Keiji Inafune on Dead Rising and DMC's Future

[Darkmoon]

This isn't intended to start an argument but there is a big difference between preference and quality. Like it or dislike it, RE5 wasn't lacking any quality and is the best looking and playing (I mean engine and abilities as gameplay is a preference) title in the series. It was a monster success so it makes sense to push more out just like Activision shelling out CoD every year. As for Dead Rising, it won't become the most successful anytime soon and DMC needs to focus on improving the mechanics like Bayonetta - not Westernizing.

I would argue that the game did suffer from gameplay issues, although that is of course my personal issue. But the AI of the enemies was poor ( most of it was a copy and paste from RE4 in terms of how the Majini acted, and they had plenty of issues there) leading to a lot of the fights lacking impact, as they were simply too easy. I know on the few attempts I've played when solo I never got killed...Sheva did, doing something silly. Which is the other issue - you need to baby sit an AI that's barely up to the job it's supposed to do or get a friend to play.

It's also, however, true that the game hasn't been reviewed as well as RE4 was. The loss of the final horror elements simply didn't go down well.

To each there own though. I, personally, don't enjoy the newer games because I play RE for horror, and the lack in the last few years doesn't sit at all well with me.

[Carnivol]

My main issue with the Majini (and Las Plagas for that matter) is their non-aggressive AI.

You quickly realize that they pose no big threat in numbers, as they'll always stop a couple of meters away from you, before they then (one at a time) will try to attack you (multiple ones attacking at the same time rarely happens, and when they do... only one of them can hit you anyway.)

As for AI partners. The partner AI in Lost Planet 2 can be quite neat at times (They really do their job on Episode 3-3, not to mention how they're almost necessary during certain segments in later episodes). I didn't really have much of a problem with the AI in RE5, but then again, I didn't have a problem with the one in Outbreak either... but it's because I was doing what Darkmoon refers to as Babysitting them
(I understand that not everyone likes that, but if you've played RPGs with parties and realtime battle systems... you're pretty much already used to often having to do this with your team mates.)

[Dracarys]

My main issue with the Majini (and Las Plagas for that matter) is their non-aggressive AI.

You quickly realize that they pose no big threat in numbers, as they'll always stop a couple of meters away from you, before they then (one at a time) will try to attack you (multiple ones attacking at the same time rarely happens, and when they do... only one of them can hit you anyway.)

I read this so much and I'm always scratching my head, do you play on easy only or what? When I'm just exploring stuff and messing about finding glitches I see that majini behaviour all the time, I crank up the difficulty though and it doesn't happen anywhere near as much (its more common in the early game but even then drastically dropped in occurance).

I get a swarm running at me and from afar they keep running making swipes at me without stopping, if you don't shoot in the run they will hit you, they do still stop but mostly due to letting another take the running swipe.

A few people have noted that since the 2.0 update majini are more agressive also.

[Det. Beauregard]

Ugh, that's a shame. I'm not a fan of Dead Rising's gameplay; I prefer exploration, precision weapons, investigation, etc., not "hundreds of zombies in an open room that you must cheesily mow through with chainsaws and other over-the-top melee weapons." I've never understood why people think it's fun to constantly use melee weapons. It gets old after about 30 seconds to me.

The Resident Evil games are mostly very multi-faceted; Dead Rising is not. I highly doubt these games will top RE's sales.

[Branden_Lucero]

I read this so much and I'm always scratching my head, do you play on easy only or what? When I'm just exploring stuff and messing about finding glitches I see that majini behaviour all the time, I crank up the difficulty though and it doesn't happen anywhere near as much (its more common in the early game but even then drastically dropped in occurance).

I get a swarm running at me and from afar they keep running making swipes at me without stopping, if you don't shoot in the run they will hit you, they do still stop but mostly due to letting another take the running swipe.

A few people have noted that since the 2.0 update majini are more agressive also.

that's probably one of the best differences between a zombie and a majini (or las plagas). you can't determine exactly when they will hit you, and when they do its too late. they run at you, and toy with your head a little, cause in your mind you might be saying "come on and do something already", when a zombie doesn't have that kind of stopping power. plus, i think this was good because a lot of zombie films now-a-days involve running zombies (dawn of the dead, zombieland, 28 days later), in which they all do the same thing - come at you aggressively, all dying the same way - with a headshot from a distance. while the majini will get so close to your face, because they're more patient to attack than you.

[Carnivol]

I read this so much and I'm always scratching my head, do you play on easy only or what? When I'm just exploring stuff and messing about finding glitches I see that majini behaviour all the time, I crank up the difficulty though and it doesn't happen anywhere near as much (its more common in the early game but even then drastically dropped in occurance).

I get a swarm running at me and from afar they keep running making swipes at me without stopping, if you don't shoot in the run they will hit you, they do still stop but mostly due to letting another take the running swipe.

A few people have noted that since the 2.0 update majini are more agressive also.

