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Kinthey

Avenger
Oct 27, 2017
22,331
Imagine making a nothing character like Ethan the protagonist of two mainline games

Bring Back Sherry/literally anyone else from the girls
That Ethan is not much of a character seems to be part of the design. RE7 was a lot about immersion after all.

I'm curious if this will change with RE8, it's already surprising to hear the villain refer to him by name
 

Lord Fanny

Banned
Apr 25, 2020
25,953
Sorry I'm mixing two things up. I meant Revelations 2. He writes Claire asking for a picture of Chris when he was younger.

Ah, I vaguely recall this now.

The letter in the remake of RE2 is the one Claire finds from Chris where he wrote to STARS about these "hot babes" he was meeting up with, which Claire comments that his letter doesn't sound like Chris. (Which is because it was a coded letter for Barry about him spying on Umbrella, but Claire didn't know that.)

Ah yeah, that's what I thought you were talking about, but knew the timeline was off since Piers and Chris wouldn't know each other.
 
OP
OP

Deleted member 17184

User-requested account closure
Banned
Oct 27, 2017
5,240
That's not proof of anything, lol. Don't be so desperate.

residentevil.fandom.com

E-Mail from Piers to Claire

E-Mail from Piers to Claire is a file in Resident Evil Revelations 2. Unlocked when the Buggin' Out (Episode Three) record is acquired. (Find all of the insect larvae in Episode Three.) Tada, Takuji, ed (2015). BIOHAZARD REVELATIONS 2 ULTIMANIA. Square Enix.
This part of the e-mail is something I really hope Capcom doesn't use in their future treatment of women in the series.
They'd only heard stories about you, and since you're the Captain's sister, well...let's just say they were expecting someone more along the lines of his build. I tried to tell them otherwise, but their imaginations got the best of them.

So then when you arrived...well, aside from not being what they expected, we don't get to interact with a lot of pretty women in our line of work, so that's why they had the reaction that they did. Then they had to remember that you're the Captain's sister, and it made them all awkward... I'm sorry about that, ma'am.
 

leng jai

Member
Nov 2, 2017
15,119
REmake 3 failed Nemesis baldly, but I don't think those are the reasons. I mean, how many other villains in fiction had moments where you can think "they could have won right there!"?

Nemesis fails because two reasons: One is gameplay... he was never the stalker he was in RE3, save for very few moments. You often feel like you're running from him in the same way that you may be running from an explosion in a action aventure game setpiece, and that's not good. The other one is that he is quickly turned into a mindless beast that lacks the human-like intelligence of the original. And that should only happen at the very end of the game.

It's worse to me with Nemesis because his literal existence and sole purpose is to kill STARS members so there should absolutely no reason whatsoever why doesn't kill you as soon as possible. Like he dead set has his first around your skull at least once which is what the end goal of what him chasing you is in the first place so it's absolutely stupid that he just throws you away so you can run again. There's no reason for them to out instances like that in the game, it doesn't make any sense.

He's also definitely a complete failure gameplay wise in the game. Not scary whatosever and might as well not exist outside of cutscenes and set pieces. His final form as the last boss is an absolute joke too.

They need to go all in on Jill.

It'll be one of the biggest wastes I cannot think of if they don't after RE3R.
 

SofNascimento

cursed
Member
Oct 28, 2017
21,339
SĂŁo Paulo - Brazil
It's worse to me with Nemesis because his literal existence and sole purpose is to kill STARS members so there should absolutely no reason whatsoever why doesn't kill you as soon as possible. Like he dead set has his first around your skull at least once which is what the end goal of what him chasing you is in the first place so it's absolutely stupid that he just throws you away so you can run again. There's no reason for them to out instances like that in the game, it doesn't make any sense.

He's also definitely a complete failure gameplay wise in the game. Not scary whatosever and might as well not exist outside of cutscenes and set pieces. His final form as the last boss is an absolute joke too.

I don't care much about that stuff but I can understand your reasoning.

