Topic: Let's speculate about the Resident Evil Zero Remake

After Capcom confirmed the remakes of Resident Evil Origins (Zero and 1), I couldn't stop wondering how they'll fix Zero's story, since it's the game that contradicts the first Resident Evil, whose remake is already perfect and, in my opinion, doesn't need a second remake. Therefore, we don't need to fix anything, and it's not relevant to this discussion (unless someone thinks otherwise).

While the only gameplay change needed is to add the item box to avoid leaving items scattered on the floor, I haven't stopped thinking about how they'll fix the story. The main plot involving the Bravo Team and the subplot with James Marcus, along with the appearance of Wesker and Birkin, felt like a kind of "planetary alignment," where everything happens by coincidence on the same night, and it seems like something Capcom improvised at the last minute.

How could this be fixed? Since the idea of ​​handling two characters simultaneously didn't work or resonate with the audience, I would create two separate storylines, separated in time. I would give Billy Cohen his own story, starting with that mission in Africa (the guerrilla cleanup mission) where he was convicted (and where there could be a cameo or even a direct incident leading to the events of Resident Evil 5). He would then be tried and manage to escape into the Arklay Mountains. Here, Billy would lead the story and handle the James Marcus issue, with Wesker and Birkin watching him from the shadows. All of this takes place days before Bravo Team arrives, but it's here that the disappearances begin, prompting the investigation.

Meanwhile, in Rebecca's storyline, there's no James Marcus or leeches, but there are Zombies, Hunters, and Cerberus. Why? Because it's more likely that Billy is the one keeping secrets from Rebecca, not Rebecca from Chris (remember that in the mansion incident she doesn't tell him anything at all).

If Capcom is going to revisit the idea of ​​playing with two characters, Rebecca could easily be accompanied by Richard Aiken, Enrico Marini, or Forest Speyer. I feel the characters already have enough problems with the broken helicopter and losing communication with the base (not to mention the zombies), without having to deal with a simple convict and Marcus's situation.

At this point, I'm undecided about whether it would be a good idea to keep the cameos from Resident Evil 2, since nothing that happened in Zero affects the second game (and they never explained that Leon and Claire returned to the Arklay Mountains in the remake of 2), but I am sure that at some point, when Rebecca is alone, Billy will appear to help her (it could be in the middle or at the end of the story). That solution would be much more elegant.

Eventually, I'd also add some game modes, like building narrative arcs for some of the people who disappeared in the Arklay Mountains.

You can lend me a hand to make this long wait more bearable.

I recall reading somewhere awhile ago that one of the original ideas for RE Zero was you’d play as the various members of Bravo team, and thus find out what happened to them prior to the events of RE1. Obviously we didn’t get that, and while I do still enjoy RE:0, giving Bravo team a more active role in the story would be pretty cool. Actually now that a think about it, turing the game into a sort of a horror anthology series could be awesome. The tale of Enrico, the tale of Forest, etc. All the branching stories would tie together to form the larger narrative involving Marcus and his research at the training facility. Anyway, I am most looking forward to the Code Veronica remake, as I think that game is in more of a need of remake than either Zero or the RE1 remake, which as you say is already pretty much a perfect game.

Another interesting fact about Resident Evil Zero is that Edward Dewey supposedly loses his hand to the Cerberus (the same hand later found by Joseph Frost in the first game), but the developers decided to ignore this, as the remake also makes no mention of the hand. It wouldn't be a bad idea for these remakes to revisit that idea.

Initially, i was like...Why are we talking about the possibility of an RE Zero remake when Veronica isn't even coming out until later next year, with no gameplay footage to top it off. It's still fresh in the oven. Then i remembered that Capcom stated that they plan on making 1 RE game a year now, so, it makes sense.

Zero is most likely the next entry on board, for sure. I feel like Zero needs a compete re-write and total overhaul. Casting Rebbeca as the lead was a huge mistake, as is. She's too frail, and comes across like her head is constantly drifting or stuck in the clouds. Meanwhile, Marcus looked as if he was peeled out of a Castlevaniia game, and that giant centipeed boss in particular was so awkward and almost comical.
It's definitely the weakest traditional RE game, although Code Veronica falls off the deep end once you get to the Antarctic Base.

But I've always enjoyed Zero's Dual item/character swapping system. It felt like a puzzle within a puzzle. Plus, unlike CV, wouldn't Zero be utilizing the power of PS6 if it winds up releasing some time in 2028?. PS6 is either dropping in Q4 2027 or in 2028, so.

