Line #25 Trivia/ResidentEvil2


1	* The [[Trivia/ResidentEvil2Remake RE2 remake]]'s trivia page.
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3	* CreatorsOddball: As a SurvivalHorror game, this game differs from most other games directed by Creator/HidekiKamiya, who actually find most horror games to be too scary and tends to direct more action heavy games.
4	* DescendedCreator: Katsutoshi Karatsuma, one of the developers for the game, also lent his voice to the JokeCharacter Tofu.
5	* DevelopmentGag:
6	** Tofu was used during development to test the game's hit detection.
7	** A [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=coBawuidsWw#t=16m4s very early design for the RPD main hall]] featured a pair of staircases in the back leading up to the second floor, which were eventually replaced with a fire ladder. The remake restores this concept, albeit with a slightly altered design.
8	* DummiedOut: The first encounter with the Licker was supposed to start with it dropping the head from the decapitated corpse in the hall. The staff changed their minds late in development, perhaps for fear of censorship, but decided to simply cut out the cue for this and leave the head stuck up on the ceiling. It's normally out of the the camera's view since the game was meant for a 4:3 picture ratio, but playing the game on an emulator with widescreen support reveals that the head is still present. After the first time going through the hallway where that happens, the head is gone.
9	* ExecutiveMeddling: Around the time that the game was being made, Creator/{{Capcom}} was also making ''VideoGame/MegaMan8''. Apparently, Sony demanded that ''Mega Man 8'' needed to be in 3D. Capcom retaliated by threatening to not release ''Resident Evil 2'' on the Platform/PlayStation, which got Sony to back off.
10	* KeepCirculatingTheTapes: It's virtually impossible to find any retail copies of PC-DVD version of ''Biohazard 2'' through any store in this day and age.
11	* MultiDiscWork: ''[=RE2=]'' was released on two discs. You'd use one of them to play as Leon and the other to play as Claire. (Yes, you have to switch between them between the A and B games.) This was due to the dev team running out of time to compresses the audio and chose to ship the game as two discs.
12	* NoExportForYou:
13	** The PC-DVD version of ''Biohazard 2'' by [=SourceNext=] was released only in Japan, which is unfortunate since the PC-DVD version of the game combines both Leon's and Claire's games into one similar to the Platform/{{Nintendo 64}} and Platform/NintendoGameCube ports instead of having two separate CD-[=ROMs=] and fixed many of the compatibility issues on Windows XP.
14	** The version of ''[=RE2=]'' available on the [=PlayStation=] Store as a [=PSOne=] Classic is the ''[=DualShock=] Edition'', marking the first time Europe got the [=PSOne=] ''[=DualShock=] Edition''. Because the game is a North American import, it requires a 60hz TV set up to display properly.
15	* PlayingAgainstType:
16	** Creator/AlysonCourt, Claire's original voice actress, starred mainly in children's shows, including several ''Franchise/CareBears'' movies and ''Series/TheBigComfyCouch'', before starring in a dark, gritty SurvivalHorror game.
17	** This also applies to Lisa Yamanaka, who previously provided the voice of Wanda Li in ''Literature/TheMagicSchoolBus''.
18	* RecursiveAdaptation: From a [=PS1=] game to a re-telling in ''[[VideoGame/ResidentEvilTheDarksideChronicles The Darkside Chronicles]]'' [[note]]though HUNK's scenario was in ''[[VideoGame/ResidentEvilTheUmbrellaChronicles The Umbrella Chronicles]]'' and Ada has a post-''[=RE2=]'' one in the same game to explain how she got out of the city[[/note]] to ''[[VideoGame/ResidentEvil2Remake another]]'' remake, albeit using the over the shoulder gameplay of ''VideoGame/ResidentEvil4''.
19	* TroubledProduction: This was Creator/HidekiKamiya's first horror game and the first game he'd directed, so he went in without a specific vision and instead spent most of the time experimenting with different gameplay styles. The game got to about 70% completion, but final approval was denied because higher-ups felt the game's environments were rather dull, that the emphasis on action detracted from the horror, and that the characters were uninteresting. The release date was pushed back a year to address these issues, which Kamiya was actually relieved to hear, as he knew the project wasn't coming together how he'd hoped. Professional TV writer Noboru Sugimura was brought on to overhaul the story, and Elza Walker was made into Claire Redfield so they could establish a better connection to the first game. The police station was also overhauled to be more ornate, justifying the creepy settings and puzzles. The game's audio also took up more space than expected, but rather than delay the game again to compress the files, Capcom just released the game on two discs when they probably could've gotten it all to fit on one.
