# Chapter Select, [[S5E1 - Resident Evil]] Transcript This transcription was completed on March 4, 2026 with the application MacWhisper on macOS. This was done automatically, without human input during the transcription process. The transcription used the Parakeet v3 model. My hope is that by offering this transcription – however accurate it may be done by a machine learning/AI – will help you, the listener. I’d love to offer full, proper transcription some day, but that is not feasible at this time. Thank you for listening and reading. I hope you enjoy the show and that this document was helpful. Enjoy. --- Man, I gotta listen to that Kojima podcast. *00:00* Just remember that. *00:03* Is it out? *00:04* Uh no, I think it's out in September. *00:06* By the way, here is this, if you want to look at it briefly. *00:08* There's about ten total seconds of new gameplay within the first ten seconds. *00:13* For the first time though, if you watch the first 20 seconds *00:20* Uh, you can see the first actual uncut gameplay from the game. *00:24* Oh. *00:29* The thing that stands out to me the most *00:29* Personally, on a very dumb note. *00:33* Did you see it? *00:38* Yeah, I just saw it. *00:38* The game. *00:39* The thing that stands out to me the most is that I mean, I don't think this is shocking by any means. *00:40* But clearly this is the dwarf d realm. *00:45* This is the seaside town. *00:50* Yeah. *00:52* They've shown this off previously. *00:52* This is uh the *00:53* Enemy he's fighting has a one over its head, which means it's a lower level basic enemy which is. *00:55* Which is not a shock at all. *01:04* So you will clearly start the game, be on the run, is there a jump get to the bifrost. *01:07* You'll get to the bifrost and then *01:13* Like he's leaping from below the wall. *01:16* Is there a jump button? *01:18* I'm go I'm going to imagine if you jump off it's just an animation. *01:19* Kind of like old Zelda games where if you run off a cliff he goes up. *01:23* Yeah, but he's jumping from lower ground up to this higher platform. *01:26* Let me see. *01:31* Like clearing. *01:32* I don't he's got the axe out. *01:36* He's not using the chains. *01:38* It's true. *01:42* There's no way. *01:43* Or it could just be that special, because it's clearly whatever that L2 or R2 is, is what he just used, so maybe that's a part of it is a leap. *01:44* The HUD looks essentially the same. *01:52* Yeah, I'm gonna guess you can jump on certain platforms either with the blades or with a certain button prompt. *01:55* Wait, are they showing that you they're gonna have comparisons of all three platforms? *02:02* There's a three by three shot. *02:07* Or is those platform is there? *02:09* PS4, PS4 Pro, and PS five. *02:13* Oh yeah *02:16* Oh those are accessibility features. *02:23* So you can see the cut. *02:24* Here's the thing. *02:26* Go to 42 seconds into the video. *02:26* You can see the cut that they cut between during those sequences where you're asking where if he's jumping. *02:29* He's clearly just jumping from one platform. *02:35* Yeah. *02:37* One platform to another. *02:38* It must be like a movement thing that you can just he pro or maybe executed the move in the air, which then gave him the extra vertical. *02:39* Maybe *02:47* You can also see an Odin Raven. *02:48* This does, I will say, I'm hyped as can be for this game, but it does look very similar to the last one. *02:51* Well, I hate to break it to you, but it's using a lot of the assets from the first game. *02:57* I know, but even like the Ovi Odin Raven here being here. *03:02* Listen, I'm gonna tell you right now. *03:07* I I don't need to see any of this. *03:09* Like, good job game informed getting the scoop, but I don't need to see it. *03:11* Come November *03:16* Like I'm gonna put I'm interested in seeing some raw gameplay. *03:17* Like little like encounters like that to see how many subtle changes there are, but that's about it. *03:23* Like I don't wanna see I don't wanna see cutscene stuff. *03:29* Like I don't wanna hear anything about story or don't don't tell me any more about that. *03:33* That I'm good *03:38* Leave me alone. *03:39* I'm done with that. *03:39* But if you want to show me like here's some new Kratos animations in an axe thing. *03:40* Like I don't mind seeing that. *03:45* Do you think Game Informer's got the exclusive *03:46* Thor reveal. *03:49* We know what Thor looks like, but you don't think they're really showing. *03:50* I think they may as well just hold that for the game at this point. *03:53* Actually they won't. *03:55* They'll release another big trailer. *03:56* Yeah. *03:58* I think Odin will not be shown until the game is out. *04:00* That would be great. *04:02* They shouldn't do that. *04:03* I I don't think we see Odin until game is out and people are talking about it. *04:04* I think that would be very fun. *04:10* Yeah, I don't need to see any more of this game though. *04:12* I'm fine. *04:15* You know, if it's more God of War, that's fine. *04:16* Refine it. *04:19* Refine it. *04:20* That's what that game needed was just *04:21* refinement to like really push it over the top. *04:23* You know what I will? *04:26* I will allow scene one thing. *04:27* If you see it, send it my way. *04:29* the management and item management system reform like that needs to be Oh yeah yeah yeah if the if that has been completely revamped *04:32* I'd love to see what that menu looks like. *04:40* I will say this. *04:42* The other most interesting thing about the cover to me, I was very closely inspecting this *04:43* game in former cover. *04:49* And I think there are two things that stand out. *04:50* One is just, oh, more dragons. *04:52* Huzzah. *04:54* But I don't think that's really that important. *04:55* But two *04:57* Brock and Sindry are fighting. *04:58* I noticed that. *05:00* I was like, huh? *05:01* Are they gonna be fighting in this game? *05:03* Are they gonna be duke in and out with some people? *05:04* Are we gonna actually see them throw down? *05:07* I I just like quickly glanced in the car, so I didn't actually get to see. *05:10* So there's like some toad amphibias, but yeah, there's Brack and Sindry up there fighting. *05:14* So someone is raining fire down. *05:21* Yes. *05:24* Thor, presumably. *05:25* Maybe. *05:30* I I don't think Odin would hail fire from the skies above, so maybe it's uh it could be another god or giant. *05:31* Maybe it's uh tear. *05:41* I don't can tear do that? *05:45* I think tear is in this realm. *05:47* He is in this realm for sure. *05:49* Absolutely. *05:51* Like I think that's what brings him here. *05:52* Um *05:54* I'm very excited for this game, but I will also say nothing against the game specifically, but this is also, I mentioned this before, like I was like, oh, I want to play Last of Us Part 1. *05:56* And if I do that, I kind of want to play part two. *06:05* And *06:08* I was like, man, I don't know if I should do that because then we'll get to November. *06:08* I'll be like, oh boy, another story-driven third-person action game. *06:13* And obviously they're all very different from each other. *06:16* combat wise and I am so God of War Ragnarok is like the my most hyped game. *06:19* There's no way I would play Ragnarok and would get to it and be like *06:24* I don't actually want to play this right now. *06:28* Like I as soon as it comes out, I will be all over that. *06:29* Well, funny thing is is you'll be reviewing it, so you'll have it two weeks before everyone else anyway. *06:33* Hopefully. *06:38* That's the prayer. *06:39* That's the prayer. *06:41* Let us pray to the Lord Jim Ryan above. *06:42* That game will go gold. *06:46* That I'm not blacklisted for *06:48* Calling P Last of Us Part One a money grab. *06:50* Well, that's true. *06:53* Yeah. *06:54* Hack. *06:55* Um No. *06:56* Um that game will go gold here in the beginning, uh *06:58* Late September, early October, that game will go gold and press will get codes, I think second, third week of October. *07:02* You know the thing is this is now a thing that it just showed proves that this is absolutely out this year. *07:10* Like they're not doing a game in former cover story and then gonna be like, oh last second delay, we're sorry guys. *07:16* Like there's no way that there was no doubt in my mind that this game was I mean, you and I both have been saying God of War is out this year. *07:21* There's no way it's not, so *07:27* I do kind of like from a PlayStation perspective, you know, they've got the marketing engine up for Last of Us Part One, and then they're going full swing into God of War. *07:29* Like that's a really good *07:40* Marketing. *07:42* I think we're gonna get part one. *07:43* I think next week they'll be like, hey guys, event. *07:45* We'll have an event. *07:49* And then I think I think it'll be God of War full tilt. *07:50* I think this month will be busy because there's not a lot of things. *07:54* I think they gotta show us what the heck else they're doing. *08:03* I also think we gotta see Spider-Man. *08:06* You think Spider-Man? *08:08* Yeah, if it's their big like quote unquote. *08:09* Yeah. *08:13* They still haven't had their E3 level event and the last time they did was September. *08:14* Their next event, like big, you know *08:19* 30 40 minute showcase or whatever, they're gonna th they will have another PSVR2 thing. *08:23* It's going to be playable at TGS. *08:29* Yeah, that's why I think that Vince also everybody said this week that a direct is absolutely 100% happening. *08:32* Yeah. *08:39* Multiple people have said that. *08:40* What's up with them tweeting out a release date? *08:42* Like uh release window. *08:44* Early 23 for PSVR2. *08:46* They didn't even tweet it, did they? *08:48* Yeah, they tweeted it. *08:49* It was like PlayStation France, but then other PlayStation accounts. *08:50* I don't think I saw it on Instagram, I thought, but *08:53* Yeah, no, I there was a tweet somewhere. *08:57* Eventually. *09:00* But you're right, it started on Instagram. *09:01* So weird, so strange. *09:03* But *09:06* You know, whatever. *09:08* So we're definitely gonna see more of that. *09:09* We're gonna see Spider-Man. *09:11* We gotta see what other studios are cooking. *09:14* So you know, someone somewhere. *09:16* What's Fixaloplis up to? *09:18* Media Molecule got anything where's Dreams PS5, you know? *09:20* What about Dreams PC is what it *09:24* Yeah, it should be. *09:29* Nixus should be working on that right now. *09:30* Uh should have been working on it for a while. *09:33* Um that should launch on PSVR2, PS5, PC, everywhere. *09:36* Dreams needs to be everywhere. *09:40* It needs to have their games exportable and monetizable. *09:42* The whole deal. *09:46* Come on, Dreams, your tool set, first and foremost. *09:48* Um where's Knack three? *09:52* You know, what's Mark Sarney really working on? *09:55* Ten-year anniversary knack coming up. *09:57* What if this is NAC part one? *09:59* I'll ask I'll say this. *10:02* How are we getting a Gravity Rush movie, but not a Knack movie? *10:04* If you were to ask me what pot Fran PlayStation franchise is more beloved and popular, I would say Knack. *10:09* Not everybody absolutely would get people to go see it. *10:15* Yeah. *10:20* People would go see Nack. *10:21* I'd go see Knack. *10:22* NAC is back in the theaters, baby. *10:23* Adapt Nack for the big screen. *10:27* Do it, Mark Cerny. *10:29* You know what though? *10:31* I think a complex character like Knack with so many parts and facets and objects to him. *10:32* Deserves like a TV series, a 20-episode season, 45-minute episode to dig into Knack, you know? *10:39* Who would play NAC? *10:49* Hmm. *10:52* I have an idea, but it's it's somebody who's already starred in a video game franchise recently. *10:53* Idriselba *11:00* Idris Elba is Knack. *11:02* First he fought a lion. *11:04* Now then he was Knuckles, and now he is Knack. *11:06* Um 'cause Nat has that big ol' low voice when he gets into Mega Natalina. *11:12* But what's his high voice? *11:17* Like what's his little *11:18* Does he talk when he's a little knack? *11:20* I don't even know. *11:22* I don't