In an interview with Japanese Outlet Inside, Resident Evil 4 Remake producer Yoshiaki Hirabayashi and director Yasuhiro Anpo spoke about the pressure and responsibility behind remaking a game with such legendary status among fans. The developers also talked about how they tried to update a game that is generally considered perfect by many players and fans. (Thanks, inside!)
Hirabayashi participated in the development of the original. Resident Evil 4, while Anpo was not. For this reason, Anpo said he felt a lot of pressure at first, as he was aware of the particular difficulty of remaking the game.
Here is a direct quote from Anpo:
“To be honest, at first I thought I didn’t want to (be the) remake Resident Evil 4. Since the original game is such a legendary title, if I were to blame for doing a bad job on a new version, many users would be very upset.”
The approach taken by the development team to create such a difficult remake was to modernize the game by improving things like visuals and handling. Another element they wanted to develop was new ways to express the story. They did this by expanding on the character interactions between Leon, Ashley, and Luis.
For example, by giving Luis a more active role and extending his screen time, players might feel more attached to him. As for Ashley, the developers have added more conversations between her and Leon. These look at how they build trust and form a relationship.
Some of these new conversations will take place during normal gameplay, rather than being relegated to cutscenes like in the original. Resident Evil 4. Krauser is another character that was expanded a bit from the original, but the developers didn’t elaborate.
He Resident Evil 4 The new version will be released on PS4, PS5, Xbox Series X|S and PC on March 24, 2023. A demo of the game will appear before launch.