I need to talk about Resident Evil Requiem

[objectinspace]

So Resident Evil 9 is out, in case you hadn't heard. This is a bit of a misnomer as it is in fact the eleventh mainline entry in the series, not counting remakes or spinoff games. If we are counting those, it is the thirty second game that has been made in this franchise, though this still excludes mobile games. Of these, I can play precisely one of them: Resident Evil six, arguably the worst of the lot.

So my expectations weren't exactly high for this release to begin with, and those expectations were met: Resident Evil nine is not playable if you are blind. At all.

https://victordima.net/accessibility-re ... m-ps5-pro/

Resident Evil Requiem has a few helpful options such as larger fonts, bigger UI, speaker names, captions, and a great target lock system, but nothing that can truly help blind players like me.

Normally I'd leave it there and call it a day, but there are a few additional angles here that are really, really chafing my ass.

The first thing is the review I linked above. It's titled, you may notice, "accessibility review: Resident Evil Requiem." Yet the paragraph that I just quoted is the only accessibility related content in the review, in paragraph number five. The proceeding four paragraphs heap praise onto Capcom for its story, atmosphere, the acting (which, fair enough, Grace Ashcroft's VA puts in a tour de force here) and even the gameplay, which he can't play, and the visuals, which he... can't see. I do hate to be the one pointing this out but it is 2026, we're in the post-woke era, get over it.

The important thing is that he's not about to let a little thing like the game being entirely unplayable, you know, effect his opinion of the game too much. That would be silly! "In conclusion," he concludes, "Resident Evil Requiem is an almost perfect game."

ALMOST! 9/10.

He got a prerelease copy, BTW. Because of course he did. If I were Capcom, that's exactly the kind of person I would give all my prereleases to. They should be so lucky! Seriously, I would literally die of shame before allowing myself to write a sentence like that, let alone publish it to the internet. People read that stuff, I'm told. Crazy!

Okay, so, there's no ethics or objectivity in gaming journalism. Many such cases. What's so special about this particular game?

It has a blind character.

I used to think the blind girl from Red Dragon was the worst written blind character ever. She's the one who blows the serial killer on the first date, while he watches a clip reel of his previous murders. Emily may be an even worse character. It's a fierce competition!

When you find her, she's held captive in a cell. You release her, so she can operate some braille buttons for you in order to progress. She's pretty skittish, which is understandable considering you are in a hospital full of undead monsters.

Rather than find a makeshift cane for her, or something, you pick her up and carry her where you need her to be! Unless you need to clear away some monsters first, in which case you find a couch for her to, as you instruct, "sit" on while taking care of that.

After entering the code for you, she is immediately taken away by a monster. Your next task is to rescue her, since she is rendered helpless due to her disability. Once you find her again she becomes your companion for a few hours, contributing nothing apart from the occasional line such as, "I'm scared," "why is it so loud?" and "I want to go back to my room now."

Eventually you find a helecoptor and attempt to take off, which does not succeed, and she is badly injured in the crash. In fairness, she does last longer than the (black) pilot of the aircraft, who is killed almost as soon as he appears in the story.

Anyway, you spend some more time clearing the way for Emily, but by the time you return, she dies of blood loss. Which is very sad.

Except, because this is Resident Evil, she's not completely dead. She mutates into one of the horrific monsters you then have to murder a second time. Which is even sadder!

And that's it. That's her whole arc.

I mean, bad enough that we can't play the game, but then they rub salt in the wound and give us a character who... also can't play the game? Give me a break.

Oh well. Maybe I'll be able to play Resident Evil fifty: dead deadening, in 2066. Not betting on it though.

[Ice Cream Jonsey]

Okay, I did buy this, breaking my long-standing rule of never paying more than $50 for a game. This does not bode well. I can still refund it if they are going to screw around like this.

[objectinspace]

I mean, it might be fun to play. I assume that it is. The character I am complaining about is pretty minor in terms of the over all story. If it is your kind of game then you should play it and enjoy it.

I am just annoyed they still aren't lifting a finger to make their games playable even after ND did it with The Last Of Us. They are just as large if not larger, they made their own engine, it's entirely on them to fix and there's no excuse not to try. I can only conclude the reason is they don't think we can play them, which is confirmed by their portrayal of the blind character as a fish out of water.

[objectinspace]

It was the second date, BTW. I apologize to Thomas Harris fans everywhere for this oversight.

[Jizaboz]

I don't even know where to begin. Like.. if you are blind all you need is someone to hold your hand, not fucking carry you. Something dangerous ahead? PUSH them to get back.

I'm in a weird spot with Resident Evil. To me, the first game (BIOHAZARD) with the original soundtrack and sfx on Sega Saturn (updated graphics in PC version are cool too) is not only the best RE game, but one of the best fucking games of all time.