remember. *11:23* I need to play knack too to understand the lore. *11:25* That would be a funny *11:29* Like I've talked about April Fool's kind of seasons for us. *11:30* I own NAC2 on New Zealand PSN. *11:36* I own it like a disc of it, but I don't know where it's at now that I think I need to I need to own knack one and two physically. *11:41* I don't *11:47* Alright, uh let's do this. *11:49* What do you want to do here? *11:51* You wanna do episode one or episode zero? *11:52* I know we've got a whole big pre-show recording thing. *11:54* Is it better for you if Oh we do one or zero now? *11:57* Does it matter? *12:02* We can obviously it doesn't it doesn't. *12:03* No, I can just spice them across. *12:05* Um Let's just do episode one. *12:07* Okay, we'll do zero episode. *12:11* Let's get a feel for this and then we'll go back and do *12:12* Hello everybody and welcome to Chapter Select, a seasonal podcast where we bounce. *12:21* back and forth between a series of games exploring their evolution, design, and legacy. *12:26* For this season five, we are covering the Resident Evil series. *12:31* My name is Max Roberts, and I'm joined as always by Logan Moore. *12:36* Hi Logan. *12:39* Max, it is finally time for you to join the zombie family. *12:40* Oh my gosh. *12:46* I thought you were gonna make a Jill sandwich joke. *12:47* I was waiting for the sandwich joke. *12:50* No, maybe we'll have some Jill Sandwich jokes later. *12:52* But uh no, this is finally time that we bring you into the Resident Evil fold this season. *12:55* Would you say bring me in under the umbrella? *13:02* Yes, exactly. *13:05* There you go. *13:06* You found a good Resident Evil punter joked. *13:07* Yes, it's time we bring you I it's time I bring you under the umbrella of the Resident Evil fandom *13:09* Which I am very, very excited about. *13:15* Because it because it's a r it's really great how we've set these up. *13:17* So if you're a good time. *13:20* Yeah, if you're a longtime listener of the show, obviously this is our uh what sixth season here that we're doing with Resident Evil. *13:22* Fifth uh with our zero, yeah, so six. *13:27* Yeah, yeah, sixth season sort of. *13:30* Uh this is our fifth season properly, with season four we're doing Fast and Furious, and that was a season that I knew nothing about before coming into it, and Max knew everything about. *13:32* Now we have turned the tables. *13:40* Uh I have been preaching the Resident Evil Gospel since I was a youngster, and Max has never really played any of these games *13:42* Um, which I think we can I mean let's just talk about that up front before we get too much into talking about today's episode, which will be centered around Resident Evil 1, obviously. *13:50* Um *13:59* But yeah, I'm coming into this as sort of the pseudo-expert. *14:00* I have played all of these games that we're going to play before. *14:03* The only ones I have not played are the Revelations games, which I even might play at some point. *14:07* Over the course of this season, just because I've never done that. *14:12* You've only played to my knowledge, what, seven, two remake, three mi and three remake, I think? *14:15* I've played half of seven *14:22* I've played eight to completion. *14:25* I've played half of two. *14:28* Played the Leon campaign. *14:30* I've played Okay, so you didn't even do the dual routes. *14:31* I did I Platinum 3, so I've played very a lot. *14:34* Um, and I am working my way through Resident Evil 4 VR before we started this season on Quest. *14:39* So *14:44* Uh I'm not done with that game, but I have just recently started it. *14:45* So And you've obviously played one now, duh, which we'll talk one now. *14:49* But really, I hadn't played Resident Evil until 7 came out, and I got that because it was a PSVR launch title *14:54* Um and I wanted that seemed like a perfect companion piece for that. *15:04* And we'll we'll talk about that in Resident Evil 7 episode. *15:08* But that was my exposure to the series, and then I grabbed two cheap at a GameStop one time. *15:11* Just cause people talked about it, seemed fun. *15:18* And then eight when it came out, I had a coupon like twenty dollars off I had to spend at Best Buy, so that got me Resident Evil Village. *15:20* And three was kind of I just I kept hearing three was short, so I wanted something quick and snappy to finish. *15:27* There's something alluring about short games. *15:33* That's why I'm currently playing at the time we were recording this a Call of Duty game. *15:35* Like I told you I was playing Black Ops 2 and you're like, why? *15:38* I'm like, I don't know. *15:41* Just *15:41* Short, dumb game I can play for no reason. *15:42* Yeah. *15:45* And Resident Evil 3 was that for me this year. *15:45* I uh earlier this year is when I played in platinum that game within *15:47* Two weeks? *15:52* It was a very tight window and I had a blast with it. *15:53* And then now Resident Evil 1. *15:57* I am uh I mean conversely, so you've never played most of these. *15:59* I'm excited to revisit these. *16:02* Because I have not played most of these games seriously since uh whatever I mean I'll tell I I forget it. *16:05* I'll just tell my *16:13* We'll get into the rundown of Resident Evil 1 here in a second, but I I I'll I'll share my own legacy and history of this series, I guess, up front too is I remember when Resident Evil 5 was coming out. *16:14* Uh I've told this story on podcasts before, but I've obviously never told it here, so we'll get this out of the way up front to start the season. *16:24* I remember when Resident Evil 5 was coming out, and I was really excited for that game, and I thought it looked awesome. *16:30* And but my tick that I have always had with larger game franchises is, oh, I can't just jump into five. *16:36* I gotta play all of them. *16:43* So I went to GameStops GameStop and I bought Resident Evil 1, 2, and 3 on GameCube. *16:44* I bought Resident Evil 0, I bought Resident Evil 4, I bought Resident Evil *16:51* Hold Veronica *16:55* And I forced myself to play through all of them. *16:56* All on GameCube? *16:58* Uh I played one, two, three on GameCube. *17:00* I played zero on GameCube. *17:04* I played four on PS2, and I played Code Veronica on PS2. *17:06* You honest you should have played them all on GameCube, because then you would truly have like the most valuable set of Resident Evil games because *17:10* That was an interesting time was when it was like Resident Evil went kind of GameCube exclusive for a hot minute and it was awesome. *17:19* Yeah, I just remember playing through all of them with the goal of like, oh, I need to do this all so I have the full context of what happens in five. *17:27* And then when I played five in the moment, I was like, eh, that was fine. *17:35* Like kind of the same thing that happened. *17:39* I did a similar thing with Metal Gear Solid when Metal Gear Solid 4 was coming out. *17:41* I was like, I gotta play all these games before Metal Gear Solid 4. *17:45* And then retroactively after I finished Guns of the Patriots, I was like, huh, I think Metal Gear Solid 3 is actually much better. *17:48* I like that game more. *17:54* Um, so it's funny how those things work out. *17:56* But but yeah, I mean since then I I I played I played all of the games *17:59* As if it was work with the goal of getting to five, but as time went on, I was like, oh, I just really like all of these games for *18:04* what they're doing. *18:11* Uh and yeah, I I I think I played them all when I was in middle school for the first time and since then I've just been a huge fan. *18:13* I never I will say this to get this out of uh the way up front, I've never played six to completion. *18:19* It is my blind spot. *18:24* When I saw six, I was like, nah, I don't want this. *18:26* And I uh So we can do it together. *18:28* So we will finish six together when we get to it further in the season. *18:31* Um *18:35* But today let's talk about the game that started it all, which is Resident Evil, the original game in the series. *18:36* It was developed, as all other games in the series are by Capcom. *18:43* It originally released on PlayStation. *18:47* It later came to PC, Saturn, Nintendo DS. *18:50* It was remade for GameCube, which is the version that we played. *18:53* the HD version of that game at least. *18:56* We'll we'll get into some of those nuances here in a second. *18:58* Uh it originally released on March 22nd, 1996. *19:00* Uh it then released on the same date in 2002, which is kind of cool, uh, on GameCube. *19:05* Uh the HD version which came to PS4, Xbox One, PC, and other platforms. *19:11* uh arrived in twenty fifteen. *19:17* Uh a DS version of the game called Deadly Silence. *19:19* Resident Evil Deadly Silence released on February seventh as well. *19:24* You told me to jot that down for reasons I think I imagine we'll get into here in a bit. *19:27* The game director on this was Shinji Makami. *19:32* The producers were Takuro Fujiwara and Masayuki Akahori. *19:35* And the music was done by Makoto Tamuzawa, uh Koichi Hiroki, and Masama Yueda. *19:41* Uh the game's Metacritic score was a 91 out of 100. *19:48* I had the same Metacritic score for the GameCube remake as well. *19:52* So that's the rundown of Resident Evil 1. *19:59* We've already talked about our histories, I guess, with this game *20:01* In particular, I I can get into some more specifics. *20:05* I guess what was your exposure to this game? *20:09* Did you have any specific exposure to this specific game before we played it? *20:11* No. *20:17* Master of unlocking, you didn't know any of this. *20:24* No, I I know. *20:27* You might still not because we played the remake version obviously. *20:28* obviously which changes some of those lines. *20:31* So a lot of the iconic lines from the game are really only in the nineteen ninety-six version, which I did dabble with the director's cut edition, because it's on PlayStation Plus. *20:33* Premium or extra. *20:43* I think premium because it's part of the uh the uh classics catalog or whatever, which is only part of the premium version. *20:44* But I did dabble with that. *20:51* I did play that for a bit, and it is so *20:52* We could talk about some of that. *20:55* We'll talk about some of that a little bit later. *20:56* I plan on I plan on dabbling with it too on my Mister. *20:58* Um that's something I definitely want to experiment with just to get a real *21:02* taste for the leap in the remake. *21:06* Um some you know as context for later episodes and stuff, but it is *21:09* I really had no context for this game. *21:15* I don't know. *21:18* I honestly I didn't know playing Resident Evil 3 earlier this year, I didn't know where Jill came from. *21:18* Like that's how oblivious *21:25* I only know Chris is important because he's in other games and people talk about him. *21:27* You probably only know Leon because of Resident Evil 4's popularity, I would imagine. *21:31* So seeing him and I would I would guess before two you probably didn't even know he was really in that. *21:36* I kinda like *21:41* I mean you see pictures and stuff, but I d I know Leon's game is four. *21:42* Like that's where Leon kind of blows up in popularity. *21:46* But yeah, this game uh I knew nothing about this game *21:50* Yes, I mean so for me again with my whole story. *21:56* This was the first one I played after I went and mass bought all of them. *21:59* I *22:03* I remember being very Really quick, why did you not start with Zero? *22:04* As someone who didn't I assume did you know that Zero was a game that came later *22:08* in the series? *22:14* I did some research beforehand and I knew that Zero was a prequel to one, so it's effect *22:15* Or its impact on the larger series was really only felt if you did play one first. *22:21* Okay. *22:27* Um you knew it came later. *22:27* Yeah, I knew that it came I knew that it was chronologically the first one, um, but I knew that the characters in it show up originally in Resident Evil One and it just I don't know, it just made sense to start with the game that started it all even though it wasn't *22:30* remake or whatever. *22:44* But yeah, I I remember