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Was Resident Evil 4's terrible writing intentional?

TheExorzist said:
Speaking of one liners... There is this hilarious dialog from Luis when you play the battlecap... "Did you sent out those invitations? I told you no more than 50 people!"

Is that actually somewhere in the game?

The one liners in this game are legendary. I'm still baffeled how they could manage to get so many of them in there.
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This is my favorite one-liner in RE4 and, to my knowledge, he never says it in the cabin where it is obviously supposed to take place. I have played RE4 more times than I have been years-alive, so if there's a way to make him say it during the cabin shootout, it would blow my mind.
 
https://onedrive.live.com/?id=70BBBD9C272717DE!4400&cid=70BBBD9C272717DE

http://www.bioflames.com/miscsection5.htm

Bio Hazard was really popular in the US and Europe as well, when you were developing it did you think at all about the foreign market?.

Mikami: Well actually no, I didn't think about the foreign market, and because of that I've been told that the dialogue in the game was very strange (laughs) I've heard that a lot, I'll do it properly next time.

We thought it was a bit odd too, was the voice recorded in America?.

M: No, we recorded it in Japan.

But, American voice actors right?.

M: Well the voice actors were American, but the translator was Japanese, so people ended up thinking the dialogue was very unnatural. The other thing is that at first the actors didn't speak very clearly, the US version doesn't have subtitles on the screen like the Japanese one does, so in the English version if you miss hearing an important message, that's it, there is nothing you can do to fix that, we asked the voice actors to speak very slowly and clearly, but that ended up being a negative itself. since I am Japanese I didn't realize how strange it was for them to be speaking so slowly, I was disturbed when I finally noticed that much later.
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When Leon first rescues Ashley and enters the room where she's being held captive, what she should have said in her state of panic was "Don't come any closer!"

What's really in there is, well, awkward. Lol
 
TheRedSnifit said:
Right, but that doesn't mean that it was deliberately campy. Just written by a guy who didn't speak English, translated by a guy who barely spoke English, read by random white dudes they pulled off the street, and directed by a guy who had no idea how English is spoken. That doesn't translate into "deliberately campy" though.

Via NewsBot:
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I've never bought the idea that RE was accidentally campy. They did after all go to the trouble of specifically shooting and editing this, not to mention never actually changing their goofball formula over the years despite having numerous opportunities to do so.
 
I am sure that some of RE4's camp factor is the product of the localization team. At the same time though you also have things in the game that have nothing to do with the translation which are just as goofy as the rest. Like the humorous cardboard cutouts in the Merchant's firing range minigame, or subtle things about Leon's body language, like the way he grins and scoffs at Salazar after giving him a knife through the hand, or Salazar's entire character concept for that matter.
 
Leon as a character, is boring in anything other than Resident Evil 4.
His quick one liners made RE4 even more funny. It was going for a comedy horror vibe.

RE4's writing is brilliant. It was intentional.
Why else would Capcom put in the traveling vendor that sounds like a Pirate?


See this Jimquisition on the brilliance of Resident Evil 4's writing:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0tLG6V_nUTM




.
 
X-Factor said:
Leon as a character, is boring in anything other than Resident Evil 4.
His quick one liners made RE4 even more funny. It was going for a comedy horror vibe.

RE4's writing is brilliant. It was intentional.
Why else would Capcom put in the traveling vendor that sounds like a Pirate?


See this Jimquisition on the brilliance of Resident Evil 4's writing:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0tLG6V_nUTM




.
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I thought Leon was pretty enjoyable in Darkside Chronicles and Damnation (NOT Degeneration, which is by far his worst appearance).
 
Do you even mikami? It strikes a great tone, utterly dumb yet effective like the best japanese games achieve it.
 
It tries to be cheesy and serious,and it works wonderfully.
On the other hand,Ada's campaign has a serious shift in tone and drops all the cheesiness from the main game(explaining viruses,conspiracies,etc).
 
Dusk Golem said:
I thought Leon was pretty enjoyable in Darkside Chronicles and Damnation (NOT Degeneration, which is by far his worst appearance).
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Yep, can confirm about Damnation. Watched it a few days ago. That is RE4 Leon right there. Only thing different is the voice actor.
 
The intentionally campy stuff is supplemented by the stuff that is meant to be serious but corny as fuck. It works out.

Dusk Golem said:
I thought Leon was pretty enjoyable in Darkside Chronicles and Damnation (NOT Degeneration, which is by far his worst appearance).
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What's wrong with Leon SHOOT EM IN THE HEAD Kennedy?
 
Fury451 said:
No, the series has always taken itself super seriously despite being at best B-movie fodder. It's part of the charm.
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I honestly think that 4 was the exception, though. It always felt clear to me that RE4 exactly knew it was being cheesy and intentionally played with that. The other games... not so much.
 
Devil said:
I honestly think that 4 was the exception, though. It always felt clear to me that RE4 exactly knew it was being cheesy and intentionally played with that. The other games... not so much.
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4 is the exception?

albert_wesker_by_jhonyhebert-d65ic0a.png


Wesker in re5 is the most self aware character in the series. He knows he's a dumb, laughably evil, mustache twirling cartoon stooge. It wouldn't have shocked me at all if at the end of the game weaker turned to face the camera and winked while insulting the player for not being able to beat him or something.

He probably saves re5 from being a total wash in the story department too.
 
SuicidalSteve said:
"where's everyone going, bingo?" classic line right here I laughed too much when hearing this
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See... that one line will always stay with me for personal reasons. My boss asked me where my Forman was once, and it reminds me of that! Lol. His literal words were, "where the fucks Lorne, Karaoke?" I know it's not quite the same, but it reminds me of RE4... anyways, it wouldn't surprise me if the writing was completely intentional in the campy B movie sense.
 
