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Does the story / characters / location matter to you with Resident Evil games?

Valt7786

Member
They do to me, it's my favourite gaming franchise. An RE Game without the STARS or Leon and Claire just doesn't feel right. And While 7 was sure, a refreshing change to the series, it never truly felt like an RE game to me, I'm 100% convinced it was made as something else to help sell VR at the time, then they slapped the RE name on it and threw in a couple references last minute to help it sell. Then it sold well, so they had to make a sequel and we got the nonsense that was Village. Sure, a decent game in its own right but still not really, to me, a true RE title.
And as much as we all love RE 4, I'm still bitter that they just opened it with "After Raccoon City, Umbrella just folded lol bye". I really wanted a full on take down Umbrella in their last remaining labs in europe where everythings gone to shit in their desperation to cover it all up or something.
 
Typically, not that much.

Ironically, the best story and location was probably RE6. Talk about predicting the future a bit. They thought it would be a good idea to show the impact of a bioweapon used in China, complete with awesome Kowloon City inspired location. Then they basically speculated that bioweapons would start to be sold to terrorists and used in warzones in East Europe. The bioweapon part is fictional, but both other elements are actually pretty interesting.
 

T4keD0wN

Member
I liked RE8 Village the most purely because of the setting. I am tired of zombies as the market is oversaturated with contemporarily set games where you mow them down by the hundreds and they dont scare me anymore as a result, i just see them as cannon fodder. I dont like RE games that feature raccoon city or zombie looking creatures like RE2 and RE3 because i cant take zombies as a threat after decades of being conditioned to look at them as low level enemies that pose no threat by games, tv and movies
 
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SmokedMeat

Gamer™
I don’t follow the story, but I guess I’d be lying if I said the setting didn’t matter. It does, because give me a fun setting, and cool monsters, and I’m happy.

Given the silliness of the series I’m all for werewolves, and a DDD cup Vampiress. I want to have a good time.

I know this next part won’t make sense, but I’d prefer to not have the main character punching boulders or delivering German suplexes to enemies. Unless we’re going full super hero, I prefer the protagonist to be a regular person. Just a personal preference though.
 

Astral Dog

Member
Yes, its about the Atmosphere and design, not just about the silly lore or overused characters (although sometimes i like it as well, its part of the appeal).

Resident Evil 4 is a masterpiece despite not having much to do with the older titles

Resident Evil 7 is amazing as well despite starting its own arc and trying to fit in first person survival horror

Resident Evil is a long running series that had no clear end goal, so its creator simply wanted to move in a different direction and see what worked. Its also a series were Capcom meddles in to reach the biggest audience, so naturally not every game appeals to each fan, and not every narrative thread is followed

The fight with Umbrella basically ended on a fucking Volcano 🌋 but in the end they were not as important as first assumed by the fans. when it gets too actiony you lose the appeal of being on an isolated space with man made monsters and vulnerable, that's what made Resident Evil
 
Sounds like you just want to play a completely different franchise; there's plenty out there for you in that case, leave my jill sandwiches alone
Disgusted No Thank You GIF by Harlem
RETCON!
 

DaGwaphics

Member
Would love to see a spinoff that is a bit more "fear the walking dead" in style, at least what that show should have been (not the garbage that it actually was).

Go back to the very beginning. Make the primary protagonists a family, maybe one of them is an umbrella researcher at the time of the OG outbreak. Move through the events of the first few games, but from this new perspective. Of course with the third-person camera. RE has always been cheesy, but the original games had a solid framework to them, IMO.
 
I think for me it’s a combination of the mystery of the story and the location. Resident Evil 1 will always be my favourite of the series just because of the mystery and the decay of the mansion etc. I know there’s already been a remake of the first game but I’d love to have seen it re-remade in the vein of the other remakes. And just properly lean in to almost PT-esque levels of dark, barely lit and opulently decorated but dilapidated nooks and crannies of the mansion. I suppose we kinda got that with the castle in Village but I think the mystery of the setting of the first game appeals to me much more.
I agree. The remake of RE from 2002 doesn't suit the feeling of the more recent remakes. So remaking the remake to match the RE Engine would be ideal.
 

