Resident Evil 3: How Capcom Redesigned Jill Valentine Into an Action Hero

Capcom revealed a whole bunch of new details about Resident Evil 3 remake this morning. IGN was able to get a full hands-on preview from the event, as well as an interview with Capcom producer Peter Fabiano where we talked about the inspirations for Jill Valentine’s redesign, the changes in the remake from the original, and how to make Nemesis scary after Mr. X. Resident Evil 3 remake reimagines and remixes the characters and events of the 1999 PlayStation survival-horror game. Jill Valentine, a protagonist from the first Resident Evil game, once again takes center stage as she tries to escape Raccoon City during a T-Virus outbreak. Like the Resident Evil 2 remake, Capcom has gone back to the drawing board to redesign Jill Valentine for 2020 and we asked Fabiano what that process was like. [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=resident-evil-3&captions=true"] “So when you look at the original, right? [Jill Valentine] needed to kind of pop in the graphics of the day. So when we were looking at [the remake] and rebuilding Raccoon City and the world, overall, in Resident Evil 3, you’ll notice that we use photogrammetry and photo-real [graphics],” Fabiano said. “We wanted to make sure that Jill fit in that environment. So that’s why you’ll see that come to fruition in the design that we have with Jill and in the reimagining we have here. As well as the fact that you still see the Jill you know and love. That comes out a lot more in the performances and mocap.” It wasn’t just Jill’s look that got a redesign either. Resident Evil 3 expands on the storytelling and dialogue, which means Jill’s character has been expanded upon through story and writing as well. Throughout the demo Carlos calls Jill ‘Supercop’ and she feels like an 80s action hero at times. “The director really wanted to show that Jill is a character that has the wherewithal to get through all situations,” Fabiano explained. One of those situations, for example, is the Drain Deimos which makes an updated return in Resident Evil 3. When attacked by one of these, Jill risks getting infected with parasites which she must proceed to remove from herself by inducing vomiting. “At its core, it is survival horror, right? And we want to keep those elements in there and…[show] that Jill can get through these really hard situations.” Resident Evil 3 has been in development for three years, and there was some concurrent development with Resident Evil 2. This allowed the developers to see what was being done in one remake and adapt and learn for Resident Evil 3. “So we were able to take a lot of what we built out for RE 2 with the RE engine and use that and then kind of adapt and actually bring that even more forward and develop in that sense… We saw what was being built out in RE2, and there were things that we took from that or things that we actually wanted to kind of bring even more forward,” Fabiano said. As for specifics, Fabiano told IGN that there were “certain things that [Capcom] did with AI and certain things to kind of spruce up the way that the graphics look,” but declined to get too much further in-depth. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2020/01/14/resident-evil-3-nemesis-trailer"] While elements like the city and characters were expanded for the Resident Evil 3 remake, other functions like the multiple endings and live choices were removed. Fabiano says these features were sacrificed in favor of a more focused story. “The live selections were something that was included in the original RE 3. You know, they didn’t have much development time and there were challenges that they had to face. So one of the solutions they came up with to give the game some replayability was to add the live selections,” Fabiano says. “In this case, the director really just wanted to tell a consistent story. And so that’s why we decided to go with the one story with Resident Evil 3.” While you can read IGN’s hands-on preview of Resident Evil 3 for more details and impressions about the upcoming survival horror game, we did ask Fabiano two final questions. Will there be more Resident Evil remakes in the future, and will Resident Evil go first-person again? Sadly, our answers to both of those questions was a very vague, “Who knows?” [poilib element="accentDivider"] Matt Kim is a reporter for IGN. You can reach him on Twitter.