Some cool 1.5 exclusive screenshots (**As seen on TV!**)

[Graco]

What I want to know is why is almost all of Elza's artwork depicting her with brown hair when she is blonde in the demos?

[RMandel]

John Clemens in BH1 was an Umbrella scientist who regretted what he did right before he became a zombie. John in BH1.5 is just a regular joe civilian. There was no "original intent" for him. Likewise with Clemens, who would have only been a behind-the-scenes sort of character whose identity was pretty readily apparent.

Look, I'm not going to argue about this. The "original intent" for John, or whatever you want to call this particular character in RE15 is documented. I will concede that it was abandoned fairly fast, but is IS documented. If you're going to make any comparison with similarities in RE2 with regards to, say, how Linda/Ada developed as a character, that's the only place you CAN look because that's all there is that's anything like how she finally turned out. Sugimura's transforming her into a femme fatale character type was a brilliant move on his part storywise, in my opinion. Making Linda/Ada the "secret" character (instead of John) was the right move for her because it made her - and the game - so much more. Perhaps such a comparison is unfair to both characters, and what they ultimately became, and I'll grant you that, too. I think we can both agree, though, that "secret John" (as I'll label him) wouldn't have worked out anyway for any kind of reasons either of us could name. I'll end my side of any further discussion on this with a hopefully humorous but pointed speculative illustration. Take any promo picture you choose of Ada Wong - her La Femme Nikita poses, or whatever. No, you in the corner, not THOSE pictures. Okay, but I'm warning you .... Now, I'm gonna wave my magic wand, remove Ada from that picture, and substitute Robert Kendo - aka "John." ... ... ... ... ... ... I think that's enough of that, don't you? Oh, and somebody get that guy in the corner some smelling salts or something.

Many scrapped ideas do get used, but people try and force connections a bit too much.

I wasn't doing anything of the sort. I was trying to draw comparisons between what RE15 was and what it became with RE2, thanks to Sugimura's rewrite, using apparent similarities or things that we know got changed. Maybe I did go overboard in drawing my comparisons, and for that I apologize. There's such a world of difference between the two, though. RE15 sucks, storywise. I didn't say that - Shinji Mikami did. Having looked at the story myself, I agree with him. The story is an excuse for the game. With Sugimura's reversioning and rewrite (RE2), the story now drives the game. That's a world of difference - and his changes in the story also drove how the game was changed. That's all I was trying to say.

Elza was cut because she had the personality of a paperweight.

Amen to that. No argument there.

[Darkside05]

elza would of been an amazing character I love her oufit I wish they would of given claire the outfit as an extra but At least I can mod my pc version with her outfit.
When I was a kid I was instantly drawn to elza and from the moment on I always used to import Amercian game magazines like EGM those were the days lol.
Of course now we have internet we can see anything we want about 1.5 image wise.

Also I know everyone is very hopeful that we are getting this game sometime during this year but remember anything can happen so always brace yourself for something like that but Here's hoping all goes well for the team working on this game , I wish them all the best and luck in the world lol.

I have a question as well , in the 40% version does elza have the gorilla boss fight ? I remember seeing her in a room with John and a huge table and the gorillas came through the ceiling.

That would be the RPD Media Room so it seems, really anything could be in or out, depending on the build.

[Graco]

Well to be fair Elza was never given a chance for character development. We could be saying the same of Leon had he been scrapped. There's only so much.

[News Bot]

Look, I'm not going to argue about this. The "original intent" for John, or whatever you want to call this particular character in RE15 is documented. I will concede that it was abandoned fairly fast, but is IS documented. If you're going to make any comparison with similarities in RE2 with regards to, say, how Linda/Ada developed as a character, that's the only place you CAN look because that's all there is that's anything like how she finally turned out. Sugimura's transforming her into a femme fatale character type was a brilliant move on his part storywise, in my opinion. Making Linda/Ada the "secret" character (instead of John) was the right move for her because it made her - and the game - so much more. Perhaps such a comparison is unfair to both characters, and what they ultimately became, and I'll grant you that, too. I think we can both agree, though, that "secret John" (as I'll label him) wouldn't have worked out anyway for any kind of reasons either of us could name. I'll end my side of any further discussion on this with a hopefully humorous but pointed speculative illustration. Take any promo picture you choose of Ada Wong - her La Femme Nikita poses, or whatever. No, you in the corner, not THOSE pictures. Okay, but I'm warning you .... Now, I'm gonna wave my magic wand, remove Ada from that picture, and substitute Robert Kendo - aka "John." ... ... ... ... ... ... I think that's enough of that, don't you? Oh, and somebody get that guy in the corner some smelling salts or something.

Where is it documented? Because it is not. If you're referring to this:

A33. We planned to entwine Ada’s lover “John” into the sub-story. He supported the main characters from the shadows to make amends for his involvement in the evil plans of Umbrella while his own body was being attacked by “T-virus” and entrusted the player with “anti T-virus ammo” to pierce Tyrant with the final blow at the end, and died without meeting Ada…For the zapping mode, whether John survived until the end or died depended on the player… How about that one? Should I have done it?

It is a scrapped sub-plot for the final version (hence Tyrant, which was not planned for 1.5), and is referring to John Clemens, not 1.5 John. It wasn't an "original intent", it was an idea that never came to fruition.

There was no mystery to John in 1.5.

Well to be fair Elza was never given a chance for character development. We could be saying the same of Leon had he been scrapped. There's only so much.

She had a full game, that's enough.

[Kegluneq]

That would be the RPD Media Room so it seems, really anything could be in or out, depending on the build.

