It hasn’t been long since the release of the Resident Evil 4 remake, and it already has set the mark for a speedrunning challenge for those players interested in playing the game and complete it as fast as possible. In this case, however, it seems like the runner has managed to achieve this feat by complete accident, at least through glitches that involve autosaves and some luck.
This feat, which can be seen below, shows that the runner completed the Resident Evil 4 remake in two hours and 26 minutes with only 12 saves in the Professional Difficulty mode.
For those unaware, Professional Mode is supposed to eliminate autosaves and make Perfect Parries the only method of parrying incoming attacks from enemies. Additionally, you have to complete the game using less than 15 saves to get the coveted S+ Rank. The keyword here is “Supposed” as the runner described in a Reddit post that the game reloaded and registered autosaves, allowing them to teleport past multiple sections and save precious time:
in the castle levels, there’s a few points in where I glitched out the map and fell until I had to reload. When I reloaded though, it registered autosaves and it put me all over the place without having to do some sections. I don’t completely remember where I glitched out because I didn’t record anything, but I’ll try to find them again. If any of y’all got any ideas, please tell em. I’m probably gonna go for a more legit run though.
Of course, the lack of recording already brings this record into question, especially because Resident Evil 4 Remake’s autosaves are disabled by default past the game’s first chapter. It’s possible that the way the OP did things somehow managed to trigger autosaves through a fault that is yet to be patched. After all, players already found ways to skip sections of the game through unintended means, so seeing autosaves being accidentally triggered isn’t entirely out of the question.
Regardless, speedrunners will still attempt to replicate this runner’s achievement. Considering how many skips have been found within the game, a sub-2-hour speedrun doesn’t seem to be too far-fetched. Now, it’s a matter of clearing the game in less time with fewer saves (alongside a proper recording that allows players to see what methodology was used).
Currently, the Resident Evil 4 Remake doesn’t have any set categories for speedrunning. But, now we’re sure that there’ll be at least an Any% glitchless category as some of these skips are pretty wild. Now, whether or not Capcom will patch these glitches out is also another question. For now, we’ll have to wait for more details about this and upcoming speedruns. Resident Evil 4 Remake is currently available on PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC.
