To be honest I never got the complaints about escorting Ashley. You can often tell her to hide and one of the most thrilling section of the game involves her. The part when you're swarmed by enemies running at you but you also have to snipe the monks trying to abduct her as she turns the cranks is so intense and satisfying when you pull it off.

I don't really know what's confirmed to be in to be honest (trying to avoid reading about it). I hope the garden maze is still there though. And getting eaten by Del Lago if you shoot into the lake before fighting him.

I hope they tone down that god forsaken rain effects, I could barely even watch the gameplay when it was raining.

Capcom said that you can no longer tell Ashley to hide in dumpsters. So I wonder if she gets some defensive mechanics to make up for that.

I remember you didn't get access to the garden maze if you played on Easy mode in the original RE4. So some people missed it completely, and the clock tower, etc.
The insta death in the lake is a good one. I hope they put that in as well.
I've seen streamers being told by chat to shoot into the water during their first playthrough, and it's always great.

Bring back Mike and have him show Leon that great bar he knows.

Fudge the haters! Ashley is great in RE4! Her mechanics are simple yet effective and if she gets hurt or kidnapped, it's the player's fault!

Considering how badly escort mechanics have gone for other games, Ashley does NOT deserve the hate she gets. She deserves praise!

BEST escort character in video games! Can't think of a better one!

Rant over.

That said, hoping for the same in the remake.

I'm hoping it keeps the same artistic vision, and isn't all dark time areas. I like some horror that occurs in the day time.

Is mercenaries mode confirmed or not? If not, then definitely this!

I hope they remove Ashley saying "Leoooon, heeeeelp"

Crows that carry grenades.

I was going to say I hope the Red 9 makes it back, since that's my favorite gun in the series. (A handgun with the power of a shotgun when fully upgraded is crazy)
But even if that wasn't Louise's weapon of choice I feel like they would bring back all the main weapons regardless.
And now I just saw it in one of the latest videos.

I think mechanically I had no issues with escoring Ashley, and even liked it at times.
My only issue was with her constantly screaming "Leeoooon! Heeeeeelp! a few too many times in a short span of time.

It seems the game starts off at night this time around, so that is something I'm wondering about as well now.

Capcom said something to the effect of "everything from the original game will return" which is obviously hyperbole because not literally everything will. But I think they meant major aspects such as areas, and Mercenaries would probably count, so I'd expect to see that in there.

Don't think i saw that in the original game. But I did throw grenades at a few.