Depending on who you ask, the importance of character redesigns can range from essential to outright detested. Unfortunately, there are plenty of objectively awful examples out there (Sonic The Hedgehog immediately comes to mind), and while Chris Redfield’s completely unrecognizable mug in Resident Evil 7 certainly wasn’t universally detested, many fans were left unimpressed with Capcom’s new look for the iconic series star.
Even when redesigns go wrong, however, the reasons for doing so more often than not are the result of good-natured intent, usually in the form of a desire to modernize those famous faces that have been knocking about for literal decades. Chris has undergone several changes since his first appearance way back in the 90s, of course, though his latest makeover, undoubtedly the most controversial to date, apparently won’t be carried over into Resident Evil 8.
In their latest round of comments concerning Resident Evil‘s upcoming eighth mainline installment, prolific leaker AestheticGamer, when quizzed over persisting rumors that Chris will once again go under the knife for the sequel, had a straightforward response to share. “Were the rumors about a redesigned Chris true?” asks Twitter user KYLE, to which AestheticGamer replies simply with “Yes.” As always, we’d caution against taking the above as gospel, but considering how reliably accurate this particular whistleblower has been in the past, this is about as close to confirmation you can get without hearing it straight from the horse’s mouth.
Capcom has yet to officially announce Resident Evil 8, though if previous claims are to be believed, the follow-up to 2017’s entry will once again star Ethan Winters and take place primarily in an as-yet-unnamed European location. See here for everything we know so far.