starting this game and just being very off put by the tank controls for one, which is something that *22:45* I don't know if you ever experienced or tried for yourself. *22:53* I tried to explain that and talk to you about it. *22:56* That was the first thing. *22:58* Uh the ink ribbon system was baffling to me as a kid when I first started this. *22:59* Like, well, I can't save. *23:04* Infinitely? *23:05* What are you talking about? *23:06* And I can only save if I have this like there are so many I screwed myself so many times in the early runs of *23:07* The first run I did of this game, I totally botched because I just thought you could save willy-nilly and quickly got myself into a lot of trouble because I did not know what I was doing. *23:13* Uh so it really just *23:23* Uh I mean typical experience that I think a lot of people had when they first played this game, even though I was late to the party in a lot of ways of *23:26* Playing the Resident Evil series. *23:33* I did still have the same experience that I think a lot of others did when this franchise first came about back in the nineties because *23:35* I started with the it started with the first game, went in relatively blind. *23:43* The only thing I really knew is, oh, this is zombies. *23:46* It becomes a large sprawling franchise that is *23:50* been made into movies and all kinds of other countless things, and I know the first game takes place in a mansion, and that was about my only exposure to it. *23:54* Um since I will say since that time that I played the game originally all those years ago, I have not revisited it. *24:00* So this is really the first time I've gone back to the game in probably 10 to 15 years, I would say. *24:06* So it had this playthrough for me in particular has been *24:13* A fun one. *24:17* I I've really enjoyed going back to this and I think broadly speaking this game I am surprised at how well it holds up *24:17* Um, because a lot of these older adventure style games, I do not think they have aged well. *24:26* Like I think about some of the older like Monkey Island stuff or *24:32* That's even older. *24:38* Yeah, like the LucasArt stuff like those old OG adventure games, which this is very much in the same mold of to a degree with the puzzles and stuff like that. *24:39* It is a survival game though, so it's got those sorts of different elements and there's a lot of inventory management. *24:49* Um there's combat mechanics and stuff, so it's not a one-to-one of old school adventure games in that manner. *24:54* But it is cut from the same sort of cloth and all some of those older games. *25:00* Like I remember a couple of years ago I played like Day of the Tentacle and I was like wow this really is n I mean the com the writing's still great but nothing else really holds up super well in my opinion. *25:04* This game I think it does it has aged somewhat gracefully for being a 26-year-old video game. *25:14* Um *25:22* Like the remake visually I think still holds up. *25:23* There's a lot of things. *25:25* G chime in here. *25:26* I am curious to hear what you think. *25:27* On the whole, sure. *25:30* I think uh We're talking about a game that's almost three decades old. *25:31* Like that's that's *25:35* the qualifications I I'm g I'm giving it here. *25:37* 'Cause a lot of games back from the nineties. *25:40* I get that. *25:42* I'd certainly the th the the PS four version that we played here came out in two thousand fifteen. *25:43* I think, you know, maybe we could've touched the GameCube code a little bit. *25:48* Maybe s *25:51* Clean some things up. *25:52* There's some just some stuff that's frustrating that I think doesn't need uh to be here to capture the spirit. *25:53* A specific example would be uh the map, not just *26:01* After you try a door telling you which lock it is, like for the love of God. *26:05* You started playing this you started playing this before me, and when I started playing *26:13* like a week or so after and I was catching up and going through the game again. *26:18* I remembered that that was a thing. *26:22* And I think I texted you. *26:23* I was like, hey, so how do you feel about the map not telling you which d which uh doors correspond with which keys? *26:24* And you're like, yeah, not loving it. *26:30* 'Cause that was something I forgot about too, that the remakes have really I mean that's such a small thing that the remake games have done. *26:32* Uh, but it really is like a huge improvement. *26:42* I feel like, yeah, they could have I feel like they could have touched that up a little bit. *26:45* It's there's some *26:51* Um I struggle with it a bit because is changing something *26:54* to make it easier or c more clearly communicated, does that rob it of the horror? *27:03* Does that rob it of the survival? *27:09* A an example I think of *27:11* is and my reading and understanding is in the first game when you killed a zombie after eight bolts or whatever pool of blood it was dead *27:13* um didn't necessarily come back. *27:23* But in the GameCube remake, you kill a zombie, it will be dead, but it can come back as a crimson head *27:25* Yes. *27:33* And the only way to get rid of it is to either randomly step on it and crush its skull, which is a random prompt you can't *27:33* Engage that or to burn the corpse, which requires two items in your already limited item inventory. *27:40* You only just need you just need one, right? *27:47* Because you have the lighter fluid and the lighter *27:49* Oh, I I I don't know. *27:53* That might be one of the differences. *27:55* So I we should say this up front. *27:57* So we Max played opposite routes. *27:59* We both played opposite routes. *28:01* This was originally not our intention and we were talking about playing both routes before doing this episode, but for time constraints we have to play *28:03* We have to play all like ten other games in this season. *28:10* So we didn't want to double dip and do both routes in this. *28:13* So the workaround is Max played Jill's route and I played Chris's route. *28:15* Uh does Jill not have the lighter? *28:19* Because Chris has the lighter by default. *28:21* It is in his inventory and it does not take up a slot *28:23* This is so Jill gets a lock pick. *28:27* Okay, and you cannot swap that out. *28:30* I was like, for the love of God, I don't want the lock pick. *28:33* I would like *28:36* The lighter. *28:38* Because the lockpick works on like two doors. *28:38* There's it's not really in my experience very useful. *28:42* I can't pick any *28:45* special lock so you know you still need all the keys that are designated to the specific doors and stuff like that. *28:47* Yeah. *28:54* So *28:55* canteen, lighter, two slots. *28:56* And then I was very cautious, so I always had my pistol in a magazine, and for about half the game I didn't take out ink ribbons either. *28:59* So I was really limiting myself. *29:08* I would I wouldn't use shotgun ammo. *29:10* I was like, I need this for later in the game. *29:12* Exactly. *29:16* So I was very conservative up front. *29:17* Um and really is not. *29:20* I was pretty conservative early on. *29:23* Which is not a bad decision either. *29:28* I still had to consult a guide for this one too. *29:30* I was like guy we need *29:32* We need help to just kind of ease this up a little bit. *29:34* So, you know, that but that example of burning the corpses, it's explained *29:39* Somewhat like in a collectible that you can pick up and read, and it's like, oh, they burn. *29:44* But it doesn't, it's that adventure game logic of ah, I have lighter fluid in a canteen and a lighter, I can burn these corpses. *29:49* I I guess I could have looked at the trophies and like ascertained that you can burn a corpse. *29:56* But there was a point in the game where I had killed almost every zombie I had encountered. *30:02* Was pretty meticulous with that. *30:07* And then there's about a halfway point, not a halfway point, but maybe you know a third or a quarter of the way through the game, where suddenly there's a bunch of crimson heads running around after me, and the game got hard. *30:09* Yeah. *30:19* Like *30:19* Hard and I was very frustrated. *30:21* I w I wrote down, you know, I was like, this doesn't feel very good. *30:24* I was also frustrated with the like save room *30:29* Not the restriction on saving. *30:32* I like that. *30:34* That adds an element of stress and strategy to the horror survival element of it. *30:35* But I found myself saving in one save room. *30:40* For most of the game. *30:45* I was pretty sick of the East Store Room Save Room. *30:46* I was like, why can't there be more? *30:49* I don't not more of these, but *30:53* Just a more strategic placement. *30:56* I felt like I always needed to be near that one. *30:58* I don't know. *31:01* It's just there's some things that have not aged *31:01* gracefully, but it doesn't take away from the effectiveness. *31:05* Here's the thing I want to say. *31:09* Everything you're I I love everything you're saying because I think it's less of *31:10* I think if you replayed this game, some of the your qualms would dissipate. *31:16* And not and that's not to say that what you're saying is not valid, but it very much sounds like growing pains of understanding how this game works. *31:21* Because for me, I felt identical to how you are feeling when I first played this game as a kid. *31:30* I was like, man, this sucks *31:36* Like I tried to kill all the zombies and then they turned into crimson heads. *31:37* I'm like, no, what is going on? *31:41* I I felt like I could not take ink ribbons out of my inventory. *31:42* This time I always stashed them in my box because I knew *31:46* If I ever needed them, there was gonna be an inventory box right next to the typewriter and I would just swap them out or whatever. *31:49* Like things like that. *31:54* Like these are things that I learned for this that I remembered from when I first played the game and when I went back this time I was like, oh okay, I kinda know how to play this game now. *31:55* So *32:03* The things you are c complaining about, I think, are it's a mix of I I do agree that some of those elements have not aged the best. *32:04* And the game doesn't communicate a lot of that to you. *32:11* But at the same time *32:13* They are th this is why this is a run-based game, I think, in a lot of ways. *32:15* Like that some of the trophies in this game are like beat the game in under this amount of time or there's a lot of replay game trophies. *32:19* Resident Evil has always been a run-based *32:24* game series for the most part. *32:26* Like these are games that are designed in a lot of ways for people to replay over and over again. *32:27* And I think a lot of that, especially with this first game, is *32:31* The first run-through is going to be difficult and you're going to have to one learn your way around the mansion, which we'll talk about the mansion a little bit more here in a second. *32:35* But too, just how the game, in some ways, how it wants you to play it, or how you should play, or the things you should be thinking of in your head while you are playing. *32:42* There are ideal ways. *32:51* A lot of it comes down to inventory management. *32:54* Um there are ideal specific things that you might want to keep in mind as you are playing through the game. *32:57* And I think if you did play the other route with Chris, a lot of those concern or a lot of those problems you would have *33:02* Again, I don't know if they would completely go away, but I I think you would have a much easier time, like you would remember these things up front, like, okay, I just killed this zombie. *33:09* Now I need to light the body on fire. *33:17* Or uh or maybe what I do and what a lot of people do is you you just don't even kill the zombies in this game. *33:19* Like if you can if you can just run past them without having to shoot them, like a lot of times I'd pop around a corner *33:25* shoot a zombie if it falls over cool then i'm running past it like i'm not trying to kill most of the zombies that i come across in this game *33:30* Uh the only exceptions would be like