If you saw Resident Evil Veronica’s announcement trailer during last week’s Summer Game Fest, you might reasonably assume it’ll be continuing the modern series’ forays into first-person horror. However, Capcom has now confirmed its Code Veronica remake is hewing more closely to the original, and will once again be played from a classic third-person perspective.
That’s according to Resident Evil Veronica producer Yoshiaki Hirabayashi, who shared the news during a recent Summer Game Fest press Q&A Eurogamer attended. “It’s a third-person game”, he revealed in answer to a question about whether Veronica will play out in first-person, third-person, or a hybrid style similar to this year’s Resident Evil Requiem. He also noted Capcom’s new version of Veronica takes at least some of its gameplay cues from the company’s 2019 Resident Evil 2 remake – the last time Veronica protagonist Claire Redfield made an appearance in a modern-day Resident Evil game (prior to that, she starred in 2015 Resident Evil spin-off Revelations 2).
“I think that Veronica… is a very unique entry into the Resident Evil series,” Hirabayashi continued, “so to say what it’s close to, it’s very difficult. That said, Veronica takes place three months after Resident Evil 2. [Claire is] the same person – it’s not like she became a government agent in that time – [but] she has had some training from her brother so she may have more at her disposal. However, she gets sent into a very exemplary situation very quickly… perhaps closer to Resident Evil 2.”
Word of Resident Evil Veronica’s third-person focus is perhaps a surprise, given its nearly four-minute-long reveal trailer adopted the first-person perspective seen in many recent Resident Evil games, unfolding almost entirely through the eyes of Claire as she explored the (extremely messy) Parisian apartment of her brother Chris. However, Hirabayashi explained one of the most important things for Capcom is to respect the original games in all of its remakes, and that Veronica is equally being made “with utmost care and respect”.
As to why the development team wanted to tackle Code Veronica next, Hirabayashi revealed the decision stemmed back to its previous work on the acclaimed Resident Evil 2 and Resident Evil 4 remakes. The latter progressed the story of Leon S. Kennedy ahead of his role in this year’s stellar Requiem, and so when the team was asked what it wanted to explore next, the conversation “gravitated back to the other person who escaped racoon city with him”, Claire Redfield, and it wanted to return and tell her side of the story.
Elsewhere in the conversation, Hirabayashi revealed why Capcom has decided to ditch the “Code” bit of Code Veronica’s name for its remake, but the publisher isn’t saying too much more for now. Expert further details in the run-up to Resident Evil Veronica’s 2027 release on Xbox Series X/S, PlayStation 5, Switch 2, and PC. And while you wait, why not check out Eurogamer’s conversation with Resident Evil Requiem game director Koshi Nakanishi and producer Masato Kumazawa about the making of a modern horror classic.
