Shinji Mikami

Shinji Mikami is recognized as one of the most famous and legendary when it comes to games , especially in horror, suspense and horror games, since he was a child he was rooted in a love for terror and all this horrible and creepy area of ​​life. fiction, starting his love for a Japanese short story, which later led him to become passionate and obsessed not only by stories, but also by horror films of the 80s, these were by far his inspiration and addiction.

Shinji Mikami Biography

Shinji Mikami was born in Iwakuni, Japan , on August 11, 1965, grew up in a region called Chugoku in Yamaguchi prefecture, which arguably is one of the most industrialized provinces in Japan , since puberty in the rest of His adolescence became interested in what horror movies were and all those controversies that were unleashed with respect to them, the criticisms that this type of productions and designs had seemed highly entertaining and interesting.

Although his province had a large number of stories, antecedents and legends, since it is located near the Iwakuni marine base, which is one of the most famous structures that could be found in that town, along the history to this base came those affected by the Second World War , some who survived with difficulties and others who unfortunately did not ; This event marked and left an indelible mark on the inhabitants of the area, for which most of them always lived, and it can be said that they live, constantly nervous and with a deeply rooted fear of death.

However, the beginning of Shinji Mikami’s passion for terror and horror was not due to the large amount of antecedents that existed in his homeland, his first encounter with this type of theme, style and genre was with a Japanese story of ghosts that was titled Yotsuya Kaidan , which was distinguished by being a story in which the feelings and emotions of betrayal and revenge are constantly found, essentially starring souls of people who seemed to be in pain for not achieving the objectives that had been set in life, for which they were without the deserved eternal rest and manifested as souls in pain.

Progressively after this he grew up surrounded by theories, memories and other things about the dead being real or fictitious, these aroused his curiosity in an incessant way, after this simple knowledge was not enough and what he loved to investigate and investigate him It seemed bland and his perception was unimportant, so he looked for another source of admiration, another source of inspiration, which he later achieved in the horror films of the eighties which immediately caught his interest, entering the ones that most captured his interest. attention titles like Evil Dead and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre , in fact in an interview that was conducted thanks to Eurogamer the same MikamiHe expressed his attraction to these films in the following way: “It was not just the emotion that came from seeing something as scary as that. In my case, I was obsessed with what I would have done if I was the protagonist in that situation. I always wanted to do different things. This is why I wanted to make horror video games : to give myself the opportunity to play based on my decisions in extreme situations, which are scary. “

One of the most curious things about bes that when he was a child he did not even imagine himself as a designer or creator of games , what he most wanted at that time was to be a Formula One driver, in addition to that, he did not play any type of video games at At his young age, it was never in his goals to design games, since for him this would not give him the dose of action and entertainment that his life needed, Shinji Mikami at that young age loved adrenaline and could not find himself without being constantly mobilizing , so at that age he began to practice what was kendo and karate, this perhaps was a characteristic that he had learned from his father, who was violent, the same that achieved that Shinji Mikami, who almost nothing terrified him, was filled with panic and fear.

He was studying economics at Doshisha University , which was in Kyoto when something momentous happened, at least in Shinji Mikami’s life , Capcom invited him to an event and he gladly attended, apparently this company had caught his attention, so which sent them his curriculum synthesis, however, it was rejected first-hand, perhaps it was luck or destiny, but a week after being rejected the company called him, offering him a position as a junior designer, he never had a single idea As for the reason for the sudden change of mind, perhaps HR saw positive features and details in Mikami. However, the reasons were stopped looking when thisI participate in some way in a game, as a developer in 1990, one of the many Game Boy games that, although it was insisted, did not come out in Japan, this game was titled: Capcom Quiz: Hatena? Not Daiböken.

