Kawata Answers Fan Questions, MTV Interviews Takeuchi (old)

[Sly]

Again, I agree with Archelon. Damn, all this heat/thirst/hallucination thing comes from nowhere. It was not scrapped, simply because it was never meant to be included in the first place ! I want indisputable proof that the dev team actually stated that this feature woulb be included, then ok, I'll believe it.

In any case, this whole idea of hallucinations is silly. It may have worked in games like Eternal Darkness, but the atmosphere of this game had this specific Lovecraft touch, justifying the heroes' madness. What with people bitching about RE4 being "not so RE" but the same guys want some mystic stuff that is clearly NOT RE at all in my opinion. Besides, no one ever affirmed that RE3.5 was all about hallucinations. If anything, the famous gameplay video just proves the opposite.

[Darkmoon]

...you mean a guy with a hook climbing out a picture and dolls attacking? That sounds like hallucinations to me.

And the way I see if is this. Hallucinations, from madness, illness or heat make you doubt what's real and what's not. It makes you cautious and allows options such as unkillable enemies, enemies that aren't really enemies, character development and plot options...and most of all, it's scary. And that's what RE's mostly about, and why RE4 failed.

[Sly]

I didn't see him coming out of the picture, I'll watch it again to make sure. Attacking dolls may not be hallucinations at all. First of all, you cannot burn or be attacked by hallucinations, this would be silly "oh I died because a ghost which doesn't even exist in this reality killed me" I don't buy it. I know some games did include this kind of feature but I don't like it. Besides, I found myself wondering about the true nature of the infamous "black cloud", and theorized that it had the ability to possess anything, from living creatures to inanimated stuff. That explains why the door is suddenly shut tight by a black fog when the dolls attack, and why the man with a hook is shrouded in this same black fog (which can be altered by a flash bang or a flash of thunder - why would an hallucination have a weak point anyway ?). Obviously Leon was infected by that fog, and that is why every time the fog is "active", he suddenly sees the world in blue : he is connected to it. To make things short, I believe that RE3.5 was not so mystic after all, and I bet that the scenario was far more realistic than everybody thought. But we'll never know for sure.

EDIT : Adding scary stuff just for the sake of being scary would be a poor decision. RE is about seemingly impossible but still, somehow realistic phenomenons. Ghosts or stuff like that would be totally out of place.

[Darkmoon]

Indeed so, and hallucinations would be a good one. After all, you're dealing with a vicious disease that reanimates the dead. Hallucinations would not be an unreasonable sympton, expecially given the number of real life diseases that can cause it. And, personally, I find it a more reasonable that a lifeform that can create monsters from paint pigments and cause dolls to get up and attack.

Since these creatures are in the mind of Leon then there attacks and weaknesses would be in his mind as well. If he believed an attack would kill it then it would kill it. And, of course, it is often suggested that the body is affected by the mind. At least to a point that's true. Since when you're worried you sweat and shake, etc. Now, we've all heard that if you die in your dreams you die for real. I suppose hallucinations could do something similar.

Of course, the other explanation is the hallucinations are reacting to his bodies deteriotation...in othe rwords as his body breaks down he recieves damage from the hallucinations, his diseased minds attempt to explain it by showing him recieving the damage.

Either way that, and things like the deer's head leaking blood (a stuffed dear wouldn't have any blood left) and the knights armour attacking and then disolving suggest to me that it's much more likely that this is, partially at least, in Leon's head.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9NLUz...eature=related - Most of the footage on 3.5, for your viewing pleasure.

I still believe it would be a good thing to try and do. But that's just me. As I've said, the added fear is better. But the storyline posibilites are what I really wanna explore.

[Sly]

Well, he does not seem to pop out of the picture, it is as if he was already there, waiting in the corner. The painting does not change or anything, it's like he was waiting in front of it. It may sound far fetched, but I think he probably had some kind of comouflage provided by the black cloud, as the slight blurring effect surrounding his appearance suggets. The way the black cloud leaves his body when he has sustained heavy damage kind of supports my theory of possession (reinforced by the words uttered in the trailer : "invading, contamination, possessed" and not "hallucinating" :p ).
Armors disappear just to save memory, I think you're reading too much into this. As for the deer's blood... well, for all we know, it may not be blood but just another result of the black cloud.

By the way, the idea of flashbangs weakening the enemies was interesetingly kept in RE4, and now we see that the big black tentacle thing returns in RE5... and that the idea of "cradle of the Progenitor Virus" returns as well. But this time it sure is not an hallucination :p Anyway, just my thoughts.