Resident Evil 4 Remake’s Co-Directors Reluctant to Touch Masterpiece Until Inspiration Strikes – The co-directors of Resident Evil 4 Remake, Kazunori Kadoi and Yasuhiro Ampo, have acknowledged that they first had reservations about making a sequel because they regarded the original as a “masterpiece.”
The news that Capcom was also redoing Resident Evil 4 didn’t come as much of a surprise given how well-received the remakes of Resident Evil 2 and Resident Evil 3 (mainly) were. Resident Evil 4 is regarded as a masterpiece and is on a different level from the second and third games, which is why some people were worried about a remake. In reality, the remake’s directors were equally concerned.
Kadoi and Ampo recently spoke with Game Informer about how they planned to remake Resident Evil 4, which is an intriguing idea given that Resident Evil 2 and Resident Evil 3 were also recently remakes to fit Resident Evil 4’s aesthetic. Before going into the production of Resident Evil 4 Remake, Kadoi and Ampo acknowledge that Resident Evil 4’s reputation as a “masterpiece” made a remake challenging.
Remake of Resident Evil 4 Ampo heard Leon getting ready to stab a villager with the disease, ” “I really didn’t want to do it, to be honest. The original RE4 has earned legendary status within the RE series and even among video games in general. I was aware that it would be challenging to effectively remake it and that we would enrage its followers if we made even the slightest error with whatever updates we made.”
These ideas were mirrored by Kadoi, who said, “When I originally learned that RE4 would be remade, I believed it would be challenging because the original is such a classic. So I decided against doing it.”
Thankfully, both directors agreed to work on the remake of Resident Evil 4 and chose to take a slightly different approach than they had with the previous remakes. The team first opted against trying to “recapture lightning in a bottle,” recognising that the original had such a significant impact and that the best course of action was to stick to the original and try to improve it gradually.
To do this, the team played through Resident Evil 4 again to see what they could improve or modify. As a consequence, quick-time events were eliminated, and Ashley’s gameplay was changed so that she could climb ladders and generally get out of the way less.
