These points were summarized by Resident Evil French fan site "http://www.biohazardfrance.net", but the source of these tidbits come from Japanese interviews made in the last couple weeks from places like 4gamer, game spark, IGN Japan, Dengeki and Game Watch. However, there is a ton of new tidbits within this that I think some may want to know. I'm going to summarize the bits in English that are interesting, but the original articles most are online to be found if want to read the full interviews.
-Earlier in development they wanted to release the game in time for RE2's 20th anniversary, but that proved to be too limited a time table. They did manage to get it done for the 21st anniversary week though.
-The corpses of zombies that the player has killed will remain the whole playthrough, even when you leave and return to locations, and it can be hard to know if a zombie is ever dead. On-top of this, they wanted to give the feeling of zombies "invading" rooms, when they're bursting through doors to come for you they tried to make it scary and put as much pressure on the player as possible and use distinct scary sound design to know they aren't safe and the zombie is coming for you. They want zombies to be scary and give off a sense they're an impossible to overcome force, you have to merely hold them back enough to do what you need to do. They also mention that boarding up windows is important, while there's not infinite number of zombies, over time more and more zombies will break into the police station in areas where the windows are not boarded up. In your first playthrough they recommend just boarding up as soon as you can certain areas you want to be safe, and in the second playthrough you can strategize more knowing the sorta' path you're going to take.
-They clarify to the above point that this is not an action game, it has action in it, but they focused far more on the adventure game elements this time around. If you try to kill everything, you're going to find really quickly you'll put yourself in a tight position with almost no resources for anything to come. They think if you could take out zombies easily or kill nearly every enemy, the fear of zombies would be reduced by at least half. The game has much bigger emphasis on exploring, puzzles, and other such things this time around as well. This said, they think making an easier difficulty for less experienced players was important, since this game is harder than your typical RE game. They also wanted to make modes for those who wanted additional challenge as well though. They say the difficulty modes in REmake 2 are very different to one another and change up a lot about the game for different kinds of audiences.
-They tested Fixed Camera, First-Person, VR, and Behind-The-Shoulder all for REmake 2, but for the game they wanted to make, they ultimately thought Behind-the-Shoulder was the best for this remake.
-For making a remake compared to a wholly original game, there's parts of it which are easier since you kinda' have an easy to rely on blueprint to follow and can forge ideas to how to re imagine it, but then also it can be tricky to decide what's crucial to the original, what can't be changed, what should be changed, and how to recreate feelings of the original for a modern audience. So while some parts of development and design are easier, other parts in turn become harder because you have to balance both modernizing but retaining what the original did, which can be tricky.
-This is a smaller point, but they comment why they don't have QTEs because they think it's not "interesting" to them or players, and wanted to come up with more interesting solutions to it. As an extension to this, RE7 and REmake 2 both experiment with how to make certain moments fully playable rather than making certain gameplay moments being wiggling some sticks or mashing buttons, which in REmake 2's case lead to the revival of the defense items from the original REmake.
-They mention there's an optional thing you can turn on for REmake 2 if you're having too much difficulty which sorta' simulates the "auto-aim" in the original RE2, where when you aim at an enemy it'll lock onto their weak points and you can put ammo into it. This is by default turned off, but can be turned on for those who need the help or those who want to play it more like the original RE2 where zombies take a certain amount of bullets to take down that's fairly consistent.
-On Resident Evil 1.5, they mention there was only one aspect they directly took from 1.5, and that was the Shooting Range from 1.5 is in the REmake in RPD, but they only added it since it made sense with the setting rather than that they specifically wanted to pull something from an abandoned version of the original. They do mention some things were done that they wanted to do for the original RE2 but couldn't back then due to limitations of hardware, one such thing being Mr. X and how he can constantly stalk the player through areas. This was something they wanted to do in the original, but the technology to do it back then wasn't possible.
-They think Capcom is well known for fantastic audio design, and think REmake 2's audio design, which they fully constructed within their own studios, will be a new hallmark for them.
-About remaking Leon and Claire, they wanted to capture that this is their younger years as both characters are fairly iconic at this point for the franchise. Leon is unreliable as he lacks experience, this is his first day as a cop and he isn't prepared for anything like this, but he is courageous and his heart is in a good place. He has a strong sense of justice and a certain charm to him, but at this point he wants to be better than he actually is, which they think leads well into his over-arching plot in the series. For Claire, she came here to find her brother, her gun is now a personal model rather than a police model like she had in the original, one she took herself in case there's any danger. She's spunkier and a bit more wild, but she does have a caring maternal side and wants to make a difference and save people in this disaster.
