RE7 Discussion Thread

[Dracarys]

Those are spin off titles.

The main series when moving the story forward has always followed the story of Chris, Jill, Leon or Claire, usualy a mix. To end them is to end their stories. Once that happens a reboot or a new set of characters accomplish the same thing - The beginning of a new story. If going to do that then the option with most creative freedom is best.

[News Bot]

Spin-offs which happen to continue the story fine and dandy without Chris, Jill, Leon or Claire. The story isn't upheld by those four characters and they are not necessary to tell anything, although it's always beneficial if their stories are actually ended on-screen... which they more or less have been.

[Dracarys]

They don't continue the story of Chris, Jill, Leon or Claire, so they are side stories.

[News Bot]

Chris, Jill, Leon and Claire are not the focus of the series nor are they essential to the plot. GS1 and GS4 are extra chapters, but not because of the characters.

[Dracarys]

Chris, Jill, Leon and Claire are not the focus of the series nor are they essential to the plot.

False on both counts.

[News Bot]

False on both counts.

Prove it and maybe you'd have a little bit of weight to your statements.

[Dracarys]

You've gave no weight to yours, why should I bother?

Though my real reason to not bother is that a statement like Chris, Jill, Leon or Claire not being the focus of the series or essential to plot is just silly because they're the focus every single game and the plot mostly revolves around them making them very essential.

[News Bot]

Oh, so basically you've got nothing to go on. Gotcha.

1) HUNK was initially intended to be the protagonist of the main series BH3. Jill on the other hand was planned as the main character of a non-canon side story, which was changed to a main series title due to external circumstances rather than because Jill was somehow vital.

2) None of the four characters were the lead in the Devil May Cry version of BH4. If they were so essential to the story, I wonder why they weren't even considered for a game that focused on the series' lead villain (Spencer) and the origin of all the "evil" in the series (Progenitor). And the game was scrapped because the gameplay was deemed too different, rather than because certain characters weren't in it.

3) Claire hasn't been in a game for over ten years as her storyline is finished (but she's meant to drive the plot!). You like brushing off side-stories, so Degeneration doesn't matter, not that she even played much of a role.

4) Leon's story was continued not because he himself was important, but because they had written the rest of the story in a particular way (U.S. government's anti-Umbrella organization) and he fell into place. He is not necessary to drive the story, only to provide fan-service after having been cemented in popularity due to BH4. He hasn't driven any plot since then.

5) Chris and Jill are the only two with any real "importance" because of their crusade against Umbrella and bioterrorism. However, Jill, being vital, gets absolutely no mention in BH6 after her storyline gets pleasantly closed off in BH5. Meanwhile, Chris' presence in BH6 was tacked on for bloating purposes and he serves no real purpose in the plot apart from a single purely fan-service scene that Eiichiro Sasaki wanted in the game. He doesn't drive the plot, having already had his story resolved in BH5. Notice a trend?


The story, which uses characters as a tool rather than vice versa, would continue fine without them as it has before. If they were essential to the plot, the games in the series where they don't appear wouldn't exist. You are of course free to conjure up some sort of reason why it won't, but good luck with that. I'm sure you know better than the developers, as always. Generally in the series, the outline of the story is written first, sometimes with "what we want to convey/accomplish." The characters are then usually decided on later based on what they can offer. For example, Leon was eventually chosen for BH4 because they wanted it to feel like a direct sequel to BH2, not because he was important to the plot in any way. That's something that shines through right through to the released version, where Leon is an almost completely incidental character because the plot was simply never written around him in any version of the game.

[Dracarys]

Now you're talking about stuff that never released like that somehow matters to what did release. I'm just going to ignore it because it is irrelevant.

Perhaps the first couple games were more world driven, not that there wasn't character driven parts to them, but as the series moved forward it quickly become heavily character driven also and the story/plot character focused. When people talk about for example the story of ESIV: Oblivion they talk 99% of the time about pretty much everything except who their character is because the story is entirely world driven, your character is just a viewpoint that helps along the way. In RE when talking about story the characters are always a major focus since so much of the plot and story is character driven.

RE5 story for the series main characters. Look at it in three parts, start, middle end:

Chris:
Start - Chris doesn't really trust partners. He questions if it is worth continuing to fight.
Middle - Chris faces his issues.
End - Chris has learned to trust other partners and thinks it is worth continuing the fght.

Jill:
Start - Jill is captured and enslaved
Middle - Jills problem is faced
End - Jill is free again.

Wesker (he was still alive and was main antagonist):
Start - Has discovered his origins
Middle - Acts out on new info
End - Dead chasing his vision and need for revenge.

That is RE5s plot, these three character arcs. Jills in this one is mostly just set up for Chris, RE5s story is mainly just Chris and Wesker. All the stuff about las plagas, black markets, Kijuju etc is just detail of the three arcs, it isn't anything to drive the story/plot.

[News Bot]

Now you're talking about stuff that never released like that somehow matters to what did release. I'm just going to ignore it because it is irrelevant.

Perhaps the first couple games were more world driven, not that there wasn't character driven parts to them, but as the series moved forward it quickly become heavily character driven also and the story/plot character focused. When people talk about for example the story of ESIV: Oblivion they talk 99% of the time about pretty much everything except who their character is because the story is entirely world driven, your character is just a viewpoint that helps along the way. In RE when talking about story the characters are always a major focus since so much of the plot and story is character driven.

