A few things I've always wondered about RE4...

[AsteroidBlues]

With RE6 coming out in a few months I, and many others I'm sure, saw fit to play through a few of my favorite RE games before hand. Those include REmake, RE2, RE4 and RE5 (not so much because it's my favorite, just because it precedes 6). After finishing up with my play through of RE4 I saw a lot of stuff I had forgotten was in the game that I always wondered about. Maybe someone will have more insight on these things than I. Some of these might sound newbish coming from a fan from the Pre-RE4 days, but I gotta know. XD

I'm sure everyone under the sun has played RE4 by now, but just in case you haven't, look away. Thar be spoilers.

First off, in the lovely Mendez estate, there is a human skull in a soup pot. O_O It's quite obvious that Mendez, Salazar and some villagers were having lunch at the time, as evidenced by the cutscene in which you hear Salazar downstairs before getting choked be Mendez. So, why are they eating human head soup? There's also a guy getting cooked by another guy on the island. There's obviously enough cattle in the area to provide meat. Is it just something they like to do?

Las Plagas probably don't view humans as being any different from cattle anymore, so cooking and eating non-infected humans would be perfectly reasonable for them. It might be the bodies of those that haven't survived, those that have come into the region from outside for whatever reason or just about anything else. It could even be Las Plagas who've been injured or mutated. They're not exactly the friendliest things ever.

For most of those questions, your guess is as good as mine. The bodies,skull soup, etc.(other than showing the brutal nature of the infected ganados),were most likely just design ideas to add some horror atmosphere to the settings.

While on the subject of cows, let's talk about the farm. In the cow pen there is a trailer full of dead bodies. Why are they there? I assume they were people who refused the Plagas, or just people that stumbled into the village and got killed. On the second trip through the farm, the bodies are gone... What exactly did they do with them? Eat them? Feed them to the Gigantes?

And those cows, what happened to them? When you're in the village you see one cow, then several more in the farm. Later, when you're going back through with Ashley, they're all gone. I know that there are some rotten sides of beef on the island in the kitchen, but those seem much too old to have been killed just a few hours before Leon arrived. (It seems stupid to have removed them due to memory issues within the game itself)

Why is all the water in the town tainted? I can understand why the water in the troughs and such are tainted, but why the wells? Were they throwing dead people in there or something? Is that what they did with the children? (Besides the one child I think is in the fireplace in the very first house in the game)

After the cabin fight, you have to choose between fighting (or fleeing) and El Gigante or storming through a camp of villagers and the Bella Sisters. Well, after the Bella sister fight and towards the end of that map, there is an inconspicuous door that leads to a small dark shack that has a basement. Once in the basement, it's almost pitch black and on the walls and floor you can see copious amounts of blood and a small passageway that is blocked by refuse. What's that all about? It seems to be significant, being placed in such an odd place.

Shortly before (and possible after, I never checked) the last fight with Mendez at that storage shed in the woods, there is a beetle on a tree. If you get too close it flies away. Was this ever explained? Are there other bugs in the game I just haven't found? (Besides the spiders) I always found it strange that there is a beetle in RE4, then in RE5 you catch beetles to sell. Was that beetle selling feature going to be in RE4 at some early stage of development?

I think the beetles are nothing more than little Easter eggs. And yes, there's another beetle you haven't found. Right after you kill U3 on the island, there's a ladder that leads up to the surface. Next to it is a light; there's a beetle on that light. Swiping at it with the knife or shooting it will make it fly away.

Much later, in the Castle Dungeon where you fight the Novistadores, you come across a dead guy in a cell. You can examine him, but I can't remember what Leon says about him. I think it alludes to the fact that he was killed recently. Who was this guy? Why was he thrown in that cell, in the same dungeon that Luis Sera was thrown in? If he had refused the Plagas, why wasn't he just killed/eaten/fed to the Del Lago like the rest?

