TheResident Evilfranchise has been so core part to video games that its impossible to imagine a world without it. Over the decades, the series has been through so much, and had many highs and lowsand whats higher for the whole enterprise than Resident Evil 4? Capcoms put out so many versions of Resident Evil 4 over the years, including an acclaimed current-gen remake back in 2023. But its very first release was for the Nintendo Gamecube on January 11, 2005 as the penultimate game in a series of console exclusives dubbed the Capcom Five, and marked a big shakeup for the series. After several versions had been concepted and scrapped, longtime series director/producer Shinji Mikami took the reigns on a full reinvention. By that point, he and other developers felt things had gotten long in the tooth and hoped to spice things up in the right ways. Among Mikamis key changes were replacing zombies with a new undead enemy called the Ganados, employing a more dynamic camera instead of fixed angles, and not centering the story on the evil Umbrella Corporation. But the biggest shift was in howthe game was played: rather than slow, tank-like controls, he wanted more of an action focus and third-person, over-the-shoulder shooting. That style of gameplay didnt sit well with everyone on the team, but they came around once he explained whyhe wanted the changes he did. In a 2004 interview with IGN, producer Hiroyuki Kobyashi similarly reassured the fanbase this was still a proper Resident Evilgame, just one that could also serve as a jumping on point for those who either bounced off the earlier entries or hadnt played the games at all. Capcom By now, we all know Resident Evil 4received critical acclaim and is regarded as one of the best games of all time. Its also one of the most influential: from Gears of War and Dead Space to the more recentLast of Us and God of War, you can find a lot of its DNA in any major third-person game that came out between 2006 to basically now.Similar mimicry was found in other survival horror series at the time, with then-new installments for Silent HillandAlone in the Darkalso trying to go for an action/horror blend, but not with quite the same success or glowing reception. Later Resident Evil games continued the third-person shooter combat, and the first-person Resident Evil Villagewas developed as a blend of that game and 2017s Resident Evil 7, according to Village director Morimato Sato.But ResidentEvil 4s biggest impact came as it was ported over to the PlayStation 2 in October that same year. In a way, it was the games most definitive version, since it featured new features and material not found in the Gamecube version, including the Separate Ways side-story starring supporting character Ada Wong. The PS2 was notable for having an incredible third-party game library back in the day, and RE4was among the cream of the crop.Resident Evil has never been a PlayStation-exclusive series, but the two are forever linked, and like with Final Fantasy, it meant something at the time to have a mainline entry on a PlayStation console.However, its jump to the PS2 wasnt without its bumps. Once Capcom revealed Resident Evil 4 wasnt Gamecube exclusive, Mikamis anger at the situation helped lead to the creation of several new developers. The first was Clover Studio, where Mikami and Hideki Kamiyathe man whose scrapped RE4 ideasDevil May Cryworked on cult classics like God Hand and Okami. After that studio closed, the two helped co-found PlatinumGames, which Kamiya led the studio and directed its flagship action series Bayonetta and the beloved 2017 gem Nier: Automata. For him, things have come full circle: having departed Platinum in 2023, hes now in charge of the recently-announced Clovers Studio, which is making a follow-up to Okami.Meanwhile, Mikami founded Tango Gameworks, which went on to create the Evil Withingames and 2023s extremely awesomeHi-Fi Rush. Microsoft shut Tango down afterRushsrelease, but the studio has been recently reborn by Krafton. Mikami left Tango before its closure, and it seems hes since started up a new studio thats presumably doing its own thing. Capcom Whatever that Mikamis next project ends up being, itll inevitably garner comparisons to his previous work, andResident Evil 4in particular. Theres just no escaping that games shadow, both because of how deeply its become entrenched in video games over the decades, and also because its playable on pretty much everything in some capacity. Even if Capcom suddenly decided to stop the survival horror franchise right this moment, that wouldnt do much of anything. Resident Evil 4refuses to be forgotten, and it likely never will be, since its become so entrenched in the medium. Want more io9 news? Check out when to expect the latest Marvel, Star Wars, and Star Trek releases, whats next for the DC Universe on film and TV, and everything you need to know about the future of Doctor Who.