In a new interview exclusively obtained by Game Informer, Hirofumi Nakaoka, the art director of Resident Evil 4 (Remake), details new character and enemy designs. The interview shows off fan-favorite enemies as well as new villains added to this anticipated remake.
Nakaoka goes over the design of the famous chainsaw enemy, who was featured heavily on the North American and PAL version of the game’s box art. He explains that the chainsaw villager was his favorite enemy from the original game and that they attempted to redesign him for the remake. After trying to add multiple things to his character, including a long trench coat, making him muscular or really tall, Nakaoka explained they liked his original design because it was very human. “He looks like a normal guy but he’s wearing a cowl on his head and holding a chainsaw. When there’s someone who looks like they should have intellect, but they’re wearing a cowl and holding a chainsaw, that’s scary,” Nakaoka said.
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One of the more minor updates to his design is the eyes in the holes of his cowl, which are blood red. it’s hard to deny that he doesn’t look terrifying.
Nakaoka described a new enemy that has been added to the remake; a muscular villager wielding a massive hammer with a cow head mask. The idea came later in development as they wanted a new, stronger enemy to be added that seemed less human. He says further that cow and deer heads had often been used in previous Resident Evil titles as decorations to make environments scarier, so it makes sense thematically. He jokes that the cow head is hard to see out of and thus doesn’t have a lot of utility.
He remarks on the theming of having cow-headed enemies saying, “In most games, if you have a cow-headed enemy, it’d probably be like a minotaur… But this character has had a dead cow’s head placed on them, or perhaps put it on himself… If he were a minotaur, that would pull the game into fantasy realms, but we’ve taken that idea and interpreted it to fit into Resident Evil’s world.”
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The original resident evil 4 was released back in 2005 exclusively for the Gamecube and quickly became a massive hit for its revolutionary third-person perspective. It won countless Game of the year awards and is regarded as one of the best games of all time. The remake was revealed on June 3, with the developers stating they wanted to remain faithful to the original while expanding on ideas and characters. Hopefully we get to see the helpful dog from the original game. The remake releases next month on March 23 for PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X/S, and PC.
