Back on May 18th, Capcom announced that remaking their old hits will be a top business priority moving forward. This was met with some expectantly scattered views. The more positive fans out there look at this as an excellent opportunity to revisit their old favorites (that they may or may not still own) in a more modern form. Plus the typically low price tags are a huge asset. As for the detractors, they’re taking a stance most people take against remakes: they view them as unnecessary. It’s understandable why people would rather drop money on a new adventure than retread something they have (presumably) already experienced many times before. It also doesn’t help that Capcom has a tendency to update their current games at almost full retail value (see the many versions of Street Fighter). There really is nothing worse than buying a game and then finding out it’s totally outdated down the road.
With Resident Evil HD selling over 1 million digitally however, the opposers are drowned out by the sound of virtual cash registers and can’t be seen because dollar bills have replaced eye balls. Money doesn’t just talk, it yells, and this time it’s yelling that people will pay for a remaster despite what they say. So with the seemingly little effort (compared to making a brand new game) and cost it takes to put a remaster online, it’s no shock that Capcom is making this a priority. It’s even less shocking that they announced another remaster 8 days later. Hot off the heels of Resident Evil HD’s success, Capcom is officially making Resident Evil Zero HD Remaster, an updated version of their 2002 GameCube entry.
Little was revealed as to why Capcom chose to give Resident Evil Zero the HD treatment instead of, say, Resident Evil 2. Zero very rarely comes up when people talk about their favorite entry of this smash horror series. In fact, people usually forget about it. When you compare Zero with the rest of Resident Evil’s main home console entries, it stands out as being the least influential. Yes, it is the prequel to Resident Evil, which is definitely a nice feather in its cap. That story significance holds merit. However, that’s basically where it stops. It didn’t introduce major characters who have gone on to define the franchise, nor did it bring any major changes to the gameplay outside of being able to readily swap between the two leads. As nice as “partner zapping” was, it was quickly buried by Zero’s predictable story and too similar challenges to past games. The fact that Resident Evil 4 came three years later, featuring a badass Leon Kennedy drop kicking the franchise to its best reviews ever, didn’t help Zero’s staying power.
Zero is also an outlier with its main characters, more so with ex-soldier Billy Coen then STARS Bravo Team member Rebecca Chambers. Fans remembered Rebecca as one of the supporting characters from Resident Evil who you can rescue if you’re playing as Chris Redfield. Perhaps she was Capcom’s way of getting people into this adventure. In contrast, Billy was an entirely new character created for Zero. He’s clearly there to fit the male/female duo requirement and Capcom possibly had future plans for him. I say “possibly” because, as of right now, Billy is one of the very few player characters to never return. This is strange when you consider how so much of Resident Evil is about these characters encountering horrors and dedicating their lives to fighting them. Fighting zombies and monsters can have that effect! Apparently not on Billy though. Unless Capcom chooses to bring him back, he’ll always be a “What if?” character, a permanent outcast from the other stars. Maybe he’s sitting on a beach somewhere thinking, “Yeah, I don’t need this shit in my life” and letting everyone else save the world.
Bear in mind that none of this means that Zero was a bad game. It actually received mostly positive reviews. One of its biggest points of praise was the environment design. Zero was Resident Evil’s first original adventure on the GameCube and it successfully used the console’s power to create some really nice visuals. Obviously when it comes to Resident Evil, creating the appropriate setting is very important. This is the best way to sell how scary games like these can be. Zero was also one of the last stops before Resident Evil dove into straight up action movie territory. Rebecca and Billy weren’t hardened fighters who went into their journey with the intent to decimate evil. They had never experienced an outbreak like the T-Virus pandemic, so the story is one of survival against all odds. It’s a lot like the classic Resident Evil games, which definitely had its own appeal for a lot of people.
Zero was actually my very first Resident Evil game. I know, it’s not the right one to start off with, but as I began developing my taste for horror, this was all that was available. It’s no secret that I wasn’t into horror games growing up. This has made me miss out on hits like Silent Hill, Castlevania, and especially a significant portion of Resident Evil. Clearly I have a lot of skipped opportunities to make up for. Zero was the first sincere effort I actually made to get into this genre. Unfortunately it didn’t exactly pan out. I didn’t get far at all and returned the game to my local video store without any notable success. The desire to go back and finish Zero never appeared, though I have since jumped into other Resident Evil entries. So in that way, Zero was a success for me. I liked it enough to give other games a go.
Whether or not Resident Evil Zero HD Remaster will be a success is obviously unknown. The game isn’t coming to Japan until early 2016 with no word on an international release yet (though it definitely will). It’s reasonable that Capcom is confident with the incredible numbers Resident Evil HD pulled. Nostalgic fans may be willing to drop a few bucks to get a much better looking version of a game that really was quite good. As for everyone else? Zero isn’t a game people point to for a definitive Resident Evil experience. With future HD remasters definitely coming for Resident Evil and beyond (c’mon, please, Mega Man), many might have a compulsion to wait for something better.
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Luke Kalamar is Pop-Break.com’s television editor. Every Saturday afternoon you can read his retro video game column, Remembering the Classics. He covers Game of Thrones, Saturday Night Live and The Walking Dead (amongst others) every week. As for as his career and literary standing goes — take the best parts of Spider-man, Captain America and Luke Skywalker and you will fully understand his origin story.
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