We’re fast approaching the release date for the Resident Evil 4 remake, and one of the original game’s lead designers has returned to uncover new details about the classic.
In recent days, former Resident Evil 4 lead designer Masaki Yamanaka took to Twitter to reflect on Capcom’s classic action-horror game. Yamanaka, now senior developer at PlatinumGames, posted a lengthy tweet thread uncovering new details about Resident Evil 4, looking back at his time creating Resident Evil 4.
An interesting detail from Yamanaka’s thread is that he intentionally designed Luis to look like Aragorn from Lord of the Rings. Yamanaka writes in the tweet below that the Peter Jackson adaptations were incredibly popular when Resident Evil 4 was in development, and as such he wanted Luis to look like Aragorn to compete with Leon S. Kennedy for the title of ” the coolest guy”. Game.”
Luis: I think I drew him to look like Aragorn from Lotr, who was popular at the time, as handsome as Leon. If you give the modeler proper art that looks like a sketch, do it very well. paddy field. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .February 17, 2023
It may have been Yamanaka who came up with this original direction, but it was a Capcom modeler who saw the basic concept through to its final product, based on art produced by Yamanaka. The now former Capcom developer doesn’t name the modeler who drew inspiration from and followed Yamanaka, but it’s thanks to them that we have the Luis we have today.
In fact, Luis got a slight redesign for the Resident Evil 4 Remake, and when he was first unveiled last year, fans weren’t quite sure what to make of the final creation. The character is now compared to everyone from Uncharted characters to Wrestling characters, with some simply calling him “ugly”.
Elsewhere in the exhaustive thread, Yamanaka reveals that the villainous Saddler was actually created from a scrapped version of Albert Wesker. There were several famous versions of Resident Evil 4 that were dropped at Capcom before we got Shinji Mikami-led Creation, and one of them featured a Wesker who basically looked like Saddler.
Yamanaka’s entire thread is an absolute gold mine for those with fond memories of Resident Evil 4. Speaking of which, Yamanaka says that while creating the modern classic was hard work, he still loves the end result and can’t wait to see what’s next. Capcom can achieve with the new version of Resident Evil 4, using modern technology.
Considering Capcom is already dropping QTEs for the Resident Evil 4 Remake and adding all-new side quests, we’d say Yamanaka has every right to be intrigued by what the developer can create with current tools. The Resident Evil 4 Remake will launch next month on March 24 for PS5 and PS4.