But I must say I did like his final form, and the boss fight. Indeed, the boss fights in REmake 3 were quite excellent I found.
 

leng jai

Member
Nov 2, 2017
15,119
What I don't understand is if big Capcom want to get on the micro transaction train with all their rubbish multiplayer modes surely they just make a mainline game with Jill or Claire and make 10 different paid outfits for them.
 

Necromanti

Member
Oct 25, 2017
11,550
I really hope the soft reboot of the series we've been getting through the remakes means we'll get continuations from where they left off. (Give me another good game with Jill.) Expunge RE6/CV from the current canon.
I thought she was just a researcher in connections no? Was she part of the umbrella paramilitary?
She was at the very least highly trained to handle any crises as Evie's handler.

Do we even know Ethan's background? He's the clearest outlier out of all the playable characters in the series (other than Claire/Leon in RE2) in terms of combat training.
 

nachum00

Member
Oct 26, 2017
8,418
Claire has always been my favorite RE character, she hasn't even been in a mainline title since Code Veronica.

Would love to see either Claire, Sheva, and Jill playable in 9.
 

defaltoption

The Fallen
Oct 27, 2017
11,489
Austin
I can't believe Sheva hasn't been back yet. She was awesome.

I'd like new characters to but having characters like her return is important.
 
OP
OP

Deleted member 17184

User-requested account closure
Banned
Oct 27, 2017
5,240
am i missing something but wasn't RE7 the only one they didn't have a female co protagonist
You play as Mia on the tanker level, both in the modern day and in a flashback sequence.
My point wasn't to just have them as playable characters. RE4 was Leon's story; RE5 was Chris' story; RE6 was all about Chris, Leon, and Jake, with a weird Ada story added.

Since Resident Evil 3: Nemesis, there have been no mainline sequels (as only the numbered games seem to be considered that) with women as protagonists of the story.
 

LiquidSolid

Member
Oct 26, 2017
4,731
Are people really pretending that Sheva, Helena and even Sherry were main characters in their respective games or that Revelations are mainline games? Chris is the protagonist in RE5, Sheva is just his sidekick. Same goes for RE6's LEON and JAKE campaigns. And as for Revelations, the stories may be canon but they're B tier spinoffs, both made with budgets that're dwarfed by the mainline games. The reality is that the mainline RE series has revolved around Leon and Chris basically since RE4, with a detour over to fellow white dude, Ethan, for RE7 and RE8.
 

SolVanderlyn

I love pineapple on pizza!
Member
Oct 28, 2017
13,509
Earth, 21st Century
They need to stop using Chris and Ethan tbh. When people are asked their favorite re protagonist it's almost always one of the following:
Jill, Leon, Claire

I'd throw in Ada too since she's a favorite, though I don't think she's had a protagonist spot yet.

Shiva too I think is liked. So yeah, let all the ladies get the lead in future games.
Chris is way more popular than Claire, unfortunately.

I think you're selling RE6 a little short there, OP. Helena was basically a tagalong partner for Leon, but Sherry and Ada were pretty important. The Revelations titles also both had female leads. And while those aren't mainline titles, they were actually better than the mainline titles at the time.

Ethan in RE7 barely counts as anything because you may as well forget he exists. Mia is more of a star than him, as is Zoe. RE8 seems to be a different story, but we'll see how he's handled there.

I'm all for women protagonists. Resident Evil in particular has two of my favorites in all of gaming with Jill and Claire. But I do think they've been pretty well represented thus far.
 

SofNascimento

cursed
Member
Oct 28, 2017
21,339
SĂŁo Paulo - Brazil
My point wasn't to just have them as playable characters. RE4 was Leon's story; RE5 was Chris' story; RE6 was all about Chris, Leon, and Jake, with a weird Ada story added.

Since Resident Evil 3: Nemesis, there have been no mainline sequels (as only the numbered games seem to be considered that) with women as protagonists of the story.

There is something... curious about the RE franchise that in same ways you could argue it has always promoted female characters. In RE1 and RE2, for example, there is a quite neat balance between the two leads, even if I think RE1 is slightly geared towards Chris and RE2 is very slightly geared towards Leon. And then you have RE3 which has a female protagonist. And in all other games, you had some sort of "strong" female character which were often playable. Ada in RE4, Sheva in RE5, Helena and Sherry in RE6 and Mia in RE7.

