Wesker's Report - Canonicity Debate (or the Official "WTF Hiroki Kato!?" Thread)

[Fruit Salad]

i enjoy drama as much as the next guy, but this is just lame.

[Canas Renvall]

^ Does this count as double-posting?

But like Spencer said, yeah man! Fucking News Bot always fucking up our lives with unnecessary drama. Ban the shit out of him. [/sarcasm]

[Fruit Salad]

ban news bot

[News Bot]

I get that.

It just seems like you go to some pretty extreme lengths sometimes.

No offense intended.

People over-estimate how much anybody actually cares about this stuff. The way I talk about it over the Internet is not an accurate representation of how I (or anyone else for that matter) feel about it.

[Archelon]

I get that.

It just seems like you go to some pretty extreme lengths sometimes.

No offense intended.

[News Bot]

Can't we just agree to disagree?

I know this is the Internet and all, but come on. Why is it so important that we know for certain what is or is not canon? I love Resident Evil as much as the next person, sure, but at the end of the day, it's just a video game series.

I used to get this worked up about canon all the time, but at some point, I just came to the realization that the canon is constantly changing, often on a seeming whim. What was once canon is later changed by information revealed in a newer title. It's always been that way, and there are no signs it's going to stop.

One need only look at that chart Prime Blue drew up about the various canons/timelines that have existed over the course of the series to see that this isn't a new phenomenon that started with Resident Evil 4 or 5.

I find it bizarrely fun, personally. Plus I do run a website that focuses on the canon, so it's pretty necessary.

[Archelon]

Can't we just agree to disagree?

I know this is the Internet and all, but come on. Why is it so important that we know for certain what is or is not canon? I love Resident Evil as much as the next person, sure, but at the end of the day, it's just a video game series.

I used to get this worked up about canon all the time, but at some point, I just came to the realization that the canon is constantly changing, often on a seeming whim. What was once canon is later changed by information revealed in a newer title. It's always been that way, and there are no signs it's going to stop.

One need only look at that chart Prime Blue drew up about the various canons/timelines that have existed over the course of the series to see that this isn't a new phenomenon that started with Resident Evil 4 or 5.

[News Bot]

Here, here, here. Don't feel like paraphrasing those posts.


Wesker's Report II, Wesker's Extra Report, BSAA Remote Desktop and Adam's Blog all come directly from Capcom, and tied in with new games before or with (Wesker's Extra Report only) their releases.

I can quote my previous post too and it will still be just as relevant. You ignore CAPCOM's involvement and treat the guide books (and the art books and so on) as though the writing process is the same as the games where one writer writes the entire thing (your entry for Incubate on Writers of BIOHAZARD excludes the involvement of the biohazard 4 development team). It isn't like that, it's stated outright in the credits of almost every single book I've looked at that the entire editing process is supervised by the development teams of the games involved in the publication. Your insistence that Studio BentStuff or another company's involvement voids their credibility is pretty much nonsense. Developers do not create these books themselves because it's not their specialty in the slightest. They contract the likes of Studio BentStuff and Karit. to handle them (because producing these books is their line of work, not CAPCOM's), while the development team(s) maintain a close supervisory role and provide the necessary material (hence the almost word-by-word reproduction of guide book information later on in the games). The credits are pretty clear.

Completely disregarding CAPCOM's actual credits in the books, though. They edited and supervised Archives and continue to regurgitate that book (and the guide books by extension) like no tomorrow. Catalysis is where the first proper BIOHAZARD timeline came from too as far as I remember. Incubate (editing was supervised by the biohazard 4 development team) has a minor reference in BIOHAZARD 5. Wesker's Extra Report and Prelude to the Fall are linked and lead straight into Umbrella Chronicles. Incubate provides the backstory of biohazard 4. Ryan's Desktop and Adam's Blog lead into and provide the backstory for BIOHAZARD 5. Angela's Diary provides the backstory for DEGENERATION, etc. Most of them are handled externally because developers rarely (if ever) handle that sort of material.

Here, here, here. Don't feel like paraphrasing those posts.

You can't honestly say that just because the guide books are put together by an external team that it completely destroys their credibility. CAPCOM is still heavily involved (simply looking at the credits confirms this). By your logic, Wesker's Report II, Catalysis, Archives, Incubate, Wesker's Extra Report, Prelude to the Fall, Angela's Diary, Ryan's Desktop, Adam's Blog and others I'm missing are all totally irrelevant. There's no way around that and you can't give the "info shows up in other material" argument because the same goes for the guide books as well. I don't think there's any developer that publishes most of this stuff themselves.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of...ompanion_books - Same deal with CAPCOM.

Wesker's Report II, Wesker's Extra Report, BSAA Remote Desktop and Adam's Blog all come directly from Capcom, and tied in with new games before or with (Wesker's Extra Report only) their releases.

[News Bot]

Been there, done that. I think I've posted this several times already, so I see no need to explain it to you again.


No matter how often you repeat that, it doesn't make it true.

