LogInThe co-directors of the remake shared that the original game already was a "masterpiece" which is why they knew it would be difficult to remake it.
The Resident Evil 4 remake co-directors, Yasuhiro Ampo and Kazunori Kadoi, have shared that they initially didn't want to take on the project as they considered the original game to be a masterpiece and were sure that updating it would take a lot of effort.
In an interview with Game Informer, the developers explained that when they received an offer to work on the remake, they were worried that even a small mistake could irritate the fans of the original game, as it had already become a "legend" for gamers.
"Honestly speaking, I didn't want to do it," Ampo said.
"Among the RE series and even games in general, the original RE4 has become a legend," he continued. "I knew that it would be difficult to successfully remake it, and if we made one mistake with any updates we made, we would anger its fans."
"When I first heard about remaking RE4, my first impression was that since the original is a masterpiece, a remake would be difficult," Kadoi added. "So I didn't want to do it."
In addition, the co-directors shared that, in their opinion, there really wasn't "that much to update" in the original Resident Evil 4. According to them, the game still holds its own against contemporary games, even despite its age. This added to the developers' trepidation about taking on the RE4 remake project.
"For RE2, you could feel how much it had been updated just from the new camera system, for example," Ampo said. "But for RE4, we knew that wouldn't really be the case, so one of the first things we did as a team was discuss how we would handle this."
This is why the developers decided to make a game that would be strongly faithful to the original while incorporating advancements that have emerged in the series after the Resident Evil 4 release to create a fresh version of the game. They hoped that this approach would be accepted by fans if they were successful in their efforts.
Thus, the team replayed and examined the original identifying areas that could be improved or updated. One of these areas was scenario elements – the devs decided to expand some of them further developing characters' personalities, relationships, and background stories through additional narrative details while maintaining the core characterization of them.
In addition, the team decided to minimize quick-time events in the game since they believed that frequent use of QTEs now seems outdated. Instead, they replaced them with new mechanics, like knife parries, as, according to them, this would be an enjoyable addition that could make the game more engaging compared to the original.
Another area of work was updating the visuals – the team used Resident Evil VII and Village as examples of how a contemporary Resident Evil game should look in terms of visual quality.
They also added new paths and more options for how a player goes through the game as they wished to enhance player choice and replay value of the game.
You can learn more about the devs' approach to reworking the original Resident Evil 4 by reading the full interview here.
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