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[Dusk Golem]

In loving memory of Joseph Frost, a S.T.A.R.S. member who gave his life in the line of duty 20 years ago today.

---

March 22nd, 1996, a little game named Biohazard released in Japan. It would follow shortly with the American release on March 30th, and the European release later on August 1st.

Resident Evil 1 has gone on to sell over 5 million copies between all of its different versions over the years (including REmake and REmake HD), and spawn a franchise that's still active and alive today. It holds under its belt a number of the best regarded and top-selling horror games of all time, has at least two games under its belt that's inspiration was and is still felt to this day (Resident Evil 1 & Resident Evil 4), and is possibly the longest running continuous video game narrative, with more 'canon' entries without rebooting or anything. It has spun-off into comics, novels, toys, movies, mangas, theater performances, musicals, and more in its run.

But it all started with a remake of Sweet Home, directed by Shinji Mikami, who would go on to completely scrap any connection to the cheesy B-Horror Film of the same name, and create a (possibly) Alone in the Dark inspired game, but better, and invent one of the most iconic game franchises. Inspiring a slew of clones, and a source of inspiration to many other games and franchises; so many that it's hard to count (everything from Silent Hill, to Gears of War, to Last of Us, and many, many more).

What memories do you all have of the original Resident Evil? Of the franchise that inspired it? Any plans to do today on the game's (and series) 20th anniversary? Think you should finally get around to trying this franchise? What sort of impact has the game and franchise had on you?

 

[Levito]

Remember when this franchise was good? Seems so long ago now...

 

[//ARCANUM]

Happy birthday!

Edit - I first played Resident Evil Director's Cut on PS1 as a kid on Christmas morning. I was too scared to ever beat it. Finally beat it last year (both Chris and Jill), playing back and forth with my brother. I believe it's the only one I've actually beaten to date. Even though I've played parts of the rest.

Had an amazing experience with Code Veronica- my uncle and I were in the basement playing, back and forth style with the controller. We had gotten backed into a corner and heard loud stomping coming towards us but couldn't see anything. We were scared as shit. Then all of a sudden our cat jumped out of nowhere onto my uncle and he screamed which caused me to throw the controller. Which unplugged the controller right as a boss came onto the screen. We both rushed to grab the cord, plug it in and fend off the boss. I think this ended disc 1 and we were so frightened by the whole situation we didn't continue on and never beat it.

I really want to beat them all one day. Currently playing Zero.

RE1 remaster is one of the best games I've ever played.

 

[Neonep]

And what does it have to show for it, a game nobody wanted.

 

[Dusk Golem]

Remember when this franchise was good? Seems so long ago now...

Going in for that first reply. Revelations 2 I quite enjoyed, and I am a person who thinks even the worst of Resident Evil is pretty good (for the record, my least favorite is Gun Survivor 2, but that's just me).

Also for the record, Resident Evil 5 was a great co-op game, and I liked RE6 personally (though not the direction I'd want the series to go in forward).

And what does it have to show for it, a game nobody wanted.

No one wanted REmake 2?

Spoiler

Know that's not what you meant, but Resident Evil actually has quite a few things in development right now, and apparently some unannounced games we'll learn about soon.

 

[AuthenticM]

8-4 is never doing that second part of their Resident Evil podcast, lol. It's been like five years.

Happy Birthday, Resident Evil. You're one of my favorite franchises ever.

 

[Neiteio]

Probably my favorite franchise in videogames.

A reveal for RE7 would be much appreciated!

Remember when this franchise was good? Seems so long ago now...

General consensus is Revelations 2 is excellent.

I personally like all of the mainline RE games.

 

[Kyouji]

Happy 20th Anniversary, Resident Evil!

My favorite game series, and one of the few where I've played every main game.

When are we getting the Outbreak HD announcement, Capcom?

 

[Theanine3D]

Happy birthday to such a great franchise! I've lost count of how many times I've played through RE1, thanks to all of its various re-releases, remake, and ports. I must own like 5 different versions of it by now.

 

[Enter the Dragon Punch]

yay

i love all 6 main REs

even 6

 

[spazchicken]

And I suddenly feel old today.

 

[dot]

Happy birthday to one of the best franchises ever. ♥

 

[Neiteio]

I recently played through RE2 and RE3 for the first time. Both were EXCELLENT. You can read my impressions here:

LttP: Resident Evil 2

and

LttP: Resident Evil 3: Nemesis

Also, I've been replaying RE4. Fairly confident saying it's my No. 1 favorite game.

