Plenty of work is being put into the Resident Evil franchise. Capcom continues to see this series thrive with new thrilling installments. But it wasn’t very long ago that the developers opted to start remaking some of the earlier installments. One of the latest happened to be a remake of Resident Evil 4.
Resident Evil 4 was one of the more cherished installments of the franchise. So when a remake was announced, a ton of hype and anticipation built up for its release. Fortunately, the release was a positive one, with fans and critics alike praising the work developers put into the game. However, Shinji Mikami, the original director behind the game, was one of the key individuals that fans wondered about their take on the remake. Fortunately, we already knew that Shinji enjoyed the game, but a recent interview offered some additional comments about their thoughts on the latest remake.
IGN had the chance to speak with Shinji about remakes, which brought up Resident Evil 4. The famed developer noted that to make a good remake, the team responsible for the project needs to have a deep understanding of what the original was going for. So you’re essentially going from the ground up to understanding the game’s fundamentals, ranging from characters, dialogue, gameplay mechanics, settings, and more. That’s something that the developers who handled the Resident Evil 4 remake did well.
Shinji Mikami noted that the team was able to flesh out his half-assed scenario, which was written up in just two weeks. Of course, now we have to wonder what the original game could have been if the developer had taken more time to craft the storyline.
Another thing I thought was really well done was the way they took the half-assed scenario that I just wrote up in two weeks and really built up on that and really fleshed it out. They showed that they really understood the characters and their interactions. They showed a good understanding of the backbone of each character. And they took not just the scenario itself, but even the dialogue, and they improved all that stuff so that was really great. – Shinji Mikami
At any rate, fans of the Resident Evil franchise are left waiting to see what will come next. Rumors have suggested that the next remakes for the franchise might not have as much ambition as the latest Resident Evil 4 remake. Meanwhile, others are anticipating the announcement of the next mainline installment, Resident Evil 9. We can only wait to see what Capcom wants to unveil next.