The place where Elza fights the gorilla boss is the Conference Room, and it's generally accepted to be on the 3rd Floor. The RPD Media Room is located on the 2nd Floor.

[Kegluneq]

She had a full game, that's enough.

I said this once, I'll say it again. You cannot evaluate the story or its characters without knowing how much of the it could be revamped before the final product was finished. BioHazard 1.5 was scrapped at about 60 to 70% (depending on the sources), which would give the development team plenty of time to enrich the plot if they felt it was necessary and incomplete. If any of us had played BioHazard 2 Beta 2 and the game had been cancelled, it would be inconceivable to classify its story with such regard as it was in the retail product.

[randomwab]

There was no mystery to John in 1.5.

I've seen the concept art; that icy gaze, the eyes of a dead soul. You can't argue with that. He was mysterious. Fact.

Spoiler:

show spoiler

[Rick Hunter]

She had a full game, that's enough.

Ah! Nope.

[News Bot]

I said this once, I'll say it again. You cannot evaluate the story or its characters without knowing how much of the it could be revamped before the final product was finished. BioHazard 1.5 was scrapped at about 60 to 70% (depending on the sources), which would give the development team plenty of time to enrich the plot if they felt it was necessary and incomplete. If any of us had played BioHazard 2 Beta 2 and the game had been cancelled, it would be inconceivable to classify its story with such regard as it was in the retail product.

"60-70%" refers to the actual game itself, though. Not the scenario, which is ultimately where her personality is dictated. The game was "full" in that respect as the scenario was complete from start to finish. They did attempt to enrich the plot, but attempts at this failed and Elza was one of the first things to go... and this was before Sugimura came in.

Ah! Nope.

The scenario was complete, then it underwent revision, at which point they decided Elza could be replaced with a kettle to little effect.

[Darkmoon]

Elza was cut because she had the personality of a paperweight.

OK, even if that is true (which we'd only really know if we had a full script) then it would mean she has exactly the same amount of personality as everyone else in a Resident Evil game. The whole damned cast should have been cut! More likely, her personality was probably identical to Claire's bar the fact that Claire mentions she's looking for her brother, twice, realizes he's not there and focuses on Sherry for the rest of the game (kinda like Elza almost certainly did). Having a slightly more interconnecting back story does give a character personality.

[Carnivol]

I think "cut" is a bad term to use. She wasn't really "cut" per say, she just ultimately took on the form of Claire. Like, regardless of how much people might like the "Elza Walker" design, the ulitmate truth to it all is that Elza Walker and Claire Redfield's at the end of the day the very same character.

This happens all the time in game development - it's just not that common that a design goes into full production, to then get altered afterwards (although that happens too, usually after focus group testing - with dialog lines and such being tweaked, scenes redone and so forth in order to completely alter personalities and focus)

[News Bot]

OK, even if that is true (which we'd only really know if we had a full script) then it would mean she has exactly the same amount of personality as everyone else in a Resident Evil game. The whole damned cast should have been cut! More likely, her personality was probably identical to Claire's bar the fact that Claire mentions she's looking for her brother, twice, realizes he's not there and focuses on Sherry for the rest of the game (kinda like Elza almost certainly did). Having a slightly more interconnecting back story does give a character personality.

Her personality was like a weaker, blank version of what we got in Claire. They had to make her a racer in order to give her some sort of identity. When they wrote Claire, they removed the racer occupation because it wasn't needed anymore. Claire's personality and backstory made her a stronger character, and quite a likable one judging from the level of praise and desperate prayers for her to get her own game again. Elza was bland. Or at least, blander than most other characters in the series.

I think "cut" is a bad term to use. She wasn't really "cut" per say, she just ultimately took on the form of Claire. Like, regardless of how much people might like the "Elza Walker" design, the ulitmate truth to it all is that Elza Walker and Claire Redfield's at the end of the day the very same character.

This happens all the time in game development - it's just not that common that a design goes into full production, to then get altered afterwards (although that happens too, usually after focus group testing - with dialog lines and such being tweaked, scenes redone and so forth in order to completely alter personalities and focus)

Pretty much, but word choice aside it amounts to the same thing.

[Darkmoon]

Well, let's see...bike riding student who has a care for the abandoned little girl complex describes both. I'd have to give the common sense edge to Elza, though, since she wears better clothes on a bike (and also rides a better bike). But yeah, they pretty much dyed Elza blonde, changed her name and decided she should wear pink.

EDIT: That's just it, the whole cast has the personality of a spoon. They most likely had identical back stories bar one was a bike riding student and the other a bike riding student who apparently thinks unaswered phone calls mean to go into a zombie infested death city looking for a sibling...and yes, I know Claire didn't know it was full of zombies at the time.

But by that logic, Leon in RE2 has the same level of personality as Elza - he's a rookie cop who apparently mistakes being in someone's company for eight hours as a serious romance (and makes me seriously nervous about him being a cop...) since he doesn't have hat same connection, and therefore personality boost, as Claire.

Don't get me wrong - Claire is actually my favourite character. But simply adding in the name 'Redfield' does not add depth.

[News Bot]

Claire is also a student, and she also protects Sherry. "Racer" was a crutch for Elza which was foregone once they made Claire the younger sister of Chris, changing her voice actor, fleshing out her backstory (vibrant, lots of boyfriends, rebellious hence the lockpick) and generally making her "stronger" to represent the fact that she was trained in self-defense by a Special Forces member. I never said changing her name added any depth. Changing her backstory and motivations did, Elza remaining the weaker refuse who probably would've worked better for Outbreak. Not saying Elza was a "bad" character, but she wasn't what they wanted and was pretty bland as far as BIO characters go.

Leon's personality and backstory was also completely different from what it is in the final version.