General New characters in favor of returning

[mert20004]

I started to wonder this and ı need to ask it.

Would you be fine if future main numbered sequels started to only feature new characters and absolutely no returning characters from past?

Re2 had no returning characters from past though ada was mentioned in one of the files for re1. Chris only appears in extreme battle mode.

Re3 started the trend of featuring past characters by having jill as its main character. There are also more but they only make small cameos.

Recv, while being a mainline sequel despite not being numbered, had claire, chris and wesker.

Re4 had leon, ada and wesker.

Re5 had chris, jill and wesker.

Re6 had leon, chris, sherry, ada as well as hunnigan. Still the main numbered sequel with the most amount of returning characters.

Re7 only had chris from past. Other than that, it had completely new cast.

Revillage had ethan, mia and chris. It also had eveline but she appeared during a dream for ethan so ı'm not sure if that counts as an appearance.

I wonder why capcom didnt try their chance of making another main numbered sequel with only new characters. I think this could have been done in re7, especially since re6 had more returning characters than ever before, but they still wanted to have chris in it. And everyone knows the confusion his appearance caused within the fanbase.

So far re2 is still the only main numbered sequel without any past characters returning. However they felt connected to past and environment. Claire was chris' sister, leon was a rookie cop of rpd, ada was mentioned in re1 who was searching for john and sherry was the child of william and annette birkin who were umbrella researchers.

I think they should try the method of re2 for another time. It's been a long while.

Past characters could still be mentioned in files while not appearing in story. They can also appear in spinoffs or mainline titles that arent sequels but more of prequels and interquels like rerev games. They can also appear in non-game canon material like cgi films and mangas.

But anyway, what do you think about this?

 

[russident]

For a long time, Capcom really planned to explore new characters in each title. Umbrella is a global corporation, so anyone could have had experience with it. But in the end, everything turned out so that the developers returned to the same characters again and again. And I personally don't regret it at all.

On the other hand, I'm glad that for BIO7, as Jun Takeuchi said, the developers used that old thinking and old ideas to make a title with an unexplored character against the product of a faceless organization. I've missed this kind of experience in the Resident Evil series for a long time.

It's honestly hard for me to say what I expect from the future. It's obvious to me that Capcom is planning another game about The Connections, and I can see how the game about Rosemary will work. Obviously, they will also develop Umbrella and its influence on organizations in the world.

But I don't know about the new characters. Of course, it all depends on the idea of a particular title. If one game aims to give a horror experience, the ideal decision would be to use an unexplored character. If developers need to create a large-scale action game, it makes sense to use old and experienced characters.

I imagine that Capcom will at some point use Jake, Sherry and Rose and the rest as a new generation of characters whose unique physiology makes it possible to fight bioterrorism more effectively.

 

[mert20004]

I feel like for re7; they should have made either ethan or joe kill lucas. I would have preferred that more. Chris being in the game kinda feels unnecessary. He suffered extreme trauma in re6, giving him a break after that game would make more sense. He even appears in vendetta which takes place between re6 and re7.

I think chris is overused during re engine games. I wouldnt mind if he didnt appear in re9 or whatever it will be called. If they dont want to have claire, leon, jill and ada appear in future main numbered sequels, then this means chris shouldnt appear either. They wanted ada to appear in revillage but scrapped that idea.

Speaking of ethan, honestly this might seem nitpicking but ı think his name could have been something else. By calling him " Ethan winters " ; ı feel like they wanted to reference that file in re5. I've seen people saying that ethan w. and ethan are same people even though they are different. At 1st; ı thought about this too, ı was happy that they brought back a character from a file just like how ada appeared in re2 after being mentioned in re1 but when ı learned the truth, ı was annoyed.

Regardless capcom featuring only new characters in main numbered sequels would make them more isolated than ever before. Since they want to have even more standalone stories according to some statements ı've seen.

 

[russident]

I feel like for re7; they should have made either ethan or joe kill lucas.

I kind of felt the same with Veronica. This game begins as a game about Claire, but Chris was the one who fought with Alexia. The developers just took catharsis away from her.

But then I saw that it's a story about parallelism between sisters and brothers, so I accepted such an alteration in the traditional progression.

I can say the same with Resident Evil 7 as well. This game acknowledges the importance of military intelligence.

