The series has never actually dropped a narrative unless it was something explicitly never mentioned. They could afford to drop the G-Virus sub-plot because nothing ever explicitly came of it, and they could change the nature and name of the Clay Virus because it was never fully discussed outside of Japanese guidebooks.
Alex is mentioned both in BH5 itself (as "Alex W.") and its Lost In Nightmares DLC. He is also mentioned in Archives II. I'd wait until Takenaka takes the writing helm again before he is ever mentioned again, though.
I guess a better way to word it would be to say that they leave things hanging. There's the ever popular 'what happened to character X' questions (though to be fair, this game did go deeper into the gates of characters long unexplained, namely Sherry and Claire), or the questions of certain plot points that haven't been explained properly in years with a few more arising every once in a while (what or who is the third organization being an example of an older long-running mystery, or smaller variables now like who was Jake's mother?).
There's also characters who live that I never understood why they let them live or plot points that seem like they could lead to something but then they never do. Such examples would be like why Nicholai lives in Resident Evil 3, why does Wesker make an ambiguous remark for Steve when leaving (
Actually, the C-Virus uses the T-Veronica Virus as a foundation, doesn't it? And isn't Steve the last remaining sample of the T-Veronica Virus?
), or why let the villains of Revelations live (
The regenerating monsters in this game... Are they ever explained? They are definitely really similar to the Ooze, and I don't know if what they are is ever explained in this game.
). Not incredibly important things to answer, but sometimes they seem to build up an element or seem to keep the options open for it to be explored in future entries, but then the answer is usually either rather anti-climatic or left unexplained for years and years (IE, building up the downfall of Umbrella through all of the earlier games only for it to be something that happened passively in-between games in the opening of Resident Evil 4, the fate of Sherry explained over 10 years later but with a fairly normal though acceptable reason, etc).
Not strictly a spoiler, as none of you are going to be able to read it anyway. I translated the C-Virus file from RE.net. It turns out that, while the in-game one is incomplete as it is, CAPCOM made a mistake on the site and actually used the English transcript from the J'avo file. So the file to the main plot point of the entire game is uhh, wrong.
C-VIRUS
A new type virus which mutates humans into a B.O.W (Bio Organic Weapon) called "J'avo" by administering it into the body.
This came to be witnessed in every corner of the world after it was distributed as a nutritional drug in an Eastern Europe war zone, and administered by mercenaries who, one by one, became J'avo. "C" represents "Chrysalid (chrysalis)".
A BSAA researcher left the following comments, but the result of the investigation into the C-Virus was "there are many unknown points, and complete elucidation will take time".
---
"The C-Virus is an RNA virus which erodes a creature's blood cells and causes strange mutations. Guessing from its characteristics, it seems that it is based on "t-Veronica" that was used in the Rockfort Island incident in 1998. The characteristics of insects and plants seen in t-Veronica are probably the reason for its remarkable mutations, and I wonder if it was perhaps crossed with "G", which was in the Raccoon incident.
At the present stage, I predict that these two were combined and have evolved as the C-Virus. But, assuming this is true, who on earth produced such a virus? Such a devilish creation is not made by an ordinary mind..."
Plot threads are one thing, but I wish the series wasn't so fond of this trope. Especially considering this game is a sort of all-star game, we could have at least heard about some of the passengers of the bus in this game. But nothing. What's really jarring is that
all the main characters of RE2 are playable in this game, EXCEPT Claire. They could have at least given us a update on her activities. Is she still fighting Bioterrorism? Did she get knocked up and is a housewife? Anything would have been fine.
Though with Rebecca, Billy, and Barry, I think this trope is more appropriate. Sheva being on a bus isn't too surprising considering she isn't very well liked, but again, a mention would have made too much sense.
Alex is mentioned both in BH5 itself (as "Alex W.") and its Lost In Nightmares DLC. He is also mentioned in Archives II. I'd wait until Takenaka takes the writing helm again before he is ever mentioned again, though.
That sounds like the most plausible explanation why he's not been brought up. I'm curious how they'll handle up if he ever shows up in the series. If he'll essentially be a Wesker clone or something different.
For better or worse, I imagine Capcom trying something different again after RE6 because of the bad reception. I hope they do keep some stuff though, I want them to build upon the current combat system they have. Hopefully they won't be compelled to do a reboot as with DmC.
I guess a better way to word it would be to say that they leave things hanging. There's the ever popular 'what happened to character X' questions (though to be fair, this game did go deeper into the gates of characters long unexplained, namely Sherry and Claire), or the questions of certain plot points that haven't been explained properly in years with a few more arising every once in a while (what or who is the third organization being an example of an older long-running mystery, or smaller variables now like who was Jake's mother?).
