Capcom director Kenji Oguro has been chatting to Very Gary Computing about new spin-off Monster Hunter Stories 3: Twisted Reflection, which he describes as “the JRPG the team always wanted to make”. It’s an interesting chinwag, not least for how it maps out differences between expectations aimed at Capcom’s role-playing efforts and the older Final Fantasy series (short version: older fans are more set in their ways).

There’s also a fun segment where Oguro bandies around the idea of a comparable spin-off for Resident Evil. He envisages it as something of a creature collector, like Monster Hunter Stories, but instead of collecting monsters, you’re curing them.

“Off the top of my head, I think Stories took the fundamental concept of the monster as a creature you’re going to battle and slay, and then flipped it on its head and said, the monster is now a creature you’re going to befriend and develop a kinship bond with,” Oguro told the site, through a translator.

“If that’s the fundamental approach of a Stories game, to flip the script on the basic interaction with the enemy, then I think that a Resident Evil Stories game would probably be about… I don’t think you’re ever going to be befriending zombies as such, but you know, perhaps you’d be taking the approach that, ‘I want to find a way to cure these zombies, so these people who’ve been turned into these monsters and get them back to being human’.

“I mean, you almost might end up going in more of a Dead Rising direction in that sense,” he went on. “but you’d be trying to take them and get them back to normal or figure out a way in real time to develop a cure for them. But what sort of game would that be, and whether it would work or not, I don’t know. It’s just as a response to your prompt, that’s how I would see Stories working, is taking a completely different angle on the same universe and developing the gameplay based on that.”

I’m writing this up because Oguro’s remarks have taken me on an exciting mental journey. That journey began with scorn. Making the zombies human again? This is some 1994 Edge Magazine-tier bullshit, Oguro. But then I thought about it more and, well, imagine an open worldy affair like Dead Rising where each T-viral mutant has to be cured and added to your party through some form of action-puzzling, in order to obtain the means to explore later areas.

To those who fret about not being able to do a boomy-shoot on those mutants, I say 1) Resident Evil doesn’t have to be about shooty-booming – Requiem’s stealth segments are pretty compelling, for example. And 2) I’m sure Capcom could design any number of kinetic puzzling/curing mechanics that approximate the experience of gunplay, without perforating anybody’s decrepit grey matter beyond repair.

We didn’t review Monster Hunter Stories 3: Twisted Reflection, but Ed Thorn (RPS in peace) got on quite well with the previous game. “The story isn’t going to make your jaw drop, the world’s rather bland, and it lacks in-depth crafting options,” he concluded. “But – and it’s a big but – the combat is genuinely a lot of fun, and collecting monsties is very moreish. Plus, I like being able to ride my monstie in battle and pull off special moves that practically nuke monsters from orbit.”

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Creative Assembly has reached out to Total War: Warhammer 3 fans, promising that details about “new content” are on the way.

Total War: Warhammer’s game director, Rich Aldridge, opened up about “why we are where we are” in a new video update, and gave a brief – but frank – assessment of the team’s progress to date, as well as reveal that we’ll find out more about the studio’s post-launch content in April 2023.

“We knew that we needed to get Immortal Empires to you in the best possible state, and that’s where we focused all of our efforts last year,” Aldridge said at the start of their five-minute statement (thanks, PC Gamer).

“Looking forward, I think we’ve got a really exciting year,” Aldridge added. “There’s going to be new content, bug fixing, quality of life improvements, taking on-board everything that you’re reaching out and telling us. I daresay some of this is going to hopefully be on your Wanted list, but I also think there’s going to be a few nice surprises there, too.”

The team is reportedly “finishing up with [its] final touches” on that first unspecified “piece of new content” and will be sharing it with the community this “passion project” “come April”.

“A lot of steps are needed in creating a DLC, and I’m sure you’re aware of that,” Aldridge explained. “Starting with the creative spark, development, but much goes on behind the scenes. Everything that we need to get looking and feeling just right before we can showcase and release it to you all.”

Alridge further added that the studio plans to “deliver two more exciting experiences also later this year – so one in summer, and one in the winter” – and confirmed that patches will also be rolled out in between this new content, too.

“We want to be as concrete as possible, but in doing so, we need to be in that position before we can communicate it to you. We don’t want to disappoint, we want to excite. We’re passionate about what we make, and we want to make great content for you to enjoy for years to come.

“We’re moving as quickly as we can on this, so please do bear with us even if it doesn’t always look that way at times. I’d really appreciate that.”

Developer Fatshark has delayed Warhammer 40,000: Darktide’s upcoming Xbox Series X/S release, saying it has made the decision to spend the next few months solely addressing fan feedback after the game “fell short” of expectations.

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