In the bedroom overlooking the garden maze (the one with the slowmo Ada showdown), you find several items that allude to the fact that it belonged to a woman. (Perfume bottle, pearl encrusted mirror, dress boxes, etc) Who lived here? Could it have belonged to Salazar's mother or sister? What happened to his family, anyway? The only person you hear about living with Ramone is the mysterious butler, who has a portrait of Ramone in his room for goodness sake.

After Salazar dumps you into the sewers, shortly before the Verdugo battle, there are several zealots that are impaled and crumpled on the floor. One of the zealots is clinging to the Royal Salazar Crown. Why is he holding it? Sure it's just treasure placement, but it seems to implicate something. Perhaps the zealot had it in hand when he was confronting Salazar about something? I find it very strange.

Later, on the island once you get to the medical floor (where you first encounter my favorite, the Regeneradors), seriously... what the heck is going on there? Two areas in particular; The autopsy room where you get the keycard and the freezer. In the autopsy room... why is the Plagas frozen, seemingly in mid-attack, on top of that dude on the table? And later in the freezer, you see the same thing but the pair is connected to some sort of monitor that is getting a reading. Are they still alive?! O_o There is also the guy with the sheet over him near the cardkey changing machine; his hand is moving.

Last but not least, what was Saddler doing to Ashley in that machine at the end of the game? I never found an explanation on that.

My guess? He was keeping her in stasis to delay the hatching of the plaga inside her. Remember that Saddler wanted her to get back to the US before the plaga hatched so she would seem normal, but then the president would be in for a nasty surprise. This plan was foiled, however, when Ashley knew that she had something inside of her, so who knows. This game's plot is severely screwed up.

Yeah, the machine appears to have just been used to keep her in stasis and slow down her Plaga's assimilation, since they need her to be "normal" when she is sent back to the President so he doesn't suspect anything.

(I'm almost through with my RE5 playthrough and have a few questions about some things there too..)

[REmaster]

For most of those questions, your guess is as good as mine. The bodies,skull soup, etc.(other than showing the brutal nature of the infected ganados),were most likely just design ideas to add some horror atmosphere to the settings.

The cows and other things disappearing are simply adding a bit of variety to previously explored areas, keeping things fresh and mysterious when you have to do a bit of backtracking through the village. For the "story" reasons, it's all up to your imagination, but I'm too tired to think up theories at the moment lol.

[Det. Beauregard]

You raise a lot of great questions, but I don't have the answers to most of them. Perhaps News Bot can help?

Shortly before (and possible after, I never checked) the last fight with Mendez at that storage shed in the woods, there is a beetle on a tree. If you get too close it flies away. Was this ever explained? Are there other bugs in the game I just haven't found? (Besides the spiders) I always found it strange that there is a beetle in RE4, then in RE5 you catch beetles to sell. Was that beetle selling feature going to be in RE4 at some early stage of development?

I think the beetles are nothing more than little Easter eggs. And yes, there's another beetle you haven't found. Right after you kill U3 on the island, there's a ladder that leads up to the surface. Next to it is a light; there's a beetle on that light. Swiping at it with the knife or shooting it will make it fly away.

Last but not least, what was Saddler doing to Ashley in that machine at the end of the game? I never found an explanation on that.

My guess? He was keeping her in stasis to delay the hatching of the plaga inside her. Remember that Saddler wanted her to get back to the US before the plaga hatched so she would seem normal, but then the president would be in for a nasty surprise. This plan was foiled, however, when Ashley knew that she had something inside of her, so who knows. This game's plot is severely screwed up.

[Darkmoon]

I don't have any official answers (and kinda hope News Bot doesn't have anything related to this - it's more fun to debate this stuff sometimes) but here are my thoughts.

Las Plagas probably don't view humans as being any different from cattle anymore, so cooking and eating non-infected humans would be perfectly reasonable for them. It might be the bodies of those that haven't survived, those that have come into the region from outside for whatever reason or just about anything else. It could even be Las Plagas who've been injured or mutated. They're not exactly the friendliest things ever.

Maybe they moved the cows to avoid them being caught in the crossfire? No idea about the mucky water, and I don't remember seeing the bloodstained basement.

