Resident Evil CODE:Veronica/development

Summary	Plot	Gameplay	Development	Marketing	Reception	Credits	Gallery	Translation errors	Further notes

Resident Evil CODE: Veronica was in development from 1998 to 2000, with work continuing on for another year to release a 'Complete' version. The idea of a Resident Evil game purpose-built for Sega came about in 1998 when Capcom and Nex Entertainment agreed that a Sega Saturn port of Resident Evil 2 would not be of good visual quality in comparison with the PlayStation version. Though the Dreamcast console was to be released in November of that year, Production Studio 4 instead decided to create an entirely new game. CODE: Veronica was part of a list of 76 new Dreamcast titles compiled by IGN in August 1998. The game itself was officially announced by Yoshiki Okamoto at the New Challenge Conference in October that year, along with a Nintendo 64 port of Resident Evil 2 and another PlayStation title. The announcement teaser demonstrated the new camera system and 3D environments; the plot element confirmed was that Claire Redfield was searching for her brother, Chris in Europe. Sega Saturn Magazine released screenshots of the teaser shortly afterward.

A playable demo was featured in Fall 1999's TGS. The game was released in early 2000 as an apparent Dreamcast exclusive, though Mikami would later express his confusion as to Capcom's decision, as he was not informed of their intent.

During the early development stages of the game, Alfred and Alexia Ashford were named Hilbert and Hilda Krueger, respectively.

One beta version that featured a different outfit for Claire.

Writing

The story was handled entirely by Flagship, a company set up by Yoshiki Okamoto and Noboru Sugimura to improve video game story quality with professional script writing. Tokusatsu writers Hirohisa Soda, Jun'ichi Miyashita, Akira Asaka, Hideyuki Ishizeki and Yasuyuki Suzuki also took part in the script-writing process.

In the early story drafts, the protagonist was to be Jill Valentine, carrying on from Resident Evil 2's "Chris's Diary" which established her as investigating Umbrella. When Sugimura became aware that Resident Evil 2 director Hideki Kamiya had re-written the 'B' story ending, he felt it necessary to make the story revolve around Claire Redfield instead. With Flagship's other scripts establishing Umbrella's leadership coming from the nobility and having eugenics ideals, the writers decided the villains of CODE:Veronica would be Hilbert and Hilda Kreuger, the grandchildren of an Umbrella co-founder and German noblemen with Nazi ideals who served in the Heer during the Second World War but fled to South America at its conclusion. Due to concerns over the display of Nazi imagery in European copies, Flagship decided to remove the Nazi connection and instead have the villains as Alfred and Alexia Ashford, grandchildren of Umbrella co-founder Dr. Edward Ashford, 5th Earl Ashford.

Later releases

In November 2000, Capcom confirmed their intent to port CODE: Veronica to the PlayStation 2 console as BIOHAZARD CODE: Veronica Complete, launching the official webpage the same day. The game's producer, Shinji Mikami, commented that Complete would include content that failed to be completed in time to make it into the original game. In February 2001, Capcom announced that a playable demo of their upcoming Devil May Cry game (which originated as one of the attempts at Resident Evil 4) would come bundled with CODE: Veronica X.

The additional content comprised of improved graphics along with an extra nine minutes of cutscenes sequences. An example of some of the new cutscenes included the scene where Claire encountered Wesker just outside the manor. Wesker's lines in the cutscene where he discovers Chris' presence on the island were altered slightly through the stage-action remain the same.

Steve's hairstyle was altered to have a noticeable fringe, and no longer proudly shows his forehead. This change was made to all cutscenes that feature him, as well as to the family photograph he carries with him.

The introduction to Alexia's first battle was also changed considerably; whereas Wesker uses his superhuman abilities in an attempt to halt Alexia's advance in the X-version, in the original version, he is entirely powerless to stop her and does not use any of his powers. Further, he only notices Chris in the X-version; in the original, he simply runs out of the door.

The ending was also considerably changed. During and right after the Alexia fight, the presence of an elevator overlooking the battle area was cut out to allow room for the famous Wesker fight scene. This extended scene also introduced events such as Wesker taking Claire hostage and the fact that his men had captured Steve's body and were planning to experiment on it. The credits background and music were also remodeled.

The CODE:Veronica X version ported over to the GameCube had several differences from the PlayStation 2 release. The Gamecube port maintained the same pre-game teaser sequence as the Japanese-only Dreamcast version. Like the GameCube ports of Resident Evil 2 and Resident Evil 3: Nemesis, the title call narrator was replaced with Ward E. Sexton.

Capcom released a remastered high-definition version of CODE: Veronica X along with Resident Evil 4 for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. A disc version was released only in Japan on September 8, 2011, called Biohazard Revival Selection. In Europe and North America, the game was released on PlayStation Network and Xbox Live on September 27, 2011.

In May 2017, CODE: Veronica X was released on the PS4 as part of its "PS2 games on PS4" lineup, it is an emulation of the PlayStation 2 version and not a port of the HD remaster that was released on the PS3 and Xbox 360 in 2011. Because the game is based on its PS2 version, the PAL version (sold in EU regions) runs considerably slower than the other versions of the game due to most PS2 games sold in Europe running in 50Hz at the time of their original release. A patch has never been released by Capcom to fix this issue.

Two years later, on February 21, 2019, it was announced that the game would be available on the Xbox One via its Backward Compatibility. This version is a mirror of the HD re-release of the game released on the PS3 and Xbox 360 in 2011, unlike the PlayStation 4 version released in 2017.

Version info

• Included with certain versions of CODE: Veronica X is an unlockable documentary titled Wesker's Report.
• In the HD re-release of Resident Evil CODE: Veronica X, Claire Redfield has a shadow when she holds her lighter.