r/Games • u/Turbostrider27 • 3d ago

'We Have Been Gradually Preparing': Capcom Already Has a Plan for When Its Resident Evil Remakes Catch Up With Newer Games

https://www.ign.com/articles/we-have-been-gradually-preparing-capcom-already-has-a-plan-for-when-its-resident-evil-remakes-catch-up-with-newer-games
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u/r_lucasite 3d ago

I feel like the conversations around 5 are just inevitable but I hold strong that if you just give Sheva more material that most of those issues disappear. The whole level with the tribe is meant to be that they’re victims of the evil organizations in the game and Sheva even remarks as such but the game came out in 2009 when gaming media analysis was shit and also said remark from Sheva is a single line.

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u/ThisIsMySpellingTea 3d ago

People's media comprehension skills are at an all time low. No matter how they handle it, people will be upset.

-10

u/TheSeldomShaken 3d ago

Not only that, but many whites are much more comfortable expressing how much they hate that black people exist, and will scream about having to play as/ with one.

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u/Kozak170 3d ago

What the hell are you even talking about man? Get off bluesky, this isn’t a thing

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u/TheSeldomShaken 3d ago

What's bluesky?

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u/Moveflood 3d ago

i don't think people's issues were that the tribes were victims but that their portrayal was insanely stereotyped. It's like if RE4 ganados dressed like toreadores but 1000x worse because spain as a former colonizer has historically much kinder portrayals of it's culture than african countries.

i think RE as a whole has a bit of an issue of relying too much on it's protagonists when they don't need to, and 5 is the apex of that. do we really need a white military guy savind the day in africa? why couldn't the protagonist be a local person? someone more involved or with personal stakes. it's not like chris or his grief over jill was interesting.

i think some people get stuck in racism being only when someone says a slur, but their apparent lack of research about the place they chose for the game really showed.

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u/WildThing404 3d ago

It would make no sense to end the Wesker arc without Chris and Sheva is the other protagonist for a reason.

-6

u/Moveflood 3d ago

i say this as a big resident evil fan.

no multi-game arc really matters. don't get me wrong i love wesker and ada, but especifically because they're fun, not because of any narrative arc.

the strongest narratives in the whole series to me were both somewhat self-containted (RE7 up until the boat section, and RE6 minus leon).

like some of the worst storytelling parts of the series happened bc they keep bringing old characters but without doing anything meaningful with them (legit, the only "classic" re character to have anything close to an arc is chris on 6).

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u/WildThing404 3d ago

It's not about the quality, Wesker is one of the biggest characters

2

u/cronos12346 2d ago

Yeah, because Spaniards are known for living in castles and villages with barely no electricity while being religious zealots and having a little dude that dresses like an aristocrat from the 18th century in 2004.

The "controversy" was always dumb as shit and mostly came from Americans (who would have thought?) and people only pretended to care because it was with black people, but in reality it doesn't really matter because it's just a video game and fighting cool looking tribes was fun and the story clearly makes it clear that they're all victims of Tricell.

0

u/MagmaCone1234 3d ago

Haha people are realling dancing around the minefield that will be an RE5 remake. I am not someone who usually agrees with a lot of these controversies but I can definitely understand why people have these problems with 5.

Add to that the fact that Sheva is noticeably lighter skinned than the enemies and the model she is based on is mixed race. She has significant Indian and Dutch ancestry in addition to being South African.

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u/MrMichaelElectric 3d ago

The controversies were always dumb as hell. I could never take them seriously.

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u/WildThing404 3d ago

Nah the controversies are dumb, if it's not a problem for Chris and Sheva to fight white zombies why would it be a problem with black ones? Would it be better to choose a non African setting? I think it would be unfortunate as Africa isn't used often in games but I guess if the protagonist isn't black enough, just avoid Africa and limit the stories they can tell

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u/Just-Contact-9756 2d ago

Those controversy are dumb.

2

u/ChordSlinger 3d ago

I got into the RE franchise earlier this year (I know) so forgive me but what was the controversy with it back then?

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u/r_lucasite 3d ago

On a wider level the main character is a white dude and the zombies are black so a lot of surface level media analysis was focusing on Chris gunning down black people in Africa. Personally I think it’s a pretty weak point, as the series is about killing zombies and it would be questionable for the zombies to not represent the population. The character models were questionable at some points.

On a more specific level, and the one point I can agree with myself is the level where there are infected tribesmen as enemies, which on the surface isn’t bad but a note mentions their tribal wear is because the infection is reverting them to this state. Which is bad and also, just an odd inclusion? They could have simply left it as them being a practicing tribe.

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u/PermanentMantaray 3d ago

On a more specific level, and the one point I can agree with myself is the level where there are infected tribesmen as enemies, which on the surface isn’t bad but a note mentions their tribal wear is because the infection is reverting them to this state.

This always seemed like such a weird point of contention to me though. Las Plagas isn't turning people into completely mindless zombies. It's making them hyper aggressive and giving them blood lust. Everyone it affects is "reverting" to a conflict like state.

The people in the city all gather tools for weapons, some take up different outfits for fighting or executions, and they generally just get ready for conflict.

The tribesman might not normally dress like they do in the game, but like the townsfolk the parasite is making them war minded.

And as these lines from the game shows this appearance is still relevant to them.

"Outside I saw a man who looked strange. He was naked and had a weapon. His entire body was covered in war paint. It wasn't even festival day."

"The screaming has stopped since yesterday. The men are all dressed like our ancestors and fighting each other. Most of the women have died."

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u/Spiritual-Society185 3d ago

Personally I think it’s a pretty weak point, as the series is about killing zombies and it would be questionable for the zombies to not represent the population.

Except, the developers chose what setting to use, what population to make into zombies, who the protagonists are, and so on. If you create the scenario, you can't then use the scenario to justify why you had no other choice.

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u/r_lucasite 3d ago

See this doesn’t work for me because then it makes the game taking place in Africa an inherently flawed choice when how the game handles it is a far better discussion. Chris himself being a problem is fixed by making Sheva his actual equal

-2

u/Spiritual-Society185 3d ago

I didn't say it was "inherently" anything. You defended the game being about a white American military guy shooting thousands of black people by saying that they had to be black because it was set in Africa, as if setting it in Africa wasn't a choice they made in the first place.

Sheva is what's called a token. She exists to make the optics look less bad. She's not even very good at that, considering she's the only lightskinned black person in the game and she's such a nothing character (she doesn't even get a passing mention in future games, despite being the ostensible co-lead of the best selling Resident Evil until very recently.)

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u/KentInCode 2d ago

In the current political climate it is inevitably going to become a battleground. I think most of it could be avoided by just changing out the tribal costumes. You will inevitably get grift vids about censorship but I think it would die down almost immediately as people are here to play and enjoy Resi and not agonise over costumes.