The bedroom could be almost anyone's. I've seen stately homes where, once the owner of a room dies, the room is simply closed until it's needed again, and mostly left as it was bar the occasional cleaning. So it could be someone whose been dead a while. Most likely it was Mini-Napoleon's mothers, though. We have no idea exactly what happened to his family, but most likely he killed them to gain control of the Las Plagas and the funds to research them.

The Plasgas in the weird lab are Luis' doing, as I understand, part of his research into them.

[Guest]

They put her in that to prevent her from leaving.
She was captured like 4 times in the game, 3 of them didn't work to keep her quiet.

That's my guess.

[CrimsonElder]

Some great questions in here which I am going to keep an eye out for next time playing the game. I have never noticed the human skull being used as a soup bowl. Also whats this about a child in the fireplace? It annoys me that we have no idea what happened to the children because they are in the end video so there was kids there.

About the bettles, I have never noticed one of these or any spiders? I have seen one in Re5 which cannot be collected though so I assume they look like that one. After you kill Irving you follow Jill into a cave. You find her boat docked. Walk forward until you see a lamp on the shelf it is a little bit to your right but more or less infront of you. You cannot miss it really. There is a moving bettle behind that lamp which cannot be collected. I figured they put it in there and forgot to make it collectable lol.

[Darkmoon]

We do know about the kids. They were infected with there parents, but didn't survive the parasite. There parents failed to care because, again, parasite.

[News Bot]

If you think Mikami's story writing was bad, try his dialogue. It's appallingly bad, and is the only real example in the series where the localization is an improvement.

[CrimsonElder]

We do know about the kids. They were infected with there parents, but didn't survive the parasite. There parents failed to care because, again, parasite.

Yes but where are the bodies? If the dead people in the back of the truck can be assumed are the people that did not survie infection then it would be mainly kids?

[Archelon]

This thread reminds me of two of the things I absolutely love about this game: the artistic design and attention to detail.

There are a lot of incidental touches in this game that you probably won't pick up on unless you're playing the HD version, but that go a long way to really sell the atmosphere and artistry of the game. The kind of touches you just don't see in a lot of games these days, and certainly not in Capcom's more recent titles. It just goes to show the kind of masters of their craft Production Studio 4 really were.

[AsteroidBlues]

Another strange thing I noticed is that there is a baby snake in the swamp area on the way to the lake. Every once in a while when I go through that area coming from the village heading to the lake, by the time I've shot all the big snakes and killed all the villagers, there will be a very small snake slithering around the door that leads to the lake. It either leaves a golden egg or nothing, I've never seen it drop a regular or brown egg.

I think the beetles are nothing more than little Easter eggs. And yes, there's another beetle you haven't found. Right after you kill U3 on the island, there's a ladder that leads up to the surface. Next to it is a light; there's a beetle on that light. Swiping at it with the knife or shooting it will make it fly away.

Awesome. That means that there has to be more than two in RE4.... I might have to go on a beetle hunt. XD

Las Plagas probably don't view humans as being any different from cattle anymore, so cooking and eating non-infected humans would be perfectly reasonable for them. It might be the bodies of those that haven't survived, those that have come into the region from outside for whatever reason or just about anything else. It could even be Las Plagas who've been injured or mutated. They're not exactly the friendliest things ever.

I guess that's possible. On the island, you get more than one reference that the Plagas soldiers are eating people. Cooking the guy in the kitchen and the plate full of flesh in that room before the Security Cam room.

Some great questions in here which I am going to keep an eye out for next time playing the game. I have never noticed the human skull being used as a soup bowl. Also whats this about a child in the fireplace? It annoys me that we have no idea what happened to the children because they are in the end video so there was kids there.

About the beetles, I have never noticed one of these or any spiders? I have seen one in Re5 which cannot be collected though so I assume they look like that one. After you kill Irving you follow Jill into a cave. You find her boat docked. Walk forward until you see a lamp on the shelf it is a little bit to your right but more or less infront of you. You cannot miss it really. There is a moving beetle behind that lamp which cannot be collected. I figured they put it in there and forgot to make it collectable lol.

