The Lost "BIOHAZARD 3"

[News Bot]

For 15 years, an entire game has gone virtually unnoticed by people in the community. Prior to the release of BIO2 in January 1998, a sequel had already been in development simply titled "BIO3."

Here's what we know about it thus far:

• Directed by Masaaki Yamada (BIO1/2 planner)
• Written by FLAGSHIP
• Creature designs by Satoshi Nakai (CV/0 artist)
• In development by November 1997
• Setting was a cruise ship (suggested by Hideki Kamiya, who had previously suggested a boat setting for BIO1)
• Direct sequel to The 4th Survivor
• Protagonist was HUNK
• No Zombies
• Main enemies were "Plant Humans"
• General outline of the scenario was "HUNK on a cruise ship attempting to bring the G-virus to Umbrella"
• Development lasted roughly one year
• Setting was reused for GUN SURVIVOR 4

In mid-1998, due to news of the impending PlayStation 2, CAPCOM ordered that the game be shut down and the team be reassigned to create a game on the PS2 so that the team could get the experience they needed to create a top-quality game. Kamiya and Yamada then had their roles swapped, and this BIO3 became "BIO2.5", then BIOHAZARD 4, then finally Devil May Cry.

With the loss of the third main series title on the PS1, it was decided that the small-scale indie title "BIO1.9" would become BIO3. Satoshi Nakai, who was an outside freelancer hired by Nextech, was informally reassigned to CODE:Veronica. The game has since been acknowledged by Hideki Kamiya, Yasuhisa Kawamura, Satoshi Nakai, Shinji Mikami (who claimed "he" scrapped a BIO game where you played as an Umbrella employee) and Atsushi Inaba, although with details kept vague.

[Scream]

Wonder if they got as far as programming/adding backgrounds/stages in some sort of playable form?

[News Bot]

Wonder if they got as far as programming/adding backgrounds/stages in some sort of playable form?

Might be worth asking Kamiya.

[Bianca]

Love finding out about this stuff. I read vague descriptions about this "lost game" before, and seeing it outlined as you posted makes it even more intriguing. Thanks!

[Kegluneq]

Weren't the "Plant Humans" meant to be part of DASH and weren't they featured in Flashback of Outbreak File #2? Or are we talking about different enemy designs here?

[News Bot]

Weren't the "Plant Humans" meant to be part of DASH and weren't they featured in Flashback of Outbreak File #2? Or are we talking about different enemy designs here?

I'm skeptical about whether DASH even existed. Won't know for sure until we get the exact magazine that mentions it, it's never mentioned anywhere else.

They're quite different to the enemies in Outbreak. Those are humans parasitized by plants. The enemies in this BIO3 were more literal plant/human hybrids. The artwork for them says this:

<<< Zombified by the t-Virus, but something else was present ("mixed") and even skeletal changes have occurred.
1.) contamination, corruption
2.) mixed, mixing up

The plant concept may have evolved into t-Veronica, which was created by combining plant and insect DNA with the Progenitor Virus, allowing hosts to display plant-like characteristics in a less major way.

[Guest]

Interesting read, thanks. Just to clarify, this was a Playstation title, correct?

[News Bot]

Interesting read, thanks. Just to clarify, this was a Playstation title, correct?

Yup. It became a completely different game when the project moved to the PlayStation 2.

[Guest]

So I'm guessing it was never submitted to Sony for its game ID then? It doesn't sound like it got very far in development, but six months is still quite a lot of development time for a Biohazard game of that era let alone a whole year, enough to the point that it's surprising to not have seen anything from it. Is there any indication on what format the game used? I.e. static backgrounds, or a fully 3D engine, and so forth?

[News Bot]

Most likely not, it was never even publicly announced. It was "classic" in every sense. Same gameplay style.

[Kegluneq]

The enemies in this BIO3 were more literal plant/human hybrids. The artwork for them says this:

<<< Zombified by the t-Virus, but something else was present ("mixed") and even skeletal changes have occurred.
1.) contamination, corruption
2.) mixed, mixing up

The plant concept may have evolved into t-Veronica, which was created by combining plant and insect DNA with the Progenitor Virus, allowing hosts to display plant-like characteristics in a less major way.

Isn't this the same as the Ivy enemy design, though?

So I'm guessing it was never submitted to Sony for its game ID then? It doesn't sound like it got very far in development, but six months is still quite a lot of development time for a Biohazard game of that era let alone a whole year, enough to the point that it's surprising to not have seen anything from it. Is there any indication on what format the game used? I.e. static backgrounds, or a fully 3D engine, and so forth?

This. I also wanted to hear more about the development of the game. There's no way that something that was in production for a year did not have a single thing done beyond the scenario. This is not next-generation console we're talking about here. They already had two (or three?) game engines of experience.

[News Bot]

Not quite, Ivy is more plant than human. These were more human than plant, but at the same time quite inhuman. Closer to Alexia/Steve... but not quite. Still more inhuman.

If you do want to know more about its development I suggest asking Kamiya and asking about "Cruise Ship BIO3." He's likely sick of me, haha.

[Deathlygasm]

I swear everytime I look at Kamiyas twitter he's always pissed about something not exactly the friendliest guy...

[NEOMEGA]

This is related. I remember, from what I could have sworn was survivhor, seeing that later when capcom started making RE3 on dreamcast, the concept of the nemesis was supposed to be apart that game. I recall seeing pictures from very early footage of usual gameplay of Claire dealing with zombies but then there was some text on the screen saying something along the lines of "you will face something unlike never before" and it showing multiple shots of the camera from the view of a tall figure looking down at claire and her getting scared. I remember thinking that when sony told capcom that they needed to make a numeral entry of the series on their system, they moved this concept to that game to give the game better impact. Also the fact that gun survivor 2 had the nemesis in it was icing on the cake.

[News Bot]

This is related. I remember, from what I could have sworn was survivhor, seeing that later when capcom started making RE3 on dreamcast, the concept of the nemesis was supposed to be apart that game. I recall seeing pictures from very early footage of usual gameplay of Claire dealing with zombies but then there was some text on the screen saying something along the lines of "you will face something unlike never before" and it showing multiple shots of the camera from the view of a tall figure looking down at claire and her getting scared. I remember thinking that when sony told capcom that they needed to make a numeral entry of the series on their system, they moved this concept to that game to give the game better impact. Also the fact that gun survivor 2 had the nemesis in it was icing on the cake.

This was all bullshit speculation. Nemesis was never part of CODE:Veronica, and CV was never BIO3.