Nickolaidas

Banned
In terms of importance:

1) Bestiary
2) Location - and by location, I mean the 'residence' the 'evil' takes place and the atmosphere it provides. Don't give a shit about the country or continent
3) Story - I just want the characters to react in a more grounded, realistic manner, and don't treat this as a Michael Bay movie
4) Characters - not picky, I like them all.
 

Lasha

Member
I am most attached to the games connected to the Raccoon City incident. The epoch's apocalyptic ending creates a sense of urgency and adds stakes to any story connected to the event. I enjoy each title adding additional context to what is a pretty tragic ending.

Code Veronica worked because it acted as an epilogue for Claire since her search for Chris was unresolved. RE4 was an excellent reboot of the formula but the open-ended threat of Los illuminados lacked the coherency of racoons city's destruction. The games drifted further to the side of action and barely resembled the original source.

I've not been able to connect with the latest entries in the franchise. 7 does not feel like a resident evil game. It's horrifying, atmospheric, and fun yet it feels less like RE than the abysmal 6. I still have no interest in playing village.
 
The writing in RE8 is especially pitiful. I know people say that it hardly matters because it is a B grade horror series. But I disagree. It kind of should matter.

Chris lured Ethan and Mia to Europe to start a new slate, and gives them training in order to cope. Then he kills "Mia" and then lies and takes away their daughter, and hides info about Miranda taken Mia out of sight, and just basically refuses to answer to Ethan when confronted later on, until they meet again by the tank. It makes no sense. He could have explained all of this dumb stuff immediately, yet truthfully. Like this dude said on YouTube, they did it to basically keep you the player feeling invested in what was a very poor story.



They just messed up Chris big time. I hate that he is a stupid side character nowadays. He is really only showing up in new RE games now to sell them, because he has been the main [male] hero of the entire series. So that is their objective...

100%. Chris' team even calls him out on not telling Ethan sooner, and he doesn't even try to justify why he hid the truth.

CAPCOM could've easily taken like a day for writers to come up with some reason for why Ethan had to be kept in the dark. They didn't because they didn't care to or are inept.

Regardless, I love the entire Resident Evil series. There isn't anything else like it out there, and I stopped caring about the story a looooong time ago.
 

A.Romero

Member
Not a huge fan but story, characters and location are pretty important to me on every game. Other than that I'd feel I'm playing the same stuff over and over.

I also think RE needs to be rebooted and switched back to 3rd person. What I'd do would be put STARS as an international agency focused on dealing with supernatural threats all around the world, including biological weapons. Every game would be a self-contain story but at the same time there would be a connection between them. Maybe a demon pulling the strings or aliens influencing the world through those super natural threats.

This way there would be possibility of having a wide variety of locations, characters and stories but also connected among them.
 

GymWolf

Member
No, i care more about third person camera over first person camera and having actual zombies and mutated disgusting creatures instead of black blobs, werewolves and androids to fight.

Of course if i also have the storic characters it is better, especially when the new ones are charisma vacuums.
 
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I was never a fan of RE games until RE2R and 7. I played the 4th, the 5th but I always gave up on them. 6 was a pos that I jut could not stomach. I changed my tastes a bit since then so hopefully the the 4th remake will be enjoyable. The seconds level design is what carried it for me. Well made stuff. Played it twice, will play it again before the 4th remake. All RE games going forward should have the same level design as the second. Theyd be idiots not to.
 
I'll remain a fan, until I feel they'll truly do something really daft. But RE8 was pretty silly in terms of what I am alluding to. And I was on the verge of just calling it quits. But I guess once you become so used to something, dropping it for good is very hard to do, as you feel connected to it.

The mannequins though, felt like they belonged in Silent Hill, or maybe this similar kind of game...

 

ssringo

Member
They matter in that I don't want complete shit but if I'm being honest, Capcom doesn't really let me down. Not everything is a 10/10 banger and I don't plan to replay a lot them but there's only a couple games I actually did not enjoy.

That said, Ethan sucked as a new "character" in 7 and Village's story and lore were bad. Those 2 games were good overall but need to be filed away and relegated to small references in files for future games.
 

