Why Resident Evil 4 Remake May Have Doomed The Franchise
What's next for the Resident Evil franchise?
Transcript
00:00 Hello everyone and welcome to What Culture. My name is Jules Gill and I'm joined by the
00:04 lovely Sy. Hello Sy, how are you doing my friend?
00:07 Hi, hello!
00:08 Now this is the thing, you and I have been very deep in some greasy ganados recently
00:12 because we have been playing a lot of Resident Evil 4's outstanding remake. And just for
00:18 the record here, because I know that there will be a lot of people looking at the title
00:21 of this video coming in and immediately warming up their fingers to type "clickbait", let's
00:25 address the elephant in the room. This game is phenomenal fun. I mean, how have you been
00:30 enjoying it?
00:31 Oh, I love it. Like, there's a conversation to be had certainly at some point about your
00:36 favourite Resident Evils because there's so many of them. I've never been the big RE4
00:41 fan, that's a whole story for another day. This remake though is shooting right up there,
00:46 it's right up the top for me, I love it.
00:48 Honestly though, it's so entertaining and the quality of life improvements that they've
00:51 put into this game, they've made it, I would argue, the best Resident Evil action game
00:57 that they can. But it does come with a small caveat, which is what we're going to be talking
01:01 about today, because what do you think of when you think of Resident Evil? You think
01:04 of fear, you think of spooky stuff, you think of gore, you think of tendrils and giant eyes
01:09 placed all over places that definitely should not have eyes. It's fear incarnate, right?
01:15 Right, absolutely.
01:16 So I will ask you the question then, Si.
01:18 I'm worried about this.
01:19 Did you find Resident Evil 4's remake scary?
01:23 No, actually. I don't think the original game is all that scary either, but it is markedly
01:30 more scary than the remake. I thought some of the scary parts of the original game felt
01:34 even toned down by the remake.
01:37 I would totally agree and I think that it all comes down to the fact that the quality
01:41 of life improvements such as the knife play, being able to move and shoot at any given
01:46 time, the fact that Leon feels like he just basically is more powerful than he ever has
01:51 before, and the fact that you can craft items and ammo on the fly, it makes a power fantasy
01:59 that is very different from what Resident Evil's been. And my worry is, is that going
02:04 forward, because Capcom loves to always innovate and never take things away, does that mean
02:09 that we're going to feel less afraid going forward because we're playing as characters
02:13 that are just far more capable?
02:15 It is. We are at a worrying point where history might repeat itself, right? You know, RE4,
02:21 as I just said, the original, it's not overly scary, but it does have a little bit of spookums
02:25 in there. It's not like a crazy diversion, but it is a big jump from the previous games
02:30 and it really was like that's where it all sort of, not in quality, but in terms of the
02:35 horror sliding downhill.
02:37 I can already see what you're doing. You're basically drawing a six with your words and
02:42 we're all plummeting towards Resident Evil 6.
02:44 Exactly, though. But this is exactly how we got to that point in the first place, because
02:48 as great as it was, the original Resident Evil 4 took us down that route and now we
02:52 are primed up to do exactly the same thing again. If they look at this game and the success
02:57 that it's gotten, and by the way, it sold 3 million copies in two days. So it's the
03:02 best selling Resident Evil remake. It's the best selling Resident Evil of the modern era.
03:08 So they're going to look at that and go, "Ah, okay. And what do you think they're going
03:11 to take from it?"
03:12 They're just going to go, "People want this. People want what we've done here." And I honestly
03:15 think that if you were to say, there's a few people out there that are saying, ourselves
03:19 included to be honest, that they may go back to Resident Evil 1 and do a remake of a remake
03:24 because you pointed out the other day that the developers went on track to say that this
03:29 is a new timeline, isn't it, effectively? They see it as a new series of events. The
03:34 remake is very much separate from the other games. So therefore, a Resident Evil 1 remake
03:38 is definitely on the cards with this new thing. And do you think that they're going to approach
03:42 that by taking away that new knife combat system and all of the crafting stuff? If they
03:47 do, I don't think that people are going to like it. People love these new additions.
03:52 It's weird to think because Resident Evil, the original game, was such a strange trajectory
03:57 where it's obviously been remade once already. And the original '96 version, it's hard to
04:03 call that scary now, right? But the remake, it really did amp up the fear. Everything
04:08 about it, all the new additions were all about making that game as scary as possible. It
04:12 is really not going to be the same with all these gameplay elements. And even the perspective
04:16 shift when you think about it, it's going to be, they're going to have to do a lot with
04:21 it. Otherwise, you're going to run through that mansion, knock everything out in a single
04:24 hit, pick up your infinite rocket launcher, right? And it's all going to be over very
04:28 quickly and I'm very worried about what are they going to do? How are they going to do
04:32 that?
04:33 I have no idea because it's like Crimson Heads were added in to amp up the fear, but
04:37 nowadays you just walk up to them and just like, if they come at you and you've got the
04:40 Leon's ability to duck under their swings and then parry their attacks, it's like, get
04:43 away with you. Like, nut him on the way out. It's like, it doesn't, it devalues the overall
04:49 fear of what Resident Evil is. And do not get me wrong, at the same time, I have to
04:53 defend this from my own words. It is still a great game. It is the most fun I've had
04:58 in a Resident Evil game in a long, long time. But I just worry that the fear element of
05:04 which this entire franchise revolves around is just being diminished like year on year
05:08 with this. I mean, we saw how the transition from Resident Evil 7, which was basically
05:13 a hard, well, maybe a soft reset on the entire tone of the franchise. It did go back to horror.