dogs. *33:39* Killed the dogs. *33:42* Dogs gotta die. *33:43* Oh my gosh. *33:44* That was th the *33:46* Yeah, dogs were not my friend. *33:48* So I died, I don't I I'd have to pull up the picture to see. *33:50* I died quite a few times. *33:53* But I definitely died twice in the beginning of the game before I even saved, so I had to restart the whole game over again *33:54* That was a learning curve of I just need to save at least past all the intro stuff. *34:00* It is uh *34:06* Yeah, there's just it is a lot to learn. *34:08* There is a steep learning curve, more so than the other games I had played in the series. *34:11* Yeah, I was gonna say I I think what's interesting that that you have played the two remake games, at least three and half of two, like you said, is that you understand how the remake games have kept the core of what's introduced here alive. *34:17* While obviously streamlining and making certain things a little bit more accessible in those games. *34:30* Um like a map that shows you which goes to which door. *34:35* Exactly. *34:40* Like they keep a lot of the inventory management and that sort of stuff alive, but there's obviously it's third person, you can aim more directly rather than just kind of *34:40* Aiming broadly and praying that good things happen. *34:49* Aim level up or down. *34:52* Yeah. *34:55* Um so you so you can see how the improvements have been made there with the remakes, and we'll obviously talk about those and uh *34:55* the future episodes as well. *35:02* But um yeah, Resident Evil 1 nowadays, because this is the sole game in the series that has not received a not sole game in the series, but *35:03* This is the least modernized game in the franchise at this point, uh which is kind of funny because this is a remake unto itself that we have played *35:11* Um, but it is now the one in the series that is kind of its own thing. *35:19* And Code Veronica still is somewhat similar, but even that game is more palatable. *35:24* Uh, so is Resident Evil Zero. *35:29* Again, we'll get into this all as as we go throughout the season. *35:31* I'm very excited. *35:34* Again, the things you have said about this makes me excited. *35:34* One thing I want to touch on, uh *35:37* With this game in particular that I want to dive into before we get into some of these other things that we have on our notes. *35:39* I want to talk about this game as a survival game. *35:46* Because I think this is one of the great things that the original Resident Evil does. *35:49* The survival horror genre in a lot of ways is built on the back of Resident Evil and Silent Hill and a lot of these games. *35:54* from the early to mid nineties. *36:02* Um and I think what other games in the genre don't do like there's always uh *36:03* item scarcity and ammo scarcity in a lot of other survival horror games, even in something like, you know, The Last of Us or Dead Space, like you don't have unlimited ammo all the time. *36:10* But I think this game's inventory system and how *36:19* Stress I I I don't think this game's the horror from this game intrinsically comes from the fact that zombies are chasing you and there are monsters around every corner. *36:24* It is very much from *36:33* The fact that you are strapped with the inventory space that you have, the items that you are finding, and just the fact that if you die, you're gonna have to go back to a certain save point. *36:35* And it's amplified because you don't want to die and have to go back to a save point. *36:45* Like if you if you die in dead space or whatever, you'll go back to a certain checkpoint. *36:50* Like you're not probably going to lose that much progress. *36:54* in modern survival horror games. *36:57* This game, the stakes feel high. *36:59* And I love that. *37:02* I I love that the I love *37:04* I mean this flows into the ink ribbons too and only being able to save and wanting to be conservative about how you're saving your progress and stuff like that. *37:06* I feel like *37:12* The survival horror relationship in this game really goes hand in hand, and the horror is amplified because of how strapped for inventory space you are in items. *37:14* Like they really are working in tandem with one another *37:24* And when you see a zombie, it's less scary because, oh my gosh, it's a zombie, it's a horrifying monster. *37:27* It's scary because I don't want that thing to kill me and then I lose my progress or like who knows when the last time you saved at a typewriter or something was *37:32* I think it's a I think this is a perfect marriage of the two and I I I don't know how many other games do it well to this effect. *37:41* It's a well-designed game inspired and by limitation. *37:50* Because on the PlayStation 1, obviously there's a limitation of how many assets they could put on screen, how many enemies they could have at once. *37:57* Um that's why they have the preset camera angles and they use pre-rendered backgrounds to amplify the graphics. *38:05* Um, because it was all pre-rendered and so there was more *38:12* in the polygons and things like that. *38:15* And so when you think about those restrictions of hardware design and like the time to actually make the game and release it within a budget and stuff, you realize that all these things fit together. *38:17* Uh we've got six item slots or eight if you're you're Jill or whatever. *38:30* And uh zombies take like six, eight bullets. *38:35* to to kill to quote unquote. *38:39* Unless you get lucky and you get a headshot and then you screech and rejoice. *38:41* So ammo goes from I've got fifteen bullets to, oh, this is only enough to maybe kill two. *38:45* Maybe and then the rarity of the shotgun ammo, at least up front, later on in the game, it seems fairly generous in the remake and stuff. *38:53* So you've got that. *39:02* Well, how do we add tension to these encounters besides limiting ammo? *39:03* Um there's no checkpoints, it's your last save, which could have been a limitation of the hardware as well as the time *39:08* I mean if at the time it very it very much was because I mean at the time save points were just a common thing in all games. *39:14* Yeah. *39:23* So how do we add tension and survival and horror to it? *39:23* Ink rimids. *39:28* There are limited saves in a run. *39:29* On normal, it seemed fairly generous, at least in the remake. *39:30* I'd *39:34* Uh I never went below three. *39:35* And that could have been the conservatism on my part. *39:37* I think I played on normal as well. *39:40* I think I ended with like fifteen ink ribbons in my inventory. *39:41* You had more than me. *39:45* I saved uh I think about forty times. *39:46* I think it's a pretty liberal with it. *39:49* Maybe I just found more. *39:51* That's also possible. *39:52* So but that's an a great and interesting mechanic. *39:54* the limitation of of saving. *39:58* That's definitely not felt in later games. *40:00* It's obviously a non-issue in later ones, which is a little sad. *40:02* Now you can do that on higher difficulty. *40:05* I mean two and three I think two I know for sure still had ink ribbons. *40:07* I'm pretty sure original three did as well. *40:11* Maybe it originally. *40:13* So *40:16* You know, it's interesting how they use restriction and limitation to influence design and make a better game. *40:17* That is a a a testament of design, I think, for sure. *40:25* Because it's it's never *40:31* Like I was frustrated at times with the inventory system. *40:34* I was like, I need I need both these keys, but I don't have room for them to also have these items. *40:37* This is why I never had the the lighter or the canteen. *40:43* I was like, I can't afford *40:46* To burn these corpses. *40:48* I just can't. *40:50* That is one thing. *40:51* The perhaps the most annoying thing is that the keys do take up slots. *40:52* That is one *40:56* thing that I wish could be changed because I think you're already so limited on inventory space to make the keys that you need in order to progress also take like that just feels If I knew which key went to which door *40:57* After I had tried a door, I think that would have helped alleviate that. *41:11* Yeah. *41:14* Because I definitely would go. *41:14* There were times where I had three keys in my inventory *41:16* Because I just didn't know what I needed where I was going. *41:18* And you gotta open them all you gotta open them all before the game prompts you to like, hey, you can get rid of this now. *41:21* You can discard it. *41:26* I still had the sword key by the end of the game because I there was probably one sword door I missed. *41:27* Um not in my inventory, eventually I was like, all right, I clearly don't need this anymore to progress. *41:32* I threw it. *41:36* But it was just one a area of the game that you didn't end up exploring. *41:37* Yeah *41:40* So I don't I don't think the solution to that problem was more inventory space. *41:41* I think because that robs it of the the tension and survival aspect of it. *41:47* And um I struggle to think of how they could have improved um you know maybe it is keys don't take up a space. *41:52* Maybe it is you can change the one key item, the one item that never leaves your inventory. *41:58* Maybe the rule there is it it's it can't be a weapon, it's gotta be a utility. *42:04* I did appreciate that uh the stun batteries or the knives did not take up inventory space. *42:08* Those were a special owned slot. *42:14* I do appreciate that. *42:16* Maybe ammo um didn't need to take up a I don't know. *42:18* But there i th there feels like there could have been just one tweak in the inventory system to alleviate the frustration, but maintain *42:24* the ingenuity of survival. *42:32* So I do feel like keys really like making keys not take up a slot. *42:35* Like that should just be like *42:39* Like this is that's even a thing in other RPG uh other I think of role-playing games specifically where you things are designated designated as key items. *42:40* Like this is not something that is like uh Fallout's a good example *42:49* Uh where or or elder scrolls where you will have certain things on your character that uh like weapons and stuff like that that are a certain weight. *42:53* And your character can become over encumbered and then you can't walk as much. *43:02* But key items that you usually things that in that those games that you usually need, they put a weight designation of zero on them because they know that you need them, so they're not going to make it take up. *43:05* Yeah, they're not going to make it at be added to your weight because they know that it's something you need to progress in the game. *43:16* And I feel like the keys in particular and any other *43:21* Maybe not all the key items in the game, like some like I think of like the umbrella symbols that you need to get into the basement and things like that. *43:25* Like those I think could have still taken up item slots or inventory slots. *43:31* But the uh anything that you need in order to access doors uh or advance or anything like that, I think would have been a lot better served if they did not take up inventory slots. *43:36* But then I guess you're just carrying a bunch of guns on you. *43:46* Which is kind of against the point of the game that you're not supposed to be mowing things down. *43:48* So it is a really difficult thing to balance and adjust. *43:53* I think *43:56* For the most part, the the games the downside of the inventory system is that it just leads to a lot of backtracking. *43:57* And again, as somebody who played through Chris's route, I probably felt this more than you did because I had six slots rather than eight. *44:03* So I was taking a lot of trips to the item box. *44:10* And that is I mean, yeah, a lot of time my time spent in this game. *44:14* This game probably took me, I don't know, this run was probably *44:18* eight seven to eight, nine hours, something in there, I believe. *44:23* Mine was eleven hours. *44:27* Okay. *44:29* So yeah, mine was I I mean I knew where I was going though. *44:29* So it makes sense that *44:32* Yeah, so it makes sense that mine was a little uh mine was shorter, but even then of