Capcom has steadily continued to completely rebuild classic installments of its iconic Resident Evil video game franchise with the release of an enhanced remake of Resident Evil 3. Following the latest remake's successful launch, reports have surfaced the franchise will next proceed with an enhanced remake of 2005's Resident Evil 4. However, while the universally acclaimed entry should see an enhanced remake eventually, the more prudent move for the franchise should be to create remakes of its overlooked titles that released before Resident Evil 4.
Following Resident Evil 3: Nemesis' release on the original PlayStation in 1998, the survival horror franchise's next main entry wasn't a numbered installment or even initially released on a Sony console at all. Instead, the next major game in the series was 2000's Resident Evil - Code: Veronica, originally released for the Sega Dreamcast and a game that absolutely deserves a remake.
The decision not to number Resident Evil - Code: Veronica was made in order to maintain Capcom's earlier agreement to keep numbered installments on Sony consoles at the time. While critically acclaimed and one of the bestselling games on the Sega console, the Dreamcast's own underperformance made Code: Veronica the lowest selling main installment of the franchise at that time. This led to an eventual port on the PlayStation 2 as Resident Evil - Code: Veronica X, featuring additional content than its predecessor and much stronger sales.
Originally developed as a failed port of Resident Evil 2 to the Sega Saturn, the development team instead crafted the game as a direct sequel to the previous game. Following her escape from Racoon City, Claire Redfield has continued to search the world for her brother Chris. Her hunt leads to her imprisonment by the nefarious Umbrella Corporation, the people responsible for the T-Virus that led to the zombie uprising in the first place. As Claire attempts to escape her captors, the T-Virus is unleashed on the remote island on which she is confined, leading to a new wave of zombies while Chris arrives on the island to rescue his sister.
Taking advantage of the side-story nature of the entry and the European setting, with primary location on an island off the coast of France, the developers delivered a more gothically-tinged horror story in Code: Veronica. From the haunting architecture and art to the story including a tortured man dealing with his noble lineage's mental instability, Code: Veronica is Capcom's nightmarish lullaby to the main canon of the franchise. Similarly, the development team fully utilized the Dreamcast's advanced hardware to craft the most visually stunning installment in the franchise at that time.
Gameplay-wise, Code: Veronica is the last to use the traditional mechanics present from the franchise's start. The subsequent Resident Evil Zero would have players control two characters simultaneously, while Resident Evil 4 changed to a third-person, over-the-shoulder perspective with a greater emphasis on action that would define the franchise moving forward. In that sense, Code: Veronica is the last classic Resident Evil game.
From a standpoint of chronological release order and reintroducing an often overlooked title to a wider audience, it would make more sense for Capcom follow-up its enhanced remake of Resident Evil 3 with one of Code: Veronica. Resident Evil 4 can have its day in the sun with its own enhanced remake later, but that game been constantly remastered and rereleased. It is more than high time for Code: Veronica to get its shot at the spotlight, and a ground-up remake would be the perfect way to reintroduce its haunting horror story to a new generation over 20 years since its original release.
Resident Evil 3 is developed by Capcom and is available now for PlayStation 4, Xbox One and PC.