 

[darkwing-buck]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0kcF7E69C6Q

my morning ritual

Spoiler

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dLX6reRrD88

 

[AHA-Lambda]

General consensus is Revelations 2 is excellent.

I personally like all of the mainline RE games.

Really? I'm surprised, I found Rev 2 very mediocre :/

 

[joe2187]

I've been on a RE kick this month. real close to platinuming RE0 and then going to finish off RE:REmake HD.

 

[//ARCANUM]

With 4, 5 & 6 coming to current gen, and when REmake2 comes out, the only thing holding back would be RE3 to have all mainline RE games on one gen, right? Zero, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, and eventual 7? That would be kind of amazing.

 

[joe2187]

With 4, 5 & 6 coming to current gen, and when REmake2 comes out, the only thing holding back would be RE3 to have all mainline RE games on one gen, right? Zero, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, and eventual 7? That would be kind of amazing.

RECVX tho...

 

[salromano]

In related news, they just announced the Resident Evil 4, 5, and 6 PS4 and Xbox re-releases for Japan an hour or so ago. Here's the official site for 6: http://www.capcom.co.jp/bioDL/6/ja/

I wonder if we'll get anything else as far as this week's Famitsu goes.

Also, there's a Resi 20th anniversary theme on the UK PlayStation Store: https://store.playstation.com/#!/en...heme/cid=EP0102-CUSA00804_00-20THCUSTOMTHEME1

 

[The Praiseworthy]

The classic RE games are one of my absolute favorites in the industry....

I miss them so deeply

That sense of isolation and being trapped.

 

[Soodanim]

yay

i love all 6 main REs

even 6

0, 1, REmake 2, 3, CVX, 4, 5, 6.

Which 3 do you hate out of existence?

 

[Neiteio]

Really? I'm surprised, I found Rev 2 very mediocre :/

Guess it depends on what you're looking for in RE. I think most people liked it since it was a well-paced RE4-style journey with one continuous location explored across two scenarios with a zapping system similar to RE2, and actual resource scarcity, backtracking and puzzles alongside unique asymmetric mechanics and a slick dodging function.

Game had plenty of atmosphere and plenty of heart, too, with Barry and his daughter Moira having some of the funniest and most heartfelt moments in the game. The villain is great, and both Moira and Natalia are excellent new characters.

Of course, you want to make sure you get the good ending, which features many extra scenes, an extra boss and area, etc. To get the good ending, you need to switch to Moira when Claire is reaching for her gun during the boss battle at the end of Episode 3. You need to switch to Moira during the cutscene, crawl over to the gun and shoot it.

The reviewers who were down on the ending probably got the bad ending. (Which is neat in its own right, but a pale shadow of the good ending, which is the best finale in the entire series.)

 

[Rymuth]

Last year, I did a playthrough of all six mainline games.

Still love 1 to bits. The multiple endings, the different NPC encounters. Sighhh..

2 is still good, but overrated and you can see Kamiya laying the seeds for the actiony stuff.

3 remains my favorite.

4, another overrated but mechanically perfect entry. The focus to action is complete

5, action is cranked up to cartoonish levels

6, action is gone and replaced with full-on farce.

Happy birthday Biohazaadu, here's hoping you're a little older and a little wiser. Here's to 20 more years.

 

[Mr. RPG]

This is one of those series that I don't think will ever come back.

 

[AuthenticM]

Revelations 2 was fucking terrible.

 

[Jamiaro]

So that means I was 13 years old, when i got this as my christmas present. Oh my...

I remember trying to solve computer-puzzle in the Umbrella-lab in New Years Eve. One of my best gaming-related memories. Thanks OP, have not thought about it in years.

 

[Indelible]

This series fell off track at 5 but it has been redeemed by Revelations 1 and 2, I'am hoping 7 returns to survival horror instead of trying to be an action game.

 

[Toxa]

so sad to see that the series went crap since

 

[Black Soma]

One of my favorite series. I'm one of those who likes both the old and new games, so whatever they'll do with RE7 I'll probably be happy anyway.

 

[Syf]

We had some great times, 1 through 4. Then things happened

 

[Makoto Yuki]

Happy Bday.

Hopefully this theoretical RE7 will be a return to form that takes the best from the original trilogy and the more action packed later half. RE Rev duology is close to that.

 

[petran79]

I really liked the atmosphere of Resident Evil, but I was not impressed by the gameplay and tank controls.