-For Sherry, they mention in the original it seemed like she was 6-8 years old or something, but she was actually 12. They want Sherry to be a bit more independent and capable than she was in the original RE2, she's still a child but a bit more independent and mature and feels more her age.
-For Ada, the reason she comes in a trench coat is because she sticks out too much in her red dress. More so, Ada reveals to Leon fairly early that she's a spy, but wins him over by convincing him she's a spy trying to save the world and put a stop to a danger to the world. She hides her true intentions from him. The red dress was too iconic to leave out, but they thought the trench coat transitioning to her regular red attire made a good physical representation of Ada's outer shell opening up a little bit more to closer to who she really is through Leon's innocent sense of justice and the two coming to rely a bit on one another.
-On Annette Birkin, she is a bit less physically attractive and messier than her original self. They thought this fit better and more realistic with her being a person who dedicates her life to her research, she's not caring too much about her appearances and lacks certain social niceties.
-Mr. X will be in both Leon and Claire's scenarios, and no matter who you play as first or second, he'll be in both.
-They mention for additional modes, they are "still undecided", which might mean they have some post-release plans or debating something right now?
-On HUNK and Tofu, they knew from the beginning they couldn't be cut from the remake. They think if you ask any RE2 fan, HUNK and Tofu's modes are an important part of RE2.
-The reason Elza Walker has a costume in REmake 2 is because of Hirabayashi. He really likes the character of Elza, and originally wanted her to be a character in the remake, but she didn't really fit into the narrative naturally anywhere. Some were against her costume inclusion, but ultimately they agreed to make it a costume for fans as a bonus DLC thing.
-They focused on two darker and more fleshed out campaigns than A/B scenarios this time around. They get to focus a lot more on fleshing out those campaigns and expanding the characters due to this though.
-They mention that the "entire final scene" of the game is only playable once you've completed Leon and Claire's campaigns.
-They mention they have not added any new creatures to REmake 2, but some of the creatures will appear in very different and expanded ways. They give an example with G-Mutant, who appears in a completely different way than he did in the original RE2, and they think there is more novelty to the bestiary that people know in how they're used in the REmake. They also tease that William Birkin will be transformed in a totally different way according to his different mutations, so people can look forward to being surprised by what Birkin has in store.
-They also mention there's a lot of new guns and gadgets though from the original RE2, as well as lots of new areas, puzzles, and the like.
-The red highlighted "R" and "E" in the Resident Evil 2 logo is supposed to stand for "REmake, or RE-Resident Evil 2". In Japan, the logo is more obvious since it's titled "Biohazard RE: 2", which can be taken as Resident Evil 2 or a Redone Resident Evil 2.
-On potential remakes in the future like REmake 2, they comment there is no doubt at this point that REmake 2 will make back it's cost and will make profit. It is natural to think about the next step after RE2, but right now they're focused on getting RE2 into the hands of buyers, but they sense the enthusiasm of fans, but have nothing to announce at this time.
-On what they to say on REmake 2 before its January 25th release; "RESIDENT EVIL 2 is full of "creativity" and "memories". It's also a frightening adventure, a human drama and a game-feeling focused on the fear of zombies. We hope that those who have experienced the original version will appreciate it and that new fans will also want to play it. "
---
tl;dr summary of the biggest bits (but I recommend reading as lots of interesting information)
-Game focuses a lot more on Adventure game elements than action. Far more puzzles and exploration and the like, and if you try to kill everything you'll run out of resources quickly and end up in a tight spot.
-They think the zombies being easily killable and easy to manage would reduce the game's fear in half, they think enemies being a hurdle rather than an easily overcomable obstacle is important.
-The last point said, if having difficulty or want to play closer to the original RE2, there's an optional "auto-aim" mode in REmake 2 (that is off by default) which locks onto enemies weakpoints when aiming at them to make zombies take more a certain number of bullets to take out rather than based on your own ability. There's also big differences in the game based on what difficulty you select.
-On remaking Leon and Claire, they wanted Leon to come off as courageous and with a sense of justice, but incapable and unprepared for the nightmare he came into. For Claire she's spunkier and came here to find her brother, but has a maternal side but a bit more of a wild spirit.
-They knew HUNK & Tofu were needed in the remake.
-Elza's costume is in the game since Hirabayashi really likes Elza.
-There is a "final scene" you only unlock once you complete both Leon and Claire's campaigns.
-Mention for additional modes past Tofu and HUNK, they are still "undecided", which is ambiguous in its meaning.
-There is no new enemies, but the enemies have a lot more to them and some appear in drastically different ways, like the G-Mutant they mention is completely different than in the original. They also tease William Birkin has some surprises up his sleeves with his mutations, and hope people look forward to that.