GeekyDad

Member
The "cheese" is perhaps the most endearing thing for me. When you put the cheese and the gameplay/horror setting together, it's a magical mix that makes for entertainment that you grow affectionate for. That's why I jumped ship when the series went into first-person. It looked to me like they left the cheese (the absolutely necessary ingredient) behind. I get that they started skimping on it before that, likely to cater to a more "adult" audience, but to leave it out of the recipe completely...fuq that!
 
Characters matter. All RE really needs are heroes (Chris, Leon, Jill, etc) and weirdos (the merchant in RE4, the dwarf dude in RE4, the family in RE7, etc).

Location matters. RE6 locations ruined the atmosphere.

Plot matters, but only in each self-contained game. The overall plot means nothing to me.

They also need interesting/weird enemies. That’s a BIG part of RE.
 

Happosai

Hold onto your panties
I like characters /locations/ combat. I don’t care about actual plot itself in Resident Evil series.

Also I really liked Resident Evil 2 Remake.🤷‍♂️
There you have it. I'll second this. characters, location and combat is great but plot...meh.

Also I really liked RE: Zero as my controversial contribution and didn't really care at all for 7.
 
The only thing I can say I don't agree with, is how Capcom copies other games. Like for example, they copied The Last of Us for Revelations 2.

I recall fighting this thing in a room, called a Vulcanblubber, and thinking it was like the Bloaters from that game. Also the other enemy types are rip offs, and the fact you have the same crafting system, the ability to see enemies through walls, and then leave through a window of that room, like what happens in the gym hall with Joel. And then later on, you go to a dam, and there's a part where rumble breaks and lands on Moira Burton as the tower is collapsing, so she is presumed dead. But she isn't with Claire for a considerable amount of time, and that's like the turning point of the game, like how Joel being spiked was also a major point to their story. So then you have to hunt white rabbits in the winter as food is low, and I felt like there was so many things in general they were basically taken and passing off as their own ideas.

Now I generally feel there's other games Capcom copies too, and I think they just need to be careful going forward, as I think they were even trying to copy Silent Hill somewhat with the spooky house and use of mannequins chasing you, and that's just not what RE is really supposed to represent, even if they have the final say in every creative decision. If enough people notice this stuff is quite similar, they could get a lawsuit filed against them.
 

NeoIkaruGAF

Gold Member
Yes, when it’s at the service of atmosphere and gameplay. Today the PS1 games would be thrown into the B-tier of gaming and have mid-60 Metascores for the dub alone, but the gameplay and the atmosphere in those games were so strong, we all instinctively understood that a barebones story with simple characters and dialogue was functional.

Code Veronica tried to ape cinema and make everything too big for the sake of making a showcase for the Dreamcast, and the result is a grotesque parody of Resident Evil that fortunately spurred Capcom to make a complete reset with RE4.

Resident Evil doesn’t need a Kingdom Hearts-like plot. Resident Evil is about being the good guy/gal in a nightmare scenario and beating the odds. It’s about an uncomplicated B-movie plot knitting together the places and setpieces of a fun romp through horror and action.

Story matters - as long as it serves to set the mood and the stage without becoming too invasive.
Characters matter - the main cast of RE1 and 2 is iconic in every sense of the word, when the plot doesn’t try to get more out of the characters than it should.
Location matters - it’s the core of the series. The Spencer Mansion and the streets and the RPD of Raccoon City were the perfect stage for a game, as were all the places Leon goes through in RE4.
 

SegaManAU

Gold Member
The story has been absolute shit in RE since CV entered the scene.

RE5 did a good job of tying up loose ends but then RE6 came in and just shit all over it by introducing neo-umbrella and "the family".

I personally don't care whatsoever for the story in RE, just the gameplay. The OG trilogy is flawless and we'll never get back there cause the series jumped the shark decades ago. I actually wish Capcom would pull the trigger and kill off the bulk of the legacy characters. Truly awful writers over there working on the RE games, bizarre how bad it is.
Couldn't have said it any better!
 

MiguelItUp

Member
I think a little bit of everything matters for me. But more so it's the look of everything, if that makes sense. Like the overall vibe and all.

If the story, characters, and location seem meh, but the vibe still look real cool, it'll still interest me.