The reason why the BSAA forced Chris to cooperate with Umbrella is that this is a high-risk operation due to the uncertainty factor. The organization has already sent three of its best employees there, but they failed, because no one knows the infrastructure of the mine and all the dangers that can be expected from Lucas. Baker himself is not the most dangerous villain in direct physical contact, but he took advantage of the uncertainty factor and prepared all the traps, which is why Chris himself almost died.

Redfield is simply the best specialist who can be thrown into any incident without intelligence and with one knife, and his survival skills will not let him die.

Moreover, Chris' participation also has artistic meaning, since Resident Evil 7 is an homage to the first game. And for the same reason, a certain dynamic was established between Chris and Ethan.

By calling him " Ethan winters " ; ı feel like they wanted to reference that file in re5.

I'm sure it's pure coincidence that unintentionally became a big deal because of the fans.

Developers usually do not choose names by chance, but either rely on the meaning of the name, or name a character after someone. For example, the name Oswell means "divinely powerful", and the surname Spencer is most likely a reference to Herbert Spencer, who was the founder of evolutionism.

Ethan means "strong" and "firm". This corresponds to his character and even his physiology, since he has adapted to mold better than others. And the origin of the surname Winters is not even related to winter. It is associated with the Old English word "wintar", which means "wet season". Maybe it has to do with how Ethan died in the guest house when it was raining.

That Ethan W. could be Ethan Wilson from the TRICELL database. Or not, there are many surnames that start with this letter.

 

[mert20004]

I see your points. And ı agree with recv part. I prefer darkside chronicles' method of handling boss battles. Seeing claire and chris fighting alexia together along with more interactions between alyson court and roger craig smith is much more interesting than chris doing it alone in og game. And tbh, alexia goes down quite easily in og game, ı figured out the easy methods after replays. Darkside chronicles' boss battles take longer and feel more immersive and enjoyable imo. Though ı really like the special knife kill on nosferatu during og game but it's quite tricky to figure out how to do and sniper rifle given to you is quite clunky to use.

To add to your points; chris' contact is also called " veronica " which supports your statements more. But ı still dislike his appearance, it caused insane storms within the fanbase. That caused a bad impression on me. I'm glad they fixed his design in revillage.

I didnt think about ethan's name and surname's meanings that much before either. You make good points.

Regardless ı would like to see more replies from other people on this matter.

 

[mert20004]

Russident something else come to my mind today. Do you think jill could have worked for re7? Since it feels like the game is some kind of a recreation of re1 in many aspects. She's the other playable main character in the game other than chris. I wonder how she would have worked in the story if she appeared.

And speaking of jill, ı wonder what would happen if capcom decided to kill her by designing a sacrifice story for her like they tried to do in re5 before changing their minds.

 

[russident]

If you had asked me this question before the Village release, I would have answered that I could see how Jill works in the narrative. But since this question has been asked now, I will answer that no. I don't think it's in Jill's character to choose the tactics that Chris chose in the new game, and you also can't force Ethan and Chris to meet in this game for the first time, because the point of their dynamics will be lost.

I generally like being a fan who trusts developers. I don't want to influence the narrative and think about what I could change. This is not in my competence, since much more experienced and educated people are working on games.

 

[Mark5]

For the future I would really like if they shook things up a bit in terms of plot and characters by making more protagonists that are evil, or just less good hearted, like make stories with Ada.
Capcom should add more shades of grey to the characters and motivations, make games with more than just reluctant heroes, but there's so much room to make fantastic stories with villains and other anti-heroes.

I remember back in early 2000's there were rumors that RE 4 would involve Hunk and also the whole idea of a Hero that actually gets corrupted but now has to regain his allies trust, seemed like a good type of situation for a survival horror.

And finally, I think going further the Revelation subseries is a decent way to bring back classic characters that have been put at the back burner.

