As you may or may not know, I have an...appreciation for the Resident Evil series. I started, like many people, with the "fourth" one, Resident Evil 4. I absolutely loved it, and to this day, it's one of my favorite games. Then, my curiosity peaked, I wanted to play some of the older ones. My time with the (then) recently released DS version of RE1 made me realize how bad (ie AMAZING) voice acting could be, and my time with an N64 version of RE2 was underwhelming, so I decided to stop playing older RE games. Fast forward to 2009, and RE5 is out, which I bought, and proceeded to S-Rank. You will, however, notice that I don't have an S-Rank, because Capcom decided to put out a bunch of DLC with Achievements, and I played none of the DLC. But I still have all the on-disc ones, and put well over 50 hours into that game.

So, as you may expect, I was quite excited to see the Resident Evil 6 trailer yesterday. And I was not disappointed. I won't bore you with the details, but what I saw in that trailer has me really excited (specifically stuff like not only moving and shooting, but crazy Vanquish style rolling and shooting). And just generally speaking, it looks over the top and ridiculous, which is exactly what I want. The day of the slow paced "survival horror" game is all but dead, and I don't mind. I like action.

So, I decided that since I've done pretty much everything I can in Saints Row: The Third (at least without buying the DLC, which I am uncomfortable doing since I used my friend's copy of the game, instead of buying my own) I would write something about what I want to be in RE6.

The return of Krauser.

Remember in RE4, when Krauser supposedly dies two or three times? We all know he's not dead. Don't try and pretend Capcom, why else would he be in the Mercenaries mode when Luis (who died) wasn't, and have the image for surviving the mission be Krauser not dead and the island exploding? And with RE6 taking place after RE4, and featuring Leon as one of the three(?) playable protagonists, why not bring him back? Oh, and speaking of Leon...

Leon keeps his super fly jacket this time.

Look at that jacket. Everyone remembers it because it was awesome. But he lost it about half an hour into the game, and never wore it again. Even during new game plus, I don't think he had it on because he was using the extra defense vest or something. However, the trailer for RE6 features him in a new, much shinier jacket. I have yet to decide which jacket I prefer, but I hope he keeps the new one throughout. Unless, of course, the original jacket (or a copy of it, because I doubt he ever got the original back) makes a return. That would be awesome.

Seems like he loses it at one point. Sigh.

Improve the lip-syncing.

Now, this is kinda hard to tell from one trailer, but is it just me, or did the lip-syncing in the trailer look kind of...awful? I know it's a minor thing that doesn't effect game-play at all, but when the engine looks so good, and everything else clearly had a ton of time and effort put into making it look good, seeing mouths flapping about and not matching what's being said is really off-putting. Maybe it's a non-issue and just me, or maybe it's because they didn't sync things right for the video, but some of it looked terrible. Specifically the moment when Chris and some other guy are arguing in a locker room (?). Also, in a series that is traditionally all in English, even in Japan (or at least this is what the internet has told me), it seems even weirder that the lip-syncing would be as bad as that trailer makes it look. If there's only going to be one audio track across all versions, there's really no excuse. Or even if there are multiple languages, everyone knows that you cater to the English speaking audience. Why? AMERICA.

Keep co-op, but don't go overboard with it.

The decision to introduce co-op into RE5 was certainly controversial (at least amongst the crazy people who enjoy the pre-RE4 games for anything other than the AMAZING voice acting), it was undeniably fun (at least if you thought the main game was fun). And I definitely hope that co-op will return in RE6. But, that does not mean I hope it is in the entire story mode. For example, the Chris campaign, which looks like it'll focus heavily on cover based shooting, would be great for co-op. But the Leon campaign, which looks (while action-y) maybe a little more "survival-y" might be better as a solo affair. Of course, Leon does appear with a lady (a new character, I think), which fits the RE-style of having male and female protagonists, so who knows. Also, I don't know how co-op would work with the third protagonist, because he looks melee focused, and that seems crazy in and of itself, let alone two melee focused characters.

Change Mercenaries Mode somehow.

Mercenaries Mode was pretty fun in RE4, but I never really played it in RE5 because it felt like more of the same. For all I know they changed it up in the DLC for that game, but for all intents and purposes, let's assume they didn't. As such, I'd like to see some changes in it. What, exactly? Dunno. Maybe make it more mission focused. Something like having a concrete objective, like getting into an area to rescue Leon's Jacket, and then get out with the jacket in one piece. Sure, they'll think of something less crazy (and less awesome) to find, but you get my point. Of course they would also keep the original game type, but I feel like something more structured like this would be a good change of pace for the mode.

Make the "new guy" more than just bald Kanji.

If you've seen the trailer, and know anything about Persona 4, you get the reference. I do not mean the way of writing. Troy Baker is appearing in a Nolan North-esque number of games, and as such, he's probably being type-cast like Mr. North was for a while (where every character he did was a variant of Nathan Drake, though that seems to have ended, to a certain extent). And based on the trailer, the new guy looks like a cocky mercenary who's only in it for the money, and he appears to be melee focused. I know the RE games are not known for great character development, but it'd be nice if they did something different with it. Maybe they will. I don't know.

Keep it crazy.

The Resident Evil series has come a long way since the original, which was about exploring a mansion, solving weird puzzles, and trying to run away from zombies. Now it's about three protagonists, one of which rolls around when fighting zombies, one who is armed to the teeth and has a team of commandos, and one whose strategy is apparently to use melee attacks. Oh, and the president is a zombie, and gets shot. That's all in the trailer. Hopefully they're not over-selling the crazy, because if playing Saints Row: The Third has taught me anything, it's that complete and utter insanity is something I want more games to embrace. This game looks like it's embracing it, so I hope they go all the way. RE5 ended with a boss fight inside a volcano, so they've set a high bar, but I'm confident they can top themselves.

So that's about it. I think. More so than anything else, I just hope the game is fun. Changing up the controls to make the game more run and gun-ish (at least based on what I've seen thus far) is a smart move, because really, not being able to move and shoot at the same time is pretty dumb. I don't care whatever arguments you have, it worked fairly well in RE4 and RE5, but I don't think they can get away with it in such an action heavy game a third time. It's just poor design when I go to aim, realize I need to move half a foot to the side because something is blocking my aiming, but can't until I stop aiming.

So here's hoping the game turns out well. Anyone else have any thoughts as to what they do or do not want to see in the game? Did I make some glaring mistakes fiction wise? I know some people think "new guy" is an existing character, but I think he's a new guy. You know, balance out the series two "biggest" protagonists with a new guy. It's what I would do. Well, not really.