Hello, although I have been holding off making this topic since I saw the first announcement trailer, it was actually the recent release of the Lantern Trailer that finally tipped me over the point that I feel it necessary to share my points.

I am just going to come out and say it, I am not looking forward to RE7 based on the playable demos and trailers that have been released thus far. Before anyone comes out and tries to simply flag this as bait instead of considering this as an actual grievance, I want to assure you that these are my genuine concerns. Also, this will probably get long winded.

I am not looking forward to RE7 because of what appears to be an incredibly rapid and bizarre departure of the series. Granted, most of this information that I am using is incomplete because little has been released thus far and, as Capcom has done before with this series, major events can be changed between now and the final product, a la RE 1.5 (Elza Walker), 3.5(The Shadow World), and 4.5(The fact that it was a single player game).

First off, I want to start with the most obvious thing so far, the radical change of prespective from 3rd to 1st. No, this is not the first time that RE has gone FPP, Before the lightshooters in the chronicles series, the original Revelations was in First Person, Resident Evil Code Veronica had modes and with a Gameshark could be played in First Person, an we cannot forget Survivor and CVX Survivor.

But really, with this change of perspective, thus far they have radically changed the style of play that the game will be directed in based on what we see thus far. In Short, I am trying to say that the game looks way too much like they were trying to take the pages out of Outlast, Dead Island, Dying Light, and Condemned.

I know full well that this is not the first time that the series has adapted gamestyles from other videogames, As discussed in a prior thread, the Original RE's static camera angles was ripped off of Alone in the Dark, and although I am not sure which came first, some people claim that RE4 was a ripoff of Cold Fear with the Laser and Over the Shoulder Playstyle.

But what I see as a big blunder with the change in RE7 is that it really is changing a pretty big pillar of the series: Characters. One of the biggest effects that a First Person Perspective is that it makes you feel as if you are in the shoes of the main character, which is something that Resident Evil hasn't done before since this is a very character driven game. I read an article once on Flipboard about the difference in Boxart for RE6 that, once you got past the trollbait comments talking about how much RE6 sucked, was pretty interesting in that outside of North America they marketed the boxart with the characters on the front rather than the title because in the US, Name recognition is so power with this series wheras outside of it, the characters hold more value.

Now think about that in comparison to characters like Crane, Miles Umpsher, and whoever was the main character from Condemned.
If you try to see how culturally relevant they are by looking up Fanart of the games, more often that not you'll see more tributes given to the enemies, monsters, and side characters of these games because they have more life in them.

The Next thing that concerns me is that, like the change of prespective, from what I have seen thus far, the gameplay is really not getting me interested in this game.

To help drive this point home, let me make an analogy with Horror Movies. I am not nearly as big of a horror movie fan as I am of a Survival Horror Game fan, but with that being said, I have seen a few Horror movie, and no matter how many more I see, I am confident that I have one that is my favorite.

The Thing.

The Thing isn't the scariest movie I have ever seen, the practical effects are nice, but some have gone bad with age, but the point is, the Thing is such an interesting movie to watch because it invites you to come back and watch it again to better understand the mystery. Throughout the film, you need to pay attention to things like specific set elements like jackets on a rack, the clothes a character is wearing, and specific characteristics of each character to properly keep track on who on the isolated research base has been infected and taken over by the alien parasite because with that film, it isn't so obvious or deliberate.

Now, how does this relate to RE?

The thing about Resident Evil is that its fun to play and invites players back for more to keep playing. We can get into the nuances of a good survival Horror down below, but I just want to round out a mantra that I stick by and use as a judging stick for Every survival horror I play.

It doesn't matter how scary a game is, it can be the most frightening game ever devised, but if it isn't fun to play, then chances are you will only get players to go through the game 1-2 times. Horror has a very short shelf life, if you don't find ways to keep players coming back for more after completing the game, then your game will come and go like every other horror fad that the industry has.

But wait, Resident Evil has always been a survival Horror Game! I hear you say.

Yes, that is right, but if you're going to say that, then let me give you the sister statement,

Resident Evil has always been an action game.

