Kiss these characters goodbye.
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00:00 Sometimes, the strength of a franchise is about who you can slap on the box.
00:04 Players want to assume the role of an iconic character and, even when they have a large
00:08 roster of supporting actors, the majority of video game franchises make it pretty evident
00:13 who their top dogs are.
00:15 The issue though is few franchises have a habit quite like Resident Evil of inventing
00:19 new heroes and then leaving them discarded in the great big toy box of protagonists,
00:24 sometimes for several decades.
00:26 You can be sure that these are just a few of the Resident Evil characters that won't
00:30 get a look in ever again.
00:32 I'm SciForWhatCulture.com and this is 8 Memorable Resident Evil Characters You'll
00:37 Never See Again.
00:39 8.
00:40 Sheva Alomar
00:42 For a long time, Resident Evil 5 was the best-selling entry in Capcom's mammoth horror franchise.
00:48 Off the back of the huge success that was Resident Evil 4, landing on multiple platforms
00:52 all at once and containing full campaign co-op for the first time, it was an easy recipe
00:57 for big bucks.
00:59 Chris Redfield was joined by a brand new player character and fellow anti-bioterrorism agent
01:04 Sheva Alomar as they fought through hordes of brain-munching monsters in their never-ending
01:09 pursuit of peace.
01:10 Sheva became a recognisable face in this era to every player 2 who blasted their way through
01:15 Resident Evil 5's campaign or every solo player who lambasted her terrible first-aid
01:20 spray-wasting AI.
01:22 She offered something fresh to the roster of resi heroes in a series that is typically
01:26 set in rural America.
01:28 Unfortunately, Capcom didn't see the value in her and the Sheva erasure began immediately
01:33 when the Gold Edition reissue of Resident Evil 5 dropped.
01:37 Instead of Chris and Sheva, the front cover featured the pairing of Chris and Jill Valentine,
01:42 despite the fact that Jill is only playable in the additional DLC and not the full main
01:46 course campaign.
01:48 Since then, Sheva has scarcely been seen or heard from again.
01:51 7.
01:52 Billy Cohen
01:53 As with every Resident Evil character that makes it through their ordeal, fans will speculate
01:58 about the possibility of them returning.
02:00 Resident Evil Zero's Billy Cohen is no exception.
02:02 He's one of many characters who have appeared just once and left fans wanting more.
02:07 After refusing to commit war crimes and being falsely charged with mass murder, Billy is
02:11 sentenced to death.
02:12 However, on his way to prison, his transport is overturned in the woods around the Spencer
02:17 Mansion.
02:18 He jumps into Rebecca Chambers and the two have to team up to survive a hellacious night
02:21 of zombies, giant insects and frustrating inventory systems.
02:26 What I'm saying is, Billy Cohen has been through plenty already, so if you're asking
02:29 to see him in another game, then maybe you're just cruel.
02:33 However, in an interview with the staff behind the Netflix CGI series Resident Evil Infinite
02:37 Darkness, it was teased that at one stage they thought of bringing Billy out of retirement
02:41 for the first time in 18 years.
02:43 They then ultimately decided against that and instead went back to old faithful himself,
02:48 Leon S. Kennedy.
02:49 So whilst Capcom haven't forgotten about Billy, he's clearly not the priority.
02:54 6.
02:55 Zoe Baker
02:56 Resident Evil 7's hook was its shift away from worldwide bio-terror to something more
03:01 remote, more personal and downright creepier.
03:04 The majority of the title saw the player as regular schmuck Ethan Winters wandering about
03:08 the Baker family estate and hiding from its infected residents where possible.
03:12 Jack, Marguerite and son Lucas were all as twisted and as scary as each other in their
03:18 own ways.
03:19 The Baker daughter Zoe was the exception to the rule and, being free from whatever plagued
03:24 the rest of her family, she guided the player around the property to seek the antidote and
03:28 escape.
03:29 In the canon version of events, Ethan only has enough antivirus to save his wife Mia
03:33 and regretfully leave Zoe behind.
03:35 A controversial decision considering mere hours ago his wife was running towards him
03:39 with a chainsaw and Zoe has been nothing but an angel.
03:42 Nice one Ethan.
03:43 Luckily, the story of Zoe's own escape continues in a DLC chapter and, in a special
03:48 in-game dossier included with certain releases of Resident Evil Village, it's confirmed
03:52 that Zoe has started a new life under witness protection.
03:56 It was a really nice touch for Capcom to address this character's fate in both End of Zoe
03:59 and RE Village's lore and we can be rest assured now that she's safe, Zoe will be
04:04 staying away from strange houses built on the bayou that may or may not contain cannibal
04:08 families.
04:09 5.
04:10 Mark Thompson Even as someone who has a soft spot for this
04:13 runt of the early resi litter, it's not hard to see why Capcom hasn't acknowledged
04:18 the existence of Resident Evil Survivor in about 20 years.
04:22 The series' first foray into the first-person perspective is short, sluggish and not all
04:26 that much to look at either.
04:28 If anything, it's most memorable for its voice acting which arguably outpaces the original
04:32 game when it comes to balls-out absurd line delivery.
04:36 There isn't a single normal-sounding character across the entire spectrum of Resident Evil
04:40 Survivor and that extends to the game's protagonist, Arc Thompson.
04:44 Our would-be hero spends most of the game suffering from amnesia but it's hard to
04:47 root for his pursuit of the truth when it sounds less like amnesia and more likely he's
04:51 suffering from severe narcolepsy.
