Control Resonant is openly being positioned as an action RPG, but according to Remedy creative director Mikael Kasurinen, this is not a sudden change of direction. He says the original idea behind Control was already tied to finding the studio’s own version of an RPG franchise. The 2019 game did not fully jump into the genre, but it already introduced elements such as side stories, optional missions and dialogue choices, which Control Resonant now appears ready to embrace more directly.

Control Resonant is going to be an RPG, and that part was already known. When PC Gamer’s Robin Valentine saw the game in March, he was actively surprised by how much it resembled a Diablo-like action RPG, complete with talent trees, stats screens and build-crafting. What is more unexpected is the claim that the Control series was always meant to move in that direction.

Speaking to GamesRadar+ at Gamescom Latam this year, creative director Mikael Kasurinen said the path toward an RPG was there from the beginning. “When I was thinking about Control, and it wasn’t called Control or anything like that, but I had this kind of thinking in my head that I wanted to create an RPG franchise,” Kasurinen said. “The question was, ‘What would it be? What’s the Remedy version of that?’ The way to learn is to start by doing, and that’s how Control was born.”

That does not mean the first Control functioned as a full RPG. The point is rather that Remedy started to introduce structural elements it had not previously used in that form. The game had a main story, but it also had other stories running alongside it. It had side quests, character conversations and dialogue choices where players could decide what to say. Kasurinen said all of that was new for the studio.

Remedy Was Looking For Its Own RPG Shape

Based on Kasurinen’s explanation, Control was not built by simply copying familiar RPG features and attaching them to a supernatural action game. Instead, the studio seems to have been figuring out step by step what a Remedy version of an RPG structure could look like. That is why many players would hesitate to call the original Control an RPG. It often felt more like a strange action-adventure with metroidvania-like exploration, supernatural combat and a strong sense of place, while still carrying design choices that pointed toward something broader.

Control Resonant is the next stage of that process. Kasurinen said he no longer wants to call it an action-adventure game. “I wanted to stop calling it action adventure. Instead, like, no, it’s an action RPG. This is Remedy’s RPG franchise, and we’re gonna kind of embrace that, fully commit to it, and so on, and go even further into that direction.”

That statement matters because Remedy’s identity has long been tied to authored action games, cinematic storytelling, strange worlds and carefully controlled narrative experiences. Control already loosened that formula. Exploring the Oldest House, uncovering paranormal files, following optional threads and piecing together the logic of its world all pushed the game beyond a simple linear action story.

Control Resonant therefore looks less like an abrupt genre shift and more like a clearer commitment to ideas that were already present. If Remedy now fully treats the sequel as an action RPG, the series can place much more weight on character progression, build-crafting, stats and player decisions. The question is no longer whether Control can become an RPG franchise, but whether Remedy can do it without losing the eerie, off-balance identity that made the first game stand apart.

Source: PC Gamer