With the Resident Evil Remakes, how would you handle the series lore?

[Ocarina_117]

During some procrastination, I ended up watching this



And boy... the series sure does become convoluted. Why do villains keep infecting themselves with shit?

Anyway.

With the success of REmake, Resident Evil 2 remake and Resident Evil 3 remake also looking phenomenal, how would you handle the lore of the series going forward?

I'd go for full reboot with the new focus of the series being Remakes 1, 2, 3 and Resident evil 7 - disregarding everything outside of this.

Resident Evil 4 is my GOAT, but the B-movie tone to the game doesn't really suit the new vibe the aforementioned games have going.

 

[Finale Fireworker]

I would personally consider the Remakes the new, separate canon and build off of that. This is what I'd like to see them do. It's kind of interesting to imagine a "new" Resident Evil 4 in this regard.

The trouble with this is that RE2R does not present its A and B scenarios in a canonical way. So there would need to be some paratextual qualification of what actually happened there.

 

[@TheFriendlyBro]

Remake RE for the second time, have Resident Evil Remake Remake, Remake 2, Remake 3 and then just keep it at that until more remakes are done.

REMAKE IT ALL.

 

[Tonswelt]

I like The GamingBrit's idea. He mentioned the idea of the remakes leading into their own seperate timelines and giving the following remakes their own unique identity in terms of reworking the stories (especially 5 and 6). I might misremember what he said exactly, but the basic idea is one I'd enjoy.

 

[Deleted member 10795]

I'd go for full reboot with the new focus of the series being Remakes 1, 2, 3 and Resident evil 7 - disregarding everything outside of this.

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This has been my head cannon for a while. I think 1-3 tell a great, self contained story about the outbreaks and the fate of Raccoon City. There are individual character plot threads that aren't tied up in a neat bow but I don't consider these a huge issue. As for RE7, I like that this feels like the first "leak" of Umbrella's shit beyond Raccoon City, and I think it provides a great and (relatively) grounded springboard from there.

I don't consider anything else particularly worth keeping.

 

[Doomguy Fieri]

I'm not sure REmake and RE2/3 are supposed to be in the same timeline, and RE7 seems to be set in an entirely different universe that just shares a few names and concepts. RE is a franchise that's going to be rebooted over and over again, and I'm OK with that. A good scouring of the old canon every few years to make room for new ideas and stories.

 

[chandoog]

In my mind canon, the original games are still canon. The new versions are more like "Extender director's cut". Great in their own way but do not fully replace the originals for me.

 

[badcrumble]

Just make good games (fun and atmospheric and scary) and don't worry about catering to the horrendous RE lore weebs. The ship has long since sailed on the story actually feeling grounded in anything non-stupid (starting with RE:CV's many shark-jumping moments, or arguably slightly earlier with Resident Evil Survivor/Gun Survivor) but they can still turn out good games set after that as evidenced by RE4/RE7.

 

[Master Chuuster]

I don't even mind RE4 and 5, but let's just pretend RE6 never happened please?

 

[Finale Fireworker]

Remake RE for the second time, have Resident Evil Remake Remake, Remake 2, Remake 3 and then just keep it at that until more remakes are done.

REMAKE IT ALL.

Click to shrink...

Imagine a Resident Evil timeline that began with Resident Evil 2 instead. The events at the Spencer Mansion all occurred, but we don't see it personally. How would this affect the story overall? What if the events of the Spencer Mansion were a mystery?

Imagine a universe where the Resident Evil world begins in RE2 and RE3, which are followed by a prequel game based on the events of what we know as Resident Evil 1 and Resident Evil 0. How would this affect the series? I wonder what RE3R will be like if we consider it our "first" introduction to Jill as a character in this new timeline.

 

[BrickArts295]

Basically, RE7 -> RE2R -> RE3R, Is the new Canon going forward.
The events of RE1R and 4-6 probably stayed the same whithin this new canon, that is until a new remake comes along to replace it. The "new" Chris from RE7 kinda makes me wonder what may change in a hypothetical RE5-6 remake (Not that I think Capcom is going to go that far...yet).

