Resident Evil’s overall timeline can be a little hard to follow depending upon your entry point to the series. But producer Yoshiaki Hirabayashi has emphasized that, with Resident Evil Veronica, Capcom is reworking the story to make sure its place in the chronology is clear, while ensuring the remake keeps what fans loved about the original.
Japanese news outlet Famitsu reported on a recent Summer Games Fest press conference with Hirabayashi on the Resident Evil – Code: Veronica remake, due out in 2027.
The original Code: Veronica was released 27 years ago, and there have been many Resi games released since then. Story-wise, Hirabayashi noted that for the Veronica remake Capcom has been taking into account plotlines in other games that connect back to events in Veronica.
In the last decade, the Resident Evil franchise has gained even more story and lore with RE7, RE8: Village, and RE9 (plus the RE2, RE3, and RE4 remakes). “With Resident Evil Veronica, we are planning to restructure the story so that players can clearly feel how all of these titles are part of one cohesive series,” explained Hirabayashi.
Asked if Resident Evil Veronica will stick to the source material while implementing bold changes like the Resident Evil 2 remake, Hirabayashi said “yes,” broadly-speaking. However, rest assured that this doesn’t mean change for the sake of change. “What’s most important for the dev team at Capcom is putting the players’ memories first, and then rebuilding the game on top of that,” said Hirabayashi. This echoes Requiem producer Kumazawa’s recent comments that future Resident Evil games will “preserve the core elements of the series,” and stay true to established characters and settings, while experimenting with different ideas.
While Resident Evil 4 catches up with what happens to Leon S. Kennedy after the ending of Resident Evil 2, Veronica covers Claire Redfield’s continuing efforts to locate her brother Chris. “We chose to remake Code: Veronica next after Resident Evil 4 because we want players to experience Claire’s equally important (post RE2) story.”
With regard to the Code: Veronica remake, Hirabayashi went on to reassure fans that the devs are aware of the strong fan-following the original has, saying: “The dev team understands that the original Code: Veronica is on par with the numbered titles.” Hirabayashi also confirmed that the team working on the Code: Veronica remake is the same that made the Resident Evil 2 and 4 remakes (Resident Evil 3 Remake and Requiem were made by different teams).
Apparently work on Resident Evil Veronica kicked off as soon as Capcom finished the RE4 remake. Like the original, Resident Evil Veronica will be a third-person survival horror, centered on Claire trying to survive Rockfort Island’s T-virus outbreak, so resource management will be key.
To shape Resident Evil Veronica, Hirabayashi explained that the team is combining their respect for the original Code: Veronica with player feedback. However, this is not just recent player comments but player feedback from the entire series up to Requiem. Hirabayashi added that the team has even been digging up comments stretching back to when Code: Veronica originally released in 2000 to get a feel for “what gamers enjoyed about it back then.”
Resident Evil Code: Veronica debuted on the Dreamcast in 2000, with an updated version Code: Veronica X making its way to the PS2 the following year. Hirabayashi noted that while you don’t need to play the original Code: Veronica to enjoy the remake, “I think you will enjoy it even more if you are familiar with the stories of other games in the Resident Evil series. So I highly recommend playing any past titles that you haven’t played yet.” Time to dig into the backlog…
Verity Townsend is a Japan-based freelance writer who previously served as editor, contributor and translator for the game news site Automaton West. She has also written about Japanese culture and movies for various publications.