Completely disregarding CAPCOM's actual credits in the books, though. They edited and supervised Archives and continue to regurgitate that book (and the guide books by extension) like no tomorrow. Catalysis is where the first proper BIOHAZARD timeline came from too as far as I remember. Incubate (editing was supervised by the biohazard 4 development team) has a minor reference in BIOHAZARD 5. Wesker's Extra Report and Prelude to the Fall are linked and lead straight into Umbrella Chronicles. Incubate provides the backstory of biohazard 4. Ryan's Desktop and Adam's Blog lead into and provide the backstory for BIOHAZARD 5. Angela's Diary provides the backstory for DEGENERATION, etc. Most of them are handled externally because developers rarely (if ever) handle that sort of material.

You can't honestly say that just because the guide books are put together by an external team that it completely destroys their credibility. CAPCOM is still heavily involved (simply looking at the credits confirms this). By your logic, Wesker's Report II, Catalysis, Archives, Incubate, Wesker's Extra Report, Prelude to the Fall, Angela's Diary, Ryan's Desktop, Adam's Blog and others I'm missing are all totally irrelevant. There's no way around that and you can't give the "info shows up in other material" argument because the same goes for the guide books as well. I don't think there's any developer that publishes most of this stuff themselves.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of...ompanion_books - Same deal with CAPCOM.

Have you done that? It would be nice if you added the credits for each book here.

There's really no need to consider Archives, Catalysis and Incubate (or Ryan's Desktop, Adam's Blog, Angela's Diary, Wesker's Report II or Wesker's Extra Report since they don't even have credits) canon in that regard, since you think anything with the involvement of Karitajian is fan-fiction without even looking at them. Despite them only being responsible for editing, production and the likes of image capture tasks. The material itself is provided and supervised by the R&D staff (Archives in particular is supervised by the staff of each game according to the credits) and Hiroyuki Kobayashi is the usually the producer, CAPCOM just don't produce them internally, hardly any developers do (a prime example would be the Ultimania books released by Square-Enix for Final Fantasy). In Archives' case again, the information contained within is taken from other sources such as the guide books (Archives II has information from Ryan's Desktop and Angela's Diary) and that information is regurgitated in the games (a lot of the Chronicles files are the same information found in the books). I haven't seen you actually investigate them yet, so why you dismiss them is weird. A lot of Kenichi Iwao's scenario writing showed up in a BH Director's Cut guide book, including the first ever mention of the Clay/Progenitor Virus and the story background to BH 1.5. That's some pretty heavy stuff for something you think is glorified fan-fiction.

Been there, done that. I think I've posted this several times already, so I see no need to explain it to you again.

The material itself is provided and supervised by the R&D staff

No matter how often you repeat that, it doesn't make it true.

[News Bot]

I'll tell you what I've always told you. There's no need to learn glorified fanfics by heart. All you really have to do is examine the writers' credits at the end of the books – case closed until confirmed reliable by Capcom.

Have you done that? It would be nice if you added the credits for each book here.

There's really no need to consider Archives, Catalysis and Incubate (or Ryan's Desktop, Adam's Blog, Angela's Diary, Wesker's Report II or Wesker's Extra Report since they don't even have credits) canon in that regard, since you think anything with the involvement of Karitajian is fan-fiction without even looking at them. Despite them only being responsible for editing, production and the likes of image capture tasks. The material itself is provided and supervised by the R&D staff (Archives in particular is supervised by the staff of each game according to the credits) and Hiroyuki Kobayashi is usually the producer, CAPCOM just don't produce them internally, hardly any developers do (a prime example would be the Ultimania books released by Square-Enix for Final Fantasy). In Archives' case again, the information contained within is taken from other sources such as the guide books (Archives II has information from Ryan's Desktop and Angela's Diary) and that information is regurgitated in the games (a lot of the Chronicles files are the same information found in the books). I haven't seen you actually investigate them yet, so why you dismiss them is weird. A lot of Kenichi Iwao's scenario writing showed up in a BH Director's Cut guide book, including the first ever mention of the Clay/Progenitor Virus and the story background to BH 1.5. That's some pretty heavy stuff for something you think is glorified fan-fiction.

You say "unreliable unless confirmed" but I don't think you've ever even examined them (or any of the books in general) closely.

I'll tell you what I've always told you. There's no need to learn glorified fanfics by heart. All you really have to do is examine the writers' credits at the end of the books – case closed until confirmed reliable by Capcom.

[News Bot]

Everyone labels it non-canon because of a mistranslation from a French interview (the quote actually said that the game is completely integrated into the chronology – which could mean several things), but the actual comments are contradictory (1, 2, 3). Seems like they don't want to say flat-out if it's canon or not. Could be anything from Gaiden (non-canon), to the Chronicles series (partly or rewritten canon), to a completely original entry (fully canon) at this point. The most likely scenario, however, is that Capcom doesn't care at all and wants to make money (being a company and all, duh!).


Usual stuff, guide book, unreliable unless confirmed.

You say "unreliable unless confirmed" but I don't think you've ever even examined them (or any of the books in general) closely.

[Archelon]

Everyone labels it non-canon because of a mistranslation from a French interview (the quote actually said that the game is completely integrated into the chronology – which could mean several things), but the actual comments are contradictory (1, 2, 3). Seems like they don't want to say flat-out if it's canon or not. Could be anything from Gaiden (non-canon), to the Chronicles series (partly or rewritten canon), to a completely original entry (fully canon) at this point. The most likely scenario, however, is that Capcom doesn't care at all and wants to make money (being a company and all, duh!).

This is pretty much the reason why I just stopped caring about what's canon and what's not.