that time that I was spent playing, most of that, even not most of it, but quite a bit of those hours was spent like *44:33* Oh, I just have to backtrack now and I have to go get this. *44:44* And like there are ideal paths in this game. *44:47* Like there are Resident Evil 1 aficionados, you know, the ideal routes and the speedrun routes that you can take and *44:50* the things that you need on your person at any given moment. *44:57* I am obviously not one of those people. *45:00* I love this series, but I'm not one of those folks. *45:02* Um but still y but yeah, lots of backtracking if you're just playing this game pretty casually. *45:05* So that kind of reminds me of one of my big gripes with the world design of this. *45:11* Yeah. *45:18* Let's talk about the mansion. *45:18* I I wanted to talk about the mansion and the world design anyway. *45:19* So yeah. *45:22* I was gonna say the mansion in particular *45:22* My biggest gripe with the mansion is that a lot the the the areas, rooms, segments don't feel unique. *45:24* or separate from each other and I really struggled to remember which room or which side of the house like this space was. *45:34* Eventually I kinda got a groove because you keep *45:44* In my playthrough, at least I kept going kind of to the same quadrants of, but it was sometimes like, is it in this store or is it this door? *45:48* And it suffers. *45:55* I kept thinking *45:58* You know, when you play Metroid, you you you remember the layout of the planet fairly well. *46:00* It's like, this is Brynstar, this is Norfair, this is *46:06* You know, these are all these different places. *46:10* Yeah. *46:12* Lava fire, whatever. *46:13* And that's fairly obvious. *46:14* Fire planet, so on and so forth. *46:16* But this game also reminds me a ton of, which makes total sense now, Luigi's Mansion. *46:18* Yeah. *46:27* Nintendo clearly looked at Resident Evil when making these meetings. *46:27* Absolutely. *46:32* Someone coming to this, you know, in reverse. *46:32* I've played Luigi's Mansion plenty of times. *46:35* The door animations and everything. *46:37* Exactly. *46:39* It's great. *46:39* But Luigi's Mansion, the rooms, hallways, and connecting areas all were unique. *46:40* Like a a uh the board game clue. *46:46* Each room stands on its own, and in Luigi's Mansion, each room is *46:48* stands on its own and they're sectioned together. *46:53* The first area in Luigi's mansion is is the the uh the father's study, their bedroom, and the baby nursery. *46:55* So that's the family part of the house. *47:02* And yeah, you th it's just far more manageable in your brain to remember. *47:04* In Resident Evil's mansion, in Spencer Mansion *47:09* It's like, uh the library is here and this room has a bunch of knights. *47:13* Like, but oh, here's where the snake is, but there's a garden *47:18* It wasn't as memorable distinctly. *47:24* And that led to a lot of frustration navigationally for me *47:28* Maybe if the map had room names, that would help. *47:32* Official names. *47:37* I think the other so broadly I agree with you. *47:39* Um I think it is very *47:42* I think it's very hard to map out the Spencer Mansion in your head compared to many other sprawling video game locations that are kind of similar to how this this area is laid out. *47:45* I do think the reason why I I struggle personally to map this out in my head though is because of the uh set camera locations. *47:56* I think I can map things out better in my head when I am controlling the character in a 3D like *48:04* A typical third person 3D space. *48:09* I mean similar to like how the remake games are. *48:11* Like you're actually controlling the character and you're moving about in a 3D environment and you're controlling where you can go in that world. *48:13* You have control of the camera and what you're looking at at a given moment. *48:19* In this game, I think the set camera spots and the uh pre-rendered backgrounds and stuff like that that you're moving through make it *48:22* makes it a bit more jarring from moment to moment. *48:30* And I and I can still like even thinking about it now, I c I still have a general layout of how the mansion is laid out in my head, but I don't know like *48:33* I forget I I I don't I don't have it down to a T in the way that I do other video game locations. *48:44* And I do think a lot of that is just because of the presentation and the camera work in the game, personally. *48:49* Um and I don't know if that tracks with you as well potentially or not. *48:55* I think well you know you have to imagine they're using a lot of the same textures environments. *49:00* Actually one of the most unique things in the game it are the doors. *49:05* Uh almost every door is unique, which is great. *49:09* Well we should talk about the doors in a minute. *49:11* But the camera angles, for the most part, do eventually mirror each other. *49:13* It's you know, we're in this corner of the room, we're looking down on the hallway at this way. *49:18* There are some unique camera shots that are awesome. *49:22* When the camera cuts to it, I'm like, holy smokes, like you really *49:26* That's the power of having predetermined camera angles and hallways and lighting. *49:30* Like they can make the perfect shot. *49:34* Um, I think a lot of like the *49:37* I don't know what you would call it. *49:39* The crypt, I guess, in the back of the house. *49:40* I was gonna say the same one. *49:42* Running down the stairs. *49:43* It tilts. *49:45* Yes. *49:46* And the light, the fire, it's just like this is horror. *49:46* at the right time too because there's a coffin you've got to get to descend with the masks and stuff. *49:51* So yeah, there's it can be a really powerful visual technique. *49:56* And iconic moments like you and I both remembering that particular staircase. *50:02* But then there's other times where it's like, well, this hallway goes this way or that way, like *50:06* Um, it connects to this door. *50:12* Where which room does this lead to or which door does that? *50:13* I found myself pausing a lot to look at the map and go, am I at the right door to where I want to go? *50:16* And *50:21* I think I think it's also hard the other thing I think of i it it's hard to get a full layout for the mansion when you are running into roadblocks so often. *50:23* Because a lot of these areas you're only coming back to, you know, once you have the right key or w the right *50:31* item that will allow you to access these areas. *50:36* So like you're making your initial run-through of the mansion, you're trying to get a general layout of how have how this building is set up and what all these different places are. *50:38* But *50:47* You're blocked off in this area and you can't access that until maybe a couple hours later. *50:47* And you can't go here until you have this certain item. *50:51* And oh I I found this weird like stone crest door that I can't walk into yet. *50:53* And you that ends up becoming like the *50:58* the outside or the garden area or whatever. *51:00* Like like you can't access these certain parts of the game until later on. *51:02* So it does lead to it feeling more disjointed because of that, I believe. *51:06* Um I I beyond the mansion's design, I guess what did you just think about it on the whole as like this *51:10* I I mean it is a single location you are spending time in within this game and it's got a lot of different aspects to it. *51:19* Like I think about I again with Resident Evil 2 I'm gonna use this as a touchstone since you've *51:26* played that one before, but you know it starts in the police station and that's where a lot of it is, but then it goes to the sewers and then there's some tunnels and stuff like that later and then eventually you end up in like a *51:32* train depot situation type thing. *51:41* Like there's different aspects like that and they all kind of stand out from one another. *51:44* And there are distinct areas. *51:47* uh of this game as well. *51:50* You know, like I mentioned, the outside garden area and you get down to the basement, but it does feel like it's all part of the same compound, if that makes any sense. *51:51* Like it does feel like a singular *52:00* congruent location, which I think is one of the game's strongest points, especially compared to later installments where they do start globetrotting a bit more and uh going to a variety of different locations. *52:02* I love the atmosphere and thematic design of this place. *52:17* Especially the notes and collectibles *52:21* Yes, tying in like the design of the mansion and how it is in tra they've trapped the designer and creator. *52:24* It reminds me a lot of um *52:30* Oh, Icarus, is it Daedalus is his father? *52:33* Uh yeah, I believe. *52:37* You know what I'm talking about. *52:40* Yes. *52:42* Um or in God War 3, the guy who designs the cube. *52:42* I think it is Daedalus. *52:45* Daedalus is the big guy. *52:48* Well, you'll find it for me, but you know exactly what it is, Dae. *52:49* Like the gods have cursed him to design this puzzle and um you know mm labyrinth and all that stuff. *52:52* Same thematic concept, which is great. *53:00* It gives texture and a creepy lore to this place. *53:03* And I'm from my understanding, also I think Lisa *53:07* is only a part of the remake. *53:11* She's not in the original driver game at all. *53:12* So that adds kind of just the cruelty of Umbrella, really. *53:15* Paints it ball adding this super creepy character who fleshes out the garden shack area and the tunnels that you eventually connect to and and shows you how *53:21* All of these areas are connected and the experimentation going on. *53:32* So I like the way that the the layers are peeled back on this evil corporation in this spooky mansion where they do experiments. *53:35* That is *53:42* truly some wonderful and fun world building and design. *53:43* Especially as you start to learn later on in the game like uh *53:48* Some of the journal entries I really like, like, okay, if we're going to enact this plan, who's going to stop us? *53:51* The stars are going to stop us. *53:56* Okay, how do we lure the stars to here and take them out of the picture? *53:58* Like you start to get those kind of things and you're like *54:01* Then your brain really starts working, like, okay, what is going on here? *54:03* Like, how are we lured to this location? *54:06* And you're thinking, oh crap, I'm lured to this location. *54:08* Like, oh, the plane is working. *54:12* Yes, you you you start to realize that you're not there by an accident like you thought you were initially, which is a great little twist later on. *54:14* And some of the twists uh we'll talk about the characters and the uh actually let's just do that now *54:23* Uh the story of this game, I mean I think it's very simple. *54:28* You get called to the mansion, this stars, this uh elite group of *54:31* cops essentially that uh police around raccoon city. *54:36* Um they get called to the mansion and then, you know, things happen from there, zombies and *54:40* Uh, I guess what did you think? *54:46* There's not a lot to say about the story. *54:48* This story very much is evil corporation creates virus and tries to get away with it. *54:50* Uh *54:56* And then I guess the big reveal is just that Wesker's a bad boy and they got a big super weapon hiding under the mansion with Tyrant. *54:57* And then the mansion blows up. *55:05* So kinda like in Fast and Furious where you knew going in that Letty is not actually dead *55:07* I've come into knowing Wesker is a bad guy. *55:15* So now not a surprise, not that the game really hides it all too terribly well, especially *55:18* fact that Wesker doesn't really he's not in the game until the dude with slicked back hair and sunglasses is actually evil. *55:25* Wow, never would have saw it *55:32* coming. *55:33* You'll never see it come back. *55:34* Yeah, so you know it's fun. *55:38* That feels like the bee *55:41* element of the horror, which is essential to horror. *55:43* It's v great. *55:45* That is a that is a part of that genre. *55:46* And I think it works really well here. *55:50* There's some hilarious lines and