-The RE2 logo highlights the "R" and the "E" to stand for "REmake" or "RE: Resident Evil 2".
-On potential future remakes, they say REmake 2 at this point is sure to make back its whole cost and they hear the enthusiasm of the fans.
-Earlier in development they wanted to release the game in time for RE2's 20th anniversary, but that proved to be too limited a time table. They did manage to get it done for the 21st anniversary week though.
-The corpses of zombies that the player has killed will remain the whole playthrough, even when you leave and return to locations, and it can be hard to know if a zombie is ever dead. On-top of this, they wanted to give the feeling of zombies "invading" rooms, when they're bursting through doors to come for you they tried to make it scary and put as much pressure on the player as possible and use distinct scary sound design to know they aren't safe and the zombie is coming for you. They want zombies to be scary and give off a sense they're an impossible to overcome force, you have to merely hold them back enough to do what you need to do. They also mention that boarding up windows is important, while there's not infinite number of zombies, over time more and more zombies will break into the police station in areas where the windows are not boarded up. In your first playthrough they recommend just boarding up as soon as you can certain areas you want to be safe, and in the second playthrough you can strategize more knowing the sorta' path you're going to take.
-They clarify to the above point that this is not an action game, it has action in it, but they focused far more on the adventure game elements this time around. If you try to kill everything, you're going to find really quickly you'll put yourself in a tight position with almost no resources for anything to come. They think if you could take out zombies easily or kill nearly every enemy, the fear of zombies would be reduced by at least half. The game has much bigger emphasis on exploring, puzzles, and other such things this time around as well. This said, they think making an easier difficulty for less experienced players was important, since this game is harder than your typical RE game. They also wanted to make modes for those who wanted additional challenge as well though. They say the difficulty modes in REmake 2 are very different to one another and change up a lot about the game for different kinds of audiences.
-They tested Fixed Camera, First-Person, VR, and Behind-The-Shoulder all for REmake 2, but for the game they wanted to make, they ultimately thought Behind-the-Shoulder was the best for this remake.
-For making a remake compared to a wholly original game, there's parts of it which are easier since you kinda' have an easy to rely on blueprint to follow and can forge ideas to how to re imagine it, but then also it can be tricky to decide what's crucial to the original, what can't be changed, what should be changed, and how to recreate feelings of the original for a modern audience. So while some parts of development and design are easier, other parts in turn become harder because you have to balance both modernizing but retaining what the original did, which can be tricky.
-This is a smaller point, but they comment why they don't have QTEs because they think it's not "interesting" to them or players, and wanted to come up with more interesting solutions to it. As an extension to this, RE7 and REmake 2 both experiment with how to make certain moments fully playable rather than making certain gameplay moments being wiggling some sticks or mashing buttons, which in REmake 2's case lead to the revival of the defense items from the original REmake.
-They mention there's an optional thing you can turn on for REmake 2 if you're having too much difficulty which sorta' simulates the "auto-aim" in the original RE2, where when you aim at an enemy it'll lock onto their weak points and you can put ammo into it. This is by default turned off, but can be turned on for those who need the help or those who want to play it more like the original RE2 where zombies take a certain amount of bullets to take down that's fairly consistent.
-On Resident Evil 1.5, they mention there was only one aspect they directly took from 1.5, and that was the Shooting Range from 1.5 is in the REmake in RPD, but they only added it since it made sense with the setting rather than that they specifically wanted to pull something from an abandoned version of the original. They do mention some things were done that they wanted to do for the original RE2 but couldn't back then due to limitations of hardware, one such thing being Mr. X and how he can constantly stalk the player through areas. This was something they wanted to do in the original, but the technology to do it back then wasn't possible.
-They think Capcom is well known for fantastic audio design, and think REmake 2's audio design, which they fully constructed within their own studios, will be a new hallmark for them.
-About remaking Leon and Claire, they wanted to capture that this is their younger years as both characters are fairly iconic at this point for the franchise. Leon is unreliable as he lacks experience, this is his first day as a cop and he isn't prepared for anything like this, but he is courageous and his heart is in a good place. He has a strong sense of justice and a certain charm to him, but at this point he wants to be better than he actually is, which they think leads well into his over-arching plot in the series. For Claire, she came here to find her brother, her gun is now a personal model rather than a police model like she had in the original, one she took herself in case there's any danger. She's spunkier and a bit more wild, but she does have a caring maternal side and wants to make a difference and save people in this disaster.
-For Sherry, they mention in the original it seemed like she was 6-8 years old or something, but she was actually 12. They want Sherry to be a bit more independent and capable than she was in the original RE2, she's still a child but a bit more independent and mature and feels more her age.
