The future of Resident Evil (post 5)

[REmaster]

It seems less and less likely that'll happen, though. RE5 got universally abused on account of not being one thing nor another, and trying to do everything failed badly. The idea that they also advertised it as, 'Fear you can't forget' then forget the fear didn't go unnoticed this time.

If you check out the stuff for Darkside Chronicles at least some of Capcom seemed to have twigged fighting for the action market is a loosing battle and they're trying to bring horror back in DSC. While a rail shooter isn't ideal, hopefully the ideas will flow over to the next game. Maybe get something in the vein of 3.5.

Sounds good to me, WTF were they thinking when they ditched 3.5? Especially the last version of 3.5 we never got to see when there was apparently zombies I suppose they wanted to prove that they could be scary without zombies, even though everyone outside the RE fan base still refers to ganado's/majini's as "zombies" lol. Well, now that they (unsuccessfully in my opinion) proved their point, they need to get their asses back in gear and spit out some grade A evil.

[Archelon]

I can't help but think that everyone who praises RE3.5 as being superior to RE4 would be the same ones complaining that it was too "supernatural" or too much like Silent Hill or Eternal Darkness if we had actually gotten that version.

[Stars1356]

I can't help but think that everyone who praises RE3.5 as being superior to RE4 would be the same ones complaining that it was too "supernatural" or too much like Silent Hill or Eternal Darkness if we had actually gotten that version.

Thats what I thought of RE 3.5. Yes it had the horror but whos knows where they were going with the story. I think it had to do something with Leon being infected and having hallucinations.

Re 4 came too earlier and would been a great reboot after the cleared up the Umbrella storyline but they jumped the gun.

[Darkmoon]

Goodness, no. There was as logical an explanation as you're gonna get in an RE game (a virus makes Leon see shit that isn't there, and because of the way it worked if they hurt him his mind translated that to actual pain, possibly even killing him) and I love the look and style. It looks scary. Even the trailers make me tingly.

Plus, as I've mentioned elsewhere, it gives options for character development in the game, rather than outside it (Leon didn't grow in RE4, he grew before and after it) by having him doubt what he sees, what's real. He could even kill someone, thinking they're a monster when they're trying to help, and have to deal with the consequences. Of course, that would be if Capcom was big on character development...

[REmaster]

I can't help but think that everyone who praises RE3.5 as being superior to RE4 would be the same ones complaining that it was too "supernatural" or too much like Silent Hill or Eternal Darkness if we had actually gotten that version.

I would'nt really mind the "supernatural" vibe of 3.5, since it still seemed scary as hell and had the old camera angles. However, the version of 3.5 that I praise is the one with zombies. Of course, we never got to see that take, but with zombies...it had to be awesome.

[Archelon]

Goodness, no. There was as logical an explanation as you're gonna get in an RE game (a virus makes Leon see shit that isn't there, and because of the way it worked if they hurt him his mind translated that to actual pain, possibly even killing him)

I think you're forgetting the parts where his arm mutates into a mass of tentacles and light turns the hallucinations into corporeal beings that can be killed by physical bullets. Or the fact that Leon could slow down time ala Max Payne's bullet time mechanic, unless we're supposed to believe that he was suddenly able to move so fast as a result of the virus that everything else around him seemingly slowed down to a crawl.

He was a lot of things in RE4, but Wesker 2.0 was not one of them.

Plus, as I've mentioned elsewhere, it gives options for character development in the game, rather than outside it (Leon didn't grow in RE4, he grew before and after it) by having him doubt what he sees, what's real. He could even kill someone, thinking they're a monster when they're trying to help, and have to deal with the consequences. Of course, that would be if Capcom was big on character development...

I can't see any of this happening. As you said, character development isn't exactly Capcom's strong suit. I highly doubt we'd get any situations where Leon was unsure of what was real and what wasn't when, as I already pointed out, what wasn't real could be made real simply by throwing a flashbang grenade or a strike of lightning illuminating the area.

[Drake]

I hope that if they do reboot the series, that it gains a solid, well written story.
One of the best game series I've ever played was The Legacy of Kain series, it has one of the best stories ever written.

You can't just pic up one game and learn everything that has happened, you have to buy the other games to understand its labyrinthine, and intriguing story.

I could care less about gameplay (Doesn't mean it isn't good, its like a Gothic LoZ)
because a captivating story, makes a awesome game when made to co-exist with the gameplay.

~Drake

[Darkmoon]

I think you're forgetting the parts where his arm mutates into a mass of tentacles and light turns the hallucinations into corporeal beings that can be killed by physical bullets. Or the fact that Leon could slow down time ala Max Payne's bullet time mechanic, unless we're supposed to believe that he was suddenly able to move so fast as a result of the virus that everything else around him seemingly slowed down to a crawl.

He was a lot of things in RE4, but Wesker 2.0 was not one of them.

The mind's a funny thing. It's even possible it can kill you. My theory has always been that Leon's mind believes he's being hurt and so his health goes down, representing the injuries he believes he's taking, and when it reaches zero a combination of the virus and his over stressed system kills him.

It's similar for the hallucinations. If Leon believes it'll take five or six handgun rounds to take down a zombie then that's what'll happen. If he believes that a flashbang will reveal what's real and what's not it might work. As for his arm...well, it could be real. Or it could just be part of the hallucination. That's part of why the idea intruiges me so much. It would be difficult to tell which is which.

I can't see any of this happening. As you said, character development isn't exactly Capcom's strong suit. I highly doubt we'd get any situations where Leon was unsure of what was real and what wasn't when, as I already pointed out, what wasn't real could be made real simply by throwing a flashbang grenade or a strike of lightning illuminating the area.

