Capcom cut an entire chapter where you played as Ashley at the beginning of the game. Remake of Resident Evil 4.
Modder and content creator Michael “Thekempy” Kemp has reportedly restored the deleted chapter that was supposed to open the game. While there are no cutscenes or even enemies, there are enough “leftovers” in the game files to piece together “Chapter 0” and “get a rough idea of how it would have ended.” That's exactly what they did in the video below:
“It would start with Ashley in the woods at night,” Tekempi explains. “She stumbles upon Los Illuminados while performing a ritual sacrifice.”
If this sounds a little familiar, that's because it is – the episode was briefly seen in Capcom's story trailer released back in October 2022. Although it does not appear to have made it into the final version, and the area is not accessible in the final version, Tekempi was able to find the path where Ashley witnessed the sacrifice, and then the fork in the road that leads her to the village.
“There are a few remaining spawn locations for event scenarios that could happen in this chapter,” thekempy added (thanks, PC gamer).
“I can't restore all their functionality, but I can tell you how they are labeled. There's one of the Ganado spawns that starts walking around and Ashley has to sneak past it.”
While cutscenes appear to no longer exist, Thekempy managed to trigger an autosave and give a bit of detail about what each cutscene might have entailed from their labels and descriptions in the code.
We may never know exactly why the opening sequence was removed, but it's possible that Capcom was a little wary of starting the horror with a relatively slow-paced non-combat sequence that clashed with the game's action-heavy style.
Resident Evil Requiem will be released on February 27 next year on PS5, Xbox Series X/S, Switch 2 and Steam. The dual protagonists will represent two styles of gameplay that its developers describe it as “a jump into a cold bath after a hot sauna.”.
Resident Evil 7 and Village will also be released on Nintendo Switch 2..