There's also characters who live that I never understood why they let them live or plot points that seem like they could lead to something but then they never do. Such examples would be like why Nicholai lives in Resident Evil 3, why does Wesker make an ambiguous remark for Steve when leaving (
Actually, the C-Virus uses the T-Veronica Virus as a foundation, doesn't it? And isn't Steve the last remaining sample of the T-Veronica Virus?
), or why let the villains of Revelations live (
The regenerating monsters in this game... Are they ever explained? They are definitely really similar to the Ooze, and I don't know if what they are is ever explained in this game.
). Not incredibly important things to answer, but sometimes they seem to build up an element or seem to keep the options open for it to be explored in future entries, but then the answer is usually either rather anti-climatic or left unexplained for years and years (IE, building up the downfall of Umbrella through all of the earlier games only for it to be something that happened passively in-between games in the opening of Resident Evil 4, the fate of Sherry explained over 10 years later but with a fairly normal though acceptable reason, etc).
Well temporarily unexplained is different from dropped.
I can explain most of those here.
1) "The 3rd Organization" is a secret underground organization independently led by Wesker, comprised of his loyal followers and agents he hires. It is neither the rival company of Umbrella or the organization Ada is loyal to, and generally isn't a company. It was set-up by Wesker so he could conduct his own activities, with his goal being to take control of the rival company.
2) Wesker's comment about Steve was made expressly for the purpose of pissing off Claire. It wasn't intended to be a foreboding to anything, but many took it that way. Misunderstanding.
3) The Rasklapanje (the regenerating monsters) are just a unique C-Virus mutation. No connection to the Ooze apart from similar humanoid designs.
4) Nicholai can live or die depending on your choices. As he was initially intended as a non-canon character, they made a decision never to include him (or Carlos) in a main series game again. That's why he only appears elsewhere in Outbreak (not a main series game) and Operation Raccoon City (trash). You'll probably never find out what happened to Nicholai or Carlos.
Not explaining things is how they keep you coming back to the series, I guess. I thought I was going to get something more on the BH3 plot point of the U.S. government's involvement with Umbrella in Revelations, but it wasn't there. It was in BH6 instead.
Plot threads are one thing, but I wish the series wasn't so fond of this trope. Especially considering this game is a sort of all-star game, we could have at least heard about some of the passengers of the bus in this game. But nothing. What's really jarring is that
all the main characters of RE2 are playable in this game, EXCEPT Claire. They could have at least given us a update on her activities. Is she still fighting Bioterrorism? Did she get knocked up and is a housewife? Anything would have been fine.
Though with Rebecca, Billy, and Barry, I think this trope is more appropriate. Sheva being on a bus isn't too surprising considering she isn't very well liked, but again, a mention would have made too much sense.
This is what I've been thinking since, like, RE4. Claire hasn't been playable since Code Veronica which took place in 1998 - the same year as the original trilogy. Where the hell are Rebecca and Barry? Neither of them has even been seen in the canon since RE1. Did Capcom just not get the hint about Barry's popularity with western fans?
This is what I've been thinking since, like, RE4. Claire hasn't been playable since Code Veronica which took place in 1998 - the same year as the original trilogy. Where the hell are Rebecca and Barry? Neither of them has even been seen in the canon since RE1. Did Capcom just not get the hint about Barry's popularity with western fans?
Barry's old. That's pretty much why he hasn't been a playable character outside of a GameBoy Color game not actually made by CAPCOM. Older protagonists aren't as popular in Japan. They already expressed worry about Leon and Chris getting on in years and introduced Jake to appease a younger audience.
Rebecca is, uhh, Rebecca. Never saw the fascination with her, honestly. I like to think that due to her age she just got the fuck out of everything while the getting was good. Zero was actually meant to explain something about what happened to her (she never got an epilogue in BH3 because the writer wasn't allowed, since another writer was handling her) but nothing came of that.
Barry's old. That's pretty much why he hasn't been a playable character outside of a GameBoy Color game not actually made by CAPCOM. Older protagonists aren't as popular in Japan. They already expressed worry about Leon and Chris getting on in years and introduced Jake to appease a younger audience.
Rebecca is, uhh, Rebecca. Never saw the fascination with her, honestly. I like to think that due to her age she just got the fuck out of everything while the getting was good. Zero was actually meant to explain something about what happened to her (she never got an epilogue in BH3 because the writer wasn't allowed, since another writer was handling her) but nothing came of that.
I was playing them in chronological order, and I do think that was a good way to play it. It helps change up the types of gameplay, and it helps when you don't wanna get tired of playing a certain characters.
I gotta say as someone who was really worried, and thinking this game would completely suck because of all the negative feedback, I was surprised. This game has some problems in terms of design, no doubt...however I really think people are overreacting. While there are certainly elements that don't work, and it may be the least fun to play of these third person RE games...it was still worth playing. The controls were good enough that I was able to get used to them, while I don't think they were as responsive as RE4 or RE5. The quick time event stuff does suck, and should be a game design left to die. RE4, and RE5 did QTEs also, but it was within reason. It was never frustrating and narrow of a window as it is in this game. Some of these often led to too many cases of instant death that was hard to avoid. These are all problems.
