Hello friends, Tim here again from Super Mayhem and apparently I am still sort of stuck in Halloween mode. Not really though as Resident Evil 2 is an absolutely awesome game and I was hoping to stream it on Halloween night however technical difficulties got the better of me, so ya know, it didn’t happen.
Anyway, survival horror games don’t need to be limited to October 31st right? Plus there is a new remake coming in the winds of 2019 so what better time than now to take a look at this game! So off we go with some random awesome facts, stats and any other interesting bits and pieces from the now cult classic Resident Evil 2. Don’t forget to smash that thumbs up button if you are a fan of the Resident Evil series or just a fan of video game facts in general too!
So, first off, was there a machine this game wasn’t ported too? Originally released on January 21st 1998, this masterpiece was available on the classic Sony Playstation, the Nintendo 64, the Game Cube, PC, game.com and even the Dream Cast saw a release. Capcom really wanted you to play this game I think, no matter what your console of choice was. In fact, there is even a Tiger 99x standalone handheld version of the game, which was released alongside the Playstation version. It’s pretty much a lite clone of the game.com release which Tiger also made! Surprisingly this little hand held version of the game was the first to incorporate a multiplayer function, it allowed players to connect two of the systems with a connection cable and compete for a high score. Weird for a Resident Evil game for sure.
The Nintendo 64 version of Resident Evil 2 was a little bit special too. It’s the only version of the game to have exclusive content with the EX-files. No, don’t call Maulder and Scully, these files actually tie into other games from the Resident Evil series, such as the first game, Resident Evil 3: Nemesis, and even the at the time unreleased Resident Evil Zero, Resident Evil Code: Veronica and Resident Evil Outbreak. They also mention a couple of locations from some non-canon radio drama’s too, but we will get to those in a minute. Also hiding only in the N64 version is a dead Hunter in the B4F Culture Room, this is the only hunter to appear in Resident Evil 2.
As I mentioned in my Halloween video games video, Resident Evil is known as Biohazard in Japan, which makes this game known as Biohazard 2 in that island nation in the Pacific Ocean. Interestingly and exclusively to Japan, the story of Resident Evil 2 was continued in two radio dramas called ‘Chiisana Tōbōsha Sherry’ (translated to Sherry, the Little Runaway) and ‘Ikiteita Onna Spy Ada’ (which is translated to Ada, the Female Spy, is Alive). Whilst it’s cool they exist, both of these aren’t canon though.
Also in the Japanese version of the game, the death scene animations are hidden, only the sound effects and “YOU DIED” text are shown whilst the screen fades to black.
There is a little bit of a mix up in the US instruction manual also. In the original Japanese Playstation version of the game there was a ranking system from S to D whilst the US edition ranked from A to E. In the US manual however it still says it is possible to get an S rank because the manual is a direct translation from Japanese. So that’s something for my mate Gaming Pea Shooter who loves to rank!
The game itself takes place 2 months after the original Resident Evil, for those of you that like time lines, and sees the player choosing either Leon S Kennedy or Claire Redfield to return to Racoon City, or rather escape from Racoon City after its citizens are transformed into zombies by a biological weapon. Damn that Umbrella Corporation! The game itself stays true to the original and has you solving puzzles and fighting the various gory monsters that live in this fictional city. It’s pretty tense stuff.
If you are a fan of Zombie movies as well as Zombie video games, you just might have heard of George A. Romero, who actually made the original live-action TV commercials for Resident Evil 2. He was meant to go on to direct the first of the Resident Evil movies but instead that honour was given to Paul W.S Anderson. It would have been interesting to see what Romero would have done with the characters in the movie like Milla Jovovich!
There are a few interesting facts about the protagonists in this game though! For a start, Claire’s standard jacket has the same words and logo as Chris’s alternate outfit in the first Resident Evil. The logo reads “Made in Heaven”. I’m not sure if this is some weird hat tip to Nintendo’s translation of “leave luck to heaven” but I’d like to think so.
There is also some interesting early artwork of Leon that is quite cool. This picture shows him with a faithful bloodhound! This was never mentioned after this early concept drawing so it’s safe to say this didn’t become canon, but this would have been a super cool addition to the game if you could send your dog after zombies!
During a 1998 Developer Interview with Hideki Kamiya (director) and Noboru Sugimura (writer) it was also revealed that Leon was originally going to start the game in civilian clothing. In fact there was even a plan to have him change into his police uniform when he meets Marvin at the police station. Noboru Sugimura even quotes “It’s true that with Racoon City destroyed, the police wouldn’t be actively on duty, so there’d be no real need for Leon to change into his uniform… but we wanted to show his determination to protect both the city and his principles by having him change into his uniform regardless. It was a scene with a lot of meaning. Unfortunately, due to a problem with the CG it got cut.”
Speaking of Marvin Branagh, there is a scene in the police station on scenario ‘A’ where one can see the name tag on a locker which reads “JoJo”. There is a little bit of a debate as to whether this name was referencing a dog or not, but it’s kind of believed that this is a reference to the anime “JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure”. Another theory is that it’s a hat tip to Capcom’s JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure (1998), which actually came out in the same year as Resident Evil 2 did.
For those of you that don’t know there was actually a resident evil 1.5 concept game! It was just an early build of Resident Evil 2, but producer Shinji Mikami dubbed it 1.5 after it was shown at the V Jump Festival ’96 in July. Naturally the game play differed drastically from the released version, in its scenario, presentation and even the gameplay mechanics. One interesting fact about the protagonists remains however! In this 1.5 version of the game the main female character was supposed to be Elza Walker, in the final cut of the game though she was of course replaced with the now beloved Claire Redfield. Maybe Elza got chased away by a Zombie or something…
This 1.5 version of Resident Evil also had some other big changes in it. For example, the gun shop owner Robert Kendo, and police officer Marvin Branagh, had much larger parts in the game. Robert Kendo helped Elza Walker out and Marvin even accompanied Leon and Ada throughout his story. Marvin even gets infected with a virus and you have to find him a cure! As we know in the final cut of the game both of these characters die pretty early on, and you even have to kill Marvin once he becomes a zombie in the “A” scenario. Poor bugger, he could have been a bigger star.
Speaking of taken out characters, it was originally planned to have another surviving member of RPD found in the game named Roy or DJ. Interestingly he is the only known character that was not redesigned, had a name change or was replaced; in fact he was just scrapped from the game completely.
During scenario “A” have you ever noticed the store in the background named “Akuras”? Believe it or not this is actually a hat tip to the Street Fighter series which has a character in it named Sakura Kasugano!
Another cool thing hiding is a once spawning zombie. In Normal mode, if you get to the Raccoon City Police Department without picking any items up, this zombie wearing camouflage pants and a yellow vest will appear in the back alley of the department. It is speculated that this zombie is actually the helicopter pilot from the first Resident Evil, known as Brad Vickers.
And finally we end with a couple of neat little Easter egg here. This one lies in Albert Wesker’s left most desk in the STARS office. Normally if you search it you will get the message it has been searched by someone else already. However, if you search it 50 times in a row for some reason you will be able to obtain a roll of film that when developed will show a photo labelled “Recruit” of Rebecca Chambers from the first game, wearing a basketball outfit for some reason.
Another Easter egg hiding is at any time your character is facing the camera you can actually shoot bullet holes in the screen! Pretty neat, hey?
And that’s it for today friends, I really hope you enjoyed reliving some Resident Evil 2 with me and these facts! Don’t forget to subscribe if you are new to Super Mayhem, smash that thumbs up button if you can as it really helps the channel out, leave a comment below about anything really and I’ll catch you soon!
