"

With those mysterious opening lines, Resident Evil created a new type of game.

While many believe the first true survival horror was 1989's Sweet Home, also made by Capcom, the term was coined specifically to market Resident Evil's release in 1996 by its director Shinji Mikami.

The phrase was used to help describe the game's tense atmosphere, born from its fixed camera angles, forever encroaching zombies and a limited supply of ammunition to shoot them with.

But freelance games journalist Vikki Blake told the BBC the series has not always stuck to its genre roots.

She said its later "pivot to action" left some fans feeling "like Resident Evil forgot about the horror part of survival horror".

And she added by the time of the release of set piece-heavy Resident Evil 6 in 2012, the franchise appeared to be doing "very little" to distinguish itself from "the army of cookie-cutter zombie games that had popped up in its wake".

Resident Evil 7: Biohazard saw a "return to form" in terms of the franchise's focus, she said - Requiem, though, will see some action elements return.

It will be done in a way that is itself a nod to the past, in the guise of one of its two playable protagonists - a now older version of fan favourite Leon S. Kennedy.

But Nakanishi said the decision to include a second and brand new lead character, FBI agent Grace Ashcroft, will allow players to experience a "more tense" gameplay style, befitting of a character without the training to tackle monsters head on.

Equally, while Requiem will see the carefully coiffed Leon return to old haunts such as Racoon City's police department from the second game, he and Grace will still explore plenty of new locations too.

Nakanishi admitted it was "tricky" to blend together so many different elements - old and new, action and horror - within Requiem so that they became "more than the sum of their parts".

"It's never possible to make something 100% original," he said.

"You always need to ground it in something familiar as a starting point to give people the sense that it's going to be the same kind of game that you liked before."

Perhaps highlighting how the theme of duality runs deep even within Requiem's team itself, Kawata says how despite this, the team have still brought "something new to the table" with their latest offering.

"We don't want to make players feel like we've just produced yet another game in the series with the same old content," he said.

"I want players to feel like this is a really fresh new entry in the series."

"The double protagonist angle really is a feature that lets us explore the duality of the characters, but also the storyline and the different horror approaches," Nakanishi adds.

Monique Alves is a Brazilian content creator who runs and hosts Resident Evil Database, a fan-led website and YouTube channel covering in-depth news and theories about the horror franchise.

She told the BBC when it was first announced Requiem would contain a blend of survival horror and action, some fans were "afraid of having Resident Evil 6 all over again".

But having been allowed to play three hours of the new game weeks before its release date, due to her super fan status, she said this time around, things felt "different".

"Resident Evil 6 is a product of its time," she said.

"So of course we were going to have more action and explosives. I think we are going to be safe in that aspect."

"The Grace and the Leon roots, I think they are going to be very well combined."

Critics appear to mostly agree that the game's decision to marry two very different gameplay styles has been a success, rather than a step back, for the series.

Nakanishi hopes players will feel the same.

"We've really taken care that we just don't do the same thing over and over again," he said.

"I think that means fans know that they want another game because they're never quite sure what kind of experience they're going to get - and that's really exciting as a player."

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