I think that it's smart to design the games with trilogies in mind, such vision maintains the plot and characters within a closed concept that is good enough to keep it interesting while still providing a payoff at the end of the story arch.
That philosophy also helps because the trilogies will all share the same gameplay structural ideas, but from there the developers can work to make nuanced additions so that the games turn out to feature similar gameplay in the end, but provide some new stuff in between to try to keep that department fresh in some manner

 

[RipvanX]

This is why I support expanding more on relationships and romance in RE games so Chris, Jill, Claire, Leon have kids that can continue their legacy, passing on the torch properly. I am not against new characters but I don't always want them to be nobodies and to have some affiliation with past characters which will add more meat to the lore. Now that the timeline is pushing past 2021 (and possibly much further) all these characters we have come to know are getting too old. Only killing villains off also makes the stories feel more cliché then they should. A main character that's not new should die to add a sense of urgency and threat to the main story again. I rather have a character die an honorable death than be forgotten and die off-screen.

I most agree with the RE2 angle, they took risks not returning any STARS members from RE1 at the time so its proven that it works, as long as there are deeper connections to the lore. At the same time though, its baffling some of the main cast still have no interactions at all like Jill x Claire or Jill x Leon, its baffling to me yet even Rebecca had some time knowing Leon. So before they shoot the story into 2050 with cyborg Rose fighting moldy ghost aliens I want at least closure for the characters I grew up with.

They should also stop referencing Raccoon City a billion times like it was the only disaster to ever happen when we had REV1 and RE6 events that rival it.

 

[mert20004]

A main character that's not new should die to add a sense of urgency and threat to the main story again. I rather have a character die an honorable death than be forgotten and die off-screen.

Which returning main character do you think should be killed? My pick would be jill, she would work better in this type of story than anyone else. After all, this is exactly what they wanted to do in re5 before changing their minds.

In re6, they also planned to kill chris before scrapping this idea and switching over to piers. I'm not sure if killing chris idea will come into reality but ı wouldnt be surprised if it did. Even more so when he keeps getting overused to the point making me feel like they should kill him too.

I feel like chris and jill could have both retired from their work to live a peaceful life together if some events of re5 happened differently. They could have passed the torch to piers and merah. I actually wrote a what if idea about this in another thread.

 

[RipvanX]

Which returning main character do you think should be killed? My pick would be jill, she would work better in this type of story than anyone else. After all, this is exactly what they wanted to do in re5 before changing their minds.

In re6, they also planned to kill chris before scrapping this idea and switching over to piers. I'm not sure if killing chris idea will come into reality but ı wouldnt be surprised if it did. Even more so when he keeps getting overused to the point making me feel like they should kill him too.

I feel like chris and jill could have both retired from their work to live a peaceful life together if some events of re5 happened differently. They could have passed the torch to piers and merah. I actually wrote a what if idea about this in another thread.

I am feeling Chris’ time is coming, since he has gone rogue which is a more dangerous life to lead and he is making bad mistakes getting innocent people killed now. I doubt Leon will ever die since he is carrying the CGI movies and is more popular. Killing Jill now would seem like a waste, they had their chance in RE5. Claire dying would feel most tragic since she has deeper connection with the Burton’s. So maybe Natalia-Alex might kill her in the future.

 

[russident]

I am feeling Chris’ time is coming, since he has gone rogue which is a more dangerous life to lead and he is making bad mistakes getting innocent people killed now.

And yet Chris was the one who actually saved Ethan twice. The first time he thwarted Miranda's plan to stay at Ethan's house as Mia's mimicry and most likely get rid of Ethan whenever he least expected it. And the second time during the battle with Heisenberg, when Chris blew up the factory, which distracted Karl seconds before Ethan's possible death.

Ethan's sacrifice was his personal choice. Always.

Not to mention the fact that Winters' death is pretty debatable.

And this brings us to the topic of why it seems to me that Capcom will never kill one of the "main" characters. The days are long gone when a Hunter could cut off Rebecca's head, and Chris or Jill could explode along with the mansion. Now these characters are sacralized by both the fans and the developers themselves. I literally saw a real tantrum happen after the publication of that poster with Chris and the werewolf's head, where some fans complained that they had to use a sedative. And what happened in the end? Chris walked without a mask while infectious particulates were flying around, but nothing happened to him. Because no one will even touch a hair from his head.

Chris is provided with plot armor until retirement. Especially when the responsibility for Rosemary fell on his shoulders.

 

[RipvanX]

Chris is provided with plot armor until retirement. Especially when the responsibility for Rosemary fell on his shoulders.

Then they can do a revenge tale like LoU2 where Natalia-Alex bashes Chris’ head in front of Rosemary and go from there.