In the first house, where you encounter your first Ganado, if you examine the fireplace Leon will say that there is something in the fire, but he can't tell what it is. Inside you can see little bones and a forearm and hand from a very small person.

The spiders are only in one place in the whole game that I know of. In the abandoned village area (where you find Luis in the cabinet), if you can manage to keep from blowing up any of the trip-mines and kill the dynamite throwers before that can throw, you'll find 2-3 very large spiders in the shed that has a trip-mine in it. You can step on them and they'll squish. XD You can also shoot or knife them.

In Mendez's house, if you go to the kitchen you'll see a big pot sitting on the floor. If you angle your camera just right, you'll see a human skull floating in soup.

This thread reminds me of two of the things I absolutely love about this game: the artistic design and attention to detail.

There are a lot of incidental touches in this game that you probably won't pick up on unless you're playing the HD version, but that go a long way to really sell the atmosphere and artistry of the game. The kind of touches you just don't see in a lot of games these days, and certainly not in Capcom's more recent titles. It just goes to show the kind of masters of their craft Production Studio 4 really were.

Yeah, I totally agree. It took me several playthroughs to notice all the cool stuff. One of my favorite things is in the Village, in one of the houses there is a little window up near the roof line. If you go inside and position yourself just right, it frames the officer's body on the stake perfectly. It's so eery, especially if you sneak to that house before the Ganado notice you.

[yurieu]

1:human head soup and ganados reminds me "Bad Taste", from Peter Jackson. maybe its just like the dude said, terror reference. maybe those cooked people were non las plagas infected.

2: RE4 Lost file:
"About disposing corpses.
Once you kill men, there are two ways to get rid of the corpses.
1. Gather them up at the farm and set fire to them. They will become good fertilizer.
2. Offer the corpses to the "lake" and then go away from that spot.
Do not dispose of corpses while alone."

3: oh please! dont forget those poor chickens!!!!!!
4:you mean the place where cows drink water? the ganados didnt change the water in ages... in the rest of the place, there are pots with rotten food. those tainted wells, think, a lot of ganados washing their arms and hands full of blood and guts after killing and carrying all those bodies....

5: i remember this too, but i dont know, maybe it was cut off, its like the Super Mario World Top Secret Stage, it is so mysterious.

6:i never saw that beattle, but i remember i saw one in the church fence glich. in Remake there is a Bug in the palce u put a wolf/eagle medal to get to lab. see if they are the same.

7: you can see the dead dude before the novistadores appearance. this may introduce some horror, but FAIL!
8:they were visiting spanish castles in development, may they introduce it because it is beautiful. as logic, the noble people from castle may include women.

9: maybe that religious dude saw the place was ruining by las plagas, and he try to scape but stole some expensive jewel to finance his scape through spain.

10: FREEZER: i really believe to the las plagas infected become regenerators, they must be handled in low temperature places, to assimilate the parasite and mutate perfectly with low cell activity. that las plagas is alive, you can see it moving its legs. AUTOPSY: maybe he was injected with some rigidity toxin? or, like in Alien movie, to avoid outbreak, even frosting the whole place was a good choice

11: the same process may have occurred with krauser, in order to not become a general ganado moron, she was putted in that machine who could make the plaga assimilation very good, without sequel, comportamental and physical alterations, but controllable by Saddler.

but anyway, i prefer Resident evil 4 beta.


obs: you are right, everyone in this earth played Re4.

[AsteroidBlues]

1:human head soup and ganados reminds me "Bad Taste", from Peter Jackson. maybe its just like the dude said, terror reference. maybe those cooked people were non las plagas infected.

2: RE4 Lost file:
"About disposing corpses.
Once you kill men, there are two ways to get rid of the corpses.
1. Gather them up at the farm and set fire to them. They will become good fertilizer.
2. Offer the corpses to the "lake" and then go away from that spot.
Do not dispose of corpses while alone."

