Neon Genesis Evangelion's Echo in Control: A Developer's Tale

When the team at Remedy sat down for an IGN Live session, the conversation quickly turned to an unlikely source of inspiration: the 1990s anime Neon Genesis Evangelion. It wasn’t a coincidence that the game’s mood felt, at times, almost… philosophical.

“We grew up watching Evangelion,” admits the creative director, chuckling. “Those late‑night episodes, the sense that reality could be cracked open at any moment – that stuck with us. It’s like the show whispered a question: what if the world itself is a mind‑bending experiment?” He pauses, then adds a little‑hand‑waving aside, “And yes, we’ve probably over‑talked it a bit.”

The developers explained that the series’ blend of psychological dread and high‑concept sci‑fi helped shape Control’s narrative scaffolding. Rather than a straight‑forward horror story, they wanted a game that made players question what’s real, much like Evangelion’s characters grapple with their own identities. This translated into the ever‑shifting, impossible architecture of the Federal Bureau of Control.

From a design standpoint, the “angelic” antagonists in Evangelion inspired the abstract, otherworldly entities that stalk the Oldest House. The team kept a notebook of motifs – red‑tinged light, cracked mirrors, dissonant soundscapes – and dropped them like breadcrumbs throughout the game. “We weren’t trying to copy,” the art lead notes, “just to capture that unsettling feeling that something familiar has gone terribly wrong.”

Even the narrative pacing bears a faint Evangelion imprint. Episodes of calm introspection are punctuated by sudden, jarring confrontations – a pattern that mirrors the anime’s infamous “mind‑blow” moments. “Players get a breather, then boom! The world shifts again,” says the writer, smiling.

All of this, the team says, was deliberate but organic. They didn’t want a forced homage; they wanted an atmosphere that felt lived‑in, that resonated with anyone who’s ever felt small against a vast, unknowable cosmos. In the end, the homage is more of a feeling than a reference, a subtle thread woven into Control’s fabric.

So the next time you wander through the red‑hued hallways, listening to that distant, echoing hum, you might just hear a faint whisper of Evangelion’s legacy – a reminder that some inspirations are quietly powerful, shaping worlds in ways players may never fully see.