When Capcom rebooted Resident Evil 2 about 70% through development, the project known as Resident Evil 1.5 was scrapped due to its overly realistic and sterile feel. Writer Noboru Sugimura joined mid-development and advised a rewrite, pushing the game back toward the eerie, puzzle-filled atmosphere of the first Resident Evil.
Sugimura felt the police station was too modern and lacking the ominous charm of the Spencer Mansion. To address concerns about unrealistic puzzles, he created a deviant police chief, Brian Irons, who was originally a normal character. Sugimura joked, 'We'll just have to make the police chief a weirdo!' leading to Irons' hidden room and bribe-taking from Umbrella.
Director Hideki Kamiya was initially against the change but soon embraced the staff's creative additions, like torches for rituals. Sugimura argued that consistency makes even absurd elements seem real. This approach cemented puzzles like inserting gems into statues as core to survival horror, a tradition that continues in modern titles like Resident Evil Requiem.