In fact, between Alone in the Dark 1-3 and RE, there were similar and much better games on PC that had better controls. But after RE a lot of games tried to imitate that control scheme, thus resulting in various RE clones.

Ecstatica and Bioforge were unique games

City of Lost Children was also very atmospheric but it had very bad controls

 

[rockman zx]

I have so many great memories with this game, I played the Japanese version before it was released in the west and blow me away. Playing and getting hyped by RE1/Director's Cut/RE2 is one of the greatest memories of my youth.

 

[SegaManAU]

Such an amazing game. I remember shitting myself so much when those damn dogs jumped through the windows!!!

 

[Moff]

damn, I remember checking the stores every day hoping it's on the shelves, is that really 20 years ago?
I did play alone in the dark, bioforge and ecstatica before, but resident evil was really a lot better

 

[Metalmarc]

Happy 20th to Biohazard

Let's all celebrate by having a Jill Sandwich

 

[kogasu]

Happy birthday to, pretty much, my most favorite video game series ever! <3

Spoiler

(Tied with Castlevania and Silent Hill of course.)

The series has certainly gone through its ups and downs but it'll always remain on of my top list!

Also, still waiting on that REmake 3 announcement. It HAS to happen at this point right?

 

[playXray]

I remember playing the original RE when it was new and unheard of. A friend had bought a copy, and along with another friend we used to stay up for hours playing the game. The only problem was, we were only teenagers and didn't have much money or common sense, so none of us had bought a memory card (they weren't far off the price of a full game and weren't such a necessity back then), so we had to play from scratch every time. In essence, the game had permadeath, for us at least, which made it all the more terrifying to play.

It wasn't until months later that I managed to save up and buy a memory card and finish the game. It took 6 hours and 51 minutes

 

[CadetMahoney]

When you guys say you love part 1 are you referring to the original 1996, 2004 (gamecube) or the 2015 (PC/Console). Or no difference really?

I've only played revelations 2 (it was ok at first but I gave up near the end because it was boring) since resident evil 2 pre-millenium.

 

[Neiteio]

When you guys say you love part 1 are you referring to the original 1996, 2004 (gamecube) or the 2015 (PC/Console). Or no difference really?

The 2004 and 2015 versions are the same aside from resolution and some other minor differences.

 

[Dusk Golem]

When you guys say you love part 1 are you referring to the original 1996, 2004 (gamecube) or the 2015 (PC/Console). Or no difference really?

All three for me. While I prefer the REmake to the original, I love the haminess and old-school charm of the original, and obviously it is the original's 20th birthday as of today (and thusly, the whole franchise's 20th anniversary).

 

[Sadist]

Happy b-day Resident Evil!

Hope you will be around for a long while..,

 

[Lernaean]

Happy birthday best franchise ever!

Remember when this franchise was good? Seems so long ago now...

I remember when the gaming community wasn't so whiny. Seems so long ago now...

 

[petran79]

damn, I remember checking the stores every day hoping it's on the shelves, is that really 20 years ago?
I did play alone in the dark, bioforge and ecstatica before, but resident evil was really a lot better

If only it had better voice acting...

 

[Neiteio]

If only it had better voice acting...

There terrible VA of the original is half of the reason it's so beloved, lol

Quotability is off the charts, ensuring cult status!

 

[Rean]

Happy Anniversary RE!

I hope to see more news on the next game soon.

 

[120v]

first two games are probably my best memories of the PS1 era... still have REmake in my backlog. looking forward to it

i hope RE7 or whatever's next is a true "return to form"

 

[Dusk Golem]

Resident Evil 20th Anniversary Interview &#8211; Hiroyuki Kobayashi

 

[Englebert3rd]

Well... it's time to dig up Director's Cut or play REmake!
The first Resident Evil I've played is 2 and I fell in love with it the first time.
I remember getting the first one shorty after and playing it on the PS1 Emulator.
Thank goodness for Virtual Game Station or I would've never played it!
Happy anniversary Resident Evil! I hope you go back to your roots.

 

[Dusk Golem]

Well... it's time to dig up Director's Cut or play REmake!
The first Resident Evil I've played is 2 and I fell in love with it the first time.
I remember getting the first one shorty after and playing it on the PS1 Emulator.
Thank goodness for Virtual Game Station or I would've never played it!
Happy anniversary Resident Evil! I hope you go back to your roots.

Debated playing some version of Resident Evil 1 myself, but at least currently playing Revelations 1 with a friend in Raid Mode. See if we do anything else today.