dialogue and just some campiness that comes out of it that works. *55:53* Even what they've changed in the remake, and I can only imagine what it's like in the original. *56:00* So *56:04* It's good. *56:06* I'm I'm excited to see how more of this is fleshed out and connected later. *56:07* Like I know *56:12* Chris plays such a prominent role going on. *56:14* I I know Jill from three. *56:18* I don't I don't think Jill really plays that big of a role in later mainline games. *56:20* I think she's the star of Revelations, Chris. *56:25* Yeah, she gets put in Revelations, I believe. *56:27* Yeah. *56:28* Which is a shame, like she should be the star of all the games, but anyway, that's my two cents 'cause Resident Evil Three's so good *56:29* I you mentioned the one thing that I I I wanna and this is what I've stressed for the longest time up front is as we move forward and we talk about the stories throughout the rest of this season, none of the stories *56:37* And any other Resident Evil games. *56:50* Like even the best ones in the series. *56:51* For I don't know. *56:53* I like Saturday. *56:55* None of the none of the stories in these games *56:58* are landmark by any means. *57:02* But they're also not there. *57:05* It's also not a drawback of the games either. *57:09* What it is is it's a it's a tool for campiness to creep in for the most part. *57:12* And that's what I love is that Capcom *57:17* I I think with this first game in the series, the reason why stuff like Jill Sandwich and you know, oh you're the master unlocking, like a lot of these *57:21* Part of that is translation differences, Japanese. *57:31* Part of it's translation and part of it I think is just poor writing in a general sense. *57:34* However *57:39* I I think as the years went on, it Capcom became self-aware to the point that and I think maybe they always were to some degree. *57:41* realizing that these games weren't meant to be taken super seriously and they just kind of leaned into it more as time went on and I think that became to the series benefit as we move forward because again none of the *57:50* This is not these games are not ones that we will talk about the story with. *58:02* Like I I think I I think we've spent a lot of time talking about *58:07* story elements and character elements. *58:11* And we'll we'll probably talk about characters more than anything in this season. *58:13* But I think we've spent a lot of time, you know, when we played through all the God of War games, we talked about the stories quite a bit in each of those and *58:16* Obviously Fast and Furious, those are totally story driven because they're films, stuff like that. *58:22* Stories are never gonna be the forefront of these Resident Evil games. *58:26* But it is a way for the campiness to creep in, and that is such a core *58:29* element of what Resident Evil is, and that's why I love it, is because it is unabashedly just goofy. *58:34* And it is simultaneously a horror franchise. *58:40* And probably one of the most ridiculously silly things I've ever seen in my entire life. *58:45* Um similar to how I mean I mean I would compare it to like Metal Gear Solid in a lot of ways. *58:51* Just where I was going. *58:56* You've compared it in the past to Resin or to Metal Gear Solid and just the over the top. *58:57* And Metal Gear Solid has actual like *59:03* good story I would say. *59:06* Sure. *59:08* Oh, absolutely. *59:09* It's a greatly engaging story in Metal Gear Sword, for sure. *59:12* And it's uh much more at the forefront. *59:15* But it also does not take itself seriously. *59:17* I mean one of the main core plot elements of Metal Gear SOD is that a man *59:20* replaces his arm with another man's arm and then that man's ghost takes him over. *59:24* Like it's not it's not taking itself seriously at all. *59:30* And that's how Resinua 4 is er not four. *59:34* Resident Evil in general is. *59:37* I said four because I was thinking of yeah, the plot pitch with that. *59:38* Oh, my daughter was kidnapped by random villagers in in the middle of Europe. *59:41* Yeah. *59:46* So Yeah, I it's charm and it adds to I I think the richness and legacy of the whole series on a whole. *59:47* It's and and that also *59:54* to my understanding, uh, l uh lends itself into other media that Resident Evil has tapped into, like the films. *59:57* You well, you may have seen other Resident Evil movies, but *01:00:04* Last year when we all got together for the Game Awards, we went and saw that Resident Evil of Rel Welcome to Raccoon City movie. *01:00:07* Welcome to Raccoon City. *01:00:13* Yeah *01:00:14* It sucked. *01:00:15* It was awful. *01:00:16* Totally awful. *01:00:17* But we still had a really fun time as an experience and making it a little bit more. *01:00:17* Because we knew what we were signing up for, at least I did. *01:00:20* I I had no idea. *01:00:23* I didn't realize I didn't realize it was Resident Evil 2 was essentially what that game was with a splash of Resident Evil 1 now coming back playing this game. *01:00:24* So *01:00:33* It uh but it's it's a part of the franchise as a whole outside of just the games and it's it's part of that DNA that started here. *01:00:35* Yes. *01:00:44* Let's talk about the characters while we are talking about uh some more story-ish elements of Resident Evil. *01:00:45* Um you played Jill's run, obviously I played Chris's run. *01:00:53* Jill's run is, I mean this is strange to say. *01:00:58* I know a lot about Jill's run, but I've never played it through to completion. *01:01:01* I've only ever dabbled with her run *01:01:06* Anytime I've played this game, I've played Chris's run in mo in both of my instances, which is odd. *01:01:08* Um But anyway, I think Jill's run is definitely the definitive run in this game when it comes to story m like *01:01:14* good moments to have Chris doesn't get a lot to do in this game, honestly. *01:01:23* He's very much more he's more isolated than Joel is, I would say. *01:01:27* Um *01:01:32* He bounces off of Rebecca in the way that Jill bounces off of Barry. *01:01:34* But Jill's dynamic with Barry is there's a lot more there, and there's a lot more of a relationship. *01:01:38* Rebecca just kind of seems like somebody that Chris stumbles across and then happens to be like, oh, I guess we should, you know, work together and we should try to help each other out. *01:01:45* And they have a couple moments throughout the game together. *01:01:55* Jill and Barry are very much like tied at the hip in many instances across this game, if I am not wrong. *01:01:57* T tied at the hip is then they bump into each other quite a bit, but then Barry makes up an excuse for them to separate again, which is always very poor. *01:02:04* And narratively later is because he's double crossing you this whole time until you find out that he's actually being black or his family's being held hostage, allegedly. *01:02:12* So it's by cartoonishly evil Wesker *01:02:22* Yes, so you know, Barry's always like, I'll investigate. *01:02:26* Why don't you go back out there to face who knows what? *01:02:30* So *01:02:35* Barry is awkward. *01:02:36* Very awkward. *01:02:39* His lines, his structure, he's probably one of the more *01:02:40* Campy kind of characters just in the horror theme of it. *01:02:45* It's funny, and Jill kind of just goes, Okay *01:02:48* Um obviously that is corrected later on where she, you know, later games with her in it, she's actually more of a character than *01:02:52* Just an agent for the player. *01:03:00* Yeah, I would say they very much feel like blank slates in this game. *01:03:02* Like Chris is a far cry from what he developed into as well. *01:03:05* But that was the the philosophy of the time. *01:03:08* And you know um *01:03:11* Maybe not forward thinking, but uh kind of cool that a boy a male character and a female character were options to play and had some different experiences and abilities. *01:03:13* It wasn't just a skin swap. *01:03:23* They've that very much feels far ahead of its time in a lot of ways. *01:03:25* Yeah, I've I was I didn't know this was a dual campaign game before we started really planning for the season. *01:03:29* I kind of thought that was only in Resident Evil 2. *01:03:35* Was it I thought that was a big thing for Resident Evil 2. *01:03:39* No, it's actually par for the course. *01:03:41* And so it I I like that element to it. *01:03:44* But I also like that they don't deviate so much where it's like, are you really gotta play both to get the I mean you do have to play both to get the full story, but it's *01:03:50* It's not seeming to be a good thing. *01:03:59* ChL Cell at the end, you gotta save her, same vice versa. *01:04:07* They don't link up in the same way that the story does in Resident Evil New York. *01:04:12* Claire and Leon get together by the end of it and then there's like a greater resolution uh at the end of the two campaigns. *01:04:16* Yeah, they they feel like blank slates for what's to come, like I said. *01:04:23* Wesker feels like the only character who is very *01:04:26* similar to how he is in later games, uh which I love. *01:04:30* And Wesker is just here here's here's the the thing I will say as far as characters go in this game. *01:04:34* I think the best character of the game is just *01:04:40* Umbrella, which is a weird thing to say because it's an entity, but throughout the entire series, in a lot of ways, and and some of this gets peeled back later and you start to learn who's more *01:04:42* uh at the head of umbrella. *01:04:56* A lot of this kind of gets revealed in Code Veronica. *01:04:58* Um but *01:05:02* For the most part, Umbrella is just sort of this faceless evil entity that is then represented to you visually *01:05:04* as the player or whatever characters you're playing as as various baddies that you run across. *01:05:12* In a lot of instances it's Wesker and it's Wesker in this game. *01:05:17* He just happens to pee the evil. *01:05:21* you know, umbrella representative uh to go along with all the zombies and stuff like that. *01:05:23* Um and they really keep that going throughout the majority of the series. *01:05:28* You never really *01:05:32* There are key players that you read about it that are were integral to Umbrella's Rise and doing all of this, but even then they keep I mean looking further down the road like *01:05:34* Yeah, I don't know I'll bring I'll say this because I know you've already played the game, but even like with Resident Evil Village, you find out Mother Miranda in that game has ties *01:05:46* That they've introduced going back to Resident Evil 1, and it turns out she's one of the chief bad guys. *01:05:55* Like there's really no in a lot of ways, Umbrella is just this kind of faceless *01:06:01* Entity that is presented. *01:06:08* Yeah, kind of. *01:06:10* Like there there is no singular person that you can grasp onto and be like, they're at the core of all of this. *01:06:11* I mean again, comparing to *01:06:17* Metal Gear. *01:06:18* Like with Metal Gear, the main evil villain I guess would be like Liquid. *01:06:19* Liquid. *01:06:23* And yes, and he's the guy at the center of it. *01:06:24* And while there are central antagonists and villains throughout all of the Resident Evil games *01:06:26* Umbrella remains this like obscure entity, this harbinger of evil throughout all the games, even when they kind of dissolve and things *01:06:32* uh later on change in some of the later games. *01:06:43* They are still this kind of nebulous force out in the ether that you don't really know what's going on with it. *01:06:46* You don't know *01:06:53* if they're ever really gone for good or anything like that. *01:06:55* And they they lay those seeds. *01:06:57* I guess what I'm saying is even outside of the context of the larger series, they lay those seeds quite well. *01:06:59* in this game. *01:07:05* You talked about how like the designer of the Spencer Spencer Mansion talks about getting trapped in his own the own place that he designed and stuff like that and you think like, well who would have done this to him or *01:07:05* Who is the person that hired Wesker to flip on the stars and stuff like