Then after Zero Remake, we'll probably get RE10 in 2029, followed up with an RE1 Remake in 2030, than Capcom will take on 5 & 6 again. Those two will finally be redeemed.

If Capcom is smart, they won't tie their game to the PS6. Not when there is an extremely high chance it will be a flop.

@metaphysician
Of course Capcom will release it on PS6. Believe me, all of this pissing and moaning about no physical media for PS6 is going to make a small dent in overall sales. Digital PS5 sales dominate by around 80-85% after all. Why would Sony wast the time, money and rescources trying to appease like 15-something% of their audience?

RE Zero needs the NexGen boost in horse power to make it feel more special, including the PS6 controller which hopefully will add a couple of new note worthy innovations. Veronica is the last PS5 Pro ticket until the current RE engine becomes played out.

1. Ask a company how happy they'd be about a 10-15% drop in revenue, see how indifferent they would be.

2. Lack of a disk drive isn't even close to the PS6's biggest problem- that would be the high likelihood of a four figure MSRP.

Selling the game on the PS6 is perfectly fine. Its the idea that they should make a game that needs the horsepower to run which is not.

Those damn monkeys.

@metaphysician
I'd be willing to bet that more than half the people that have stuck with Sony through thick and thin, those that are screaming to the heavens, stating that they will not buy a PS6 if it's digital only, will in fact, cave, and buy one at some point.

They're just lining up in droves trying to make a stance, hoping for Sony to take notice and fall back to offering physical once again. But it's unlikely. In the end, it's all about the experience. Plastic & cardboard is part of that for many, i totally get it, but PS fans will not pass on Sony's exclusives even if they're all exclusive to being digital only.

Sure, PS fans could bounce on over to the next XBOX, but it's highly unlikely that the next XBOX will be pushing for innovation as far it's controller goes, going by their past history with XBOX One & XSX. The DualSense will offer at least 9-Axis gyro, a 500hz PollingRate, Haptics 2, Adaptive Triggers 2 and who knows what else. While MS continues to play it stupidly safe.

In the end, I wouldn't be surprised if that 10-15% gets deducted by half or more. I completely understand the love for physical, but i only love physical when there's actual effort put into it as there was with the NES, SNES, Genesis, GameBoy, PS1 1995 Long boxes, Dreamcast(White Label) and more.
NS1 & some NS2 physical releases look really nice imo, as long as there's no cross-play/KeyCard white text banner at the bottom.

Sony should at least offer a 2 hour return window policy with digital game purchases just in case you're left disatisfied. That's the least they can do. Would be neat if you could actually sell your digital games at a reduced price, even if it's less than half of what you paid when you're ready to let said game go!

As for me, I'm all-digital with PlayStation(And Steam, but that's reinforced ) But i do occassionally love to buy NS1 physical copies, which I'm sure will carry on through for NS2. Anyways, yadah yadah. I don't believe most of the PS6 'no physical naysayers' will pass on PS6. When their protesting fails, and they see that next gen shiny new PS console, new controller and exclusives headed it's way they'll most defintiely bite the bullet.

Here's my prediction >

• Resident Evil Zero - 2028 - (Will offer 4K in tandem with a locked 120fps, combined with RT etc on PS6, while still releasing on PS5/PS5 Pro.)
• Resident Evil 10 - 2029 - (Developed for PS6. The first RE game to make use of NextGen hardware with an updated RE engine)
• Resident Evil 1 - 2030

I think Capcom will save 5&6 for last, either right before or/and after RE11. But I'm getting carried away here. Veronica isn't even out yet, and we haven't even stepped into 2027 yet.

@Van_Helsing
Loved reading that. I had no idea, being a long time RE fan since the original debuted back in 1996 with that glorious Mirrored' Turantula PS1 long box, topped with Chris Redfield looking as if he's going through a psychotic break down.

But back to Zero, it would of been neat if you found Edward with just one hand on the verge of dying, as he was, during the first act of Zero for consistency sake. But most people wouldn't of known or really carried either way, which seems to be the case.

Anyways, it would of been so much better had they made Edward the lead protagonist in Zero(As long as he has two hands haha), and instead of Billy, they could of had some unknown woman you cross paths with on the train(Who winds up as one of the villains in the end, not necessarily working for Marcus, but instead somebody that ultimately betrays you with some wickedly sneaky underlying motives.)