05:18 There was tons of horrific elements in that. And it was, because of the new perspective,
05:23 very, very scary. Resident Evil Village, or Village, as I call it, is not as scary because
05:30 it's over the top again. I mean, you can't have a game that has you boulder punching
05:33 asshole like I managed to get that wrong in the quiz that's going to be going up soon.
05:37 Spoiler alert on that one there. You can't have that and then still expect people to
05:42 cack their pants, really, can you?
05:44 Village is a weird one. I'm close. Village is what I call it. Even fancier.
05:50 It's a weird one because for me, it has the scariest moment in the entire series in it.
05:54 But out-
05:55 Which is?
05:56 The giant baby monster.
05:57 Oh, yeah.
05:58 The giant-
05:59 That is horror, yeah.
06:00 That thing still haunts my dreams.
06:01 I locked that away in my mind. I wish I hadn't opened that door.
06:06 That's a good reason for that. But outside of that, you're right. They did sort of go,
06:10 okay. You can kind of tell they were looking at Resident Evil 4 and they went, how do we
06:14 go RE7 is Resident Evil 1, Village, how do we get to Resident Evil 4 with it? And it
06:18 feels very akin to that jump in action. Absolutely. So maybe your RE1 remake has one scary part
06:25 with Lisa Trevor or something, but the rest of it could be a complete shooting gallery.
06:30 Who knows? We really don't know what they're going to do. For me, the remakes are an interesting
06:36 thing and I think I'm consigned at this point to believing that that's probably the fate
06:40 because again, the sales numbers tell us that they're probably going to keep making those.
06:44 Which direction they go in, who really knows? There are certainly teases in Resident Evil
06:50 4 remake that they might go towards 5 next. A lot of people were talking about that. Outside
06:55 of plot spoiler stuff, if you take a look at the cabin defense, the villa defense as
07:01 it's called now, you're fighting alongside Luis. He's giving you ammo. What does that
07:05 make you think of? Resident Evil 5. So that and that game, that's an action game originally.
07:11 Oh, 100% it is. 100% it is. They could bring horror into that in theory, like they've changed
07:19 the tone for remake 4. They could change the tone for a remake 5, but it's an action game.
07:23 So if they head in that direction, action the way. I'll put it out there. Resident Evil
07:29 5, I argue, doesn't need to be remade. I mean, I really, I liked it for what it was. I enjoyed
07:35 it as an action game. Like you say, what didn't scare me in the slightest, I loved it. I think
07:39 the graphics still hold up really well today. The gameplay is still very good as well. The
07:43 mercenaries mode, one of the best that the series has ever had. So it's a case of like,
07:47 okay, what more can you do? I feel like it's a very different conversation to how people
07:51 didn't want Resi 4 remade because they thought that it was the perfect game. This is just
07:55 a game that doesn't need to be made because it achieved all of its goals that it wanted
07:58 to do. 6, however, I will definitely take a remake on that because maybe we can have
08:03 another stab at that. Cut a few of the, I don't know, entire storylines out and we'll
08:06 have a laugh. I think you and I are both in the same boat as we'd like some remakes of
08:11 lesser loved games to bring them in line instead of just say it. Just say it. So I know that
08:17 they want to pick the obvious ones because they sell like remake 4 was an obvious decision
08:21 because people are going to buy that and they have, but give me survivor dammit. I knew
08:27 it. I knew it. Speaking of shooting galleries, there we go. Right. But to be fair, maybe
08:31 that's what needs to come back. I mean, maybe they need to do a deal with Sony because obviously
08:36 the PSVR 2 has just come out. If they just go fully embrace the fact that we're going
08:39 to just release a shooting gallery style game and it's going to be Resident Evil, Survivor,
08:43 Dead Aim, whatever you want to call it. Bish, bish, bish. You're going to have a really
08:46 good time with that game if it's and you'd have a reason to buy the PSVR 2 because at
08:51 the moment I can't think of one. It's a great selling point. Resident Evil and VR goes together
08:56 really well because when you think about the VR 1, what almost certainly what was the best
09:00 selling VR game? I haven't looked this up, but I'm sure it's Resident Evil 7 because
09:03 it's the only thing that was like an actual game. I played Resident Evil 7 first time
09:08 in VR and I was like, oh, I'm never going to go back. I'm never going to go back from
09:14 this. Right. Maybe that's where you get your action fix from, like head in that direction
09:18 and splinter off a little bit and we can do some horror elsewhere. Who knows? I'm hopeful
09:24 that they won't turn Resident Evil 1 into a big action game. I don't think they will,
09:29 but we never know. I just I feel like in my mind that we're always just going to have
09:35 what's his name? Jack? Jack Wesker. I come up with they went by Jake. Jake. Jake. Jake.
09:41 Yeah. All I think of, all I think of is him. He's the he's the moment that this game became
09:47 the franchise became Devil May Cry spin off instead of the other way around. I was just
09:52 like, oh, oh, get out of my life. Get out of my life. But still, there we go. I mean,
09:56 those are our thoughts on the potential future of the Resident Evil franchise. I know that
10:01 there are scary elements in there and I know that there are going to be a lot of people
10:03 who will be saying, yes, we will go back to the scary days of old. But the question is,
10:09 will Capcom be willing to do so without having to sacrifice all of the brilliant innovations
10:14 that we've seen in the Resident Evil 4 remake? Let us know what you thought about it down
10:18 in the comments section below, as well as your own opinions on this, whether or not
10:21 you're enjoying the Resident Evil 4 remake or not. And sayonara. We'll see you very soon.
10:26 Bye.