That being said, I actually really enjoyed the story of all 3 campaigns, and think the characters are all well written. I don't know what the fuck Brad from Giantbomb was talking about on the podcast saying that all the extra characters besides Sherry were throwaway. Leon's campaign was more about Helena than anything! In fact, it would be easy to call it the Helena campaign to me. Plus by the end of Chris's campaign, there are moments with Piers that are really well done. I feel like the only reason Brad from GB would say this, was because he just didn't give a shit. It's not that they were throwaway characters, he wasn't giving them a chance.
In terms of presentation, it visually looked great to me. Maybe I'm not as aware of dropped frames as other people, but another thing Brad kept bitching about was bad framerate...when I never noticed any performance drop. I'm one of the people who actually really liked RE5, and the entire series up to this point, I admit has been kinda shitty in the story department. Never really very coherent. I felt like this game did a really good job building several story arcs, bringing them together at certain spots, and having them all make sense.
I feel like I'm just rambling, but I wanted to express my opinion after having spent a bunch of hours playing this game. It's not bad, nor is it awful! Maybe people are upset that it's not like original Resident Evil, or maybe it's because it's not as good as RE4. These all might be true, and it's easily the weakest in terms of gameplay compared to RE4 and 5...but I still like it, and I think it's worth experiencing if you're a fan of the series.
I know it's probably not plausible at all given the canon, but they could've just made Steve actually be Ustanak just to end the character's plot line.
I was playing them in chronological order, and I do think that was a good way to play it. It helps change up the types of gameplay, and it helps when you don't wanna get tired of playing a certain characters.
I gotta say as someone who was really worried, and thinking this game would completely suck because of all the negative feedback, I was surprised. This game has some problems in terms of design, no doubt...however I really think people are overreacting. While there are certainly elements that don't work, and it may be the least fun to play of these third person RE games...it was still worth playing. The controls were good enough that I was able to get used to them, while I don't think they were as responsive as RE4 or RE5. The quick time event stuff does suck, and should be a game design left to die. RE4, and RE5 did QTEs also, but it was within reason. It was never frustrating and narrow of a window as it is in this game. Some of these often led to too many cases of instant death that was hard to avoid. These are all problems.
That being said, I actually really enjoyed the story of all 3 campaigns, and think the characters are all well written. I don't know what the fuck Brad from Giantbomb was talking about on the podcast saying that all the extra characters besides Sherry were throwaway. Leon's campaign was more about Helena than anything! In fact, it would be easy to call it the Helena campaign to me. Plus by the end of Chris's campaign, there are moments with Piers that are really well done. I feel like the only reason Brad from GB would say this, was because he just didn't give a shit. It's not that they were throwaway characters, he wasn't giving them a chance.
In terms of presentation, it visually looked great to me. Maybe I'm not as aware of dropped frames as other people, but another thing Brad kept bitching about was bad framerate...when I never noticed any performance drop. I'm one of the people who actually really liked RE5, and the entire series up to this point, I admit has been kinda shitty in the story department. Never really very coherent. I felt like this game did a really good job building several story arcs, bringing them together at certain spots, and having them all make sense.
I feel like I'm just rambling, but I wanted to express my opinion after having spent a bunch of hours playing this game. It's not bad, nor is it awful! Maybe people are upset that it's not like original Resident Evil, or maybe it's because it's not as good as RE4. These all might be true, and it's easily the weakest in terms of gameplay compared to RE4 and 5...but I still like it, and I think it's worth experiencing if you're a fan of the series.
I was playing them in chronological order, and I do think that was a good way to play it. It helps change up the types of gameplay, and it helps when you don't wanna get tired of playing a certain characters.
I gotta say as someone who was really worried, and thinking this game would completely suck because of all the negative feedback, I was surprised. This game has some problems in terms of design, no doubt...however I really think people are overreacting. While there are certainly elements that don't work, and it may be the least fun to play of these third person RE games...it was still worth playing. The controls were good enough that I was able to get used to them, while I don't think they were as responsive as RE4 or RE5. The quick time event stuff does suck, and should be a game design left to die. RE4, and RE5 did QTEs also, but it was within reason. It was never frustrating and narrow of a window as it is in this game. Some of these often led to too many cases of instant death that was hard to avoid. These are all problems.