As is, Rebecca is hands down thee worst character in the mainline RE universe. Shinji Mikami even stated that he wishes they never would of included her in RE1. That was his biggest regret. She comes across like some frail doll eyed' high school anime side character, with her head constantly stuck in the clouds. Billy wasn't all that interesting either, and his back story was just lackluster. Zero has major potential with a re-write and major overhaul. I'm sure Capcom will redeem that entry with the upcoming remake. How couldn't they? RE has been on fire since RE7 VR.

@WaveBoy It's curious that Resident Evil Zero, one of the games supposed to shed light on what happened before the Spencer Mansion incident, ends up leaving more questions than answers.

But even more curious is that I care more about how they're going to fix those plot holes than about the gameplay itself. Therefore, a remake is justified, but I also think Resident Evil 1 could suffer the same fate as the Resident Evil 3 remake, whose original game surpassed Resident Evil 2, but whose remake fell far short. And in this case, since it's the second remake of the first, I'm sure many will say that the first remake was already perfect and they shouldn't have touched it again.

But let's get back to Zero. We have a very vulnerable female protagonist (understandably, she's a medic, she wants to save lives, not take them) accompanied by an escaped convict who has no qualms about taking lives.

How can we make them converge in the same setting? IT CAN'T BE DONE.

The interesting thing is that Requiem already solved that problem with two very similar protagonists (Grace and Leon), but their stories unfold separately, and that also changes the gameplay for each one. That's why I think Zero is going to have drastic plot changes, but I still can't guess how they're going to reflect that in the gameplay.

And I hope they don't masculinize Rebecca either (that would be the last straw).

@Van_Helsing
Transforming Rebecca into another Jill or Claire would be a bad move indeed. Die hard Becka' fans wouldn't have it. lol She's boarderline useless outside of her medical training, but knows just enough, or the bare minimum in terms of combat to not get herself completely slaughtered in a zombie appocalypse. Problem is, in Zero, she constantly looked dazed and was boarderline void of a personality. They need to liven her up a bit more, she needs to be more self aware, instead of coming across like she's in a dream like state. lol It's so wild, just how unphased she looks when she first encounters a hord of zombies for the first time during the opening sequence in the train. It all just seems like another day on the job for her.

And I can't speak for Grace's character entirely since I haven't played Requiem beyond it's demo, including a few trailers and bits of some gameplay footage. But based on what I have seen, Grace seems to fall nearly in the same catergory as Ethan. Another ordinary person that was thrown into a nightmare. Whome slowly grows, learns and adapts through sheer survival instinct.

Maybe they'll make Zero similar to Requiem in that sense like you pointed out. Rebecca will come across like a more skilled version of Grace, but still weak, rookie-like and more vulnerable. Where as Billy will offer a more Chris/Leon-esque action oriented style of gameplay.

I always thought the leech humanoid creatures were pretty cool, the train setting at least aeshetically(Not much room to move around in), including the character swapping system which felt like a puzzle within a puzzle, Proto-Tyrant, along with it's brooding atmosphere and OST. But everything else felt like a total missfire.

The Mansion/Training Facility was mostly forgettable, including the lab, those silly frogs(Lurkers), Marcus's youthful anime-esque character design etc. Code Veronica was the first entry to go off the rails after the more realistic grounded in reality Racoon City Virus outbreak from the original trilogy. CV Wesker and his new found Neo Matrix-like abilities thanks to the T-Virus, and Alexia's tyrant form design felt like they crawled out of some 90's Anime series. The first half of that game was gold, pre-Antarctic base.

Anyways, there's nothing to fear. Capcom will slay with the upcoming Veronica & Zero Remakes. As long as they're not rushing themselves to churn out a new RE game every single year, but I'm sure they have thousands of people on staff to get the job done accordingly. Division 1 worked on Veronica. They developed 7, 8: Village, 2 Remake and 4 Remake. RE3 Remake is a bit of a different story., They led and oversaw the project, but a signifact portion was outsourced to 2 or 3(Neo-Bound & M-Two) other dev teams. I still loved 3 Remake, but as every RE fan and their grandma knows that omitting a few key areas from the original game was just baffling. No Clock Tower, Park, Graveyard(etc). RE's been on absolute fire since RE7, but RE3 is the semi exception to that. A strong 8/10, but including those missing areas and a few more enemeies and character encounter/scenarios would of fleshed things out more, leangthened the expereince and lead to a more satisfying conclusion.