Resident Evil 4 Remake Retains the Divisive Island Section, Thanks to a Devoted Team

Based on early previews and video, it appears Capcom’s expected remake of Resident Evil 4 will take a warts-and-all approach. Of course, legendary events like the fight with Chainsaw Man and the infected villagers will return, but so will odder parts (think Ramon Salazar).

However, there has been no mention of the original RE4’s last chapter, which is located on an industrial island and contains a more action-movie style, featuring a fight with Leon’s nemesis Krauser.

Many believe the Island to be the worst portion of RE4, and a lack of confirmation from Capcom, combined with other speculations, has led to suspicion that the section may have been deleted.

But not so quickly. The island’s reappearance was verified in a recent edition of Edge (get your subscription here). In fact, it appears to be growing in size.

Capcom took an unusual strategy in designing the Resident Evil 4 remake, according to Resident Evil 4 remake director Yoshiaki Hirabayashi, separating the crew into three, each focused on a main location – the village, the castle, and the island. These groups subsequently combined their efforts to form a single whole.

“Our approach was quite granular. Rather than saying, ‘Oh, this is a bit that we struggled to make in the original due to technological limitations that we can now perfect,’ we took a hundred individual small elements that made up the original gameplay experience and remade and polished those building blocks. This remake is very much the sum of many parts.”

Hirabayashi also assures that there will be a greater emphasis on personalities and drama this time around…

“We’ve developed the character drama, specifically the interactions between characters and their personalities. The original game was more ‘gamey’ in that sense — story scenes were mostly there to serve the pacing of the gameplay. 
Single-player story games have developed since then, so it’s been important to integrate the storyline elements. We’ve tried make sure that this remake feels like a thoroughly modern, story-based single-player experience in that sense.”

On March 24, 2023, the Resident Evil remake will be released on PC, Xbox Series X/S, PS4, and PS5.