Dusk Golem
A 21st Century Rockefeller
I mentioned this in the last thread about the game, but will draw out a few observations I and some others made in the last topic about the game, and just some personal theories.
Firstly, the things I'm drawing right now more than anything story-wise from the small bits we have is that this game is probably set on an island, and the theme of slavery. At the very least, this game is set on an ocean-side town (a piece of concept art shows the sea and a lighthouse), and there is definitely a theme of man-made structures in ruins, overgrowth of vegetation, and a running theme of water (as many places seem to be either slightly flooded, or have suffered from water damage). Slavery first came to my attention thanks to the concept art of the ship. That is definitely a slavery ship, and with that theme in mind a few things can be pieced together... There's concept art of what appears to be an abandoned plantation, as well as the only human we have concept art for is black. This also would support the island theme, as there was a ring of islands used during the slave trade to hold slaves or as farming 'stations', the most popular being the ones owned by the French.
I believe the enemy force we may have here is a sympathetic enemy, which wouldn't be surprising. Resident Evil 1 and 4 both utilized something similar, where notes in the original RE describes tragic characters and their downfall to help the player realize what they're shooting were once human. Likewise, Resident Evil 4's credit sequence brings attention to the enemy you've been fighting this whole game, and shining a human light of their downfall and how a quaint town came to this.
The enemies here have some sort of surreal human quality to them. One enemy, the one with the pole(s) which I believe is shown twice in concept art (these to be exact
It uses tools, which is human-like. Some seem to garber a bit of clothing, and others still even look a bit more human-like than others. Still, they are definitely not human, at least, not any more, and I definitely are quite surreal.
This part isn't mine, but someone else brought up the great point that there seems to be a theme of 'Two faces'. I have this weird theory in my head now that this may have to directly do with the enemies in this. THIS PART IS JUST THEORY, but there is one piece of concept art that shows a monster that looks just like so... A monster, without the two-theme thing going on. The monsters with double faces seem to be more... Docile looking. I mean, sure some look weird and some may even be dangerous, but they seem to have more... Soft-looking. My theory is that maybe these two-face monsters are actually a 'Metamorphosis' in a way. I think kind of like something is 'Splitting' from them. This has no hard evidence behind it so call it a crack theory, but I was wondering how all the monsters could link and I have a strange image of watching a terrifying monster sort of''' birth, split itself apart, from its two face-shell. Sort of like monsters being born from within, taking you over, and then shedding their human components. We'll have to see if this crack theory has any merit to it.
I also believe that this game will have a role of insanity involved. A lot of people on the team (at least, on the team before Zwei was announced) have a love of abstract and surreal art of the disturbing variety, and some on their social feeds seem interested in psychology and insanity. Not to mention the last real 'horror' game Mikami was directing had a theme of insanity in it originally before it turned into the Resident Evil 4 we all know and love today. We don't know anything about the main character outside of some concept art that we can presume may be him, but confronted with weird imagery, seeming very alone, and being involved in a 'pure survival horror experience', his sanity could easily be brought into question, and there's a few things from Mikami's earlier RE4 builds that I question if he's interested in utilizing.
There's an interview with Mikami about his thoughts on RE4, and he mentions a few times that it was decided to bring Resident Evil into a more action-direction for RE4, so while I don't expect action to be non-existent in this, I also don't expect this to be "Ammo-everywhere trigger happy" like RE4 or SotD. The man does know his genres well, and he never lay claim to RE4 or Shadows of the Damned being pure survival-horror games.
Firstly, the things I'm drawing right now more than anything story-wise from the small bits we have is that this game is probably set on an island, and the theme of slavery. At the very least, this game is set on an ocean-side town (a piece of concept art shows the sea and a lighthouse), and there is definitely a theme of man-made structures in ruins, overgrowth of vegetation, and a running theme of water (as many places seem to be either slightly flooded, or have suffered from water damage). Slavery first came to my attention thanks to the concept art of the ship. That is definitely a slavery ship, and with that theme in mind a few things can be pieced together... There's concept art of what appears to be an abandoned plantation, as well as the only human we have concept art for is black. This also would support the island theme, as there was a ring of islands used during the slave trade to hold slaves or as farming 'stations', the most popular being the ones owned by the French.
I believe the enemy force we may have here is a sympathetic enemy, which wouldn't be surprising. Resident Evil 1 and 4 both utilized something similar, where notes in the original RE describes tragic characters and their downfall to help the player realize what they're shooting were once human. Likewise, Resident Evil 4's credit sequence brings attention to the enemy you've been fighting this whole game, and shining a human light of their downfall and how a quaint town came to this.
The enemies here have some sort of surreal human quality to them. One enemy, the one with the pole(s) which I believe is shown twice in concept art (these to be exact
It uses tools, which is human-like. Some seem to garber a bit of clothing, and others still even look a bit more human-like than others. Still, they are definitely not human, at least, not any more, and I definitely are quite surreal.
This part isn't mine, but someone else brought up the great point that there seems to be a theme of 'Two faces'. I have this weird theory in my head now that this may have to directly do with the enemies in this. THIS PART IS JUST THEORY, but there is one piece of concept art that shows a monster that looks just like so... A monster, without the two-theme thing going on. The monsters with double faces seem to be more... Docile looking. I mean, sure some look weird and some may even be dangerous, but they seem to have more... Soft-looking. My theory is that maybe these two-face monsters are actually a 'Metamorphosis' in a way. I think kind of like something is 'Splitting' from them. This has no hard evidence behind it so call it a crack theory, but I was wondering how all the monsters could link and I have a strange image of watching a terrifying monster sort of''' birth, split itself apart, from its two face-shell. Sort of like monsters being born from within, taking you over, and then shedding their human components. We'll have to see if this crack theory has any merit to it.
I also believe that this game will have a role of insanity involved. A lot of people on the team (at least, on the team before Zwei was announced) have a love of abstract and surreal art of the disturbing variety, and some on their social feeds seem interested in psychology and insanity. Not to mention the last real 'horror' game Mikami was directing had a theme of insanity in it originally before it turned into the Resident Evil 4 we all know and love today. We don't know anything about the main character outside of some concept art that we can presume may be him, but confronted with weird imagery, seeming very alone, and being involved in a 'pure survival horror experience', his sanity could easily be brought into question, and there's a few things from Mikami's earlier RE4 builds that I question if he's interested in utilizing.
Did Mikami consider RE4 to be "survival horror?" Today, many people call that style of gameplay "action horror," but I wonder if Mikami still considers it "survival horror." In which case, Zwei returning to "survival horror" could still make for something action-packed like RE4 -- not altogether improbable, given the soldier seen in the concept art, and all of the guns they're playing with at the office.
There's an interview with Mikami about his thoughts on RE4, and he mentions a few times that it was decided to bring Resident Evil into a more action-direction for RE4, so while I don't expect action to be non-existent in this, I also don't expect this to be "Ammo-everywhere trigger happy" like RE4 or SotD. The man does know his genres well, and he never lay claim to RE4 or Shadows of the Damned being pure survival-horror games.