Resident Evil 2 never reached Sega Saturn during the console’s commercial life. Nearly three decades later, developer Grimfel is building his own version of Capcom’s 1998 survival horror sequel for Sega’s 32-bit machine. And it’s already playable. Grimfel’s unofficial Resident Evil 2 Saturn project now has a public prototype covering a sizeable part of Leon S. Kennedy’s campaign. It runs natively on Saturn hardware rather than emulating the PlayStation release, using assets and game data from Capcom’s original version alongside systems rewritten for Sega’s console. We covered the project in our previous article on 9 September, when the port had already moved far beyond menus and isolated test rooms. The latest build pushes things further, with more enemy behaviour, event scripting, memory work and playable content operating together. This still isn’t a finished port. Frame rate varies, graphical issues remain and some sections can stop progress. Yet there’s enough here to show Resident Evil 2 functioning as a Saturn game rather than a set of disconnected experiments.
Resident Evil 2 rebuilt for Sega Saturn
Grimfel isn’t taking the PlayStation executable and forcing it onto Sega hardware. His project uses original assets and room data, with new Saturn-side code handling graphics, controls, audio, events and memory.
In practice, the prototype already behaves much like Resident Evil 2. Leon can move through rooms, use weapons, interact with objects and manage items. Typewriters work, complete with saving to the Saturn’s internal backup memory. Cinematic sequences run too.
Enemy behaviour has received more work in the latest build. Lickers can patrol walls, drop from ceilings and appear during scripted encounters. Their conditional appearances across several rooms are being tied into the game’s existing event structure. Texture handling has changed too, with memory savings aimed at keeping more room data and visual material within the Saturn’s limits.
Performance still needs work
Resident Evil 2 isn’t running at a locked 30fps across the current build. Some rooms perform better than others, and visual errors can appear depending on the sequence. Crashes and progression blockers remain possible. Some effects are missing. Certain enemy routines need more work, and sections of the original scripting haven’t been completed.
Testing has focused mainly on the SSF Sega Saturn emulator so far. Original hardware, optical drive emulators and PAL systems still need broader testing. What Grimfel has now is a functioning Saturn build with exploration, combat, enemies, saving, video playback and original game events running inside one connected project. The next stage centres on joining more of those pieces across Leon’s campaign and improving speed along the way.
Resident Evil 2 and Sega Saturn
Capcom released the first Resident Evil for Sega Saturn in 1997, around a year after its PlayStation debut. Resident Evil 2 followed on PlayStation in January 1998 and moved the action from the Spencer Mansion into Raccoon City, where rookie police officer Leon S. Kennedy and student Claire Redfield arrive during a viral outbreak.
The sequel was far larger than its predecessor. It introduced bigger locations, more enemies, more cinematic sequences and two linked campaigns. Leon and Claire had separate routes, supporting characters and story events, with Scenario A and Scenario B changing parts of a second playthrough.
Resident Evil 2 became one of Capcom’s major PlayStation releases. Versions later appeared on Windows, Nintendo 64, Dreamcast and GameCube. Saturn owners never received one. Capcom worked on a Sega Saturn edition before cancelling development in 1998. The console’s multi-processor setup made a direct conversion difficult, and Sega was preparing Dreamcast during the same period.
Grimfel is taking a different route
Grimfel’s project isn’t a recreation of Capcom’s cancelled Saturn build. It’s a new implementation using original Resident Evil 2 content as a base. PlayStation and Saturn approached 3D graphics in very different ways. Moving a game between them meant rewriting key systems around memory, rendering, processors and platform tools. Existing assets reduce some of the workload, but they don’t remove the need for Saturn-specific code.
Our earlier article focused on how this approach had already moved the project beyond a basic technical demo. The new prototype gives a clearer picture of where development sits now. There are missing effects, inconsistent performance and unfinished sections.
There’s a playable Resident Evil 2 running through native Saturn code, complete with combat, enemies, saves, video sequences and original event data. Capcom’s Saturn version disappeared from release schedules in 1998. Grimfel’s version is taking shape in 2026.
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