RE 2 was cool on N64. RE3 was pretty good too but not as good as Code Name: Veronica on Saturn.

Then came RE4. I got this on Game Cube right after release and really liked it at first, then just found it stupid. RE: Zero was much the same. Really liked it at first.. but then became frustrated.

Resident Evil 5. Or as I call it: "Resident Evil in a shit hole country." The only thing more of a shit hole is the actual game.

Resident Evil 6. Heard it sucked. Never bothered to play it.

Resident Evil 7. I was HYPE as fuck for this game after the demo. Absolutely loved it and would still revisit today if I had a decent VR headset.

Resident Evil 8. Also, solid beginning. Giant vampire lady, bro. OMFG. Many solid creepy elements aside from that ass.

The more trailers and shit I see about part 9, I just can't get interested yet.

[Ice Cream Jonsey]

I have been avoiding everything video games except for one of the grand dads of cave flyers (Thrust) lately and I saw a scene posted somewhere where the skinny blonde girl has to shoot a slow moving zombie. So I am looking at this video on Twitter or BlueSky or something. Just in an app window on my desktop.

And HOLY CHRIST is it creepy, realistic, maddening, frightening and I'll say it: scary. I can get scared by video games. Name call me however you want, I deserve it.

The creators of these games are getting too good. I will confess shit, I stopped playing Resident Evil 7 because it was too scary. I stopped Resident Evil 8 for many of the same reasons. I would not let a child anywhere near these games. Let me see if I can find the link, I probably can't:

I can't find it, fuck social media

[Ice Cream Jonsey]

Fuck. Here we go. This is going to be my life tonight.

https://x.com/Chaosxsilencer/status/202 ... 14/video/1

[Ice Cream Jonsey]

https://x.com/Chaosxsilencer/status/202 ... 352107114/

[AArdvark]

I was under the impression that video games were supposed to be fun. That's just nightmare fuel

[objectinspace]

I thought I was done with this topic, but there are a couple more things I should note.

Some have pushed back on my analysis, on the grounds that her helplessness is more to do with her being like ten or something, rather than her blindness. I'd make two quick points here: first, if her blindness isn't relevant to her character, why is she blind? Being simply helpless wasn't sufficient, they had to make her double helpless. But also, Sherry Birkin's a great example from RE2 of a child character who still ends up doing stuff--in fact you play as her for part of the game. Not so here: there is a section where you play as a little girl, but it's a different one with full eyesight. My point being that choices were made, and they were the wrong ones.

Speaking of choices made, it turns out that--spoiler!--she isn't actually dead. At the very end of the game, we learn that she is cured; not just of the dozen or so magnum bullets we shot her with, (which somehow missed all her vital organs) but also the mutations which caused her blindness. She gets to be a normal girl and live her normal girl life! Which is great and all, good for her, but the fact that the writers pulled an eleventh-hour rabbit out of their ass does not really change my opinion of her character or the game.

That being said, my opinion of the game has improved a bit. I'm still mad I can't play it and Emily is a real eye-roller of a character, but they did balance this out somewhat with a second blind character I have overlooked. His name is Martin Case, but colloquially he is known as "IV guy," for the IV stand he lugs around with him. He doesn't have much backstory, he's admitted to the clinic due to auditory halucinations which a subsequent t virus infection does not improve. So he wanders around the care center, reacting violently to loud noises and insisting everyone "KEEP IT DOOWWN!" That's pretty much his whole character, he's just one of the random enemies you encounter. What makes him special is the IV he has, which seems to be the single most powerful weapon in the history of Resident Evil:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fkL7UWcTTX0

A++, 20/10. No notes.

[Ice Cream Jonsey]

Fuck. Here we go. This is going to be my life tonight.

https://x.com/Chaosxsilencer/status/202 ... 14/video/1

I don't know why I haven't been playing this more. Good god.

Also, Wyatt was 4 when I started up Resident Evil 5 and he assumed the townspeople were zombies. So maybe the art direction could have used a little tweaking for that one.

[Ice Cream Jonsey]

I feel like I "adopted" Resident Evil because I had never heard of it, and then I was working at EB when it came out for Playstation and we must have sold 30 copies on the day of release. I never saw a television ad, I never heard about it on radio. The hype came from magazines? I was amazed at the marketing. Of course, I should have bought one because those tall box copies are like over $100 or $300 now.

I am now an hour into RE9. The sound design is the best of any game I can remember. Playing the blonde FBI agent is creepy and haunting and ... well, this is a horror game. I have seen one zombie in a fight where my gun was knocked away so far and there were quick time events that I normally hate. I am probably on "easy" mode because I just do not care about game difficulty. But it looks menacing. I saved screenshots, I will post them tomorrow.

[Ice Cream Jonsey]