Many of you will likely already know that the Resident Evil series has a different name in Japan, being referred to as Biohazard in its country of origin.
But what you might not realize is that the name was actually one of many Capcom staff were considering for the series, having to put together a shortlist of 17 potential titles for the survival horror classic (thanks @Genki_JPN for bringing this to our attention!).
This information was revealed as part of the recent NHK documentary, Legendary Games Chronicle: Biohazard, which aired late last month in Japan, where the creators shared an amazing, never-before-seen look at some of the rejected names they were considering for the PlayStation classic.
This list of names included variations on the "Biohazard" title, such as "Hazard", "Death Hazard", and the incredibly metal-sounding "Bio Slaughter", as well as other potential titles such as “Call of Death” and “Scream”, which, according to @Genki_JPN, were the names that the director Shinji Mikami and others originally wanted to go with for the game.
Eventually, though, Tokuro Fujiwara, the game's producer, gave the okay to Biohazard, and the rest is history.
Here's the full list of names shown in the doc:
- Death Shadow
- Be Afraid
- Strained
- Hazard
- Death Guide
- Biohazard
- Death Hazard
- Death Bleed
- Bloody Fear
- Call of Death
- Bio Slaughter
- Scream
- Death Limit
For now, the documentary is only available to watch in Japanese, but it's hoped that it will be released with subtitles on the NHK World App in the future.
It is the second documentary in the Legendary Games Chronicle series, following the release of Legendary Games Chronicle: Final Fantasy last year.