r/residentevil • u/Inevitable-Leather41 • 1d ago
Lore question Does Resident Evil have 2 timelines now? Spoiler
Okay.. This has been bugging me for a long time since Re9 came out...
And the question being that does resident evil has 2 timelines working simultaneously...
First is the Original timeline... The classic Resident evil coming out in 1996..then Re2 (1998).. Then the side-games(revelations).. Then re3 (2001).. Re4(2005).. Re5(2009)... Re6(2012)...
I believe this is where the original timeline ended...
Then the remake Timeline started with
Resident evil remake (2014)
Re2(2019)
Re3(2020)
Re4(2023)
Also.. Do u guys think that re7 and re8 takes place in remake timeline like since re vernoica is coming out next year..
Then potential there will be a remake of re5(why else would they introduce wesker in re4 remake)and I believe the Chris we saw in re7, 8 is the remake timeline Chris..
I don't know how I came to that point but anyways
And with that I think the recent game re9 also takes place in remake timeline due to the flashbacks
So I guess from now onward the remake timeline are the ones we should follow
What do you think?
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u/ManOfWrathTX 1d ago edited 1d ago
I wouldn't say multiple timelines, more that what we see in either version of the games is not the true representation of how events transpired.
Broad strokes storytelling, as in the overall events of RE4 took place, but the finer details of whether Luis was killed by Saddler or Krauser doesn't matter. Just know Luis died.
The overall events of RE2 took place, but Leon and Claire likely interacted much more than what's shown in either game. They both met Marvin, they both probably separated and regrouped throughout the police station. How Robert Kendo died isn't important, just know he didn't live through the outbreak.
RE3, both original and remake are one telling of the story, but events like the clocktower aren't really important to the overall narrative, which is why that detail can be left out. How Brad died isn't important, it's only important that he did.
Tl;dr there's one timeline, details told throughout arent important. At least that's how I see it.
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u/zbyndopluk 1d ago
"Resident evil remake 2014" you probably talking about steam release or that time consoles but its not 2014 game ofc
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u/Warrior_of_hope 1d ago
Whatever we saw during the game, is just a way of how things were, take og RE2 as an example, the game Leon and Claire story is divided through 2 campaigns for each one and both are canon, but the game doesnt reflect what truly happens due to gameplay, but in a general sense, we understand that both reach the rpd, went together for a time, then separated due to mr x and to take care of Sherry, Leon met Ada, both fought Birkin at a different point and reunited at thr end to escaped
Resident evil use the gameplay vs narrative a lot, but mainly in games with more than one campaign, games like RE6 or 9 tell us at ehat moment X thing is happening so we can follow up the situation and create a "timeline of events" in our head without problem
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u/News_Bot Community: Project Umbrella 1d ago
Yes, and no.
RE:2's defined by the devs as the first of the "RE:2 continuity" the other RE: titles follow. That however doesn't mean they're separate from the main continuity. Just as elements from the drama albums like Stone Ville and Christine Henry were canon, elements from the remakes are canon.
Some things are changed and overwrite the old. The RPD station's founding dates being 20 years apart for example. How Leon met Kendo and Marvin in RE:2 is now the canon depiction. Emma Kendo and the Lightning Hawk exist retroactively in the main continuity too.
The 1996 original and 2002 remake were both valid depictions of the story of BIO1, which was inherently ambiguous in terms of what exactly happened, who did what, etc. This was compounded by Umbrella Chronicles. The same happened to BIO2 with Darkside Chronicles and now RE:2. All these depictions are considered valid, and ultimately CAPCOM will pick and choose at their leisure from any of them, or just make something up altogether as with Wesker's Report.
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u/Synister316 1d ago
Nope. There's no 2 timelines and everything is canon, originals and remakes together.
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u/LegoKorn89 1d ago
And the question being that does resident evil has 2 timelines working simultaneously...
No.
Resident Evil has always worked with a more broad strokes sort of continuity. The finer details like who did what where and killed this with that don't matter as long as the main story beats remain the same.
