Ashley Graham is unfairly seen as one of the more controversial characters in Resident Evil lore due to some clumsily tuned AI during her escort missions in the original Resident Evil 4. That was all fixed in Resident Evil 4 Remake when she became a much more fleshed out, supportive character.
Admittedly, the 2023 remake also makes Ashley a lot less prone to being captured and restarting your mission, which is nice, but stronger writing and a convincing performance from voice actor Genevieve Buechner help endear her even further. Point is, Ashley Graham doesn’t deserve the hate, and she definitely didn’t deserve to have her prologue scene from Resident Evil 4 Remake cut during development, but that’s reportedly what happened. And now, you can play that prologue mission thanks to a newly released mod.
As spotted by RENews on Twitter, the Chapter 0 Restoration mod (via NexusMods) does precisely what it says on the box: “Restores the cut Chapter 0, a playable prologue as Ashley, seamlessly integrated into the New Game flow as a real chapter that runs before Chapter 1.”
According to modder Keff0, Ashley was originally going to be the first playable character in Resident Evil 4 Remake before transitioning to Leon in the infamous village scene, which as an aside is also a lot less punishing than it was in the original game.
“A Chapter 0 existed at some point during development, but it was cut before the game’s release: a short prologue played as Ashley, at night, ending in her capture,” reads the mod’s description.
The modder says the scene takes place on a path that’s not in the final release but was dug out of the game files with “most of its details and collision removed.” In it, Ashley stumbles upon some murderous cultists whose victim is the woman from the very first cutscene in the official game. Apparently, that cutscene goes back even further, showing a shocked Ashley turning and running, leading into the playable chapter, which ends with her capture.
Going full circle, the only downside to more Resident Evil 4 Remake is having to see Ashley tortured even more than what she’s already endured both in the game and in Resident Evil communities everywhere. I’m not even an Ashley stan and never thought I’d say this, but at this point I think we need an Ashley Graham spinoff, or at least her own DLC at some point in the future, but I think it’s safe to say that’s unlikely to happen in the current timeline. Justice for Ashley.