3: oh please! dont forget those poor chickens!!!!!!
4:you mean the place where cows drink water? the ganados didnt change the water in ages... in the rest of the place, there are pots with rotten food. those tainted wells, think, a lot of ganados washing their arms and hands full of blood and guts after killing and carrying all those bodies....

5: i remember this too, but i dont know, maybe it was cut off, its like the Super Mario World Top Secret Stage, it is so mysterious.

6:i never saw that beattle, but i remember i saw one in the church fence glich. in Remake there is a Bug in the palce u put a wolf/eagle medal to get to lab. see if they are the same.

7: you can see the dead dude before the novistadores appearance. this may introduce some horror, but FAIL!
8:they were visiting spanish castles in development, may they introduce it because it is beautiful. as logic, the noble people from castle may include women.

9: maybe that religious dude saw the place was ruining by las plagas, and he try to scape but stole some expensive jewel to finance his scape through spain.

10: FREEZER: i really believe to the las plagas infected become regenerators, they must be handled in low temperature places, to assimilate the parasite and mutate perfectly with low cell activity. that las plagas is alive, you can see it moving its legs. AUTOPSY: maybe he was injected with some rigidity toxin? or, like in Alien movie, to avoid outbreak, even frosting the whole place was a good choice

11: the same process may have occurred with krauser, in order to not become a general ganado moron, she was putted in that machine who could make the plaga assimilation very good, without sequel, comportamental and physical alterations, but controllable by Saddler.

but anyway, i prefer Resident evil 4 beta.


obs: you are right, everyone in this earth played Re4.

1: Peter Jackson? In my RE4? No thank you.

2: What's the source of that file?

3: xD Damn the chickens!

4: I stated that I understood why the troughs (I.e. "what the cows drink out of" as you put it) were filthy. I was inquiring more about the wells from which the people drank their water (as you mentioned). There are 2-3 in the game and they are filthy. Being Plagas ridden beasts, why would they wash their hands at all, let alone in the wells? O_O They had to have been disposing of something into those wells for them to be so feted.

5: xD I guess. I just hate seeing mysterious pathways that are blocked with no explanation... Do they go to another part of the cellar? Do they connect to the mines? Is it one of Luis Sera's secret passageways that his grandfather showed him? EXPLAIN CAPCOM!

6: Hrmm... I might have to boot up REmake to check that out.

7: I didn't think it was that fail... I thought it was pretty interesting. XD

8: Meh I guess. I prefer to think that there is something implied by that room, being as it's so unique to the castle area.

9: That's actually pretty interesting. I had some farfetched notion that he might have been confronting Ramone about his missing father (The wearer of the crown) and he got "disposed of"

10: I think it was mentioned in the files that the plagas were used to create the Regeneradors, but don't just evolve into them. They are a biologically created being using the Plagas as an ingredient to form them. News bot will have to confirm this with is ungodly knowledge of BOW's.

11: Well, the reason Krauser wasn't a Ganado moron was because he had a Master/Control plagas versus the average plagas that took over the host completely. They wouldn't infect Ashley with a Master/Control plagas as that would give her control over it and no plagas breakout would happen upon her return home.

[yurieu]

yeah, you sould see bad taste!!! anyway, the file i read here:

http://board.sonicstadium.org/topic/5575-resident-evil-betas-lost-games-current-revelatons-resident-evil-545/

yes, the washing hands polite ganados its contraditory i assume .

[News Bot]

10: I think it was mentioned in the files that the plagas were used to create the Regeneradors, but don't just evolve into them. They are a biologically created being using the Plagas as an ingredient to form them. News bot will have to confirm this with is ungodly knowledge of BOW's.

11: Well, the reason Krauser wasn't a Ganado moron was because he had a Master/Control plagas versus the average plagas that took over the host completely. They wouldn't infect Ashley with a Master/Control plagas as that would give her control over it and no plagas breakout would happen upon her return home.

1) http://projectumbrella.net/articles/Regenerador

2) Ashley was part of a "ritual" involving the mother/queen Plaga which gave her Plaga the ability to either become another mother Plaga or to simply gain the ability to spawn Plagas, which would then forcefully take control of anyone nearby.