Several managers of Resident Evil 2 Remake express the moments they remember most about their development. Since its first announcement to E3 2018.
On January 25, 2020 marks the first anniversary of the launch of one of the most praised remakes by critics and audiences of recent years. Resident Evil 2 arrived 365 days ago to position itself as the third best installment in franchise history, according to Metacritic. To celebrate this milestone, PlayStation brings together the main leaders of the project to delve into the challenges encountered throughout its development.
In the words of its producer, Yoshiaki Hirabayashi, the project was considered several times in recent years, especially at the insistence of fans, but they did not find the right time to do justice to the original. “The moment arrived and we were able to sit down again to talk about how to remake Resident Evil 2. We finally got the approval to proceed with the development,” he says. Yoshiaki enthusiastically remembers the announcement that was made on social networks during August 2015, that famous “We Do it” was enough to confirm to the rest of the world that they were hands in the dough. "For the team, which was relatively small then, that moment felt like the real start of the job."
Yoshiaki Hirabayashi, producer of Resident Evil 2 Remake, during the first announcement. August 2015
Fitting the pieces behind the shadow of the myth flew over the managers. After the passing of the years, it was time to check if the new design worked not only with the game they were building, but in the face of the fidelity of the saga's roots. "For me it was the first moment in which we had the visual and functionalities of the zombie gameplay functioning as a tandem," says its director, Kazunori Kadoi. Being able to shoot them and see how they lost members after suffering accurate shots was one of the moments that marked them internally. Recognize that he felt "great", they were not bored no matter how much you repeated the process. "I felt that the game had something special."
Not everything was easy
But the pressure persisted month after month, week after week. The obsession to please his followers was one of the fuels that led them to complete the Resident Evil 2 Remake we received in 2019. “The biggest challenge we faced was not to betray the expectations of the fans at the same time to keep cool the remake Balancing these aspects was like juggling. ” Kadoi-san acknowledges that "many hard decisions" were made during development.
And then came the E3 2018. The entire industry looked at the angel scene to see the new stars of the videogame sky. The entire team gathered in his office to see the announcement in real time. "We never thought that a game that‘ alone ’is a remake would have such a massive reaction." Kazunori felt "surprised and delighted" at the response from the community. The sensations expanded when the game went through the hands of the professionals for the first time. "These two moments were my greatest compliments as director."
In the original source you can take a look at more curiosities related to the artistic style chosen for each character, as well as the sensations after having passed its gold phase.
