Resident Evil Veronica [Q&A Interview]: No code

We chat with Producer Yoshiaki Hirabayashi about the game’s themes and place in the series

One of the most exciting announcements during the Summer Game Fest showcase on June 5th was the reveal of Resident Evil Veronica, a remake of Capcom’s 2000 hit Resident Evil: Code Veronica. It has been one of the most requested remakes in the series, once those became a thing, and so when the game was formally announced it sent fans into understandable excitement.

During Summer Game Fest’s Play Days we had the opportunity to sit in on a Q&A with the game’s Producer Yoshiaki Hirabayashi and ask a few questions as to what the reasoning was behind bringing back the classic.

The event kicked off with a full recap of the Resident Evil story, showing what leads up to Claire & Chris Redfield’s story. From the initial mansion, all the way to the destruction of Raccoon City, the Redfields are firmly intertwined with the series’ saga.

Resident Evil Veronica‘s story is just as important to the series as any of the numbered games. Chris and Claire are integral to the events of even later games, but because the remakes are somewhat of a soft reboot of the series Hirabayashi would recommend playing those first instead of the originals. The remakes of Resident Evil 2 and 3 are obvious choices for jumping in and catching up, but he notes that even VII, Village and Requiem are just as important. The goal with the series has always been to tell a full, complete story, so that means that beginnings and endings are crucial to any given point.

The previous remake games have in some cases stayed true to the originals and in others taken liberties, but Hirabayashi wouldn’t say how reimagined Veronica actually is. “Please look forward to finding out when playing the game” is the answer he gives us, with a coy smile at the end, but then promptly follows it up to not that with these remakes the team always likes to go deeper into understanding the characters and their motivations, and that modern technology lets them do even more today than they could in the past.

That’s also one of the reasons that the game is in third person. One of the things that excites them about this remake specifically is that in-game camera technology has come a long way since the original game released back in 2000, so how players interact with items, what they see and what they don’t see can lead to expanded ways of telling the story.

For an idea of what that might look and feel like, fans may want to take a look at the Resident Evil 2 remake, as several team members on the game started working on the Veronica remake when the Resident Evil 4 remake started to settle down. This continuity in development team will be key to making sure that the new Veronica feels like it belongs both in timeline and in play style.

But one thing kept bugging us during the debut trailer and the subsequent interview session: Why was the “Code” dropped from the game’s remake? Well, Hirayabayshi says it’s because so many of the modern RE games use one word (Biohazard, Village, Requiem) as a sort of instant punch. If they can describe a game in one word then it can be felt further and deeper into the core of the experience.

Resident Evil Veronica hits all platfrms in 2027.