Progressively Shinji Mikami began to develop games that were also for the Game Boy, this time under the Disney license, one of those games was: Who Framed Roger Rabbit? After this came what was recognized as The Goofy and Aladdin troop which was available only for Super Nintendo consoles and was one of the most relevant games, with one of the best graphics that were found for the time and was a sales success exceeding one million eight hundred copies sold, however, Shinji Mikami sometime in an interview commented something about that game, arguing that he was not satisfied with its development, creation and platform of the game, for which he preferred the version fromSega Genesis before his, since he considered that the animations on this console were much better. In addition to this, at that time he also participated in a Formula one game, obviously he could not completely leave his dream behind, which was called Super Lap, although this game was developed successfully, the title was later canceled, thus frustrating his dream although it had been in an unrealistic way.

Style

The style of design and graphics in Shinji Mikami began being full of action and strategy, however, that seed that told him that terror and horror was his thing always remained embedded in him , when he was finally given this opportunity, he welcomed those bases as its foundations, so it can be said with an ineffable security that its unique style is terrifying games, it is not for nothing that it is recognized as the father of survival horror, its mission is to make the buyers of the product feel in their own skin what which is terror, what fear could do and, in turn, develop the survival skills of each individual individually.

Featured Shinji Mikami Video Games

resident Evil

This game published in March 96, like those that follow from the same franchise, is one of the most relevant directed, designed and created by Mikami , although the previous games in which he had participated were good and popularly known, this was one that Without a doubt, it marked a momentous change for Mikami’s career and fame, in addition to this, the appearance of this game caused too many controversies and controversies, for which, for the time it rose like foam, it was an innovation and from the same it was born what today is recognized as survival horror.

It was based on George Romero’s film Night of the Living Dead and was specifically published with availability only for the Play Station console, later the doors were opened to Sega and after this a remake of the same video game was created for Nintendo Game Cube in mid- 2002 , with more updated graphics and new features and details, in the same way Nintendo DS was not far behind, generating its own version of it called Resident Evil: Deadly Silence.

Dino Crisis

This game created by Shinji Mikami  could be said to be a hybrid , since it has all the previous conceptions of the designer but including inspirations based on Jurassic Park, this game went on sale in 1999 with an availability only for Play Station   and immediately catapulted, having a great demand and exceeding two million sales.

Resident Evil 4

This game did not have much difference with the previous ones, the camera in the game was fixed in the same way and the game scheme was the same, however, Shinji Mikami knew the inconveniences that had been presented in previous games, so he decided to perform shocking changes in what was the structure of the game, the gameplay took a leap from interactive methodics, in the same way changing the perspective of the camera, implementing a third person in some way and adding new designs, objectives, new weapons and details that did not they were in the old versions of the same game. Resident Evil 4 was praised and awarded in many ways, It completely revolutionized the industry, both the specialized critics and the expert players who had been in charge of playing it until they were exhausted.

Acknowledgments

Among the many accolades Shinji Mikami earned for his various creations, these are just a few:

• He won the “Excellence” award for Cesa.
• Gamelab of Honor Award.

Shinji Mikami trivia

Among the curiosities of the life of this character are the following:

• Its province is located near the Iwakuni marine base, which is one of the most famous structures that could be found in that town, throughout history those affected by the Second World War arrived at this base , some who they survived with difficulties and others who unfortunately did not; This event marked and left an indelible mark on the inhabitants of the area, for which most of them always lived, and it can be said that they live, constantly nervous and with a deeply rooted fear of death.
• His first face-to-face encounter with terror was with a Japanese ghost story called Yotsuya Kaidan, which was distinguished by being a tale in which the feelings and emotions of betrayal and revenge are constantly found, essentially starring souls of people who seemed to be in pain for not achieving the goals they had set in life.
• Shinji Mikami throughout his career exhaustively studied the basic concepts and theories about the psychology of terror, taking into account that feeling fear was not enough, it had to penetrate the bones of the viewer.
• He practiced Kendo and Karate in his teens, to release all the energy he possessed.
• His father was very violent, Shinji Mikami himself claims that he was too afraid of him.
• From a young age one of his big dreams was to be a Formula 1 racer.