RE:4 Reimaginings Of Old Ideas

[russident]

Although very little is known about the upcoming Biohazard RE:4, already now we can see how this game was shaped by some old ideas from early builds of the original title.

Let's take a look at Ashley Graham's new design, for example:



To help ourselves, we will work a little on this screenshot:



Now we can finally clearly see the clothes she is wearing: a scarf, a jacket, trousers or leggings and, finally, boots. If such a choice of clothes did not remind you of anything, then I am writing this thread for a reason!



Yep, this is an asset from one of the early builds of Resident Evil 4!

I'm not sure we know for sure if this girl was actually Ashley, but according to Forerunner from the Fandom website, this asset came in a trial version after Shinji Mikami became the director of the game, so there's nothing impossible for this girl to be Ashley, at least.

Of course, the new Ashley doesn't wear exactly the same clothes, because now developers are using real things to scan them. However, we can clearly see that the early image could have been used as a reference.

It's also worth noting that even with all the changes, Ashley still wears her traditional skirt and orange sweater under her jacket. It is quite possible that, like Leon, she may lose her jacket at some point, thereby her image will be more reminiscent of the traditional one.

Speaking of Leon, by the way…





The jacket that Mr. Kennedy is going to lose also looks different, but not at all because this time the developers scanned the real one. To be more precise, not only for this reason…





Yep, the leather shade, as well as the collar, differ from the original jacket and resemble more the one that Leon wore in the game build, called by some "Resident Evil 3.5". You can check out the footage in this video:

Does this mean that we can see hallucinations as well?

"Symptoms of the infected include: coughing up blood; fainting; hallucination; appearance of blood around the eyes; swelling and discoloration of the blood vessels, and a discoloration of the iris — typically in red."

This information came to us from Las Plagas: Organisms of War, therefore, as we see, hallucinations are not something far-fetched for a game about the Plaga parasite.

But what is Las Plagas: Organisms of War? This is a short film that you can also check out here and now:

Although in the process of writing this post, the thread was originally dedicated to Biohazard RE:4, this is not the first time that developers give a second chance to old ideas in new remakes, so if you know something about it and want to share this information with us, we now have a special place for this.

 

[russident]

Sugimura: Well, there's Leon's uniform. Leon is wearing his Racoon Police Department uniform from the start of the game, but originally he was supposed to start out in his civilian attire. There would have been a scene where he talks to his superior Marvin at the police station, and then changes into his uniform. It's true that with Racoon City destroyed, the police wouldn’t be actively on duty, so there'd be no real need for Leon to change into his uniform… but we wanted to show his determination to protect both the city and his principles by having him change into his uniform regardless. It was a scene with a lot of meaning. Unfortunately, due to a problem with the CG it got cut.





Sugimura: Originally, in the very first scenario of the game, you were supposed to start out holed up in the police department which was under siege. However, we wanted to convey to players the terror of a town overrun with zombies, so we changed the opening to one where you're in the middle of the town. In the middle of the game, though, we had planned another scenario where you have to go back out into the town. But the game was getting to be too long so we had to cut that too.



Source.

 

[Yama]

What a fantastic thread. As someone who obsessed over the "what could have been" titles over the years, I love these nods. Ultimately I'm happy with the titles we got, though it's human nature to wonder a bit, especially with the huge departure RE4 took versus 3.5. I hope to see some more references blended into the game if fitting. The one thing Remake did so well after '96 was make it surprising for new players and veterans alike. I had wished to see a bit more 1.5 in RE:2, but any inclusion was welcome. I think RE:4 will take more liberties than RE:2 did personally, it's a much bigger game and one that could use some cleaning up in areas.

 

[Cindy B]

Great finds @russident I knew Ashley looked familiar but this is 1:1.

Maybe we’ll see some more from the early builds that turned into Demento and other stuff. Cradle of the Progenitor virus trailer scenery.

 

[Yama]

Great finds @russident I knew Ashley looked familiar but this is 1:1.

Maybe we’ll see some more from the early builds that turned into Demento and other stuff. Cradle of the Progenitor virus trailer scenery.

In the reverse order, there's a lot of architecture from 3.5 found in Demento / Haunting Ground. One of many reasons I really enjoy that game.

 

[Evil Resident]

"Symptoms of the infected include: coughing up blood; fainting; hallucination; appearance of blood around the eyes; swelling and discoloration of the blood vessels, and a discoloration of the iris — typically in red."

This information came to us from Las Plagas: Organisms of War, therefore, as we see, hallucinations are not something far-fetched for a game about the Plaga parasite.

Good point! It would be awesome if they found a way to use these ideas in the context of Las Plagas. They could even use it as an opportunity to reuse assets in a way that would actually be really interesting - imagine the Tyrant suddenly shows up, haha

 

[russident]

This comparison was not made by me, but I found it interesting enough to make a picture and share it with you here:



The new image of Salazar, unlike the original one, does not wear a headdress, but note how his hairstyle is similar to the one that Spencer had.

Of course, this may be pure coincidence, but if you've heard at least a little about the various canceled iterations of Resident Evil 4, you understand how these characters are connected.

To this I can only add that this image of Oswell Spencer, as well as the design of his castle, was definitely inspired by the 1999 film called The Haunting. Directed by Jan de Bont, this movie is one of the adaptations of Shirley Jackson's novel, The Haunting of Hill House.

The place of events of this Gothic horror fiction is a haunted house, the owner of which was once a deceased tycoon with a creepy appearance named Hugh Crain.









I think comments are unnecessary. Fans of Devil May Cry can also recognize some elements, because the game inherited them from BIO4.