RE2 Remake Originally Had A Fixed Camera Perspective Mode Switchable Anytime

After Resident Evil 2 producer Yoshiaki Hirabayashi revealed that the developers were secretly recorded discussing development details during the afterparty, he went on to introduce Round 2 – answering questions based on topics that were picked from a signboard.

Here are the highlights below:

Points of Focus

• • A lot of focus was put on making the game’s audio surround sound, even utilizing Capcom’s own developed technology. Sound director Nakashima also talked about how they paid attention to voices, and how loud and stressed Leon and Clair would sound depended on their distance from the source of danger.

• • Background artist Yoshitsugu Tanaka talked about how the team experimented a lot with the research facility section of the game, and said that the facility wasn’t actually ‘Resident Evil’-like, as it looked too shiny and new. However, they decided to challenge themselves with presenting how it would look using the power of modern hardware.

• • VFX artist Yoshiki Adachi talked about a finer point that is easily missed in the game – Resident Evil 2 is the first game in the industry to have realistic 2D particle physics, which was used for the trail of bubbles Leon would make while walking in the sewers. A lot of effort was put into upgrading the visual effects from Resident Evil 7, such as making blood spray translucent.

Easter Eggs

• • When asked about the Easter Eggs found in Resident Evil 2, Director Kazunori Kadoi talked about how they added in various ‘We Do It!’ inside jokes that began as a shirt worn by Hirabayashi in the announcement video. However, even the staff themselves don’t remember adding the Easter Egg in. It was an idea from the localization department and can be seen on a plaque below a statue in the Police Station.

• • UI artist Murakami pointed out another example of ‘We do it’, being ‘We did it!’ in past tense during the results screen after the ending.

• • Another Easter Egg in the Police Station is a photo that is actually a screenshot of the diner from the original opening of the original Resident Evil 2.

• • On Jill’s desk in the S.T.A.R.S. office, there is a picture of a dog in this game, instead of what seemed to be a photo of a boyfriend in the original game. The staff explained that it was because Jill seemed the type of person to raise a dog, and also to let people imagine whether Jill really had a boyfriend or not.

Topics of Argument Within the Staff

• • Originally, Mr. X’s outfit was much more militaristic, as he would climb out of a capsule containing him. But when they decided to go more realistic, they made the outfit more fashionable, like something you’d see on the streets, including the hat.

• • The team argued the most over the kiss scene between Leon and Ada, regarding the timing. In the original game, it felt like Leon and Ada fell in love too quickly, so they spent more time building it up in the remake. They also argued over keeping Leon’s “Ada!” shout, but didn’t as it was too cheesy for a more realistic setting.

Cut Ideas

• • Originally, the idea was to have the research facility in the mountains rather than underground, accessed via a ropeway. Alternatively, Leon and Claire would have driven there using a car. Regarding the car idea, the team got into the logical problem of, “Why wouldn’t Leon/Claire just leave then?”

• • Another idea that was quite fleshed out to the point of having temporary models and animations was having horror-esque humanoid enemies in the Orphanage that Claire goes to. The idea ended up being cut altogether.

• • The section with the alligator originally went on longer, and also chased from behind Leon, but it was too hard to see how close the alligator was.

• • Resident Evil 2 originally had a fixed camera mode like the original game, that could be switched whenever the player wanted to. It was supposed to be a selling point, but after seeing how well the other aspects of the game were made, they felt they didn’t need to add the feature anymore as a selling point.

• • Furthermore, the team wanted to show the zombie bites up close, and a fixed camera perspective didn’t work well with constant zooming in and out.

(Interestingly, the Resident Evil 4 development team also went over the concept, which can be seen in the prototype which you can watch in full here. Leon in the prototype was seen from a fixed perspective except while aiming his gun, which would trigger the TPS view.)

• • The development team also tried out a first-person view much like Resident Evil 7.

You can watch the full video (including the in-development footage in motion) below:

Resident Evil 2 is available for the PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC. You can read more about the development of the game in our previous article here, which covers the first part of the developer discussion.