Over one million wishlists. Not even a week after its reveal at Summer Game Fest, Resident Evil Veronica has accumulated more than one million wishlists. It was apparently the third best-performing title in terms of engagement, press coverage and views on each trailer – not bad considering State of Play and Nintendo Direct served as competition. The message is clear, though: fans are excited about the remake, and the prospect of finally playing as Claire once more.
And while the developer wants the next info drop to be a surprise, it sat down with various media outlets during Summer Game Fest to answer questions and clarify several aspects. Let’s dive into the ten biggest new details, starting with…
The Dream Team
As rumored and confirmed, Yasuhiro Anpo and Kazunori Kadoi of Resident Evil 2 Remake fame are heading up the project. However, the former is the director while the latter serves as associate director this time around. They’re not the only ones returning – those who worked on the remakes in the series are also along for the ride, and we’ll learn more about them leading up to release.
Third-Person Perspective
The other biggest – and most obvious confirmation – is that Resident Evil Veronica is a third-person game. Despite the trailer being in first-person before showing Claire’s face, it was intended more for dramatic effect than to reflect how the game actually plays (which we noted immediately after the reveal). However, that doesn’t mean you can expect the exact same camera angles as the original. Game producer Yoshiaki Hirabayashi told Polygon that, “It’s going to be very much in line with the game feel of Resident Evil 2 remake.” In other words, if you enjoy the over-the-shoulder aiming of that game, and those that came after, you’ll be right at home in Veronica. Speaking of which…
Resource Management
Resident Evil titles have no shortage of item juggling in your inventory and planning for how you’ll approach certain encounters or use resources. But Code: Veronica was perhaps the most demanding in that vein, pushing you to think very far ahead about what you would use. So if you enjoyed the approach, great news – it’s coming back. Hirabayashi says the team believes it to be a “core concept” – this idea of thinking “for yourself to explore and manage resources to face the horror in your own way. There is a lot of room for you to strategize on how you want to handle things to survive.” However, he also noted that it’s being treated “very carefully” in the remake, which could mean sanding off some of the more frustrating parts.
Changing the Opening
If you’re one of the 1,795,639 (and counting) views on the announcement trailer, and played the original, then you likely immediately noticed something off about the intro. Why isn’t Claire imitating the Matrix as she shoots through Umbrella’s Paris HQ? Is the original’s iconic intro gone?
Speaking to Denfamico Gamer, Hirabayashi said the team wanted to stick to exploring characters with “greater dramatic depth.” “I do remember the dramatic opening of the original game, but when I considered where a sister searching for her brother would go first, I thought that, in a realistic context, she would head to her brother’s home rather than to the evil pharmaceutical company.” He did repeat that the trailer is just for dramatic effect, perhaps hinting that the sequence could play out differently in-game. However, it seems there won’t be any…
Cut Content
As reported by AestheticGamer aka Dusk Golem – an ever-reliable source of Resident Evil and Silent Hill leaks and news – Hirabayashi seemingly told journalists that the remake won’t cut any scenes. Instead, a lot will be “shifted, moved around, reimagined, and transformed,” even more than we’ve seen in other remakes. In fact, this may very well be the most “aggressive” in terms of revamping the story and characters.
Why Return to Claire?
If you’re wondering why the team chose to return to Claire Redfield after so long, it’s because of how Leon’s story has played out over the years. While the team isn’t saying his arc is effectively complete, they did ask, “What is the next character we want everyone to experience their character arc or next step in the story?” Claire was the answer, and Veronica is “the ultimate way to experience” her journey, Hirabayashi told WCCF Tech. Besides, the team also really wanted to tell her story after what happened in Raccoon City.
Claire’s Character
Of course, since the story is set three months after the Raccoon City Destruction Incident from Resident Evil 2, you shouldn’t expect Claire to have the same level of combat prowess as Leon. Instead, as the producer notes, “She relies on her own tough mentality and the survival techniques her brother taught her,” resulting in an experience that’s “essentially a mashed-up, enhanced version of what we did with RE2.”
But that doesn’t mean she won’t get any character development. As Hirabayashi told VGC, there’s a “lot more about her that we haven’t shared” which players will learn – a “lot more untold.” Perhaps we’ll see more sibling bonding moments between Claire and Chris, and learn about how they grew up.
Alfred Ashford’s Portrayal
Speaking of sibling bonding, there’s Alfred Ashford. The original depiction of the character wasn’t the most…tasteful thing about Code: Veronica. While things are still subject to change since Veronica is still in development, the team wants to focus on the “darkness inside people’s hearts and minds”, which suits the remake since it’s more focused on emotion and when “love is pushed too far.” It’s seemingly looking to explore the “darkness in Alfred’s heart” as a result, but again, nothing has been confirmed. Either way, given how this particular team has handled character updates for the other remakes, we’d say they know what they’re doing.
A Numbered Entry
If you’ll remember back in the day, Code: Veronica, despite its extensive acclaim, played second fiddle to the likes of Resident Evil 3: Nemesis and was mostly relegated to history. Former Nintendo of America public relations managers Kit Ellis and Krysta Yang, who also attended the SGF presentation, noted Hirabayashi saying the lack of a number came down to “a lot of internal politics” back in the day. But that’s not the case anymore, as the producer told VGC, “Code: Veronica is just as vital and important as a numbered Resident Evil entry. So, the discussion that arose in the development team was, ‘ What’s something we can do to communicate that to our audience?’”
This is why “Code” was removed from the title. It essentially brings the remake – and the game as a whole – closer to the modern titles like Resident Evil Village and Requiem. A “one-word subtitle that encapsulates a very important part of the game,” per Hirabayashi. “So, aligning with that title convention that we’re taking in our recent mainline numbered entries, we followed a similar alignment.”
Requiem Learnings and Connections
But perhaps even more intriguing is that the team has looked at Resident Evil Requiem, not just in terms of feedback, but also “where the universe is in that game, and finding ways to reflect that and connect that to the remake and the story there as well,” Hirabayashi told VGC. A possible connection to The Connections, perhaps?
As for game quality, he admitted that the developer does this for every title, especially in areas like usability. “We’ve gained a lot of knowledge as we’ve created games, including Requiem, and so we’re taking all that knowledge that we’ve accumulated and using it for Veronica as well.” Again, the gameplay is where we’ll see that for ourselves.
However, in terms of understanding and the respect that this team has for the original, this quote via VGC really says it all: “We, the development team, think the original Code: Veronica is a title that’s just as important and significant as any other numbered title in the series.” And that’s more than enough for us.
