A modder known as Thekempy has reportedly reconstructed an entire opening chapter of Resident Evil 4 Remake that centers on Ashley, a section cut from the final release. By combing through leftover data in the game's files, Thekempy assembled what he calls "Chapter 0" and published a video showing a rough reassembly of the sequence, as first noted by Eurogamer.
The imagined sequence would begin with Ashley in the woods at night. She would stumble upon Los Illuminados during a ritual sacrifice, a moment briefly glimpsed in Capcom's October 2022 story trailer. While the final build omits the chapter, Thekempy says he could trace Ashley's path toward the village, including a fork that would have sent her down toward the village proper. Thekempy also notes leftover spawn locations for scripted events—one path would have spawned a Ganado that Ashley would need to sneak past. Even though there are no cutscenes or enemies in the restored segment, autosaves can be triggered, and the code labels and descriptions offer hints about what those cutscenes might have entailed, according to PC Gamer.
Why the sequence was removed remains unclear. Thekempy suggests Capcom may have been wary of kicking off the horror with a slow, non-combat opening that sits at odds with the game’s action-heavy tempo. The full rationale is not confirmed, and the cut remains an artifact of the remake’s development cycle.
In related news, Capcom has announced Resident Evil Requiem will be released next year on 27 February across PS5, Xbox Series X/S, Switch 2 and Steam, featuring two protagonists that developers describe as representing two distinct styles of gameplay, akin to "jumping into a cold bath after a hot sauna." The publisher also confirms that Resident Evil 7 and Village are coming to Nintendo Switch 2 as part of its broader platform strategy.
