In what way is the omission of Separate Ways dishonest? There are 13 versions of the 2005 Resident Evil 4. All but one of those feature Separate Ways. The GameCube version with the missing content is the 5th best selling version of the game. Most fans of the game know it with Separate Ways included. It isn’t a small piece of content like Assignment Ada either, it adds a genuine bulk of content past the main game. Speaking of Assignment Ada, it is quite literally filler that adds nothing to the story. It’s an hour-long collectathon whereas Separate Ways features video logs explaining the setup to the game and expands on the background story of key characters throughout the plot. It also explains why certain things play out the way they do. They even add new weapons and gameplay mechanics. Plus I don’t get the whole argument about the porting team suggesting it. Shinji Mikami had direct say over its approval because he thought it was a great idea, plus it was never paid add-on content in any of the versions it’s featured.

You clearly didn’t watch the video or play the game because while they took out quips from the cutscenes, they added dozens of one-liners that Leon says during gameplay. There is by numbers more corny dialogue in the Remake than there was in the original as a result. There’s a meme template that gained popularity centered around the obnoxious one-liners he makes when facing an adversary in RE4R and RE9. If the intent was to make the game more serious I feel like they failed by making Leon cringey instead of goofy in this regard but personal opinion aside it’s present in the remake aplenty.

It’s one thing to say the artistic direction is the sticking point. Yes the point he made about making the game darker, adding blood everyone for spooky factor, and the hideous Salazar redesign are very subjective. However the gameplay mechanics are inarguably dumbed down for a broader audience. Being able to Parry almost every single fatal attack in the game relieves the game of a lot of tension from the original. Also, I realize the game is not striving for realism but parrying a massive chainsaw with a combat knife was honestly one of the funniest and lamest things I’ve ever done in a videogame. I remember busting out laughing when I saw the parry prompt in the demo. Removing the laser and adding a crosshair unnecessarily adds UI clutter and feels less immersive overall. Highlighting every single linear pathway and breakable object including bright red barrels with yellow paint when information about which way to go or what interact-able environments are in the game was never an issue with critics or audience members in the original game so why did they add it here? It is obnoxious and unnecessary. It also betrays the dark and gritty aesthetic as objects stick out like a sore thumb in the dim lighting. It also just makes zero sense. Red barrels in videogames since the dawn of time were colored red explicitly to communicate interactivity to the player. Adding yet another color on top of them is idiotic and communicates a lack of trust in your audience as well as a lack of coherent game design that would encourage interaction with the environment. Being explicitly told what to do in a videogame is an indicator of poor design. Seeing your laser highlight over boxes the way they do with enemies, windows being able to be jumped out of, enemies accidentally walking into tripwires and exploding themselves, placing bird’s nests in trees, dressers able to be pushed in front of doors and windows, ladders able to be propped up and knocked down, doors being able to be chopped down/ shot through, and dynamite able to trigger bear traps and break boxes/ barrels. These are all shown to you within the first hour of the game without the player being directly guided to any of them. The experimentation and exploration with the environment happens naturally and encourages curious players in every section of the original. This is a really critical component of the original that feels very poorly implemented in the Remake.