RE5 story for the series main characters. Look at it in three parts, start, middle end:

Chris:
Start - Chris doesn't really trust partners. He questions if it is worth continuing to fight.
Middle - Chris faces his issues.
End - Chris has learned to trust other partners and thinks it is worth continuing the fght.

Jill:
Start - Jill is captured and enslaved
Middle - Jills problem is faced
End - Jill is free again.

Wesker (he was still alive and was main antagonist):
Start - Has discovered his origins
Middle - Acts out on new info
End - Dead chasing his vision and need for revenge.

That is RE5s plot, these three character arcs. Jills in this one is mostly just set up for Chris, RE5s story is mainly just Chris and Wesker. All the stuff about las plagas, black markets, Kijuju etc is just detail of the three arcs, it isn't anything to drive the story/plot.

Yes, they do matter, because they show they weren't considered vital. As always, you ignore anything that points out your personal opinion and conjecture for being what it is; bullshit. Guess it was a bit much to expect anything more from you.

You've got it completely opposite with BH5. The base story regarding the Plaga, black markets, Kijuju and such was the first thing they decided on. Chris and the other characters were added later.

None of the stories in the series are character driven. The characters are added later to complement the plot, rather than the plot written around the characters. That's just a simple fact, stated by the writers themselves. But you know better, surely.

[mad_radhead]

If you just get new characters then you're abandoning/ending the story of the originals, isn't much different than a reboot.

You are wrong.Here's a good example - re2.It continued re1 storyline in chronological order but presenterd to us new and very different characters with their own motives.Same could be done now.Continue the story,idea,but change enviroment,create new virus if it's relevant,make cameos with old ones.
Re still has a great potential,if it's action based today,doesn't mean that it can't be surv.horror in a future with out rebooting.
Get back to a start = the only way of getting back survival horror?That is what doesn't make any sence.
So lame realy .It sounds like "oh,we are out of ideas,our minds can't come up with something,let's do the same thing we did ages ago."
Cuz that what would it be like.No thanks.That's boring.

[Dracarys]

Yes, they do matter, because they show they weren't considered vital. As always, you ignore anything that points out your personal opinion and conjecture for being what it is; bullshit. Guess it was a bit much to expect anything more from you.

Projects that don't resemble the released project at all are irrelevant. Also what will be my last statement below.

You've got it completely opposite with BH5. The base story regarding the Plaga, black markets, Kijuju and such was the first thing they decided on. Chris and the other characters were added later.

Nope, Chris and Wesker were decided to be the point of RE5 right from the start. Though it doesn't matter anyway, see below.

None of the stories in the series are character driven. The characters are added later to complement the plot, rather than the plot written around the characters. That's just a simple fact, stated by the writers themselves. But you know better, surely.

Since you clearly don't realise, it doesn't actually matter what comes first when writing, the basic scenario or the character arc. The story usually ends up stronger if the character arc is decided first, that way the character writes the story on the way to the end of the arc, if they are a strong character that is, RE characters aren't hence the stories always being weak, but point is either way works. What matters is what drives the story in the finished product, and that is the characters.

If the story was not character focused there would be little to discuss of the characters, yet it is the opposite and the characters are discussed at length.

You are wrong.Here's a good example - re2.It continued re1 storyline in chronological order but presenterd to us new and very different characters with their own motives.

RE2 was only the second game, it was still introducing main characters to the series, how many main recurring protagonist characters been introduced since RE2 in 1998? Zero.

[News Bot]

Only things which conflict with your opinion are irrelevant. You really need to think of a new strategy if you want your arguments to be taken seriously. No bullshit roundabout reasoning is going to support you.

Source for Chris and Wesker being in from the beginning please.

Reiteration for the challenged; the characters are not essential to the plot. Dropping them and finishing their individual stories would not affect the universe, nor would the introduction of new characters.

Pretty nice to see your patented "last post" technique. Like absolute clockwork you are. And you'll still post again in...

[Dracarys]

Only things which conflict with your opinion are irrelevant. You really need to think of a new strategy if you want your arguments to be taken seriously. No bullshit roundabout reasoning is going to support you.

It isn't my opinion. A different story is a different story. An apple isn't an orange, you don't rate an apple based on what an orange is just because they both fruits. As already said it is only the final product that matters anyway because that is the story people experience.

Source for Chris and Wesker being in from the beginning please.

Takeuchi.

Pretty nice to see your patented "last post" technique. Like absolute clockwork you are.

What is this even meant to mean, makes no sense at all.

[News Bot]

Your point was that there could be no story without those four characters. Yet several stories were completed without them involved whatsoever, and scrapped for completely unrelated reasons.

That's funny, Takeuchi actually said that the story was built around the Progenitor Virus (for the third time in the series) and at the same time, didn't even know what he was talking about the majority of the time.

Resident Evil 5 producer Jun Takeuchi has revealed that he had “no choice” but to set the upcoming survival horror title in Africa due to the game’s story revolving around the origins of the Progenitor Virus.

Also what will be my last statement below.

That's a doozy of a last statement. Just keeps on going.


Once again, you've yet to prove that any of the four characters you mentioned are essential in any form once their individual stories are finished. There is absolutely nothing stopping the series from being driven by other or completely new characters. Nothing would be affected in the series universe, ergo, your initial comment is still as nonsensical as it started.