Original Resident Evil 2 director says he pestered Capcom for a remake

The director of Resident Evil 2 for PlayStation, Hideki Kamiya, may not be working on the recently announced remake of the 1998 survival horror classic, but he definitely has the ear of the game's director.

"No, I'm not directly involved [in the Resident Evil 2 remake]," Kamiya told Polygon in an interview at E3 last week. "But the director of the remake is actually somebody who joined Capcom the same year that I did.

"We worked closely together on the Resident Evil design team. We were both game designers. When [Resident Evil 2] started, I went to direct that game. He went and worked on Mega Man Legends. We go out drinking now and again, and one time he was like, 'By the way I'm directing the remake of RE2.' I was like, 'What? You're doing what?!' After I heard that, I felt like ... we need to go drinking some more."

Capcom hasn't announced who's directing the Resident Evil 2 remake, but based on Kamiya's comments, it's possible that Kazunori Kadoi, a designer on Resident Evil and Mega Man Legends, is leading that effort. (Yoshiaki "H" Hirabayashi has been announced as RE2 Remake's producer.) Capcom declined to confirm if Kadoi's directing the remake.

"After I heard that, I felt like ... we need to go drinking some more"

Kamiya, who left Capcom in 2006 and co-founded PlatinumGames later that year, sounded elated that Resident Evil 2 was being remade for modern platforms.

"Just from a creator's perspective, to know that something that you made still resonates, and people still want to play it, and that Capcom is going to invest all that time and energy into remaking it, is really an honor," Kamiya said. "That's saying it, independent of the fact that one of my friends is making it. Looking at what Capcom is doing right now, and what they're making, I have a lot of confidence that they're going to knock it out of the park."

Some of that positivity may be chalked up to the fact that Kamiya himself has been prodding longtime Resident Evil developer Jun Takeuchi to remake the game. Takeuchi was a character modeler on the first Resident Evil and served as producer on Resident Evil 5.

"Behind the scenes, I go drinking with Jun Takeuchi quite often," he said. "Every time I would go drinking with him I would pester him: 'You're going to remake that, right? You're going to remake that, right? You're going to remake that, right?' And he'd say, 'No, we're busy with other games.'

"As a fan of that game, not just someone who made it, I'm really happy that they listened to me — to us."

Kamiya is currently leading development of Scalebound for Xbox One and Windows PC. He recently told Polygon that he'd like to revisit Bayonetta for a third game if Platinum found the right opportunity.