04:54 Arc drops one single line that connects him to the rest of the Resident Evil universe,
04:58 claiming to be an associate of Leon S. Kennedy's but considering that Leon has never mentioned
05:02 the guy, we wonder if the poor bloke just thinks they're friends because Leon said
05:06 hi to him once in the corridor.
05:08 4.
05:09 Ashley Graham Resident Evil 4 has a claim to not just be
05:12 one of the most beloved games in the Biohazard series but also of its mid-2000s era.
05:18 Despite being a little clunky in retrospect, any gamer who played it at the time will do
05:21 two things.
05:23 Firstly, regale you with stories of crowds of Ganado villagers bearing down on them,
05:28 clearing through them with their attache case of weapons and feeling like an action movie
05:32 badass in the process.
05:34 And second, complain about the escort missions.
05:37 They were fewer and further between than most people realised, but if anything that says
05:41 more about how rage-quit inducingly frustrating it was when Ashley demanded Leon's help
05:46 in as shrill a voice as possible.
05:48 Having to multitask puzzles and rescue the President's daughter from being carried
05:52 off into the mysterious dark door at the same time was like real life babysitting.
05:57 Except in this instance we'd rather let the chanting cultists take Ashley away altogether.
06:02 Many Resident Evil characters can't return to the series because they're dead, in this
06:06 case Ashley won't return to the series because most players wish she was.
06:10 3.
06:11 Jake Muller
06:12 Resident Evil 6 was stuffed to the gills with as much content as possible and designed to
06:16 appeal to all different kinds of audiences and as such, the finished product was an exhausting
06:22 bloated mess of four interweaving campaigns and more quick time events than your poor
06:26 tired thumbs can handle.
06:28 At the very least it tried to introduce us to a whole new roster of characters who were
06:32 primed to take centre stage - after all, who wants to be playing as an arthritic 60 year
06:37 old Chris Redfield, because that day is fast approaching.
06:41 The boldest among Resi 6's new stars was Jake Muller.
06:44 The unwanted son of Albert Wesker, Jake spends his time in Resident Evil 6 grappling with
06:48 the reality of his situation, his legacy and the negative impact of his rather eccentric
06:54 father who once tried to, oh I don't know, take over the world.
06:58 Jake's tale of morality was out of place in the explosive Michael Bay-esque bombast
07:03 of Resident Evil 6 which strangely made it the most interesting story strand of the lot.
07:08 For better or for worse, the critical reaction to Resident Evil 6 put the brakes on the planned
07:12 trajectory of the franchise and made Capcom stop and take stock of the situation.
07:17 Considering every time anyone mentions this title it's to quite rightfully make a joke
07:21 about its absolute failure, it seems that Capcom are hesitant to reuse any of the characters
07:26 that the game introduced.
07:28 Thus Jake and company, who seemed at one stage poised to take the torch from our heroes,
07:32 are lost in limbo.
07:34 2.
07:35 Bruce McGiven
07:36 Through its 26 year history, Resident Evil has had to evolve to survive and this has
07:40 taken many forms, from perspective shifts like Resident Evil 4 to online multiplayer
07:45 games like Resident Evil Resistance.
07:48 We've previously mentioned Survivor which kicked off a strange little series of titles
07:52 all with a light gun focus.
07:54 The final release, in the West, titled Resident Evil Dead Aim may just be the weirdest one
07:58 of them all as it combines third person exploration that switches to first person action when
08:03 the player aims their weapon.
08:05 Resident Evil Dead Aim's cast is limited to the three most obvious roles of every story
08:10 - protagonist, love interest and villain.
08:12 The characters themselves however are anything but obvious.
08:16 In particular our leading man Bruce McGiven is like a cross between the world's most
08:20 inept agent and a misshapen stretch Armstrong - clearly based upon Brad Pitt's character
08:25 in the cult classic thriller Seven, Bruce takes after his predecessor arc with dialogue
08:29 that sounds drunk, fumbled through the most impromptu southern drawl ever concocted.
08:34 Whilst the cutscenes are decent for the time, there's something truly horrifying and alien
08:39 about Bruce McGiven's disproportionate design that makes him a damn sight scarier than any
08:44 monster you face in the game.
08:47 The game's story or characters don't interact with a broader canon which has allowed Capcom
08:51 to ignore this experiment and leave it, and thus Bruce, trapped on the Playstation 2 where
08:56 he probably belongs.
08:58 1.
08:59 Carlos Oliveira
09:00 When the remake of Resident Evil 3 rolled around it did wonderful things for Jill Valentine
09:04 and her supporting cast - a brilliant throwback to these beloved characters reimagined in
09:09 a modern light.
09:11 None more so than Carlos Oliveira who transformed from a bit of a hokey Latino stereotype in
09:16 the 1999 original game to a hunky stud who respected personal boundaries in the remake.
09:22 Carlos' sum total Resident Evil appearances amount to treading water.
09:27 Essentially, any time the series goes back to the well of Raccoon City and revisits that
09:31 era, we might get a Carlos appearance.
09:34 But beyond that, he's never had an original story that pushed his character forward, purely
09:39 because he was never that popular of a character until his remake redesign.
09:43 Now with 20 years of Resident Evil history between his original appearance and today,
09:49 it might be difficult to find a place for him in Biohazard's long running timeline.
09:53 Poor Carlos, he peaked too late.
09:56 It's not so much a case of "you don't know what you have until it's gone" so
09:59 much as "you don't know what you could have had until we figured out what he should
10:02 be but by now it's a bit irrelevant".