Summary
- Director Yasuhiro Ampo has revealed that the Resident Evil 2 remake was inspired in part by fan projects at the time.
- Clearly, people wanted to see the classics with a next-gen lick of paint, as it became the second-best-selling game in the series.
- However, Capcom was hesitant to touch Resident Evil 4, given its incredible reputation and the influence it still holds over gaming.
Resident Evil 7 was a much-needed return to form for a flailing series that had long since lost its identity, but it was also a step forward in a bold new direction. Instead of framing the survival horror experience from a third-person perspective, it pulled the camera in and let players see directly through Ethan Winters’ eyes.
But Capcom wasn’t ready to abandon the classic approach just yet. Instead, it would keep the over-the-shoulder action of the last few games with remakes of its most beloved entries. And it was fan projects that spurred on this idea to revive the originals, giving them a new lick of paint while also connecting their stories more intimately than ever before.
“It was like, ‘All right, people really want this to happen.’ So producer [Yoshiaki] Hirabayashi came up with the slogan: ‘Well, we’ll do it,'” Resident Evil 4 remake director Yasuhiro Ampo said in an interview with IGN. The result was the Resident Evil 2 remake, which has become the second best-selling game in the franchise’s history.
The Stakes Were Even Higher With Resident Evil 4
Resident Evil 2 is a beloved hallmark of the series, introducing Raccoon City and series icon Leon Kennedy. But the stakes were even higher for his follow-up game, Resident Evil 4, a genre-defining masterpiece that completely revolutionised over-the-shoulder shooters and survival horror games in ways that we still see today.
Understandably then, tensions were high when Capcom was deciding what to remake after the intermission that was Resident Evil 3. The team was hesitant to tackle a cornerstone of gaming history, having just clawed back goodwill with Resident Evil 7 and the duo of remakes. “Resident Evil 4 is a game that is so beloved. If we get anything wrong with the remake, people might be quite vocal about their discomfort,” Almo explained.
Nonetheless, Capcom pushed ahead with the remake, embellishing the horror, toning down the campier ’00s action, and refining the combat, putting their own stamp on a classic and forging a masterpiece of their own.
- Released
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January 25, 2019
- ESRB
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M for Mature: Blood and Gore, Strong Language, Intense Violence
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