Yet they all seems to get the short end of the stick, always been secundary. More of a passenger rather than the driver if that makes any sense.
 

cvxfreak

DINO CRISIS SUX
Moderator
Oct 25, 2017
945
Tokyo
There's so much ambiguous defining of importance and non-importance of a character's appearances in this thread.

Almost every female character in RE plays some kind of important role, whether it's to advance the plot or support a gameplay design of some sort. It doesn't necessarily have to be defined by gameplay time or number of appearances, and we're at the point where we shouldn't be disqualifying something because it's a remake or a non-numbered title.
 
OP
OP

Deleted member 17184

User-requested account closure
Banned
Oct 27, 2017
5,240
Chris is way more popular than Claire, unfortunately.

I think you're selling RE6 a little short there, OP. Helena was basically a tagalong partner for Leon, but Sherry and Ada were pretty important. The Revelations titles also both had female leads. And while those aren't mainline titles, they were actually better than the mainline titles at the time.

Ethan in RE7 barely counts as anything because you may as well forget he exists. Mia is more of a star than him, as is Zoe. RE8 seems to be a different story, but we'll see how he's handled there.

I'm all for women protagonists. Resident Evil in particular has two of my favorites in all of gaming with Jill and Claire. But I do think they've been pretty well represented thus far.
As LiquidSolid says above your post, despite the quality of the spin-offs, they're still spin-offs and don't get highlighted as much as the mainline series. There's an argument here to make good and well-written mainline games with women as protagonists. Including women of color.
There is something... curious about the RE franchise that in same ways you could argue it has always promoted female characters. In RE1 and RE2, for example, there is a quite neat balance between the two leads, even if I think RE1 is slightly geared towards Chris and RE2 is very slightly geared towards Leon. And then you have RE3 which has a female protagonist. And in all other games, you had some sort of "strong" female character which were often playable. Ada in RE4, Sheva in RE5, Helena and Sherry in RE6 and Mia in RE7.

Yet they all seems to get the short end of the stick, always been secundary. More of a passenger rather than the driver if that makes any sense.
I think you can say it's because stories after RE3 in the mainline series have been centered around the men, with women being secondary characters even when they're playable. And when you get a woman with more characterization than the main playable character in RE7, she's basically a damsel in distress. Including Zoe in the "End of Zoe" DLC.
 

4 Get!

Alt Account
Banned
Apr 8, 2019
1,326
They're definitely marketed as spin-off games. It's no wonder that RE8 was supposed to be Rev3 but was "upgraded" because it got a good reception internally. The Revelations series isn't intended to be the focus.

Revelations 1 maybe, but I remember Revelations 2 being treated with importance including tons of marketing and magazine covers, due to it focusing on Claire and Barry after RE 6. It was a legitimate continuation of the series, regardless of subtitle.

Edit: G.I. literally hinted at it being 'Resident Evil 7' before the actual 7 came out

259-cover-reveal-front-610.jpg
 
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OP
OP

Deleted member 17184

User-requested account closure
Banned
Oct 27, 2017
5,240
Revelations 1 maybe, but I remember Revelations 2 being treated with importance including tons of marketing and magazine covers, due to it focusing on Claire and Barry after RE 6. It was a legitimate continuation of the series, regardless of subtitle.

Edit: G.I. literally hinted at it being 'Resident Evil 7' before the actual 7 came out

259-cover-reveal-front-610.jpg
I'm not denying these games are good or that they didn't get a good reception. Sure, Rev2 had more budget and got exposure. Now, compare that with how much exposure RE7 got since its first demo (when it was revealed during an E3 press conference). Even Capcom said back when Revelations 2 was announced that the mainline series was meant for a wider audience.

Also, GI didn't call Rev2 RE7. They were talking about the future of RE7, meaning details about when/if it would happen.
 

