Resident Evil 4 Remake Cut an Opening Chapter Starring Ashley, Modder Restores
Capcom cut a full opening chapter from Resident Evil 4 Remake where players would control Ashley. This chapter was meant to appear at the very start of the game.
Modder and content creator Michael “Thekempy” Kemp has restored this lost content using leftover data found in the game files. While there are no enemies or full cutscenes, there was enough unused material to rebuild what he calls “Chapter 0” and show how it might have worked.
“It would have started with Ashley in the woods at night,” Thekempy explains. “She stumbles upon Los Illuminados in the middle of performing a ritual sacrifice.”
This scene briefly appeared in a story trailer released by Capcom in October 2022. The area is not playable in the final game, but Thekempy found the path Ashley followed, leading from the forest to the village.
“There are a number of leftover spawn locations for scripted events that would have happened in this chapter,” thekempy added. “I am unable to restore all of their functionality, but I can tell you what they're labelled as. There's one here for the spawn of a Ganado who would begin walking around, and Ashley has to sneak past him.”
Even though the original cutscenes are missing, Thekempy was able to activate autosaves and learn what the scenes were meant to show by reading their labels in the code.
Capcom has never explained why the chapter was removed. One possible reason is that the slow, stealth-focused opening did not fit well with the game’s more action-heavy style.
Capcom’s next title, Resident Evil Requiem, will release on February 27 next year for PS5, Xbox Series X/S, Switch 2, and Steam. Its developers say the two main characters offer very different gameplay styles, like “jumping into a cold bath after a hot sauna”.



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