A little over a year ago, legendary game designer Shinji Mikami commented on the upcoming Resident Evil 4 remake. He hoped the developers at CAPCOM could improve the story since he only had three weeks to write the original one.
A few hours ago, Mikami-san revealed in a tweet he finished the Resident Evil 4 remake. While he didn’t specify whether he believes the story was improved after all, he made it clear he enjoyed the playthrough very much. While Mikami created many masterpieces in his time at CAPCOM, such as Resident Evil, Dino Crisis, Onimusha, Devil May Cry, and Steel Battalion to name a few, Resident Evil 4 was likely the biggest hit. Mikami-san recently left Tango Gameworks, the company he helped found, where he worked on The Evil Within and, in a more hands-off capacity, contributed to Ghostwire: Tokyo and Hi-Fi Rush. On that note, Wccftech published an interview with Hi-Fi Rush creator John Johanas a couple of days ago, and his relationship with Mikami is one of the topics discussed.
As for Resident Evil 4 remake, it continued CAPCOM’s long streak of hit releases, selling over four million units in just two weeks since its late March launch. The game’s success even contributed to the publisher hitting a new all-time record stock price. It was also critically acclaimed, though Wccftech’s reviewer Nathan Birch was more critical than most; still, he awarded Resident Evil 4 an 8.5 out of 10.
Now, I have to say, while the tone of the last few paragraphs has been a bit negative, whether we’re talking about the original or the remake, Resident Evil 4 is still a very good game. I may be a bit disappointed by the scope and ambition of Capcom’s reimagining, but RE4 is still one of the most inventive and engaging action-horror games ever made, and this is a competent, technically-impressive new version of the game. The village battle may be largely the same, but it still gets your blood pumping. Same goes for the cabin defense sequence, your showdown with the village chief, or your first encounter with a Regenerator. The RE4 remake is still a fun, bombastic dose of mayhem, I just feel like it had the potential to be even better. It also suffers from the fact that Resident Evil Village was, in some ways, the bigger, crazier take on RE4 that this remake could have been.
That said, there’s still no other game in the series that matches Resident Evil 4 in terms of scope. The game’s campaign will still last you at least 15 hours and potentially more if you want to ferret out every secret and complete the newly added collection of sidequests. Of course, as usual, there’s a New Game+, multiple difficulties, and other unlockable extras to pursue after the credits roll. This is a nostalgia trip RE fans won’t be returning from any time too soon.