 

[Caffeine Addict]

Well, they do introduce new characters alongside the main characters anyway. Even if they are inclined to not bring many of them back in future installments, they still do it.

I feel like Capcom will never stop using the primary heroes until they finally die in the timeline, from natural causes. Because in all honesty, they need a selling point for these games, and a guy like Ethan Winters just ain't enough to merit a day one purchase.

Simply put, Capcom doesn't have the balls to stop using characters like Chris. They're going to show up in strange games because they're the characters that fans truly care about. Without them, the franchise wouldn't matter nearly as much. But I agree. New blood is needed to keep things feeling fresh, as well as scary, because they are not used to dealing with bioweapons.

 

[Ouroboros]

I think we need some kind of closure with the older characters, especially since we either haven't seen them in a while (Jill, Carlos, maybe Billy, and the other BSAA agents ( Parker, Sheva, etc.) given the new direction the organization is headed in), or we left them on a cliffhanger (Moira, Barry, Natalia, Ada, the woman from Vendetta). Without that closure, moving on to new characters just leaves me unsatisfied. I wouldn't mind a mix, with old characters coming in, but we need more than just one at a time like Chris with 7 and Village, and I think we need a true passing of the torch moment, one that doesn't end like what happened to Piers. Maybe in Revelations 3 we see what happened to Billy, or Ada and Leon working together once again, perhaps for their last appearance or something. Though I do have to say, even if they all get closure, will the series still feel the same? If its like watching a show with all the cast getting replaced over time, it might not feel like the same series anymore. But who knows. Companies love money, so they may just reboot the series and start from scratch with a new timeline once they run out of ideas of how to continue, because I don't see them getting rid of any of the characters any time soon.

 

[russident]

Carlos

According to Kawamura, after the events in Raccoon City, he could have had plastic surgery again. No one planned to use him again.

Billy

Billy's story is finished.

Even characters like Helena and Jake have fulfilled their functions in the BIO6 story. They may never come back unless there is a plot excuse for it.

For many, the Resident Evil universe is the personal stories of specific characters, so they expect some kind of climax for them, but as a result, many risk remaining in a state of frustration.

Capcom treats each BIO game as something separate. They write self-contained stories for these games, build self-contained settings, and so on. And they want both the protagonist and the antagonist to have their own functions in these particular stories.

Even Albert Wesker from BIO4 and Albert Wesker from BIO5 are essentially two different characters with different motivations. The first Wesker led an underground Umbrella, to which Krauser was devoted, so he kidnapped the president's daughter in order to squeeze into the cult's trust as a double agent. The second Wesker forgot about Umbrella and got a new motivation after meeting with Spencer. He does not differ from Nikolai, Alexia, Carla and even Miranda functionally: he is also an antagonist of a particular narrative.

This philosophy is basically the reason why it is not so difficult for developers to close their eyes to any character and give preference to characters like Ethan, if the design of the game requires it. The world of Biohazard does not revolve around any of them.

Claire could never come back after CODE: Veronica because she found her brother, so her goal, which began in BIO2, came to an end, but the authors found her a place and functions in different narratives. And that's why this character can't have a climax, since she doesn't have a storyline to begin with.

People just love Claire and want to see her more, but a new story doesn't necessarily have to happen to her. She may simply not return as a protagonist after what she experienced on the island. She doesn't have to die or retire to not come back. It's just that no one will kidnap her anymore. And Capcom can easily choose such a route.

Once upon a time Zero, BIO3 and BIO4 were games that planned to explore new characters, but in the end the developers began to use the same characters over and over again, even if there is no plot need. Despite this, the series has not changed its strategy: if they used Leon in 100 different narratives, it does not mean that they will do it 101 times.

 

[RipvanX]

This was probably brought up before but we literally know nothing about Ethan’s past and why he was so adaptable to the mold. One of the “dead” 13 Wesker’s was Ethan, so it could be the same person. Maybe he had suffered amnesia after receiving the infamous booster shot that the rest of them had with varying effects all leading to death.

I wouldn’t like this personally because I want them to move the plot away from Ethan ASAP, but it could be possible since we know nothing about the other Wesker Children, correct me if I’m wrong.

 

[Caffeine Addict]

I don't think it's the same Ethan W.