Resident Evil 3’s Nemesis Redesign Was Done To Better Connect It With Resident Evil 4

Like its predecessor, the Resident Evil 3 remake features a number of major changes over the original, many of which have left players eager to learn more of Capcom’s intentions. One of these, of course, is Nemesis and his acquisition of a new ability that was never present in the original game. Within moments of first encountering Umbrella’s self-proclaimed ultimate bioweapon, Jill witnesses the monster infect a nearby zombie with what appears to be some form of parasite that causes the host’s head to heavily mutate.

Fans familiar with Resident Evil 4 immediately likened the resulting entity’s characteristics to that of the chronological sequel’s Ganado enemies, which were themselves infected by the Las Plagas parasite. And, as it turns out, the similarities are anything but coincidental.

In a recent interview with PlayStation Blog, several members of the development team were asked how the Nemesis entity fits into Umbrella’s long-term plans as well as why it was decided to give him the ability to infect others with parasites, to which they provided an interesting reply indeed.

The full response is as follows:

The Nemesis project was to artificially create the Plagas parasite (first introduced in Resident Evil 4), thus giving birth to NE-α. The idea was to find an appropriate live host that could contain NE-α, which in turn would physically change and transform its host into a bioweapon. However, the reality was no host could contain the power of NE-α, nor was there any means of regulating it. As a result, the project was inevitably put on ice.

We inevitably decided on this final ability due to the presence of Ganado in Resident Evil 4. Ganado are humanoid enemies that are created through being infected with the Plagas parasite, the original basis for NE-α. When the Plagas activates, it spawns from the neck of its host in the form of a tentacle. NE-α was created to imitate this parasitic quality. We wanted NE-α infected enemies to be visually similar to the Plagas-infected Ganados as a means for fans to piece together how Nemesis fits within the whole Resident Evil franchise.

Now, this certainly doesn’t confirm anything on its own, but from an outside perspective, at least, it certainly appears as if Capcom is retroactively making changes to the series’ overarching narrative in order to make each game fit together more naturally. With a remake of Resident Evil 4 strongly rumored to be in development, it’s now looking incredibly likely that the changes made to its predecessor were done in the knowledge that the fourth game would be next in line to get a makeover.

For a more in-depth summary of everything we know so far about the Resident Evil 4 remake, see here.