Played through RE4 and RE5 from top to bottom, alone and co-op on all difficulties, DLC included, several times, and they pretty much always display this behavior of more or less entering "Let's idle/walk" when they get within a couple of meters of the player. This regardless of how many they are and the actions of each other. "Sometimes" someone chains directly into an attack when they get within "the zone", but even in those cases you can usually see the behavior transition they go through as they get close.

[Darkmoon]

I'm with Carn. I always end up just standng somewhere they can't get behind me, popping them in the head as they get closer. Which is why I dislike them. Let's face it...they're willing to die for there cause. If they bum rush you you could maybe kill a handful before the rest of mob is ripping off your face. There is no reason for that pause beyond, 'Well, shit, they'll just kill us if we have this many. Rather than balance things out we'll just make them randomly stop the ideal distance for head shots away. Yeah!'

If they do bring back Ganados/Majini, I wouldn't mind...but I'd want ones that can actually do smart shit. Like hide inside buildings and ambush you. See a group of there friends attacking at point A and swing around behind you to come from Point B. If you wanna give me smart monsters, Capcom, I'm cool with that. But don't give me monster that are really dumber than the zombies. At least they know not to stop when a quick lunge could end you.

[Archelon]

Believe it or not, the Majini are actually a step down from the Ganado in several respects, despite claims from the development team (mostly Takeuchi and Kawata, anyway) that they increased the enemies' intelligence and aggressiveness for Resident Evil 5. The first time I played through Resident Evil 5, I thought the Majini were more aggressive than the Ganado, and even on subsequent playthroughs, I thought this was the case. But then I played through Resident Evil 4 again and picked up on some noticeable differences between the two enemies.

The Majini are, for the most part, faster than Ganado, but they're also more prone to literally running around in circles right in front of you. That may just be an AI or animation hiccup, though it happens an awful lot. They also have a tendency to just walk around in circles in front of you before actually attacking. In addition, the point at which the Majini stop running towards you and start slowly walking is at a greater distance from you than it is for the Ganado.

In fact, if a Majini runs all the way up to you, they'll actually stop and start backing up slowly before attacking you. Ganado, for the most part, will still stop in front of you, but they won't do that weird backwards walk. Ganado will obviously walk slowly towards you more often than doing a full sprint, but they're almost always approaching you and not moving away. Ganado will also utilize more means with which to attack you.

Ganado throw their weapons at you much more often than the Majini. Also, if a Ganado is on a higher level than you, they will throw their weapon at you from that level. The same goes for if you're on the higher level and they're below you. They'll throw their weapon up at you. Perhaps other people have had different experiences with this, but I have never once seen a Majini throw their weapon at me from a different elevation. They will instead climb down (or up) so that we're on the same level before attacking me.

For their part, Majini have more devastating attacks than the Ganado, such as the one where they squat down and charge at you with their shovel/pitchfork/spear. This may be why they appear, at least on the surface, to be more aggressive than the Ganado, because the moves generally do much more damage than anything the Ganado threw at you, but the Majini rarely use these moves to great effect.

Some other changes I noticed, and several of them may be due to the co-op nature of the game and the expanded melee system, include much longer period of time when a Majini is stunned after being show in a limb or the head, particularly when they are lying on the ground. When you stun a Ganado, you have maybe a few seconds to run up to them and perform a melee attack before they'll recover. Majini, on the other hand, take much longer to recover, presumably so you can more easily pull off the co-op combo melee attacks. Also, they take much longer to get up than the Ganado do. I'm assuming this is because you can now perform melee attacks on downed enemies.

Also, Majini almost never duck out of the way of a shot or cover their faces with their hands like the Ganado did. They'll still do it from time to time, but you have to have your laser sight trained on their head for much, much longer than you did the Ganado to elicit the same reaction.

Why many of these changes were implemented is anyone's guess. I really can't say one way or the other if it had anything to do with the decision to make the game entirely co-op, but you do have to wonder why the Majini seemed far more intelligent and dangerous (not to mention they appeared in much greater numbers, too) in the E3 2007 trailer than they are in the final game, and that was back when the game was still single player. So who knows.

Personally, I'd be fine if they brought back the Ganado/Majini type enemies for Resident Evil 6, but they have to be at least as intelligent, aggressive, and numerous as they were in that initial trailer for RE5. I think adding the ability to move and shoot at the same time would also go a long way to forcing the development team to completely overhaul the AI and behavioral patterns or routines of the enemies. Not allowing you to move and shoot at the same time in RE5 basically gave the developers an excuse to not do anything about the enemies' AI and attacks.

[Alkar]

I'm pretty sure this is only what he would like to do and not Capcom...
There are like 3 RE games in development right now and even if DR2 sells well I don't see it selling 40+ million copies.
That's like Square-Enix coming out with a new RPG IP that does fairly well on its first installment and someone saying: "we want to push XXX and make it our leading IP replacing Final Fantasy/Dragon Quest".
Unless they completely stop making RE games, it's not gonna happen. Not to mention the two series are completely different.