That being said, I actually really enjoyed the story of all 3 campaigns, and think the characters are all well written. I don't know what the fuck Brad from Giantbomb was talking about on the podcast saying that all the extra characters besides Sherry were throwaway. Leon's campaign was more about Helena than anything! In fact, it would be easy to call it the Helena campaign to me. Plus by the end of Chris's campaign, there are moments with Piers that are really well done. I feel like the only reason Brad from GB would say this, was because he just didn't give a shit. It's not that they were throwaway characters, he wasn't giving them a chance.
In terms of presentation, it visually looked great to me. Maybe I'm not as aware of dropped frames as other people, but another thing Brad kept bitching about was bad framerate...when I never noticed any performance drop. I'm one of the people who actually really liked RE5, and the entire series up to this point, I admit has been kinda shitty in the story department. Never really very coherent. I felt like this game did a really good job building several story arcs, bringing them together at certain spots, and having them all make sense.
I feel like I'm just rambling, but I wanted to express my opinion after having spent a bunch of hours playing this game. It's not bad, nor is it awful! Maybe people are upset that it's not like original Resident Evil, or maybe it's because it's not as good as RE4. These all might be true, and it's easily the weakest in terms of gameplay compared to RE4 and 5...but I still like it, and I think it's worth experiencing if you're a fan of the series.
You're right. It's also so depressing that people seem to vest so much of an interest in one particular opinion rather than experiencing and trying the game themselves.
Sometimes I think reviewers underestimate how powerful their scores can be in the public eye
You're right. It's also so depressing that people seem to vest so much of an interest in one particular opinion rather than experiencing and trying the game themselves.
Sometimes I think reviewers underestimate how powerful their scores can be in the public eye
It's a shame some people won't even try the full game (yet will complain about it all the same), because I just -know- some RE4 fans would absolutely love Leon 1+2 and the Ada campaign. Leon 2, in particular, was like RE4's Chapter 2 with current-gen graphics. Simply amazing.
If the next RE game is not a reboot than I would love Barry and Claire to be the main characters. But the chances of playing a main RE game as Barry is waaaaaay to slim. Too bad that old cool ass characters with beards are not acceptable these days. It's like to be a video game character these days is the equivilant to being a model.
It's a shame some people won't even try the full game (
yet will complain about it all the same
), because I just -know- some RE4 fans would absolutely love Leon 1+2 and the Ada campaign. Leon 2, in particular, was like RE4's Chapter 2 with current-gen graphics. Simply amazing.
Sherry really is an amazing character. She's sweet without being saccharine; she's attractive but seems grounded and real; and she's strong, but with an element of (emotional) vulnerability. Love her to pieces.
Actually, when thinking about it, Resident Evil 5 was kind of made to tie up some loose ends from Resident Evil 1, and Resident Evil 6 was made to kind of tie up some loose ends from Resident Evil 2. At least it seems like it.
Actually, when thinking about it, Resident Evil 5 was kind of made to tie up some loose ends from Resident Evil 1, and Resident Evil 6 was made to kind of tie up some loose ends from Resident Evil 2. At least it seems like it.
Sherry really is an amazing character. She's sweet without being saccharine; she's attractive but seems grounded and real; and she's strong, but with an element of (emotional) vulnerability. Love her to pieces.
Actually, when thinking about it, Resident Evil 5 was kind of made to tie up some loose ends from Resident Evil 1, and Resident Evil 6 was made to kind of tie up some loose ends from Resident Evil 2. At least it seems like it.
I could be wrong but it doesn't look like they are changeable sets of skills like they are in the campaign. [1] is 1 skill, [2] is 1 skill, etc.
Anyways, the melee gauge really makes Mercenaries more challenging than past iterations. I don't like the new skill system; I thought mixing and matching perks in RE Mercs 3D was great.
I overall don't like the skills. Especially for mercs. You pretty much have to have limit breaker to get the high scores so that limits your options. Rather that was gone so we could have fun with other options.
Chris is my favorite and his campaign was my least favorite . It did have some really great moments though, namely
the City Hall in chapter 2, the awesome Yawn redux fight in chapter 3, the creepy part on the ship when you have to gather 3 codes, and his entire final chapter.
Unfortunately it also had the worst parts of the 3 campaigns, namely the vehicle sections. Oh well. The fight I mentioned was a great ode to RE1 though, as was
the medal in City Hall being behind the staircase, which is an ode to both RE1 and Lost in Nightmares I think.
You know thinking about it, Chris might have it the worst of all the RE protagonists. Everything that happend to him before, all the events of RE5, AND now
losing all of his men, TWICE, then to top it all off, losing his partner who helped him get back on his feet and who Chris wanted to promote to Captain.
I was honestly shocked they did that, and I was actually sad when it happened. I also felt the effects of all this on Chris's mind was explored pretty well in RE6, not like RE5.
On the other hand, I do believe it's time to retire both Chris and Leon. For Leon, they need to
stop with the teasing, let him and Ada smash, have babies, or what have you, and get 'em married or something.