As I will discuss below in my arguments against what I call the "oldguard" of the fandom, the two statements above are not mutually exclusive or bipolar. People often retort that "Well... it primarily was a survival horror over an action game", (which I could refute but that's an argument for another time) which shows that they are completely disregarding the fact that the two work in harmony to make Resident Evil what it is. Without both of these elements the games wouldn't be the same. Remove the action, you get Clocktower, Outlast, and Alien Isolation. Remove the Survival Horror, you get Gears of War Vanquish and GTA.

This is anecdotal, but the reason why I didn't buy Alien ISolation was because I wasn't willing to spend my money on a game I wouldn't play more that once, especially after watching a playthrough for half the game online.

Incoming Rant:
Now, the real reason why I'm writing this now is because the most Recent trailer really just pissed me off.

Everywhere you go, you see that "Resident Evil is Returning to its Roots" coming up by people moaning on about the game like a horde of the undead. Even Capcom has made this claim. the newest Trailer to hit the internet, though. Proves that this is all bullshit.

the "Lantern" Trailer.

I watched this and did not see any elements of Resident Evil in it. Not because I didn't like it, but because this is a completely different Capcom franchise altogether,

Haunting Ground.

Haunting Ground/ Demento is successor to the Clocktower Franchise and looks to have the same style of gameplay to it. So its not that they're making a new game or treading new ground, they're making a sequel to an older game, slapping Resident Evil on it, and letting the idiots on the internet fight their battles.

My final Point:

The singularity from the rest of the series.

By singularity, I mean that this new RE7 looks like a completely different game, and from the way that the tone is set, it feels completely foreign to the rest of the series.

First, the ghosts: Just.... WHY? Unless its a BOW, then the random inclusion of Ghosts is really a stretch from the rest of the series.

But Dancewithknives, I Hear you say,The inclusion of Las Plagas and mind controlling parasites was a radical departure from the rest of the series!

While an argument could be made about the inclusion of Cryptids into Resident Evil is a bit bizzare, almost as bizarre as bioengineering a virus that turns people superhuman or Reptillian monsters, but in regards to parasites and mind control I'm just going to leave it that you're wrong about that one. Read it and weep, bitches.

Second off: The complete disregard for any virus: Now I will admit that its too early to tell, but unless the T virus is involved, I would say that this is a bit bizzare for my taste that crazy people are going to become your biggest threat unless it is something else that has changed them.

By the fact that they are recording on a VHS Tape, I suppose this could take place BEFORE the Mansion incident, being that these are the first victims of the T Virus in Raccoon City, but that still doesn't explain fucking ghosts.

And third: is it just me, or does a person being under the control of a Hive Mind Parasite seem more viable for a videogame than a crazyman who has seemingly gone postal for little to no reason?

In Conclusion:

So to wrap up this little tangent, I want to conclude about how I conduct myself in comparison to other people within this fandom, none of which I am inferring are in this group, seriously, I am not trying to single anyone out.

If RE7 continues along this path and eventually ships and its as I predict, I am planning on sitting here and not enjoy the game in complete fucking silence.

With this fandom in particular, there's a segment of which that I like to dub "The oldguard". Its a cabal of hipsters and people who have come to the horrifying realization that they no longer enjoy Resident Evil, so they have to enforce an "Us vs Them" narrative and act like hipsters trying to have to Old resident Evil's cling to relevance by going around and posturing on the web and telling anyone and everyone who enjoys the newer Resident Evil's that they and their game of choice are superior to any title past Resident Evil 0.

These are the types of people that, since they no longer enjoy these games, they cannot allow anybody else to enjoy them, so you either have to get in line and share in their misery or they will make you Persona Non Grata.

So if what I fear is going to happen comes to fruition, I solemnly swear that I am not planning to go and force it down everyone who enjoys it's throat because the last thing I want to do is become the thing that I hate the most.

Personally, this is why I didn't start bitching about Umbrella Corps when I first heard of it because I would have been no better than the Oldguard.

Okay, that felt good to get off my mind finally. If anyone would like to start a dialogue or refute my points below, I would be happen to have a discussion with you to hopefully get a better understanding of each other.

5436858 You gave your Mantra now here's mine: If you're working on a sequel, if you show someone samples of it and they can't recognize what it is without you telling them then it's not a sequel.

Persona Non Grata

That's Latin for Person or People I am going to kill.

5437324 im pretty sure it means Person Not welcome.

It's at 30:505437409

5436858

whoever was the main character from Condemned.

Ethan Thomas.

5438231 that makes more sense.