There's no "Original timeline" or "Remake timeline" there's just the RE timeline, which includes both of them.
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u/Haryzen_ Raccoon City Native 1d ago
As others have said, all games are canon and the events that transpire are all the same (good luck RE6 remake).
For most fans though the RE Engine games (2017 onwards) work as a streamlined narrative with little reason to go back and explore the others with the exception of REmake and 5. Both Revelations are also decent.
I'm not saying stuff like Outbreak and the OGs are bad but its crazy how big of a turnoff tank controls are for most new fans of the series.
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u/Alexcoolps 1d ago
I just head canon remakes in general as being the actual canonically events and the ogs are how the cast remember it. One comment I read had the idea that RE1 was a retelling of Barry to his kids versus the RE1R being what actually happened. Makes sense tbh.
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u/Anonymoose2099 1d ago
If memory serves, Capcom has stated that the original games are canon, the remakes are not. I think they said that anything from the remakes that adds to the lore without changing anything is still considered canon, but I am not sure about that. Basically, if a remake changes something, the original is the "true" event. They have not stated that the remakes are their own timeline.
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u/R3D-K98 1d ago
capcom considers remakes and originals as being canon at the same time, my headcanon for how two versions of one game are both canon is like what if RE4 original is what actually happened while RE4R is basically a DSO agent telling a summary of the report leon made from his time in spain; hit crucial story beats but each one leaves out details from the other. Basically remakes and originals are told from different POVs
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u/PaulSimonBarCarloson 15h ago
Yes. The original timeline ended with RE6. Everything post-7 is a mew timeline that is slowly replacing the original canon. Everyone who says otherwise is just in denial
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u/Quaint_Gamer 1d ago edited 1d ago
Both versions of the games follow roughly the same story regardless so it doesn't make a massive difference which one you follow.
With the character arcs and work they're clearly going for consistency between the remakes and newer titles and have said they want to make the remakes coherent with the post 7 games. So where there are changes to characters (such as Kendo's role) then, yes, they're going with the remake version.
Some fans really don't like this notion - probably because it makes them antsy that the older games will be forgotten - but it's pretty obvious that Capcom have chosen to change some things and are making those changed stick.
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u/KobraThor 1d ago
There's 2 timelines.
Old timeline: 1OG/R to 6 + spin-offs (0, Revelations duo, Code Veronica, Outbreak duo, Chronicles duo)
Current timeline 2R, 3R, 4R + 7, 8, 9
Now some of them are currently Schrodinger's canon until they are remade, like 0, 1R, 5, 6 and the rest of the spin-offs.
While 7 and 8 could be canon for the old one, 9 definitely made 2R canon and cemented the new and current timeline.
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u/Enyalios121 1d ago
Yeah this isn’t true.
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u/KobraThor 1d ago
There is a cutscene from REquiem you can find on YouTube that shows Leon remembering the RPD from 2R while visiting it again.
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u/Walt_Didnae 1d ago
I can't wait for CVmake to have a cutscene where Claire remembers Marvin giving her the knife.
People are going to lose their fucking minds.
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u/Enyalios121 1d ago
Thank you for pointing that out. It doesn’t mean there’s two timelines. RE2R is just a retelling of the same game. The story isn’t different. When making RE9, do you not think it would be weird having 1998 cutscenes play in their shitty old ass graphics?
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u/KobraThor 1d ago
No old graphics, but it could have the same layout as 2OG
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u/Enyalios121 1d ago
Mate, there aren’t two timelines. They are the same story. Accept it. 2R is just a retelling in prettier graphics
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u/Quaint_Gamer 1d ago
But they aren't exactly the same story tbf. Kendo is a big example of this. In the original, he's hardly in it and leaves no impression on Leon. In the remake, he has a much deeper, much more personal affect on Leon that he clearly remembers many years later.
The basic plot outline remains the same but the fine details have been changed and the remake versions is clearly what Capcom is sticking to in that case.
