Capcom: Here Was the Toughest Part About Remaking Resident Evil 2

When it comes to remaking a classic on a whole new level, Resident Evil 2 Remake seems to stand head and shoulders over the competition. This game seriously impressed us at E3 last month, with sharp visuals and fun gameplay that fans of the series will thoroughly enjoy. But its trip to current gen consoles was anything but easy.

While speaking with the Daily Star, Resident Evil 2 producers Tsuyoshi Kanda and Yoshiaki Hirabayashi explained the most difficult thing about remaking Resident Evil 2 with the new Resident Evil 7 engine. And, surprisingly enough, it wasn't adapting the gameplay or even staying true to the story.

Kanda explained, "20 years ago, the graphics that we had weren't photoreal and that meant you could get away with… a lot of things. Things that maybe you couldn't today. You could be fantastical with the creatures and it wouldn't stand out too much. So making a giant alligator - that's a real challenge [laughter]. Trying to update that into a game where you've got scanned faces, motion-captured actors, photorealistic environments… it's really, really hard. Where do you even start!"

Hirabayashi then went into even greater detail. "It was tricky to do without changing the game's tone a lot. We're competing with people's memories with this game, too, and that's really hard. Trying to make a convincing scene where a human-sized character - a guy with a knife - is taking on an alligator… that's really silly. People don't remember it as silly because the whole game was groundbreaking at the time, but that moment was ridiculous. It was a difficult process for us, making that work today."

He then added, "Perhaps they have the perfect version of the game in their heads and what we do undermines that? We're just trying to make a game that feels right and feels like what you might remember from a gameplay perspective the first time."

Indeed, recreating a game experience that's true to the original with new gameplay techniques and graphics isn't as easy as some developers make it look. But, again, we loved what the game had to offer so it's safe to say that the team is on the right track to making Resident Evil 2 Remake the best game it can be.

The full interview can be found here.

Resident Evil 2 Remake will release on January 25 for Xbox One, PlayStation 4 and PC.