Resident Evil Veronica finally resurrects a critical part of the Resident Evil story, but it isn’t going to simply replicate the original experience. So far, Capcom has been no stranger to shaking up the source material in Resident Evil remakes, even if the core characters and plot beats typically remain the same.
Despite sounding like a spin-off, the original Resident Evil: Code Veronica was always effectively a mainline entry, following Claire and Chris Redfield after the events of Resident Evil 2. Now, Capcom has revealed how the remake will fit into the bigger picture of the modern Resident Evil franchise.
According to Resident Evil producer Yoshiaki Hirabayashi, Resident Evil Veronica will “restructure” the original story, as reported by Famitsu and shared in English by IGN. These changes will help to convey the sense of “one cohesive series” to players.
That doesn’t mean, however, that Capcom is planning to rewrite the whole affair. Hirabayashi highlights “putting the players’ memories first” as the prerogative for Capcom, with “rebuilding the game on top of that” as the subsequent objective. This matches the approach taken in the remakes of Resident Evil 2 and 4, which have generally been highly regarded by fans despite some major changes.
At this point, the Resident Evil series effectively has two timelines — the original version of the story and, separately, the remake continuity. While the rough story outline remains similar across both versions, Resident Evil Veronica is clearly seeking to line things up more cleanly with the latter.
Hopefully, Capcom will be able to build on the success of prior remakes and transform the story of Code Veronica into another major hit. There’s always a chance that Resident Evil Veronica could go the way of Resident Evil 3, which frustrated fans of the original with controversial changes and cuts to the narrative, but this remake is being handled by the same team as Resident Evil 2 and 4.
After Resident Evil Veronica, leaks suggest that Capcom will be revisiting Resident Evil 0 next, providing the opportunity to bring the prequel story in line with the modern canon. That will only leave Resident Evil 5 and 6 in the pile of games that don’t quite fit, and both of them might be tougher to tackle. With so many options on the table for both original experiences and remakes, there’s never been a better time to get into the Resident Evil franchise.
- Released
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2027
- Number of Players
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Single-player
- Steam Deck Compatibility
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Unknown