"Where is the satisfying sound of one's impalement?"

The dialog cheese was intentional, at least in the English translation, imo.
 
Dusk Golem said:
Did you say old manyoung boy? It might come as a surprise, but I'm only 20 years old!
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Okay, at least there's some logic behind it (although that picture doesn't look anything like a 20 year old). I played through RE4 probably half a dozen times and now I realize that I can't remember anything about the narrative/encounters aside from the lake monster and the giant.
 
Stuff like Leon shooting the listening pipe at the bottom of Salazar's death pit is why I can't buy the idea that the original script was meant to be deathly serious. That's a full blown cutscene.
 
This is a bit strange for me.

On one hand, RE1 was meant to be serious. On the other, he'd worked on Killer 7 and God Hand at around the same time. And you run from a Salazar mech.
 
hughesta said:
every time I play it I can't believe that Saddler goes along with Leon's stupid Hollywood metaphor
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"Allow me to free you from your world of cliches"

*turns into giant cliche*

RecRoulette said:
The intentionally campy stuff is supplemented by the stuff that is meant to be serious but corny as fuck. It works out.



What's wrong with Leon SHOOT EM IN THE HEAD Kennedy?
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I haven't seen Damnation but Degen Leon is atrocious. Bland boring soldier boy Leeon is such a kick in the face to anyone who loved him in RE4

redegen1.jpg


Also his face in that is trash
 
Devil said:
I honestly think that 4 was the exception, though. It always felt clear to me that RE4 exactly knew it was being cheesy and intentionally played with that. The other games... not so much.
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The only game that played it 100% serious was REmake. Even jokes that were in the original RE1 were toned down in that version of the game. Every other game has a serious storyline (and by serious I mean by Japan standards, so there's a lot of weirdness there) with some goofiness thrown in here and there to break the tension. Heck, in RE6, during a "dramatic" chase after an invisible snake, you can stop at a playground and ride a panda (Chris) or slide on a slide (Piers), because - why not?

According to News Bot info, most of the cheesiness in RE4 came from the translation team and not from the original script. It is clear that the original story was meant to be more dramatic (still, with a lot of weirdness and fun thrown in). This is the sequence you get during the end credits: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_weHtgqZ5Bs

A sequence that shows you villagers (those you've just killed by the hundreds) living their happy lives until one day Saddler appeared and started doing his dirty work with parasites. It's almost the same as the "And now we have a rather unfortunate turn of events." segment from RE3, where it tries to humanize your enemies and make you feel all sad about what happened to them.

pa22word said:
4 is the exception?

Wesker in re5 is the most self aware character in the series. He knows he's a dumb, laughably evil, mustache twirling cartoon stooge. It wouldn't have shocked me at all if at the end of the game weaker turned to face the camera and winked while insulting the player for not being able to beat him or something.
Click to expand...


Albert: The human race requires judgement!
Chris: And you're going to judge us? Did you get all your ideas from comic book villains?

Geno Breaker said:
"I see the president has equipped his daughter with two bazookas"
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With "ballistics"! How could you not remember that? :|

Intheflorsh said:
Stuff like Leon shooting the listening pipe at the bottom of Salazar's death pit is why I can't buy the idea that the original script was meant to be deathly serious. That's a full blown cutscene.
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Salazar was clearly meant to be the joke character of the game.

How About No said:
I haven't seen Damnation but Degen Leon is atrocious. Bland boring soldier boy Leeon is such a kick in the face to anyone who loved him in RE4

redegen1.jpg


Also his face in that is trash
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Even with no RE4 in the picture, Degeneration Leon is an atrocious character with no personality at all. He's the cliche all-serious US agent who does his work and goes home with the girl (or... in Leon's case, promises the girl to go diving again in the future and never mentions her again). His stoicism during the story was really bad.

Damnation Leon is a lot better. He's still not in the RE4 territory, but he is much closer to that version of the Leon.
 
The English translation was clearly written by someone aware that it's b movie schlock at best, and it's amazing. The game wouldn't be as good if it took itself seriously. The writing's not terrible at all.
 
liquidtmd said:
Legit question - is this game why it wasn't called Biohazard over here?

Biohazard-Battle-For-Sega-Megadrive-Same-day-dispatch.jpg
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I remember playing this game for an entire summer with my best friends and it took us a long ass time to finally beat it. Some pretty cool levels and bosses.
 
Kain said:
If you are Spanish the script makes even less sense. Spaniards speaking like Americans pretending to speak Spanish from Mexico. The whole thing is amazing.
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If you are Mexican the script makes even less sense. Spaniards speaking like Americans pretending to speak Spanish from Mexico then Speak random Spain words.
 
Hey, it's that dog!

Seems like the cheese was mostly down to the localization deciding to own how utterly ridiculous the plot was, which was bold but paid off unbelievably well.

Would still have been a great game with darker dialogue, but as-is it's just in incredibly lovable.
 
I unironically enjoy RE4's story the most thanks to its crazy silly writing, actually. I enjoyed the narrative in 1-3 to an extent, but in 4 I enjoyed it the majority of the time. Self aware cheesiness is 1000 times better than the ridiculous garbage trying to be serious and dramatic that 5 and 6 gave us. So awful.

I'm legit shocked that its product of the localization, though. After the obviously intentional Kamiya cheese in RE2, I expected it to be on purpose by Mikami as well. Oh well, props to Capcom USA.
 
"Saddler,

You're small time"

And Saddler proceeds to joke with Leon like they're old friends and shit.

There is no fucking way this was on accident.
 
Part of the fun of it is that the game is playing it like it's a straight up action movie while not realizing how dopey it's coming off.

It ends up making the lame moments funny and the serious moments a spectacle.

The knife fight is amazing even though it has no right to be.
 
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