Why are there still herbs around?

[Guest]

Resident Evil and some other games from the franchise has described the herbs as special plants that grow on Raccoon City's mountains only. Yet, 6 years after the city is nuked, the herbs are still to be found on parts of Europe, Africa and some other random places.

[News Bot]

The city was destroyed, but not the mountains or surrounding forest.

The herbs were known since at least the 60s, and were cultivated elsewhere like most plants in the world. Umbrella probably even patented pharmaceutical products made from them.

[Deathlygasm]

Yeaaaaaa you tell em Newzbot

[Lanzagranadas]

Simply because herbs have become the series' trademark healing item so wherever you go (prison, snowy mountains, desert, in the deep sea, etc) there will be allways plenty of herbs around.

Now for a story-driven explanation, having knowledge that Arklay herbs were a great base for medicine, researchers probably started to collect samples and cultivated them into Raccoon and other regions of the world. There's also a document in RER which tells herbs are even capable of withstand viral infection and the Outbreaks also support this idea in the shape of a gameplay feature.

[Darkness]

Raccoon herbs in spain?
SEEMS LEGIT

[Enigmatism415]

Are they eaten or smoked? When you mix them I can see the wrapping paper, but the character doesn't always have a lighter. I somehow doubt they just have a salad whenever injured. Perhaps they brew tea?

[Ultimacloud123]

The world may never know. I jokingly thought it was smoked however it could be snorted. No in all seriousness it's probably used as a tea or ingested, kind of how in later games eggs are interested however I think the herbs may be the active ingredients in the first aid spray.

[Don Piano]

Are they eaten or smoked? When you mix them I can see the wrapping paper, but the character doesn't always have a lighter. I somehow doubt they just have a salad whenever injured. Perhaps they brew tea?

Obviously smoked, Everything is FINE aslong as you have some green herbs

/overdone stoner RE joke

[News Bot]

Raccoon herbs in spain?
SEEMS LEGIT

Plants being cultivated outside of their natural habitat is a principal part of botany, haha.

[Vixtro]

I found it ridiculous as soon as RE4 which was the first big departure away from anything Raccoon City and/or Umbrella.

The herbs were known since at least the 60s, and were cultivated elsewhere like most plants in the world. Umbrella probably even patented pharmaceutical products made from them.

That theory does make sense to a certain point, one would expect the herbs to be cultivated en masse in a perfect environment and then made into medicine for mass distribution, not to be found only as a plant growing all over the place in every nook and cranny. I like to think if they used the idea of replacing the herbs with medicine sooner in the series (like how RE1.5 did), then it would've have made perfect sense to have it be found all over the world.

As it stands, it's just a gameplay staple, and a poorly implemented one of that (RE4 onwards).

[News Bot]

That theory does make sense to a certain point, one would expect the herbs to be cultivated en masse in a perfect environment and then made into medicine for mass distribution, not to be found only as a plant growing all over the place in every nook and cranny. I like to think if they used the idea of replacing the herbs with medicine sooner in the series (like how RE1.5 did), then it would've have made perfect sense to have it be found all over the world.

I'm struggling to see where the problem is. The herbs were cultivated and distributed around the world for their medical properties, likely able to grow easily in many environments. A completely new strain was even created, in the case of the yellow herb. Both of these concepts are perfectly believable if you take a look at real world botany, where plants from all around the world are grown wherever we want to grow them and the creation of artificial or hybrid plants has been going on for a long time.

It really just seems like an invented issue.

[Jimmy_Jazz]

I think it's a fair, if not overly important, point, but then I don't think this discussion was intended to be taken too seriously. I wonder if there was a missed opportunity here though. The cultivation and world wide sales of these herbs would be a great way for someone like Umbrella to rise through the domestic pharmaceutical and cosmetic ranks publicly, whilst keeping their B.O.W work hidden from public view.

If herbs existed that could patch up wounds then I'd certainly be growing a few on my window shelf.

The ability to mix herbs creates some interesting tactical situations, and I wish this was extended to First Aid Spray if it was made flammable and could be used as a close range weapon.

[Vixtro]

I'm struggling to see where the problem is. The herbs were cultivated and distributed around the world for their medical properties, likely able to grow easily in many environments. A completely new strain was even created, in the case of the yellow herb. Both of these concepts are perfectly believable if you take a look at real world botany, where plants from all around the world are grown wherever we want to grow them and the creation of artificial or hybrid plants has been going on for a long time.

It really just seems like an invented issue.

It's like I said though, it's fine and all for this herb to be growing all over the place, but I can't help find it a bit silly that no one has mass produced it into life saving medicine. Going back to what I said about RE1.5, it would have made perfect sense to have the herbs replaced with medicine from then on. The only reason I can see why they kept the herbs even then was for familiarity and to make it a staple of the series, much like how they kept the typewriters and ink ribbons instead of using computers with floppy disks.

Since you brought up the yellow herb in RE4, I've only played through that game once, but I do remember it boosting the life metre permanently. Was that simply for gameplay or was the yellow herb actually documented in the game at all? I can't remember if it was.

[Canas Renvall]

It's like I said though, it's fine and all for this herb to be growing all over the place, but I can't help find it a bit silly that no one has mass produced it into life saving medicine.

You mean like say, crushed into a medicinal powder that's placed in caplets for consumption? *turns head toward RE6*

[Lanzagranadas]

The yellow herb was a dumb addition, it only makes your character turn into a Leon Norris capable to survive rocket launcher explosions towards the end of the game. I'm glad they removed it.

RER also did an awful choice by removing red herbs and sprays just for the sake of a stupid "Press A to instant fully heal you character". I hope reds come back in RER2 and blues come back as well in future games.