RedSwirl

Member
Oct 25, 2017
10,061
Like I implied earlier, what Capcom would need to get over is the Logan's Run problem some Japanese franchises seem to have with heroines in particular -- male characters are allowed to get old onscreen but women aren't.

RE characters are confirmed to age in real time. In-canon it's been 23 years since RE1. Chris' hair in RE8 is already getting a bit grey. It felt like Capcom was already pushing the envelope by having 32-year-old Claire star in a spin-off, and that was six years ago. I think Ada is like 40 in RE6. Is Capcom gonna be able to cross that rubicon with Claire and Jill? I wouldn't be surprised if they took the easy way out with Jill and her bioweapon implants from RE5 or whatever. They already did that with Sherry in RE6.
 

Princess Bubblegum

I'll be the one who puts you in the ground.
On Break
Oct 25, 2017
10,310
A Cavern Shaped Like Home
Uh, yeah? He was introduced in that game.

Why?
Okay, from your wording I thought maybe Piers had been set up in a side game or movie before 6.
Like I implied earlier, what Capcom would need to get over is the Logan's Run problem some Japanese franchises seem to have with heroines in particular -- male characters are allowed to get old onscreen but women aren't.

RE characters are confirmed to age in real time. In-canon it's been 23 years since RE1. Chris' hair in RE8 is already getting a bit grey. It felt like Capcom was already pushing the envelope by having 32-year-old Claire star in a spin-off, and that was six years ago. I think Ada is like 40 in RE6. Is Capcom gonna be able to cross that rubicon with Claire and Jill? I wouldn't be surprised if they took the easy way out with Jill and her bioweapon implants from RE5 or whatever. They already did that with Sherry in RE6.
I fully expect Jill to not look her biological age in her next appearance because of what was done to her in 5.
 
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RedSwirl

Member
Oct 25, 2017
10,061
Another weird thing to consider in future games is the actors Capcom is using in the RE engine now? If/when we see Jill again will they take her actor from RE3 Remake and age her up 25 years?
 

Tomo815

Banned
Jul 19, 2019
1,534
I dont know, RE has given us some good women protagonists,

Jill, Claire, Sheva, Ada, Sherry, Helena, to name a few off the top of my head,

I think to an extent Jill is the face of the franchise in my opinion, she is as strong a character as Leon or Chris are.
 

Genesius

Member
Nov 2, 2018
15,543
We need a Jill mainliner. Retcon the RE5 horseshit and give us a post-RE3 game with her in her prime.
 

Siggy-P

Avenger
Mar 18, 2018
11,865
Kinda wish you played as Mia in 8. Would fit in with the vampire daughters thing and frankly, would have been hilarious and a tad more believable to watch Ethan get shot multiple times by Chris in the reveal trailer.
 

Ariakon44

Prophet of Truth
Member
Nov 17, 2020
10,184
Considering Jill is by far my favorite character in RE and Claire is my second, yes, more Jill, more Claire. Sheva was cool, too, but I'd at least like the option of Jill or someone in a mainline game.

Don't get me wrong, I like Leon and Chris (even Ethan), but RE started out giving us a choice to play as two characters and I wouldn't mind a return to that. Jill kind of personifies RE to me. As disappointing as the cut content in RE3make was, I still found Jill to be an excellent protagonist.
 

Imperfected

Member
Nov 9, 2017
11,737
Resident Evil's actually done pretty well by female protagonists. The thing it's been lacking that we never realized before was Female Tyrants (or their equivalents).

Would be kind of cool if the inevitable Wesker Replacement was something other than a smug white guy, too.
 

ZeoVGM

Banned
Oct 25, 2017
76,219
Providence, RI
We need a Jill mainliner. Retcon the RE5 horseshit and give us a post-RE3 game with her in her prime.

Nothing needs to be retconned to have another Jill mainline game. Just... put her in a mainline game. That's all.

But honestly, Sheva deserves it more than Jill at this point. A mainline RE with Sheva as the main playable character would be amazing.
 

