Resident Evil 4 Didn’t Just Change Everything, It Is Everything

resident Evil franchise has become such an important part of video games that it is impossible to imagine the world without it. Over the decades, the series has gone through a lot and had many ups and downs. minimums– and what is higher for the entire enterprise than Resident Evil 4?

Capcom released so many versions Resident Evil 4 over the years, including an acclaimed current-gen remake back in 2023. But its very first release was for the Nintendo Gamecube on January 11, 2005 as the penultimate game in a series of console-exclusive games dubbed Capcom Five, and marked a big shake-up. for the series. After several versions were conceived and cancelled, longtime series director and producer Shinji Mikami took the reins. complete rethink. By this point, he and the other developers felt that things had stalled and hoped to revive it in the right ways.

Among Mikami’s key changes were replacing zombies with a new undead enemy called Ganados, using a more dynamic camera instead of fixed angles, and not focusing the story on the evil Umbrella corporation. But the biggest shift occurred in How the game was played: instead of slow, tank-like controls, it wanted to focus more on action and third-person over-the-shoulder shooting. Not everyone on the team liked this style of play, but they came he once explained Why he wanted the changes he made. In a 2004 interview with the magazine IGNProducer Hiroyuki Kobyashi also assured fans that it is still a real movie. resident Evil a game that can also serve as a starting point for those who have either given up on previous entries or haven’t played the games at all.

By now we all know Resident Evil 4 received critical acclaim and is considered one of the best games of all time. It is also one of the most influential: from Mechanisms of War And Dead space to a later date The Last of Us And God of war you can find a lot of its DNA in any major third-person game released between 2006 and now. Similar mimicry was found in other survival horror series of the time, including then-new installments. silent Hill And Alone in the dark also tries to create a mixture of action and horror, but not with the same success or enthusiastic reception. Later resident Evil games continued third-person shooter and first-person combat Abode of the Evil Village was designed as a mixture of this game and the 2017 game. Resident Evil 7, in accordance with Village director Morimato Sato.

But Resident Evil 4th Its biggest impact was when it was ported to the PlayStation 2 in October of the same year. In some ways, it was the most advanced version of the game, as it had new features and content not found in the Gamecube version, including the side story “Separated paths” with minor character Ada Wong. Back in the day, the PS2 featured an incredible library of third-party games, and PE4 was among the cream of society. resident Evil was never a PlayStation exclusive series, but they are forever linked, just like with final fantasy, at the time, having a main game on a PlayStation console meant something.

However, the transition to PS2 was not without problems. As soon as Capcom revealed Resident Evil 4 was not exclusive to the Gamecube, Mikami’s anger at the situation helped lead to the creation of several new developers. The first was Clover Studio, where Mikami and Hideki Kamiya – a man who was scrapped, PE4 ideas led to the creation Devil May Cry– worked on cult classics such as Hand of God And Eyes. After the studio closed, the two helped found PlatinumGames, with Kamiya heading the studio and helming its flagship action series. Bayonetta and favorite gem of 2017 Nier: Slot Machines. For him, everything came full circle: having left platinum in 2023 he now heads the newly announced Clover Studiowhich continues Eyes. Meanwhile, Mikami founded Tango Gameworks, which later created Evil inside games and 2023 are incredibly cool Hi-Fi Rush. Microsoft turn off Tango after Russia release, but the studio was recently revived from Crafton. Mikami left Tango even before it closed, and it seems that since then it has launched new studio this seems to do the trick.

Whatever Mikami’s next project is, it will inevitably be compared to his previous works. Resident Evil 4 in particular. It’s simply impossible to escape from the shadow of this game, both because of how deeply ingrained it has become in video games over the decades, and because it can be played in almost anything and in one capacity or another. Even if Capcom suddenly decides to stop the Survival Horror franchise right now, it won’t lead to anything. Resident Evil 4 refuses to be forgotten, and will probably never be forgotten because it is so ingrained in the environment.

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