 

[@TheFriendlyBro]

Imagine a Resident Evil timeline that began with Resident Evil 2 instead. The events at the Spencer Mansion all occurred, but we don't see it personally. How would this affect the story overall? What if the events of the Spencer Mansion were a mystery?

Imagine a universe where the Resident Evil world begins in RE2 and RE3, which are followed by a prequel game based on the events of what we know as Resident Evil 1 and Resident Evil 0. How would this affect the series? I wonder what RE3R will be like if we consider it our "first" introduction to Jill as a character in this new timeline.

Click to shrink...

Could do that, but selfishly I want to play RE1 again but with Remake Remake gameplay.

 

[Deleted member 63305]

Id stick with RE0-4, including code veronica. When 5 got introduced, it just seemed to REACH out everywhere at that point and even I got confused at times. 5 is fun co-op. 6 was.....ugh and I didnt even bother playing 7(even though I own it) because Im not a fan of the FP for the series(though survivor can be fun on the PS1 lol).

 

[Deleted member 10795]

Imagine a Resident Evil timeline that began with Resident Evil 2 instead. The events at the Spencer Mansion all occurred, but we don't see it personally. How would this affect the story overall? What if the events of the Spencer Mansion were a mystery?

Click to shrink...

I wonder if this is the case anyway for a chunk of people.

I might be making this up (and sales numbers would tell us), but 2 & 3 have always felt more mainstream and popular to me. RE1 has always felt a little more niche and odd. It's my favourite of the bunch and I think REmake is my favourite game of all time, but it wouldn't surprise me if there's a bunch of people who bought and loved RE2, will buy RE3, but never bothered with 1 for whatever reason. I get that sense from both the PS1 originals and the remakes.

 

[Jegriva]

I'd go for full reboot with the new focus of the series being Remakes 1, 2, 3 and Resident evil 7 - disregarding everything outside of this.

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This.

Umbrella between the Revelations, the Code Veronica, the 4-5-6, had like 5 different viruses with 5 completely different way to "rule the world" via zombies.

That's stupid.

 

[Deleted member 543]

Neither the original games nor remakes are actually canon, so it doesn't really matter. The events occurred but neither actually show what happened canonically. Just keep going forward and referring to those events the way they have been.

Capcom isn't going to reboot the series any time soon. Even RE7 which was sort of a soft reboot made things convoluted in the final cut scene.

 

[dedge]

I guess it's all active lore until a new release replaces something. That said, they should really find a way to retcon the fall of Umbrella and make that into an actual game. Those RE4 opening credits still hurt.

 

[Finale Fireworker]

I wonder if this is the case anyway for a chunk of people.

I might be making this up (and sales numbers would tell us), but 2 & 3 have always felt more mainstream and popular to me. RE1 has always felt a little more niche and odd. It's my favourite of the bunch and I think REmake is my favourite game of all time, but it wouldn't surprise me if there's a bunch of people who bought and loved RE2, will buy RE3, but never bothered with 1 for whatever reason. I get that sense from both the PS1 originals and the remakes.

Click to shrink...

I think this is only true depending on when you got in to the series.

At the time of release, RE2 was the way more popular game that was also available on more consoles. It was absolutely a lot of people's first Resident Evil game and the installment that started the story and familiarized them with the lore. This remained true for a long time and there are still millions of players whose first Resident Evil game was the second one.

But when Resident Evil 4 came out it was also the new entry point for a lot of fans who'd never played Resident Evil before. People who started playing Resident Evil for the first time at the fourth entry had the near simultaneous release of REmake. So folks who were interested in more Resident Evil after Resident Evil 4 played REmake, thus making the Spencer Mansion and its events much more familiar to them than Resident Evil 2. This persisted for many, many years as it was difficult to play Resident Evil 2 whereas REmake remained popular, playable, and eventually accessible on more platforms.

What's interesting now is that Resident Evil 2 (2019) has once again brought a lot of new players to the series and is again a lot of people's first point of entry to these early lore events.