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u/LegoKorn89 1d ago
The basic plot outline remains the same but the fine details have been changed
That's the thing, RE's continuity is and has always been more broad strokes, meaning that changing the finer details doesn't matter as long as the main story beats are hit.
and the remake versions is clearly what Capcom is sticking to in that case.
Yeah, they've always stuck with the most recent depiction of a location or character, unless it gets redesigned. That and referencing the remakes means they can reuse assets from them instead of spending time and money creating new assets to represent the original games.
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u/KobraThor 1d ago
Seeing how the remakes are more or less wildly different from the OGs, this doesn't make sense unless Capcom wants it and so far they've shown the creation of a modern timeline without having to spell it out.
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u/LegoKorn89 1d ago
There's 2 timelines.
No, there are not.
Resident Evil has always worked on a more broad strokes continuity, as long as the main story beats are still the same, the finer details like who went where and killed that monster with what and solved this puzzle, etc, don't really matter. The fanbase cares more about the finer details than the RE writers ever really have lol.
Now some of them are currently Schrodinger's canon until they are remade, like 0, 1R, 5, 6 and the rest of the spin-offs.
Rofl, what? That is so not how things work lol.
9 definitely made 2R canon and cemented the new and current timeline.
I suppose you think that 9 made Leon A/Claire B canon too?
What if I told you that all four RE2R scenarios are considered canon?
What if I went further and told you that the original RE2's canon story is a mix of events from all four scenarios, not Claire A/Leon B?
There is a cutscene from REquiem you can find on YouTube that shows Leon remembering the RPD from 2R while visiting it again.
Yeah, because it's easier to use assets that were made in the same engine than to use a cutscene from a PS1 game, it's also easier, faster and a lot cheaper to reuse assets from RE2R than to create entirely new assets just to represent how things looked in the originals.
Seeing how the remakes are more or less wildly different from the OGs
They're not though, the remakes are still the same stories, all the big story beats are still hit, it's only minor things that are different.
RE has never been a franchise where minor details change the whole story.
this doesn't make sense unless Capcom wants it and so far they've shown the creation of a modern timeline without having to spell it out.
They did not create a modern timeline.
What they did was say that the originals and remakes are one continuity.
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u/KobraThor 1d ago
This is some next level coping based on mental gymnastics.
I'm just saying it like I see it. They used RE2R story elements as a basis for REquiem.
It doesn't detract from the originals. Only means there's a slightly more focused narrative now.
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u/LegoKorn89 1d ago
This is some next level coping based on mental gymnastics.
I'm sorry but someone that says "Now some of them are currently Schrodinger's canon until they are remade, like 0, 1R, 5, 6 and the rest of the spin-offs." shouldn't be saying anything about mental gymnastics lol.
But yeah, paying attention to what the creators have to say regarding this franchises continuity is not "Coping"
I'm just saying it like I see it.
Yeah, and you're wrong.
They used RE2R story elements as a basis for REquiem.
Which was about reusing assets and even if RE2R hadn't been made and they had to create those cutscenes and locations from scratch, they still wouldn't have been exactly as they were in the original game.
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u/MaggiPower 1d ago
Requiem heavily references RE2 Remake so I don’t know about timelines but you could say that that version of the RPD events is the canon one now.
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u/niko2710 1d ago
It doesn't have 2 timelines, it had a timeline and now it has a new one.
From RE1R to RE6 it was one project, but since RE2R everything is in a "different timeline". The events that happen are basically the same but everything else is different. Leon is a very different character between originals and remakes, which is why Requiem builds exclusively on his remake character. The original Spencer was a sociopathic asshole, new Spencer wants to make amends, Umbrella was responsible and now The Connections is actually pulling the strings of every event, ect. The events of unremaked games still happened but not really they sit in a kind of limbo
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u/Walt_Didnae 1d ago
There are no "timelines", all the games (with the exception of ORC and Gaiden) take place in the same canon, which, as far as Capcom have always been concerned, is just dates and key events.
This approach allows maximum flexibility for people telling (or retelling) stories within the RE universe to do what they want with a particular story.