Resident Evil 3 Director and Producer How the Remake and Resident Evil: Resistance Became One Package

Thanks to a preview event, various Japanese news outlets have released Resident Evil 3 interviews with producers Masachika Kawata and Peter Fabiano and director Kiyohiko Sakata.

Here are the highlights below:

4Gamer

• According to producer Kawata, Capcom views Resident Evil 1-3 as the first chapter of the series. Development on Resident Evil 3 began slightly after Resident Evil 2, but it was otherwise being developed at the same time.

• The reason why Resident Evil 3 and Resident Evil: Resistance are bundled together is because of the differences between 2 and 3. 2 featured multiple protagonists for double the content, and it would be hard to match that volume of content with just 3 alone, so Capcom decided to create an online title alongside it. Resident Evil 3 was mainly worked on by M-Two, while Resident Evil: Resistance was handled mainly by NeoBards, a Taiwanese company that had the know-how for this sort of game.

• Resident Evil 3 is much more action-oriented than the other two games that came out before it, but the remake also keeps this in mind. The original game already had actions like the Emergency Dodge, but in this game, they’ve included a counter action where you can immediately line up sights with the enemy’s head. Director Sakata says that it’s because it felt lacking with just the Emergency Dodge.

• Environmental objects also return as one of the game’s main themes, where you must take advantage of them to escape. This was something the team was intent on keeping for the remake. Sakata mentions that players of the Resident Evil 2’s remake might find the game a bit off, as they’ve completely revamped movement speed, animations, zombie actions, and AI for Resident Evil 3‘s remake.

• Nemesis in Resident Evil 3 is a prototype, so that is reflected in its attire, which is much less formal compared to the Tyrant in Resident Evil 2. Because the Tyrant in RE2 would already chase you across the police station, which was required to create new fear they could only have in a modern-day remake, they had to differentiate Nemesis even more for RE3. For example, because the game takes place outdoors, they focused on ways to make Nemesis suddenly sneak up on you. Nemesis also moves faster than Tyrant, uses its tentacles to pull you back to it, and uses a flamethrower.

• The side game The Mercenaries: Operation Mad Jackal will not be in the remake. Kawata says they focused on the single-player content, with Resident Evil: Resistance as the replayable content.

• The knife once again has unlimited uses in RE3. Limited-use knives made sense in RE2 because of the theme of resource management, but because RE3 is more action-packed, the team reverted it back to help people bad at action games. The game is generally easier than RE2 due to this as well.

• The Live Selection feature in the original RE3 is not in the remake, and Sakata reiterates Kawata’s point about the replay value being in Resident Evil: Resistance. Of course, there is replay value in the single-player campaign, but not via scenario differences. Sakata mentions that this was something the team really thought hard about before deciding to cut it out.

• In Resident Evil: Resistance, Annette Birkin (and G-Birkin), Alex Wesker, and Oswell E. Spencer have all been confirmed as playable Mastermind characters. While Annette isn’t a mad scientist, Kawata feels that just being a scientist is enough for her to play the role of Mastermind. Meanwhile, Alex and Spencer are both true mad scientists who were planned to appear from the early stages of development. Alex’s Mastermind characteristic was already established in RE Revelations 2, while they wanted Spencer to become more well-known, as he’s the one behind it all. These three characters join Daniel Fabron (the initially announced Mastermind character) as playable Masterminds.

Famitsu

• Sakata confirms Lucky Dodges are still in, as Emergency Dodges can be executed with the L1 button when aiming your weapon. It’s risky, but gives huge returns if it succeeds. Basically, every attack can be Emergency Dodged, but it’s harder with normal zombies because their actions are slow. If you’re stuck with the knife, you can still counterattack after Emergency Dodges. In fact, it’s critical for those aiming for knife-only clears.

• Currently, there are no plans to turn Resident Evil: Resistance into a more serious competitive game for eSports or large-scale competitions. Kawata says that the game is designed more for just having fun-per-round, rather than focusing on winning or losing.

Dengeki Online

• As you might expect, PlayStation Plus and Xbox Live Gold are required to play online. However, no additional fees will be needed to play. That said, there will be DLC for EXP boosting items for those who want to level up quicker.

• Updates are planned for RE: Resistance, but the contents are still under consideration.

Resident Evil 3, which includes Resident Evil: Resistance, will come to the PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC on April 3, 2020.