RiZ IV

Member
Oct 27, 2017
803
It seems to me that they've got it pretty well covered tbh. They even had an African female lead, something I never see Japanese devs do (or even western ones). I do really wish they'd bring Sheva back though. She was an awesome character.
 

SofNascimento

cursed
Member
Oct 28, 2017
21,339
SĂŁo Paulo - Brazil
Nothing needs to be retconned to have another Jill mainline game. Just... put her in a mainline game. That's all.

But honestly, Sheva deserves it more than Jill at this point. A mainline RE with Sheva as the main playable character would be amazing.

Sheva killed Wesker.

That's like the nail in the coffin in Jill's role in the RE franchise. That's when we can safely say Jill was just a supporting character to Chris' story.

And indeed, she has not been back after that.
 

Lord Fanny

Banned
Apr 25, 2020
25,953
Another weird thing to consider in future games is the actors Capcom is using in the RE engine now? If/when we see Jill again will they take her actor from RE3 Remake and age her up 25 years?

They'll probably just use the same actress and not care or use someone else. They've never cared much about visually consistency in how characters look
 

IneptEMP

Member
Jan 14, 2019
1,965
Another weird thing to consider in future games is the actors Capcom is using in the RE engine now? If/when we see Jill again will they take her actor from RE3 Remake and age her up 25 years?

Capcom will never age up any of their female protagonists. Women can't be middle aged and playable unless they look like they're not a day over 25 because of science/magic/literally no excuse given.
 

RedSwirl

Member
Oct 25, 2017
10,061
Kinda wish you played as Mia in 8. Would fit in with the vampire daughters thing and frankly, would have been hilarious and a tad more believable to watch Ethan get shot multiple times by Chris in the reveal trailer.
I wouldn't be surprised if you did briefly play as Mia or maybe that other village girl from some of the screenshots. I haven't read the leaks but, again, every RE game has had at least some brief section with a different player character, and there has never been an RE game where only men are playable.
 

BloodRayne

Member
Jul 3, 2020
5,444
Sheva killed Wesker.

That's like the nail in the coffin in Jill's role in the RE franchise. That's when we can safely say Jill was just a supporting character to Chris' story.

And indeed, she has not been back after that.

This still makes my blood boil.

It's like if in Jessica Jones,
Trish gets to kill Kilgrave in the final episode while Jessica watches, after everything that happened during the season
 

SilverX

Member
Jan 21, 2018
13,019
Sheva killed Wesker.

That's like the nail in the coffin in Jill's role in the RE franchise. That's when we can safely say Jill was just a supporting character to Chris' story.

And indeed, she has not been back after that.

Jill is still a very popular character, and one of the most popular female gaming characters out there. I only got into RE with RE7 but I can assure you the character is too big for Capcom to retire in any capacity. She'll be back in the mainline RE games eventually, and I think RE6 being a disaster and making RE7 be a soft reboot focusing on mostly new characters has delayed the planned inclusion of the most popular RE characters (outside of Chris) across the board.
 
Oct 28, 2017
799
Capcom just need to stop pretending that Jill doesn't exist. A remake of RE3 doesn't count, Jill hasn't fronted a new Resi game in ages. I'm all on for a new Resident Evil that has Jill and Sheva as the protagonists. I would happily see no more of Chris or Leon.
 

Paroni

Member
Dec 17, 2020
3,419
Sadly the corporate suits at Capcom will probably look at statistics like this to make their conclusions about popular protagonists, even though it's obvious that Leon's popularity in this case is also due to him being the star of RE4.

2Nua9HiEgi2WNgwCWtQsbH-970-80.jpg
 

Luke88

One Winged Slayer
Member
Dec 29, 2018
2,560
Italy
I agree that they should have more female protagonists however when RE8 is a sequel to RE7 it's probably hard to introduce a female playable character that doesn't feel shoehorned in the plot. On a positive note during the RE Presentation I was impressed by how many of the characters in RE8 are female, Lady Dimitrescu has 3 daughters and her boss seems to be another woman called Mother Miranda, Mia is obviously in the game and so is her and Ethan's daughter, that's a lot of female characters for the first extensive trailer of the game.