No, they don't like there characters showing a flaw unless they're evil, then they're cartoon cutout evil. RE5 changed that a little, but it was still Chris Redfield, All American Hero whose grown tired of the fight and Albert Wesker, World Dominating Madman who believes he's doing humanity a favour. Only a little addition to the characters, but it's better than we've had before...

I admit, it's something I would do. I feel character growth, especially character growth the player can influence, is an important part of a video game and helps draw a person in, drawing them into the world and the story. The more immersive the game the better it is, as a rule. I think something like this would have helped Leon's character a lot, showing him suffering a major setback and still doing the mission. It's a lot more hardass than RE4, where his biggest setbacks were Ashley being abducted again and not having the right key at the right time.

[Archelon]

I think something else that needs to be taken into consideration when it comes to character development, though, is that the events of every Resident Evil game occur within the span of only a handful of hours, maybe a day at most. I'm not saying there shouldn't be character development, but realistically, it would be kind of difficult to show any real development when, by in-game time (I mean how much time actually passes during the events of the game, not how much time it takes the player to beat the game), it's all over within a day's time at most.

[Stars1356]

Movies usually take place most times in a matter of hours and are still able to show character development. I know that videos games are a lot different than movies and at the end of the day, it all comes down to making the most money. As messed up as RE story is, fans still buy the game and still come back for more.

[Darkmoon]

I think something else that needs to be taken into consideration when it comes to character development, though, is that the events of every Resident Evil game occur within the span of only a handful of hours, maybe a day at most. I'm not saying there shouldn't be character development, but realistically, it would be kind of difficult to show any real development when, by in-game time (I mean how much time actually passes during the events of the game, not how much time it takes the player to beat the game), it's all over within a day's time at most.

I'm not saying they should be completely new people, but they should grow in someway. It's a hugely traumatiuc event, after all. Even in the earlier games they had at least a little growth. Leon went from a rookie cop to someone determined to take out Umbrella...of course, he never went near Umbrella ever again but at least he used his contacts (Ark) to do stuff.

Given how dramatic the games events are there should be some impact on a character, even by the ending. One of my big gripes with the series to date is that they never really show any impact to people seeing there friends slaughtered, re-animated and then having to kill them again. Even your special forces super hero is going to be affected by situations so far out of the norm.

[Archelon]

Movies usually take place most times in a matter of hours and are still able to show character development.

The events of most movies don't take place within the 2 hour running time. Days, months, even years are understood to have passed. But with a game, particularly one like Resident Evil, you may take 30 hours to complete the game, but the actual events in the game only span a few.

I'm not saying they should be completely new people, but they should grow in someway. It's a hugely traumatiuc event, after all. Even in the earlier games they had at least a little growth. Leon went from a rookie cop to someone determined to take out Umbrella...of course, he never went near Umbrella ever again but at least he used his contacts (Ark) to do stuff.

Given how dramatic the games events are there should be some impact on a character, even by the ending. One of my big gripes with the series to date is that they never really show any impact to people seeing there friends slaughtered, re-animated and then having to kill them again. Even your special forces super hero is going to be affected by situations so far out of the norm.

I think the problem though is that we never see the characters outside of the events of the game. As you said, they grow between the games, not actually in them. So even if there has been some sort of growth there as a result of the events they experienced in said game, we're likely never going to see it. By the time we see the character/s again, several months, even years, have already passed. So regardless of how traumatic the events were in the previous game, they've had plenty of time to move on and get over it.

Now, you could certainly argue that a person would never actually get over something like that, but again, we only ever see the characters during the games, and during the games, they're always smack dab in the middle of another outbreak, so they're not really given a whole lot of time to reflect on their past or show how it has affected them, if at all. They have, if you will, more pressing matters to attend to.

And even when you get some apparent growth, it's almost always incredibly forced, or the character is just moving from one cliche to another. The only character in the entire series that has had what I would consider any genuine development, and it pains me to say this, is Steve. Chris, on the other hand, as I already suggested, just moves from one cliche to another, and it doesn't even really make a whole lot of sense. We're supposed to believe that he's become so jaded because of Jill's "death," but then we find out that he doesn't even believe Jill is dead. Sure, one could say he was just in denial, but if he truly believed that Jill was alive (as we're led to believe in RE5), then there's no reason for her "death" to have affected him so drastically that it changes his entire worldview.

Then there's what was quite possibly one of the most ridiculous exchanges in the entirety of RE5:

"Millions will die!"
"Well, yeah, but..."

We're supposed to accept that he's become so jaded and cynical that he doesn't even care if the rest of the world is destroyed, just so long as Jill is okay? Really? Did he completely forget about Claire? What about Barry? Rebecca? It's incredibly hard to swallow. Did he even stop to think about the possibility that, if Wesker does infect the entire world, then everything he's done up to this point to resuce Jill would be all for not? It's just handled really poorly.

Anyway, I guess I've just gotten to the point where I don't see any point in wishing for something (in this case, genuine character development and growth) that will, in all likelihood, never happen, and even if it does, it won't be handled well.

[Vogue_Dirge]

I don't know if this has been mentioned but:

Perhaps Christine Henri will be the next antagonist? After all she was on the list of Head Researchers who survived, and she was the one who sent HUNK to retrieve the G-Virus from Raccoon. She certainly has potential to be a solid villain, with her knowledge of the viruses and her connections with Umbrella.

[Darkmoon]

So far she's just a name on a single document, but she certainly could have survived and moved on to Tricell or another company. And Silent Hill based four's storyline around a character mentioned a couple of times in documents.

[Vector]

Fear Jenny K.


Fear her.