-For Ada, the reason she comes in a trench coat is because she sticks out too much in her red dress. More so, Ada reveals to Leon fairly early that she's a spy, but wins him over by convincing him she's a spy trying to save the world and put a stop to a danger to the world. She hides her true intentions from him. The red dress was too iconic to leave out, but they thought the trench coat transitioning to her regular red attire made a good physical representation of Ada's outer shell opening up a little bit more to closer to who she really is through Leon's innocent sense of justice and the two coming to rely a bit on one another.
-On Annette Birkin, she is a bit less physically attractive and messier than her original self. They thought this fit better and more realistic with her being a person who dedicates her life to her research, she's not caring too much about her appearances and lacks certain social niceties.
-Mr. X will be in both Leon and Claire's scenarios, and no matter who you play as first or second, he'll be in both.
-They mention for additional modes, they are "still undecided", which might mean they have some post-release plans or debating something right now?
-On HUNK and Tofu, they knew from the beginning they couldn't be cut from the remake. They think if you ask any RE2 fan, HUNK and Tofu's modes are an important part of RE2.
-The reason Elza Walker has a costume in REmake 2 is because of Hirabayashi. He really likes the character of Elza, and originally wanted her to be a character in the remake, but she didn't really fit into the narrative naturally anywhere. Some were against her costume inclusion, but ultimately they agreed to make it a costume for fans as a bonus DLC thing.
-They focused on two darker and more fleshed out campaigns than A/B scenarios this time around. They get to focus a lot more on fleshing out those campaigns and expanding the characters due to this though.
-They mention that the "entire final scene" of the game is only playable once you've completed Leon and Claire's campaigns.
-They mention they have not added any new creatures to REmake 2, but some of the creatures will appear in very different and expanded ways. They give an example with G-Mutant, who appears in a completely different way than he did in the original RE2, and they think there is more novelty to the bestiary that people know in how they're used in the REmake. They also tease that William Birkin will be transformed in a totally different way according to his different mutations, so people can look forward to being surprised by what Birkin has in store.
-They also mention there's a lot of new guns and gadgets though from the original RE2, as well as lots of new areas, puzzles, and the like.
-The red highlighted "R" and "E" in the Resident Evil 2 logo is supposed to stand for "REmake, or RE-Resident Evil 2". In Japan, the logo is more obvious since it's titled "Biohazard RE: 2", which can be taken as Resident Evil 2 or a Redone Resident Evil 2.
-On potential remakes in the future like REmake 2, they comment there is no doubt at this point that REmake 2 will make back it's cost and will make profit. It is natural to think about the next step after RE2, but right now they're focused on getting RE2 into the hands of buyers, but they sense the enthusiasm of fans, but have nothing to announce at this time.
-On what they to say on REmake 2 before its January 25th release; "RESIDENT EVIL 2 is full of "creativity" and "memories". It's also a frightening adventure, a human drama and a game-feeling focused on the fear of zombies. We hope that those who have experienced the original version will appreciate it and that new fans will also want to play it. "
---
tl;dr summary of the biggest bits (but I recommend reading as lots of interesting information)
-Game focuses a lot more on Adventure game elements than action. Far more puzzles and exploration and the like, and if you try to kill everything you'll run out of resources quickly and end up in a tight spot.
-They think the zombies being easily killable and easy to manage would reduce the game's fear in half, they think enemies being a hurdle rather than an easily overcomable obstacle is important.
-The last point said, if having difficulty or want to play closer to the original RE2, there's an optional "auto-aim" mode in REmake 2 (that is off by default) which locks onto enemies weakpoints when aiming at them to make zombies take more a certain number of bullets to take out rather than based on your own ability. There's also big differences in the game based on what difficulty you select.
-On remaking Leon and Claire, they wanted Leon to come off as courageous and with a sense of justice, but incapable and unprepared for the nightmare he came into. For Claire she's spunkier and came here to find her brother, but has a maternal side but a bit more of a wild spirit.
-They knew HUNK & Tofu were needed in the remake.
-Elza's costume is in the game since Hirabayashi really likes Elza.
-There is a "final scene" you only unlock once you complete both Leon and Claire's campaigns.
-Mention for additional modes past Tofu and HUNK, they are still "undecided", which is ambiguous in its meaning.
-There is no new enemies, but the enemies have a lot more to them and some appear in drastically different ways, like the G-Mutant they mention is completely different than in the original. They also tease William Birkin has some surprises up his sleeves with his mutations, and hope people look forward to that.
-The RE2 logo highlights the "R" and the "E" to stand for "REmake" or "RE: Resident Evil 2".
-On potential future remakes, they say REmake 2 at this point is sure to make back its whole cost and they hear the enthusiasm of the fans.
