Resident Evil 4: The Legendary Journey and Renovations of Capcom’s Iconic Franchise

As hard as it is to believe, the “new” Resident Evil 4 has done what neither Hideki Kamiya, nor Yasuhisa Kawamura, nor himself, Shinji Mikami, have been able to achieve. Before you accuse me of sowing heresy, I hasten to explain. The production of the legendary “four” is a long and bumpy story, involving many characters and starting four times. In March, we went hunting again to Spain to snatch the presidential offspring from the clutches of Osmund Saddler’s sect. And Capcom confirmed that he knows renovations like no other.

Hideki Kamiya gained in the eyes of his mentor Mikami when Resident Evil 2 created a buzz around the world and was assigned to direct the next game. No one expected that then Biohazard 3 would go to the next generation with the number “four”, and the third installment would be the performance of Jill Valentine in a tasteful skirt. Then Yasuhisa Kawamura tried his hand with a very ambitious, dark vision. Nintendo GameCube system barriers didn’t allow it. Mikami made a quick decision and sat in the director’s chair for the last time, so that in a year it became Resident Evil 4, which we loved the most. Today we have two faces of the highest-rated installment in the history of the iconic Japanese Capcom brand.

„Where’s everyone going? Bingo?”

The opening text followed by the game logo in both cases. Resident Evil 4 (2005) was set at Hollywood pace, with bold dialogue from the protagonist, Leon S. Kennedy (Paul Mercier). Mikami, moreover, insisted that the game be much more “American”, although he designated a dead-end Spanish village as the place of action. It took him three weeks to write the script. It is very straightforward, falling into the category of an action game, which is, after all, the original release. The premiere of the fourth installment caused a media tsunami. Journalists were delighted with the quality of gameplay, game design and, above all, the new direction in the history of the brand. Resident Evil Zero is considered the last game in the traditional edition. Of all the visions of Resident Evil 4, the one that has almost abandoned horror has survived. The creators took a bit of the atmosphere The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. They bet less on horror and more on survival.

The new quality also divided fans of the classics. Some considered the new experience a strong departure from tradition, which is not in line with the standard we were used to in the second half of the 1990s. At the same time, few people remembered that Resident Evil was created as a result of the solutions available at the time. Mikami saw the game’s success in the Sweet Home (1989) concept. The production was born too early to scare anyone. Were it not for Alone in the Dark, we would have long forgotten that Resident Evil ever existed. Mikami clarified this in 2014. “When I played Alone in the Dark, I found that there was a lot of expression in this game made up of interesting settings. The next step was to adapt Resident Evil to such a model. Otherwise, the game would probably be a FPP shooter” – in other words, the game would have a rather miserable fate. Name a ’96 shooter that isn’t called a Doom clone and has modern clout. An archival statement by the creator of Resident Evil makes me reflect. Namely, Shinji Mikami from the beginning wanted to mix intense action with elements of horror. It’s good that he played the cult work of the French Infogrames.

Resident Evil 4 (2023) started in 2018, and the first scripts were made by M-Two studio. There is quite an interesting story associated with this team, because its founder turns out to be Tatsuya Minami, one of the fathers of Platinum Games. The following year, the works were joined by the artists responsible for the great success Resident Evil 2 (2019). „For RE4 Remake, we looked towards a remake of Part Two. We have the same director, so we have the same team. This is the same mindset creator who cares about compliance with the original in a fresh setting. A sense of nostalgia… is a good word if we’re talking about adapting the game to current standardsstated producer Yoshiaki Hirayabayashi. Resident Evil 4 combines darkness with action like never before. If you look at the way Leon holds a flashlight, check out the archival footage from the canceled 2003 version of the game. The RE 3.5 project, which was canceled by Mikami, more commonly known as Hook Man Demo, partly survived in the modern iteration of Resident Evil 4. Of course, it’s about the castle part. In places you can find a very similar arrangement of rooms. Creators from Capcom often reach for the drawer of old, unused concepts. This was also the case with the high-profile renovation of Resident Evil 2.