Video game remakes are everywhere these days. A recent version of Silent Hill 2 has just been released, the Final Fantasy 7 remake trilogy is in full swing, and a remake of Metal Gear Solid 3 is on the horizon. But few people know remakes as well as Shinji Mikami. The Resident Evil co-creator watched teams create wildly successful remakes of his own games, and in 2001 he even helmed a remake of the first project he led, which made him the director of both Resident Evil AND Resident Evil.
So if there’s anyone who knows what a good remake means, it’s Shinji Mikami. “I think having a comprehensive and fundamental understanding of what made the original work happen is probably the most important point of a good remake,” he tells me.
“Basically everything from scratch,” he explains. “There are several examples of this happening in certain series published by Capcom.” He’s of course talking about the recent spate of Resident Evil remakes, the latest of which is the almost universally eminent Resident Evil 4. Mikami has played the game and enthusiastically praises the Capcom team.
“I thought it was really well made,” he says. He’s particularly impressed with how the remake handles more sophisticated combat details, such as the moment between aiming and firing a shot, which in the original was perfectly balanced to provide mounting tension and suspense. “I thought they showed a really good understanding of this element,” he tells me.
“The other thing I thought was really well done was the way they took a half-hearted script that I had just written in two weeks and really built on it and really expanded on it,” he adds. “They showed they really understood the characters and their interactions. They showed good knowledge of each character’s spine. They took not only the script itself, but even the dialogues and improved everything so that it was really great.”
My conversation with Mikami was part of his promotional work for Shadows of the Damned: Hella Remastered, an enhanced version of the cult classic he produced back in 2011 (amusingly, Mikami notes that “I’m personally not interested in remasters at all” during the chat, so this is not a project to revive Shadows). We were also joined by Goichi Suda (AKA Suda51), writer of Shadows of the Damned and CEO of developer Grasshopper Manufacture. Suda is more interested in remasters than Mikami; In addition to the recent Shadows release, Grasshopper also remastered Lollipop Chainsaw this year, and previously brought No More Heroes and Killer7 back to newfangled platforms. However, Suda changes his approach, returning to his ancient games. Sometimes a remake is needed.
“One thing that really stands out about The 25th Ward remake was that at the time we were making the remake, it was completely unplayable,” Suda explains. “It was initially only available on Japanese flip phones. And what’s more, it never really ended. The original version didn’t have a proper conclusion or ending.” These factors meant that, rather than a remaster, The 25th Ward was completely reworked in 2018 to both fit the PlayStation 4 console and to finally provide players with closure to the story.
For Shadows of the Damned, Mikami and Suda chose to remaster rather than remake. Instead of expanding and reinventing aspects of their 2011 game, which sold poorly but gained a cult following, the duo stuck closely to the original version. This approach allows newfangled audiences to experience the game as it was released on Xbox 360 and PS3. However, there are some recent elements to ensure that long-term fans are rewarded.
“I wanted the game to be as close to the original as possible, but this time there were definitely things I wanted to add and highlight or accentuate,” Suda says. “For example, there are some new costumes for the main character, there is a new game mode plus. There are a few things we wanted to implement to improve the experience a bit. But yeah, we definitely wanted to keep it as close to the original as possible.
But as we noted earlier, Mikami isn’t all that interested in remasters. This does not mean, however, that he is not interested in returning to the past. “Personally, I’m more interested in remaking Killer 7 than remastering Shadows of the Damned,” he tells me. “If I had to choose, I’d rather do a sequel to Killer7 or something like that.”
Released in 2005, Killer7 was an incredibly stylish action thriller. Her sophisticated story, which follows the exploits of an assassin with multiple personalities, was co-written by Mikami and Suda. This is another iconic project from the duo that has largely been lost to time: apart from a remaster on PC in 2018, Killer7 was created exclusively for GameCube and PS2, with no re-releases available for newfangled consoles. As such, the game’s compact but faithful fan base has long been clamoring for a sequel or remake.
“The other thing I was constantly aware of was that we were trying to make a game that would be available globally, not just domestically. All the new ideas we had, like controller inputs, gameplay and the action itself, we tried to make those things as new and original as possible. If we were to do another Killer7 thing, I’d like to come back to that. To create something completely new and original and add a lot of revolutionary things to it.”
Although Mikami likes the idea of returning to Killer7, he feels that his vision for the game’s visuals may conflict with newfangled expectations. “I feel like at the time, the graphics we used in Killer 7 were very well within the specifications of the time,” he says. “And if we made a new version today, people would probably expect something much more realistic. And that would just be funky and weird. That’s not what this game was about.
“If we were to redo it, if we were to do something new with it, a lot would have to change,” he theorizes. “Everything from the background settings and the graphics themselves would have to be reworked from scratch.”
“This is not a promise that we will do a sequel, remake or anything else,” he quickly adds. “It’s just two guys shooting shit.”
Even though it’s just two guys shooting shit, the conversation gives us some good insight into what one of the gaming industry’s most renowned directors thinks makes for a good remake. The best ones are ground-up reconstructions that examine and analyze the components that made the original game work so well, and then operate that knowledge to build on the good ones and improve on any weaknesses. It’s a elementary recipe that requires a deep and sophisticated understanding of the original game in question. Fortunately, Mikami’s work inspired such dedication, resulting in the Resident Evil remake.
As for the remakes yet to come, let’s hope they will be based on original designs that also inspire such close study and appreciation of every diminutive detail, down to the microseconds between aiming and pressing the trigger.
Matt Purslow is senior features editor at IGN.
