Resident Evil 4 is one of the most influential games ever made. So when rumors broke in 2020 that Capcom was planning to remake the title in the same vein as its recent remakes of Resident Evil 2 and Resident Evil 3: Nemesis, fans were understandably concerned that a remake could fail to recapture the magic of the game that forever changed the video game industry. One person who seems optimistic that a remake could improve on the original, however, is none other than Resident Evil 4 director Shinji Mikami, who recently commented on the idea of a remake in an interview.
Resident Evil 4 first released on the Nintendo GameCube as a timed-exclusive in January 2005 after a now infamously troubled development cycle that included a prototype version of the game becoming the first entry in the Devil May Cry series. Resident Evil 4 went on to become regarded as one of the best games of all time when it released for revolutionizing third-person shooting gameplay that would become a staple of the genre, inspiring franchises such as Gears of War, Uncharted, Dead Space, and later Mikami's own The Evil Within series.
Resident Evil 4 is also one of the most heavily ported games in history, releasing on 13 different platforms including a recent Oculus Quest 2 remake which has won numerous awards for successfully transferring one of the most beloved games of all time into a new medium. Needless to say, the pressure is on for Capcom to remake the game given how well regarded the original is to this very day.
The irony is, Capcom has yet to even confirm the Resident Evil 4 remake in any official capacity, however, this didn't stop VG247 from asking the game's original director, Shinji Mikami, what he hoped could be improved in such a remake. Mikami claims the part of Resident Evil 4 he wants to see improved the most is the game's story, which he claims he only had three weeks to write. Capcom has changed elements of the original trilogy's stories in its recent remakes, with Resident Evil 3's 2020 remake including some rather divisive changes to the PS1 original's story and setting.
Resident Evil 4's remake has yet to be confirmed by Capcom, but the evidence is piling up to imply that the remake is in development. Many fans claimed that elements of Resident Evil: Village contained references that could also point to the rumor, and last year the voice actor for Albert Wesker caused controversy by allegedly breaking a nondisclosure agreement by sharing his character's design for the upcoming remake. As for Mikami, he currently works as the head of Tango Gameworks and is promoting his studio's upcoming timed-PS5 exclusive action-horror game Ghostwire: Tokyo.
Resident Evil 4 is available now for Nintendo Switch, PC, PS4, and Xbox One and legacy platforms.
Source: VG247
