Cognition Dissemination: The Resident Evil 2 Remake Chances Reemerge

When Capcom championed sales from the digital release of the Resident Evil (Remake) HD Remaster earlier this year, onlookers took it as another opportunity to desire a Resident Evil 2 remake.

The logical follow-up would be an HD rendition of Resident Evil 0, but that wasn’t as heavily demanded due to its divisiveness and its existence being leaked beforehand. (And it’s since been confirmed.) A new rendition of RE2 has been heavily demanded since people played and enjoyed REmake on Gamecube back in 2002. Though Capcom’s producers previously addressed the question with a nigh-succinct “not happening,” now would be a perfect time to make it.

It appears someone within Capcom agreed with this logic. An encouraging sign arose when producer Yoshiaki Hirabayashi posted on the official Resident Evil Facebook account last Friday that he would pitch the idea of an RE2 remake to Capcom’s higher-ups. That’s great, but over the last week, I’ve been trying to piece together precisely what that post and picture meant.

It’s honestly tough to believe an RE game would even need pitching. It’s an installment in Capcom’s highest-selling series worldwide, where most entries are guaranteed million sellers despite their quality. Capcom has been in a tenuous financial position in the last few years, to the point where everything feels like a risk to them. It’s possible they didn’t want to approve this project before determining whether an audience for old school-style RE titles still existed (i.e. It had to pass the Capcom Test™). Now we have evidence they do, and sales potential for the remake of a beloved title is high.

But taking this to Facebook was a bizarrely transparent move, an unusual move for any developer who’s part of a large publisher. I’m skeptical as to whether it was a genuine pitch, or part of a marketing stunt intended to generate excitement. That it’s difficult to tell could be part of some ingenious mind game they’re playing, provided this actually gets made.

The developers are presumably aware of the risks they’re undertaking if they go through with this. This process won’t simply involve porting two titles that are over a decade old, but recreating an old PSOne title from scratch with a modern graphics engine. They’ll have to create new assets to replicate its locations, character models, and plenty of other items originally made for the PSOne version. Since REmake and RE0 were originally designed on a different graphics engine, they may not be able to reuse assets from those versions — outside of new assets made for the remastered titles.

But the bigger risk is how unlike REmake, whose team contained staff also responsible for the original version, RE2’s original lead staff is long gone from Capcom. Without the likes of director Hideki Kamiya and producer Shinji Mikami, a new team and visionary will have to take their place. That’s a daunting task, especially considering the mixed reception most recent RE games have received. But they can do it provided they don’t receive too much outside interference.

Given that Resident Evil Revelations 2 recently wrapped up, it’s likely that team will handle this. Revelations 2 also received much critical appraise for nailing the horror atmosphere better than many non-remaster RE titles in recent memory, meaning they would also be the most preferable team. Capcom’s larger RE team is likely busy on Resident Evil 7, and given that the story and scenarios are already finished, it shouldn’t take that large of a team to reassemble this.

Also noted in that aforementioned post is how every question just raises more questions, as there’s also the issue of how they’ll remake it. Most would prefer them to preserve the old games’ isometric style, as it’s integral to RE2’s execution. The old RE games are partly inspired by old adventure games which used a similar camera format, and that nostalgic experience should be maintained in a version with a prettier sheen. Though remakes can often attract new audiences, it’s the older audience desiring to re-experience it with a more polished sheen that will be the primary target. And considering how RE2 sold (just under 5 million worldwide), that’s a potentially large audience.

My fear is that Capcom’s execs might force the team to recreate it using the modern over-the-shoulder RE camera style, because they believe that could sell to a larger audience. Doing that would mark such a significant departure from the original that it would feel like a different game, efforts better saved for a brand new project. REHD should have showed Capcom that the old school style still resonates with the fanbase, and it’s aged well enough that it can be preserved in a remake.

I get the feeling preserving the old experience is what the development team wants to do, but it’s tough to fight against the will of execs unless you have a good friend on the inside. Let’s hope they do.