Eastern Resident Evil: A Western Influence
A key point I want to raise in my section of the presentation
is what inspired Resident Evil 1 to be created, what were its influences and
how did it come about, another thing to think about is are any of these
influences, themes and ideas Western?
I have already established that the game is Eastern (Japanese)
and shows clear evidence of J-Horror throughout. Examples include the
psychological horror of being alone
throughout the game and the overwhelming sense of desperation (no ammo, no medi
kits aka ‘herbs’, no super weapons etc). However, are there ANY American
influences in this game at all?
Well, sure there are! Alone in the Dark being the main one.
It’s a game technically made in the west by Infogrames it was known for
being the first ever 3D horror game and as it was released in 1992 it certainly
leaves room for Capcom and Resident Evil to take plenty of influences from.
I have never played the game myself and was only really aware
of the more recent versions of the game. So, I looked it up on YouTube and what
I found was astonishing. The similarities are un canny! Ranging from small
observations such as the way the main character walks up the stairs and the
noises the creaky doors make to large observations such as the fixed camera
angles and similar gameplay mechanics (finding objects ect).
As part of my blog I plan to find videos that demonstrate the
key similarities I have found between the games, however, during my
presentation I wont have enough time to show videos so I will have to rely on
screen shots, my own words and the sheer hope that whoever marks my research
for the contextual studies projects actually watches these videos to get a full
understanding of what I am talking about!
Here is a gameplay video I found of someone doing a speed run
on Alone in the Dark, I chose part of a speed run because that way, despite the
person being fast, you get to see a variety of gameplay mechanics not seen in
trailers.
Alone in the Dark 1 (1992)
Resident Evil 1 (1996)
Obvious Inspirations & Influences Taken
from Alone in the Dark and used in Resident Evil
Here are some visual comparisons between the 2 games. Many
people, including the writer of the IGN article I keep mentioning, state that
Alone in the Dark was one of the biggest and most obvious influences on
Resident Evil and the horror game genre we know today!
The mansion setting
Alone in the Dark (1992)
Resdident Evil 1 (1996)
Fixed and often abstract camera angles
Alone in the Dark (1992)
Alone in the Dark (1992)
Resident Evil 1 (1996)
Collectable items important to gameplay progression
Alone in the Dark (1992)
Screen shot from: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oazx4QltpW8
Resident Evil 1 (1996)
Character selection upon beginning a new game
Alone in the Dark (1992)
Resident Evil 1 (1996)
Similar environment layout inside the mansion
Alone in the Dark (1992) & Resident Evil 1
(1996) I am showing them 1 after the other so that you can see the similarites between the 2 images. The first image is Alone in the Dark, then Resident Evil 1, rinse & repeat (1 after the other)
Screen Shots from: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=endscreen&NR=1&v=m6kyg-bSqCo & http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oazx4QltpW8
Conclusion
After finding those images from both of the games I think its
safe to see where the influences came from when they were developing Resident
Evil. The similarities are unbelievable! I think it’s a brilliant point to see
how the western game Alone in the Dark influenced the Eastern game Resident
Evil.
On the same note, it is worth mentioning that our group had
sort of classed most of the horror elements in Japanese made Resident Evil 1 as
J-Horror. Psychological elements that get inside your head. This is all well
and good but how can it be Japanese
Horror when it originated from Alone in the Dark? It is something I need to
further discuss in my group to see how we are going to tackle it before I put
my final statement in our presentation.
Great comparisons! It's kinda funny how obvious it is that Resi nicked loads of ideas from Alone in the Dark, yet Mikami doesn't like admitting it :P
ReplyDeleteGood point in the last paragraph! If we had more than 10 minutes for this presentation I would have suggested checking out France's history in horror, oh well! A big part of resi is still psychological and there's still a lot of unanswered questions, which a lot of their ghost stories have. And I *think* Alone in the Dark was inspired by Sweet Home so you can see where they got a lot of their ideas from :)
Having never played Resident Evil, I probably would have caught on to this if I did. But even just the comparisons you have are boggling. I HAVE played the newer RE games and as psychological horror, there are very few games that get this. To me it's more knee-jerk reaction like horror movies as opposed to actually being disturbed by what you're experiencing. The Resident Evil for Gamecube get this with the abandoned girl/experiment character(I forget).
ReplyDeleteAlone1 has to this day always been one of my favorite games and a benchmark for the genre. Yeah it looks like poo today, but it's legitimately spooky in it's own right.
Thanks for a great read!