Resident Evil 4 Remake can be quite challenging at parts, especially for players unfamiliar with the original game's layout. While getting better at aiming and learning the maps are surefire ways to improve, there are plenty of little things players can do to improve their performance in the game. Even experienced Resident Evil 4 Remake players can make mistakes, and there are plenty of small mistakes to look out for.
Players feeling stuck or frustrated may only be a few mistakes away from progression. Whether it's a first playthrough or a later playthrough, these are some common mistakes to avoid when playing Resident Evil 4 Remake.
This article contains spoilers for Resident Evil 4 Remake's campaign!
7 Not Using The Gemstone Chart
Many players are unaware that Capcom provides a handy gemstone chart for maximizing the selling prices of treasures inlaid with gems. While players aren't going to be losing out on too much money by just sticking gems into treasures randomly, there are a few larger more expensive treasures that benefit greatly from the correct gemstones. For example, players can quite easily get the Astute Appraiser achievement by using five different gemstones on an Elegant Crown treasure (a 2x selling bonus on the gemstone chart).
Unfortunately, this chart is pretty easy to overlook. Players aren't given a tutorial on it per se, and it is just a button press away in the gemstone inlay menu. This can be quite easy to miss, and many players will happen to overlook this handy resource because it simply isn't marketed well to the player on the screen.
6 Missing Out On Alternative Healing Resources
Leon takes quite a beating through the events of Resident Evil 4 Remake and as such he'll need plenty of healing items. There are several areas throughout the game that allow players to gather nontraditional healing items without using up any ammo. The most obvious example of this is searching the farm right after the opening village battle for chicken eggs. Chicken eggs don't heal a lot, but early on, when Leon's health bar is still small, an egg can easily replace a green herb that would be better combined than used alone.
Leon can also gather tons of black bass after defeating Del Lago. Fish heal quite a lot more than eggs and their healing can be nicely buffed by a charm unlocked from the shooting gallery. There's even a pond outside the courtyard of the castle that is home to several bass which can all be easily knifed for quick and easy healing items.
5 Overusing The Knife
The knife was a very powerful weapon in the original Resident Evil 4. It has been made even better in the remake, and it has been directly tied to Leon's identity as a fighter. Thanks to its versatility, power, and great-looking animations, it can be easy to overuse the knife at the beginning of the game. This is often a less costly mistake because the game provides players with much worse knives in the form of kitchen knives and boot knives as loot drops.
Unfortunately, players can easily miss some of these dropped knives or even accidentally overuse them by parrying. These throwaway knives break quite fast and in the beginning, so does Leon's own knife. As such, a good mistake to avoid before the knife has been upgraded is overusing it, as a parry, later on, could mean the difference between life and death. The knife is an incredible offensive option in Resident Evil 4 Remake, but it truly shines as a defensive tool with the parry system.
4 Not Trying New Weapons
Resident Evil 4Remake's economy is different from the original game. One great change is giving the player basically all the money they invested in a gun back when selling that gun. This feature makes selling weapons to the merchant one of the best moneymakers in the game, but it also encourages trying all the new weapons offered by the merchant.Resident Evil 4 Remake is all about discovering what feels best in combat, as the game is quite combat focused when compared to other Resident Evil titles.
New players can make the mistake of simply wanting to stick to one weapon and never try anything new when the game deeply encourages it. On this note, players should definitely purchase the Broken Butterfly revolver when the merchant offers it at a discount because, unlike the original game, players cannot look forward to obtaining a free one in the castle!
3 Using Too Much Rifle Ammo (Before The Island)
Veterans of Resident Evil 4 will know exactly when and where to save precious rifle ammo for the island. It's still easy to make the mistake of using too much as the rifle is very powerful, but players who know what comes with the Island will want to save the ammo. New players might have heard of the infamous Regeneradors but facing them in combat is a lot more terrifying than simply reading about them. It's especially challenging if the player lacks rifle ammo.
Players will pick up a scope that allows them to see the parasites powering a Regenerador. The scope can be mounted to the rifles of the game or the LE5, but the rifles will dispatch a Regenerador much faster than a submachine gun. Failing to conserve rifle ammo or resources to craft rifle ammo can make the beginning sections of the Island quite difficult thanks to the abundance of horrific Regeneradors hunting Leon down.
2 Forgetting About The Parry
One easy mistake for old fans of Resident Evil 4 to make is to ignore parrying and instead try to rely purely on movement and spacing. The enemies of Resident Evil 4 Remake are much smarter and more aggressive than their 2005 counterparts. Parrying is a key part of the game to get used to early, as it only becomes more useful as the game goes on.
That said, players will need to get used to being able to parry in a Resident Evil game. While the function existed to a limited degree in Resident Evil 4, and was actually quite powerful in Resident Evil 6, the parry of Resident Evil 4 Remake acts much more like a traditional parry found in a FromSoft game. Remembering the parry and mastering it can make the combat of Resident Evil 4 Remake feel much more fluid, and it can certainly save Leon's life in a tough situation.
1 Playing The Game Like The Original
The easiest mistake for fans of the original 2005 game to make is to play Resident Evil 4 Remake like the original. The maps are identical in areas and all the major fights still happen where they're supposed to, but the flow of combat is completely different in the remake. The original Resident Evil 4 was much more arcade-like in its combat. The gunplay and flow of combat itself were easy to learn, but the movement and spacing were what made a player a master of the original game. Leon still moved with tank controls in 2005, so learning proper spacing and usage of quick turns were essential to winning fights.
Not only that, but Leon's kicks in the original game granted more I-frames and could knock down tons of foes at once. Enemies often stayed on the ground longer as well. Kicks are still powerful in the remake, but they are much harder to consistently pull off. Enemies surround Leon much better in the remake, and they aren't always stunned by headshots or leg shots. This makes melee follow-ups a lot harder. Not only that, the parry mechanic completely reinvents how combat plays out in Resident Evil 4 Remake, so players used to the old game can often make the mistake of underutilizing parrying and overusing their knife offensively. Though the games are similar in many ways, it's good for fans of the original to admit that the remake is a different game, and the combat needs to be mastered differently.
Resident Evil 4 Remake was released on March 24, 2023 and is available on Playstation 5, Xbox Series X, and PC.