I honestly preferred RE without the over-the-top hokey stuff, really. Hokey dialogue and all was fine. But the stuff that just felt too ridiculous took me out of it, lol.

I loved the RE2 remake so much. Hell, I loved 7 too, I just felt like the last half of the game felt weaker than the first. But god, does Ethan suck, lmao. I didn't give a damn about Ethan or his family, lol.
 
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Kokoloko85

Member
Instead of remaking RE2, RE3, and RE4 - and making RE7 and The Village - they should have taken the serious back to its roots with a complete reboot of the entire franchise.

Go back to the roots and start with the original RE but with a much more serious and grounded tone, and go from there. Forget the giant alligators and tyrant monsters, that shit is silly. Give me an honest-to-goodness survival horror game with interesting lore. Retcon the whole ordeal and give us the mature and terrifying story.

As much as I like the remakes and RE8, I like your reboot idea.
But how mature and interesting lore can you get with zombies. And without Bio creatures like Tyrant would it be RE?
Tbh the lore in RE with Umbrella and etc is pretty decent compared to how the rest of the story is done
 
As much as I like the remakes and RE8, I like your reboot idea.
But how mature and interesting lore can you get with zombies. And without Bio creatures like Tyrant would it be RE?
Tbh the lore in RE with Umbrella and etc is pretty decent compared to how the rest of the story is done
Umbrella can still be a part of it. Maybe The Spencer Mansion is just a cover where the big dogs at Umbrella go to vacation and chill out, its like disguised as a corporate retreat in the Arklay Mountains. Perfect getaway perk for their higher level employees, but in all reality there is a lab there which is where they conduct "off the books" experiments for bio-weapons. They are a big pharma company but they also sell and develop weapons for the CIA and NSA, etc. Less of the killer monster variety and more like nerve gases and toxins, etc --- and the g virus was an experiment for a new weapon but was shelved for obvious reasons. Turns out some dork that works for Umbrella is actually working for either a foreign entity or rival company, and he is tasked with stealing samples on a variety of things but obviously shit goes awry and the g virus leaks and affects the surrounding area.

STARS responds because hikers in the area heard a series of gunshots and called it in, any attempt to get in contact with resort staff the mansion doesn't work out and they assume there is an armed stand off, but little do they know...

And instead of dealing with monsters and what not, you gotta deal with the zombies obviously but then also there are staff on-site trying to cover it all up so big Umbrella can deny any wrongdoing, and that includes killing the STARS members when the mansion eventually burns down or whatever.

Something like that but more robust.

Weeks later, the pandemic spreads to the town and RE2 could be more or less the start of that pandemic. You get to deal with zombies but also crazy ass people scared for their life, looters and what have you. More TLOU in feel than classic RE2.
 
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cortadew

Member
Instead of remaking RE2, RE3, and RE4 - and making RE7 and The Village - they should have taken the serious back to its roots with a complete reboot of the entire franchise.

Go back to the roots and start with the original RE but with a much more serious and grounded tone, and go from there. Forget the giant alligators and tyrant monsters, that shit is silly. Give me an honest-to-goodness survival horror game with interesting lore. Retcon the whole ordeal and give us the mature and terrifying story.
If you do that you are taking away one of Resident Evil core traits.
 

Danjin44

The nicest person on this forum
As much as I like the remakes and RE8, I like your reboot idea.
But how mature and interesting lore can you get with zombies. And without Bio creatures like Tyrant would it be RE?
Tbh the lore in RE with Umbrella and etc is pretty decent compared to how the rest of the story is done
Every time series try to be "mature" the story becomes worse and just dull. I personally like RE's silly moments, in fact what attract me to RE in the first place.

Its very much "video game" story and I like to keep it that way, I dont need every game to rebooted.
If you do that you are taking away one of Resident Evil core traits.
Exactly! if you want to play different game just play different game.
 