that? *01:07:15* And you're never told those things. *01:07:19* It's just kind of Umbrella did it. *01:07:21* And you don't really get further knowledge outside of that. *01:07:23* And I think that's *01:07:26* Not only leans it not that doesn't only go into the campiness of the game that we already talked about, but it keeps it devoid of getting *01:07:28* I I I uh I just like that there's no central thing that you can cling on to, or no central person at the center of this that you can cling on to. *01:07:36* By keeping it so broad, it keeps the story *01:07:44* It keeps it more focused on the zombies as well, I feel like. *01:07:48* Like that those are the main villains is the monsters that this company has created. *01:07:51* And that's what you need to be concerned about more about who did this and who lies at the center of this whole ordeal. *01:07:55* I think a faceless corporation can be scarier than an individual to begin with. *01:08:01* Yeah. *01:08:07* And *01:08:07* That amplifies the horror. *01:08:09* And you know, what I do know about the games I've played in the future and stuff, just knowing Umbrella is involved, even in things like Village or Seven. *01:08:11* W especially with those games being kind of segmented they f uh they were pitched initially as segments off of the mainline series, you know, a re-imagine a reinvention of a series with first person and the whole deal. *01:08:22* But it's like nah, umbrella is still here and a part of the bigger. *01:08:35* Well it's in different ways. *01:08:39* Yes. *01:08:40* Yeah they they they just keep folding it back like no matter even when you think umbrella's gone, it gets folded back in in ways that you're like, oh what *01:08:41* Omnipresent and always pulling the strings and you can never even if you nuke a whole city, you can't get rid of them. *01:08:49* And I've *01:08:58* That adds to the legend even even before playing any Resident Evil games, I knew what Umbrella represented. *01:09:00* I knew the logo of this fake company. *01:09:09* Yes. *01:09:12* So it speaks to the like the m proportion of just the *01:09:13* the mythos surrounding it. *01:09:20* Yes. *01:09:22* Uh and it all starts here. *01:09:23* The villain the villa i it's just a much different *01:09:24* villain to feature in a video game. *01:09:28* It's not a Bowser, it's not a Ganondorf, it's not a and again, Wesker uh Wesker is like the villain of Resident Evil in a lot of ways. *01:09:30* But he's not the villain at the same time. *01:09:38* Like he's not the person pulling all the strings. *01:09:40* He's just a lackey for the other people in in some ways. *01:09:43* Although it does become a personal thing. *01:09:48* We'll get into that later. *01:09:49* further down the line. *01:09:51* One thing I do want to talk about, there are a couple other things I want to talk about, but we'll run through them here quickly. *01:09:52* Um question for you. *01:09:57* What did you think about just the monsters in general in this game? *01:09:59* We've kind of touched on a lot of them naturally over the course of the game. *01:10:02* But, you know, we've got your basic zombies, we've got your Cerberus, which is the dogs, the Crimson Heads. *01:10:05* Um, but then we've got other weird stuff like yawn the snake. *01:10:11* and Neptune the Shark and uh Black Tiger the large giant spider. *01:10:15* Um there's some weird uh the the giant plant 42 the giant plant *01:10:22* in the back garden shed area. *01:10:28* Uh I don't know. *01:10:31* What did you think about some of the monster designs in this game and what they do with them? *01:10:32* I like the animals, but they make no sense. *01:10:36* Yes. *01:10:41* Here's a giant spider in the tunnels in the mines that you find. *01:10:42* The spider felt forced. *01:10:46* Yes. *01:10:48* Mostly because the spider is super easy. *01:10:48* Well, because they give you a flamethrower to take him down right beforehand *01:10:52* I don't know what they did for me. *01:10:57* Sorry. *01:10:59* I had a broken I had to use to hold a door open. *01:11:00* Um *01:11:05* I did that's another thing that happens in the Chris run. *01:11:06* Yeah, I had to do that part, but I got a real flamethrower. *01:11:08* Joe gets a grenade launcher though instead, correct? *01:11:11* You can get one of us. *01:11:15* Oh yeah, with acid rounds and stuff, yes. *01:11:16* Yes, yep. *01:11:19* Yeah, yeah, yeah. *01:11:20* That's earlier. *01:11:20* So yeah, the spider felt *01:11:21* Force is like, oh, it's a scary game. *01:11:23* We should have a spider. *01:11:25* Uh the snake feels weird because it's so ginormous. *01:11:27* Yeah, it feels like you end up in the chamber of secrets out of it. *01:11:31* A little bit. *01:11:34* The shark kind of makes sense simply because it's in this water area. *01:11:35* It's like, okay. *01:11:40* I guess but also But even the water area is kind of bizarre because like you can drain the water and it's like well why are we flipping? *01:11:41* But also one one way I died was is I couldn't I didn't *01:11:47* The game there was no prompt or camera angle switch for the computer. *01:11:53* So the water just like filled up and I was like, okay, I'll just climb the ladder. *01:11:57* And like the water stopped filling up. *01:12:01* at the bait, like w where you're standing. *01:12:04* It never goes up past where you would actually drown, but the game just went game over *01:12:06* It was like, uh, how did I die during the sequence where you have to shut the close the shutters? *01:12:12* Yeah. *01:12:18* So that was a bit *01:12:18* Odd. *01:12:21* Yeah, the animals don't make sense, but I like them there nonetheless. *01:12:21* Yeah. *01:12:25* The monsters the hunters are great. *01:12:26* I like the hunters quite a bit, the large reptile looking things. *01:12:28* They reveal those all in a a sensible order. *01:12:32* I like the Hunter's intro cut scene too, where it sleuths through the entire environment that you just came from and busts into that room that you know you're in. *01:12:35* That's a really *01:12:43* eerie sequence because you've just come all that way to get back into the mansion and then it cuts to that and it retraces all your steps and jumps into that same room you're in. *01:12:44* That's a good moment. *01:12:53* I I like that moment. *01:12:54* The enemy I hated the most was w were the crows. *01:12:56* Mostly because if you get locked in a animation with them. *01:13:02* Where one crow comes and attacks you and then one comes as the other one is, you can't break out of it, and it's like three crow hits and you're dead. *01:13:07* Death by a thousand crow cuts, yeah. *01:13:14* And that happened to me at least twice. *01:13:16* So I'm not a fan of the crows at all *01:13:18* Uh crows can go away. *01:13:21* Any feelings on Tyrant in particular, the main final big baddie there at the end? *01:13:23* What'd you think about him? *01:13:29* Uh super easy. *01:13:30* I will say this, Barry died at the very end. *01:13:32* That's because Tyrant decided to grab him in a chokehold while waiting for the helicopter. *01:13:34* at just the perfect part where I don't know three camera angles intersected and I couldn't like get to an angle where I felt comfortable enough aiming. *01:13:40* And honestly, Barry died off screen. *01:13:49* I didn't even know he was dead. *01:13:51* So I was super bummed about that. *01:13:53* I could obviously could just reload my save and *01:13:55* And with Barry, but I was I was done at that point. *01:13:57* Um so I was pretty mad that that happened because of won camera wonkiness. *01:14:00* But Tyrant *01:14:05* Nah, way scarier in later games. *01:14:08* Iconic iconic is like one of the first as the first major iconic later on. *01:14:10* He feels uh he he's iconic within the larger scope of the series, I guess is what I'm saying. *01:14:17* I didn't feel very impressed the scope. *01:14:22* Because he's the first big baddie zombie that you're introduced to, because this is before we ever get to *01:14:25* you know, nemesis and any of this other crazy stuff that happens. *01:14:31* Yeah, Mr. *01:14:34* X. *01:14:35* I have a couple other I think we've touched on a lot of things. *01:14:36* One other aspect that I did want to touch on was the music. *01:14:38* Um, I think this game has a quite a good score, and I did want to ask you in particular about the soundtrack. *01:14:42* How did you feel whenever you entered a save room? *01:14:48* Did the music really put you at ease? *01:14:50* Because it absolutely does for me. *01:14:53* From my notes. *01:14:56* The theme of a save room offers relief. *01:14:58* Fear is alleviated. *01:15:00* But tension lingers with the knowledge of limited saves and the indisputable fact that you will have to go back outside and face the danger. *01:15:02* But the rooms are tranquil and offer reprieve. *01:15:10* So yes. *01:15:15* But the music is is equal parts, it is tranquil and it does make you feel at ease for just a moment. *01:15:16* But the composition behind that song is so good because there is like an undercurrent of uneasiness and like tension within the song itself. *01:15:23* The song sounds *01:15:33* equal parts like soothing and also just n nerve wracking. *01:15:35* Like it uh there it it's a really, really *01:15:40* exceptional piece of music. *01:15:44* I I really think the save room song in this game, and there's different save room things themes in all of the different games, but I really do think that this one in the original Resident Evil is one of the best. *01:15:45* Speaking more to the larger soundtrack as a whole, I do like that this game the uses music sparingly. *01:15:56* It allows the sound effects of the mansion to serve as the backdrop for the soundscape that you are hearing. *01:16:06* Because a lot of games will pump in music *01:16:14* Maybe not constantly, but quite a bit. *01:16:16* Um and this game really allows for silence at times and it allows every creak and every little thing that you're hearing off in the distance. *01:16:19* to unnerve you or maybe it's the birds outside or the whooshing against the mansion the sides of the mansion house. *01:16:28* Like there are *01:16:35* This game's sound design is impeccable, and I think that's reflected in a lot of the future games as well. *01:16:37* Um in the moments where music does enter the equation, I think it uh amplifies the tension that much more *01:16:44* um because it is it's not used constantly. *01:16:50* I fully agree. *01:16:55* It is good sound design is essential to horror. *01:16:56* Um you have to let *01:17:00* the sounds of the environment creep into your skin. *01:17:02* You can't constantly have the theme of whatever theme it is playing in the background. *01:17:05* But when the music does come in, it amplifies the experience. *01:17:11* Ironically, I was uh listening to a podcast today on sound design. *01:17:15* They were talking about a TV show, Ted Lasso. *01:17:20* It was 20,000 Hertz for those that are *01:17:22* interested or curious, but one of the things that the sound designers in that episode interview were talking about was, you know, you can't have silence without *01:17:25* loud moments and you can't have loud moments without silence. *01:17:36* The two go together. *01:17:40* And Resident Evil balances them well when it is loud and bombastic or, you know, tense and high. *01:17:42* It's deserved and it matches the moment, but when it's quiet, tension still runs. *01:17:50* So it's a a well-designed game from a sound perspective. *01:17:57* Yeah, I completely agree with you. *01:18:02* I think those are all the major things I wanted to touch on. *01:18:04* Is there anything else that you wanted to bring up before we start uh start to kind of wrap up here? *01:18:06* Anything from your notes that may have stood out in your first run through. *01:18:13* There's still a lot we could talk about. *01:18:16* I think the *01:18:18* Tunnels area feels wh unnecessary. *01:18:20* Felt a little crammed there at the end. *01:18:23* I was ready to go to the basement. *01:18:25* So I didn't care for the tunnels. *01:18:27* But beyond that The tunnels I agree are not great. *01:18:28* It very much feels