Former company manager Miguel E. Corti called the early production stage "great chaos." After criticism of Resident Evil 6, the team couldn't decide on the direction for the new game. Among the characters considered were Leon, Jill, Rebecca, and Hunk, and the number of ideas was so vast that Corti stopped counting them.
After reorganizing the team and abandoning some of the finished materials, a concept emerged, partly inspired by the mechanics of Resident Evil: Revelations 2.
A risky decision was the switch to a first-person view and the choice of a new protagonist, Ethan Winters, who is searching for his missing wife. The plot also caused controversy, including how exactly to save Mia. Disagreements also arose around the return of Chris Redfield: his updated appearance, created using photogrammetry in the RE Engine, divided players.
Ultimately, the radical changes paid off: Resident Evil 7 received critical acclaim and attracted a new audience. Its creation story showed that to revive a famous series, one sometimes has to abandon familiar schemes.