Highlights
- Resident Evil remakes have been successful, but discussions about remaking other Capcom games like Onimusha and Dino Crisis have emerged.
- The next big Resident Evil game is unknown, but Capcom has earned the trust of its fans through the success of the remakes.
- Remaking Devil May Cry 2 would be a significant challenge, requiring a total re-imagining of the game and close attention to the next Resident Evil remake.
Several years into becoming a pillar of their franchise, the Resident Evil remakes are still going strong. While the cuts made to Resident Evil 3 left its reception mixed, every other remake has been a hit. Now that Resident Evil 4 has finished adapting The Mercenaries and Separate Ways, a VR mode is all that remains before the series can confidently move on. It's hard to say what the next big Resident Evil game will be, but Capcom has earned its fans' trust.
Resident Evil’s remakes have gone over so well that discussions about other Capcom remakes have arisen. Onimusha and Dino Crisis, both sister series to Resident Evil, have been common suggestions, though another RE byproduct could be even more exciting. Devil May Crybegan its life as a Resident Evil 4 prototype, and the lessons learned in remaking RE4 could give it a stunning glow-up. However, besides the issue of both series’ development staff being busy with other projects, successive Devil May Cry remakes would run into an issue Resident Evil now faces sooner than the survival horror franchise did.
Resident Evil 5 Remake Will Need A Lot of Changes
Many fans expect that Resident Evil 9 will be the series’ next entry, but the endings to Resident Evil 4 and its DLC imply that the remakes may have more ground to cover. It's at this point where the RE remakes find themselves in an awkward situation. Resident Evil Code: Veronica and Resident Evil 5 both make sense to do next, but both have flaws that would need to be addressed in a modern game. Code: Veronica should suffice with script adjustments and some reshuffling like the Resident Evil 2 remake, but RE5 is a whole other beast.
While the original Resident Evil 4 was known for fully embracing the series’ action over traditional horror, RE5 made the controversial decision to add a permanent co-op partner to the mix, which would be controlled by an unhelpful AI without a second human. Combined with a lot of setting and character moments that would feel off-color in a modern game, it's clear that Resident Evil 5's template needs more reworks than past titles did. The new Luis partner segment in RE4's remake has been interpreted as testing better Sheva partner AI for RE5, but that's only the first of the changes that the remake needs to make.
Remaking Devil May Cry 2 Would Be Like Making A New Game
This isn't a problem Devil May Cry will share at first, given that the original game is so highly acclaimed. Much of DMC1's layout and mechanics could be modernized in obvious ways. However, going any further would place Devil May Cry in an even hotter seat than Resident Evil now occupies. Devil May Cry 2 is a poster child for black sheep in long-running game franchises, with such a bad reputation that it led to DMC3: Dante's Awakening being polished to perfection so fans would forget about it. Even DMC5 acts embarrassed when addressing DMC2, showing that its scars have yet to heal.
Devil May Cry 2 would benefit the most from a remake, but it might have to take Final Fantasy 7 Remake’s total re-imagining approach. Only a few ideas like enhanced mobility and two playable characters with altered campaigns should stay. The rest of the game, from combat to story and even to DMC's famous music, would all have to be redone. Compared to fixing DMC2, even remaking Resident Evil 5 doesn't seem as daunting. It's currently unknown if Devil May Cry remakes are in the cards, but if they ever are, they need to pay close attention to how the next Resident Evil remake handles itself.