like *01:18:31* Um yeah, just kind of tacked on artificially lengthening the game just a bit more. *01:18:34* I do know two other things that I want to bring up. *01:18:38* I'm glad we did this. *01:18:41* Um *01:18:42* Did you care for Lisa Trevor's story at all here in the remake? *01:18:43* Because it is told somewhat subtly, but it is Oh yeah. *01:18:47* It adds a bit of like heartbreak to the game and uh adds an emotional depth to it *01:18:51* Yeah, like it jacks up Umbrella even more. *01:18:57* I loved it. *01:19:00* I think it's a great added element to the remake. *01:19:01* It adds *01:19:04* way more texture to it and nuance, but also isn't so ham fisted where it's like, ah, see how bad umbrella is? *01:19:06* They *01:19:15* tortured this little girl. *01:19:16* Um no, it j it jacks up the evil for sure. *01:19:17* And her hell and her whole family's involved with it too. *01:19:21* Her dad's the one that d uh designed the mansion and her mother *01:19:24* like had the wrong serum and died. *01:19:30* So yeah, totally messed up. *01:19:32* I enjoyed um that plot and *01:19:35* how it was told. *01:19:38* And it recontextualizes your encounters with her too, because when you first run into her you just think, oh crap, another zombie. *01:19:39* And then like as you start to uncover what has actually happened to her and like like you feel *01:19:45* You feel terrible about about it. *01:19:52* instances and unfortunately you are forced to eventually. *01:20:03* Um you don't have to fight her. *01:20:07* And the section where you gotta push her off, don't you have to? *01:20:09* Or does she just run away? *01:20:12* She can just push the rocks off and open up her mother's grave. *01:20:13* Oh yeah, that's true. *01:20:17* And then she buttons. *01:20:18* And then she grabs the skull and jumps down. *01:20:19* That's what I did. *01:20:21* Um, but I guess the trophy still says *01:20:23* get rid of Lisa Trevor or whatever. *01:20:26* So I guess I just thought of it as killing her. *01:20:28* The one other thing that we have to bring up and that I did not bring up and that I specifically said we would have to talk about is *01:20:30* the FMV opening of the original game. *01:20:37* Yes, we played the remake, but Max, the opening cutscene of the original game is probably *01:20:41* one of the most incredible landmark video game moments ever. *01:20:49* It's so *01:20:56* funny in retrospect. *01:20:58* And it it what what makes it funnier is that we talked about how we felt like these characters were largely blank slates. *01:20:59* And I think they are in many ways with the game's writing uh this early on and they they become there's greater depth to them added added later on. *01:21:06* But the FMV opening for the game *01:21:15* in the original nineteen ninety-six release, uh really tried to make this seem I I I don't know. *01:21:20* I it it it reminds me of this era where there was such a disparity between what you would see in cut *01:21:28* scenes and videos of games between the actual gameplay or even with box art and stuff like that. *01:21:33* Like you would check out a game at the store and the box art would tell show you one thing and then you get home and play it and it's something completely else. *01:21:38* Um that's the feelings I get from watching this. *01:21:45* Like it makes it feel like you're about to play a bro shooter and then it turns into this weird explore the mansion zombie survival inventory management game. *01:21:49* Um it's just so funny to watch in retrospect, and it is so This game came out in 1996, this video feels like it came from 1985 instead, um, which is also what I love about it. *01:22:00* It's really great. *01:22:13* It's a it's a who. *01:22:14* I read um a book called Resident Evil by Philip J. *01:22:16* Reed. *01:22:20* It's a boss fight books, one of their anthology books, actually around the time of our recording. *01:22:21* Um sadly Philip passed away. *01:22:26* But one of the things that Philip did in this book that I loved was *01:22:29* He tracked down the original actors and talked to them. *01:22:35* And there's some really awesome insight. *01:22:40* So I highly recommend picking up that book. *01:22:42* I'll there'll be a link in the *01:22:44* the show notes because it's super insightful just to learn what shooting and filming that was like or recording those lines *01:22:46* um, you know, the opening cutscenes and the final cutscenes and what these actors thought working in Japan as native English speakers, which was a big p reason why they were hired. *01:22:54* Yeah. *01:23:04* So it's fascinating stuff. *01:23:04* Um, I highly recommend that as some supplemental material. *01:23:07* But these uh remind me a lot of those *01:23:11* you know, other FMV kind of games like Night Trap, uh, which you and I have played together. *01:23:14* And it's just fun now to watch in 2022. *01:23:19* And I'm *01:23:25* Yeah, probably in ninety-six it was you know, probably fun as well. *01:23:27* It was cool. *01:23:31* I'm sure if you were a kid and you had this game for some reason you're booting up, it was an awesome opening and then it *01:23:32* becomes what it becomes. *01:23:38* I think the funniest thing to me that I have to mention is that uh the actor that plays Barry in the video has a completely different accent from the version of the character in the game. *01:23:39* Like *01:23:51* the disparity, but like they did not use the same voice act I mean to my knowledge, they did not use the same actors from that video in the game. *01:23:52* Completely different voices for them, which uh just makes it that much sillier. *01:24:01* Again, campiness at the core of Resident Evil. *01:24:07* And this is why. *01:24:10* If you don't think Resident Evil is campy, please *01:24:11* Just go watch what everybody would have been introduced to this the very first thing anybody would have seen of this series back in 1996 and tell me what you think of it. *01:24:14* Um because I *01:24:22* Even back I mean, hey, I don't know what people back then would have thought. *01:24:25* If I was like 20, 25, and 1996 I would have played that, I don't know what I would have thought. *01:24:28* But I I *01:24:33* Feel like there's no way I wouldn't have thought that it was kinda hokey at the time. *01:24:34* But hey, maybe I'm wrong. *01:24:39* And uh technology has ruined how we look back at things. *01:24:41* Uh legacy *01:24:45* What's this game's legacy, Max? *01:24:48* I feel like it's the same default answer as most games that spawn multi-million dollar franchises. *01:24:50* It's the one that started it all. *01:24:56* Yeah, the first the first entries uh the first episodes of these shows usually end up being *01:24:57* Somewhat similar, like, oh, this game's legacy is that it launched the Resident Evil franchise, which is very much that I'll take it a step f go ahead. *01:25:02* I was gonna say I think *01:25:11* Another element of its legacy is the GameCube remake, which has become a theme for Resident Evil as we get ready for Resident Evil 4 remake getting ready to come out. *01:25:14* These games have been remade m you know pretty fairly consistently and that's just the thing Capcom's done and *01:25:26* keeps these games accessible. *01:25:35* As of this recording in the year 2022, every mainline Resident Evil game is on modern hardware, PS4 and Xbox One and series consoles. *01:25:38* I think they're all on Switch too. *01:25:48* Yeah, on Switch as well. *01:25:50* Is Capcom has done an excellent job of milking their *01:25:51* Really good franchise, but also keeping these games playable on modern hardware, not just being lost to time. *01:25:58* T a great comparison would be Silent Hill, which is largely unplayable and entirely too expensive. *01:26:05* these days. *01:26:12* So, you know, I think that's part of its legacy and it all started with this GameCube one. *01:26:13* Yeah. *01:26:18* Which is when, like I mentioned earlier, Resident Evil went kind of GameCube exclusive for a hot minute. *01:26:18* Well even going back to then like we're talking about accessibility, like *01:26:23* When I decided as a kid I wanted to play all the Resident Evil games, I they were just all on GameCube for me to play. *01:26:26* Like they've been porting these to current gin platforms for very long and remaking them. *01:26:31* Two and three were remakes on GameCube as well. *01:26:37* They weren't full-blown remakes in the same way. *01:26:41* They were similar to their Yeah, they were similar to their original counterparts. *01:26:43* The graphics were touched up a bit, but they were their original version. *01:26:49* So this was the only one that did a fully remake. *01:26:52* Yeah, this was the only one that was a full remake, which is why when they re start doing the remakes again, they jumped to two. *01:26:55* That was the one they started with. *01:27:00* Interesting. *01:27:02* Okay, that makes sense. *01:27:03* So yeah. *01:27:04* I think this game the thing that I will say about legacy at this point, outside of what we said about, you know, spotting a franchise and *01:27:05* All that. *01:27:14* I I think this game's big legacy nowadays is that it is really the only remaining game in the frange that's not true, it's not the only one, but it is one of the core games within the larger Resident Evil series that is still *01:27:15* in this pure form of what this game's structure is, if that makes any sense. *01:27:28* Like if you want to think about what Resident Evil is and how it became the way it became *01:27:33* This game is still the touchstone for many of the ideas that the series still pulls from. *01:27:38* Um, which I think there's something to say about that. *01:27:45* Like again, looking at other *01:27:48* franchises we've played in the past like like God of War. *01:27:50* Like God God of War, the original God of War is still an act like the most recent God of War is still an action game. *01:27:53* But it is greatly different from what the original release on PS2 was. *01:27:59* I think Village and even Resident Evil 7. *01:28:04* When Resident Evil 7 came out, what did it look to do? *01:28:07* it looked to mimic in a lot of ways what the original game in the series did. *01:28:10* And I think that that's a pretty I think that's uh *01:28:14* that really speaks to what this game did not only at the time when it first came out back in ninety nineteen ninety-six, but I think that also speaks to uh the quality of some of this game's structure and what it is. *01:28:18* what its goals are and what it is trying to get you to do as the player with exploring this single sprawling location in the inventory management and all those things we've uh touched on already. *01:28:30* Um I do really think that this game's legacy is its design and its structure. *01:28:40* uh not only for Resident Evil as a whole, but the larger survival horror genre. *01:28:45* Um, I think this game's influence is really *01:28:51* Really massive on what games have become over the past 20 years or so. *01:28:54* I think that does it for Resident Evil. *01:28:59* Thank you so much for listening to this first episode of season five of Chapter Select, if you'd like. *01:29:02* To follow the show on Twitter, you can at Chapter Select or learn more at chapterselect. *01:29:07* com. *01:29:12* See all our previous seasons and whatnot. *01:29:12* If you'd like to follow Logan on Twitter, he's at Moreman12, and you can find his writing over at comicbook. *01:29:15* com. *01:29:21* You can follow me on Twitter at Max Roberts143 and my writing over at Max Frequency *01:29:22* Thank you so much for listening. *01:29:28* Join us next time as we dive into Resident Evil 7. *01:29:29* And until then, adios. *01:29:34* Chapter Select is a max frequency production. *01:29:37* This episode was researched, produced, and edited by me, Max Roberts. *01:29:40* Season 5 is hosted by Logan Moore and myself. *01:29:44* Season five is all about Resident Evil. *01:29:47* For more on this season, go to chapterselect. *01:29:50* com forward slash season five. *01:29:53* Follow the show at Chapter Select and check out previous seasons at ChapterSelect. *01:29:55* com. *01:30:01*