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cortadew

Member
I liked RE8 Village the most purely because of the setting. I am tired of zombies as the market is oversaturated with contemporarily set games where you mow them down by the hundreds and they dont scare me anymore as a result, i just see them as cannon fodder. I dont like RE games that feature raccoon city or zombie looking creatures like RE2 and RE3 because i cant take zombies as a threat after decades of being conditioned to look at them as low level enemies that pose no threat by games, tv and movies
But re3 (OG) has Nemesis which is a bigger threat than any enemy of re8
 

cortadew

Member
Every time series try to be "mature" the story becomes worse and just dull. I personally RE's silly moments, in fact what attract me to RE in the first place.

Its very much "video game" story and I like to keep it that way, I dont need every game to rebooted.

Exactly! if you want okay different game just play different game.
This guy wants to morph resident evil into another the last of us 🫣
 
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cortadew

Member
Capcom needs to hire Kenichi Iwao again and make him write the story for RE9, Iwao is the father of the RE lore, he created Umbrella and the stars members, the T-Virus, etc.
 
I think some of the fanboys can be proper douchebag types as well. Because earlier on, I happened to be watching a guy on YouTube and not surprisingly, I seen someone leaving remarks aimed at me because he knew I used to watch another YouTuber who now goes by the alias, NemesisBiohazard. All of these people seem to enjoy finding similar users to watch, so it's inevitable you'll bump into them again elsewhere.

They recognised me from a channel I used to kind of feud with, even though I was initially supportive of his viewpoints. But then he started to grow and ended up getting interviews with the voice actors. He even got to interview Wesker's original voice actor. But we fell out because I tried to stick up for him when people flamed him.

Years ago, I was a member of pretty much all of the RE fan sites. Clowns would populate them, and it was kind of like what occurred with this guy. Only arguably much worse.

I don't know how he got so many followers in the first place. I recall his channel initially started about an anime show he used to like. Then in 2016 he started to moan about Capcom ruining the series, and he specifically defended Shinji Mikami and Alyson Court.

But my point is, that I kind of hate it when people who say things from the heart, then change their attitude once some opportunity presents itself. Then it feels like they decided to sell out. And this guy used to post some really awesome rants. Even if they were over the top, I enjoyed them. Then he removed them from his channel and somehow knew I uploaded them to archive.org a few years ago. So it's likely somebody was a grass. I don't know. He even got those removed too.

But yeah. All his videos now are just fan fiction type garbage that nobody cares about, and he accused me of thinking the September 11 tragedy was funny.

The guy's just an arsehole.
 
Having the main game in first person for RE8 is a bit dumb when they went back to third person for the extra content. And they still hid Ethan's face anyway.

When I first heard that they were implementing third person into upcoming DLC, it sounded too good to be true. And yes. It was too good to be true. 🥴

But yeah. I feel relieved that this Molded shit is done and dusted, I hope. Ethan Winters is probably not coming back.

Big mommy's milkers wasn't even the main villain either, like we initially thought she would be. 🍼

We got trolled. 😆
 

Beechos

Member
Ive been saying this forever. Resident evil 7/8 couldve been million times better as new stand alone games with no reference/ story elements linking it to past re giving it much more creative freedom. The current established re cast is i would say average. I wouldnt consider any of them as memorable/iconic characters in video game history. The story is b movie batshit crazy to laughable.
 
I agree, Beechos. They don't feel like RE games apart from some stuff they refer back to for the sake of having a veiled little link to events from prior and better games. Besides that, I think Chris only shows up in 7 and 8 because there's going to be nothing remotely RE about the recent games if they just use a nobody like Ethan, and have no other main heroes involved in the outcome. So they made Chris play tag along. They don't feel like they're even the same guy in 7 and 8, as one saves the day, and the other counterpart tells lies.

They could have gotten a random soldier or agent to go there in his place. Some other new character who basically found out about the Baker family. But I don't know. They probably could have made up something dumb like that, since that's all they do now anyway. Having Chris just appear out of the blue (or blue Umbrella - corny joke there) to run through these tunnels was so random, that it really did not feel... "organic" or whatever. Basically, you can tell they forced it in, and the actor playing Chris just doesn't resemble Chris in any way. But like I was saying, it's barely RE at all until he just shows up out of the blue.

But nah. It's not RE unless there's at least one main character thrown into the mix. So that's why Chris was selected. It wouldn't make sense to use Leon or Jill in his place.
 
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