Shinji Mikami believes that if players needed to watch a walkthrough, then the game was not good enough.

Shinji Mikami believes that if players are satisfied with just watching a walkthrough, the game wasn’t good enough

Japanese comedian and YouTuber Eiko Kano — famous for chaotic Resident Evil playthroughs — recently recounted a chat with Shinji Mikami, who directed the original RE and RE4. Kano was on a TV show (June 18) that collected his “cool” life moments; the highlight, he says, was meeting Mikami in person.

Streaming and recorded play sessions are a touchy subject for many devs, esp. in Japan. Opinions run hot: some creators shrug it off, others worry watching substitutes for playing. Kano had Capcom’s permission to stream, yet he still fretted that revealing puzzles and plot beats might make the series’ authors uncomfortable.

When they met, Kano chose to ask Mikami straight up — and was ready to stop streaming if told to. Mikami’s answer was blunt: “If viewers watch a game’s playthrough to the end and are satisfied only with that, it means the game wasn’t that good.” He added that the aim is to craft experiences that make people want to take the controller themselves, even after seeing someone else play — so, go on streaming.

That reply casts responsibility back at developers (i.e., it’s on the game to compel play, not on the streamer to hide content). Kano notes he heard the same stance from Dragon Quest creator Yuji Horii.

Naoki Hamaguchi of Square Enix — the FFVII Remake trilogy director — has voiced a similar thought recently: with walkthroughs everywhere, RPGs need to be designed so viewers get itchy to play, not merely satisfied by the story. Whether you find that encouraging, frustrating, or obvious depends on where you stand; it’s one more little shove in the ongoing push–pull between watching and playing.