Capcom is remaking Resident Evil: Code Veronica, a companion game to Resident Evil 2 that was originally made for Sega’s ill-fated Dreamcast. A first look at the new project was revealed during Summer Game Fest. Titled simply Resident Evil Veronica, it’s arriving as early as 2027 and Capcom really wants you to know that this isn’t just some deep-cut spin-off game you don’t need to pay attention to.
That was the message conveyed by producer Yoshiaki Hirabayashi during a private theater session and Q&A for the game attended by Kotaku last week. The presentation opened with an in-depth timeline video tracing the events of the first four Resident Evil games to show just how intertwined Code Veronica really is with the rest of the series. The game takes place three months after the events of Resident Evil 2 and follows Claire and Chris Redfield’s ordeal during a viral outbreak on Rockfort Island, which takes place alongside Raccoon City’s complete downfall in Resident Evil 3.
“The reason we created the video that you just saw was to help communicate how we at Capcom and the development team think of the original Code Veronica,” Hirabayashi said through a translator. “It is as an entry in the series that is just as important as a numbered title.” He continued, “As you can imagine, any game or section of the story of the Resident Evil saga that contains so many major characters is going to be a vital point in the series. That is how we developmentally think about it.”
There are lots of development teams inside of Capcom, and Resident Evil Veronica is currently being made by the same team that worked on the remakes of Resident Evil 2 and Resident Evil 4. And while it’s clear the company is trying to reveal as little as possible about its next survival horror game right now, Hirabayashi was happy to offer vague hints and teases about what the developers are aiming for and what fans can expect.
One thing the producer was very clear on is that Veronica won’t have a first-person mode like other modern Resident Evil games. “Only third-person,” Hirabayashi said in a session with Restart.run. “There is no toggle, no switching.”
So what meaningful changes will Capcom make to the 2000 original? “When we’re making a remake again, we do feel it’s necessary to add new elements to deliver a new take on survival horror, so that covers things like game mechanics as well as story,” Hirabayashi said. He suggested Veronica will expand on both the lore and the mechanics of the original.
Will Claire get a new parry mechanic like Leon Kennedy had in Resident Evil Requiem? Hirabayashi pointed out that Veronica takes place only a few months after RE2, so it’s not like Claire has had time to train and dramatically expand her arsenal of lethal moves.
“She survived some very extreme circumstances,” he said. “She has that under her belt, but of course, in the span of three months, she hasn’t done anything like become a government agent or anything like that. So, you’re gonna see a game feel that is aligned with that character where she is in her life at that point.”
One broader shift for Veronica, which came out back during the clunkier phase of Resident Evil‘s history, will be the overall quality-of-life and playability of the experience, the producer hinted. A “big aspect is the usability, and the quality of the game feel itself,” Hirabayashi said during a session with VGC. “We’ve gained a lot of knowledge as we’ve created games, including Requiem, and so we’re taking all that knowledge that we’ve accumulated and using it for Veronica as well.”
The sense coming out of the presentation is that fans should expect a Resident Evil 4-quality remake applied to the characters and events depicted in Code Veronica. As for mechanics and game feel, those will be more closely aligned with the remake of RE2, the game Code Veronica was originally a companion to. “It’ll feel like certain elements of the Resident Evil 2 game feel matched up with Code Veronica,” Hirabayashi said.
Resident Evil Veronica is also appearing on Switch 2 when it comes out next year. Notably, the original game is currently available as a PS2 classic on PlayStation 5 and through backwards compatibility on Xbox Series X/S. Will the GameCube version of Veronica be coming to Switch Online’s Expansion Pack anytime soon? There are “no plans for that,” Hirabayashi said, though he did throw Nintendo fans a bone in a later session when he reportedly said he’d love to see an amiibo of Claire Redfield released alongside the game on Switch 2.