20	* UrbanLegendOfZelda: ''Magazine/ElectronicGamingMonthly'' offshoot magazine ''[=EGM2=]'' ran a Trick of the Month in their {{April\|FoolsDay}} 1998 issue saying that entering "[[Franchise/StreetFighter AKUMA]]" into the computer terminal instead of "GUEST" would unlock that character for play if the game had already been completed six times with A ranks using only the knife or handgun. Akuma's presence in ''VideoGame/StreetFighterEX'' made the screenshots possible to fake, and Mike Vallas, the magazine's editor and art director at the time, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A-xeOJKdnuQ#t=10m10s specifically chose Akuma]] as a natural escalation of his frequent appearances in other Creator/{{Capcom}} video games (such as a GuestFighter stint in ''VideoGame/XMenChildrenOfTheAtom'') [[WolverinePublicity due to his popularity]]. In a case of pseudo-{{defictionalization}}, this hoax led one modder to make [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nJwMiu_2hNI an Akuma skin for the PC port.]]
21	* WhatCouldHaveBeen:
22	** ''Resident Evil 1.5'', the original version of ''[=RE2=]'', was scrapped due to the developers being displeased with the way it was going. [[note]]ISO images of ''1.5'' can be found online, if you know where to look, and there's an ongoing fan project to fix ''1.5'''s numerous bugs and add in extra content to make it into a fully playable game.[[/note]] While it's similar to the game that would eventually be released, it does contain some notable differences:
23	*** Leon's very first character design was of a shorter-haired, tougher-looking guy. He was changed because he resembled Chris Redfield a little too closely.
24	*** The main female character was Elza Walker, a college student and motorcycle enthusiast who returned home to Raccoon City on vacation. She would be {{retool}}ed into Claire in order to have a greater plot tie with the first game. The remake includes a costume for Claire based on her Elza Walker incarnation as a DevelopmentGag.
25	*** Robert Kendo, known in ''1.5'' as John, and Marvin Branagh were to play much larger roles in the game, acting as supporting characters for Elza and Leon, respectively. In addition, Ada Wong was simply a researcher, and Chief Irons was a sympathetic character rather than a villain.
26	*** There were going to be two different final bosses (Golgotha and Salem) that each respective character would fight near the end of the game, this idea didn't make very far into development however. Also, it was optional to save one, all, or none of the secondary characters; [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C6KCS12IT88#t=6m12s see here]] for more details. The idea of two different final bosses was revisited with the remake's 1st Run campaigns: Leon faces Mr. X's Super Tyrant form, while Claire fights G-Birkin's fourth form.
27	*** The police station was going to look much more modern in appearance and awash with BadBlueLighting, as well as having a few more varieties of zombie cop (at the expense of most varieties of zombie civilian), including the infamous fat zombies that didn't show up in a released game until ''[=RE3=]''. This was changed because the developers thought that gamers were going to ask questions on how such a place could have many puzzles.
28	*** The zombies themselves had far fewer textures and polygons, and this would allow more of them to attack players at once. The final game ended up going the opposite direction, adding more graphics to the zombies at the cost of having fewer of them appear in one room at a time.
29	*** There were several new types of enemies created for ''1.5'', including spider-human hybrids, which would have been similar to the Chimeras from the first game, mutated gorillas and their offspring, as well as offspring for the giant alligator in the sewers and a giant mutated horse boss.
30	*** There were different types of armor that Leon and Elza could equip. Furthermore, they would [[ShowsDamage show damage on their character models]] as they were attacked by zombies and other creatures. The cut shown damage feature makes a return in the remake.
31	*** There exists concept art depicting Annette also having mutated into a G being like William, although this allegedly didn't progress any further beyond a preliminary idea; as William Birkin's role was mostly unchanged in the final version from that of ''1.5'', it's unknown what would've led to Annette's mutation or what G-Annette would've done post-metamorphosis.
32	*** Unlike in the final version where Umbrella is still operating, the company had folded by the time ''1.5'' had begun since the surviving S.T.A.R.S. members were spared from the CassandraTruth and were believed when they told everyone what happened at the Spencer Mansion.
33	*** The Spencer Mansion was considered as a location you could visit while escaping Raccoon City, with the idea that a monster survived the explosion and was living in the ruined lobby and dining hall. That scenario didn't get developed beyond concept art. However, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BUTVqP1l83M#t=2h45m36s according to a developer interview]] with ''[=RE3=]'' director Kazuhiro Aoyama, the monster that lived in the Spencer Mansion ruins was essentially "recycled" into the Grave Digger boss.
34	** When Angel Studios (now Rockstar San Diego) was first figuring out which [=PS1=] game to port over to the [[Platform/Nintendo64 N64]], they had two options. One of the options was rejected because the developer didn't want to ruin the product on a cartridge based system, so Angel Studios had to go with ''[=RE2=]''. What was the other game in question? ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVII''.
35	** Creator/HidekiKamiya [[https://www.siliconera.com/2019/02/12/platinum-games-hideki-kamiya-reminiscences-about-the-making-of-the-original-resident-evil-2/ revealed some details]] on how the game could've been done and who did most of the work in terms of the story/design.
36	** Similar to the first game, a port for the Platform/SegaSaturn was in production for about a year before Capcom decided the system wasn't capable of a solid port (and was just about dead anyway).
37	** Years later, ports of the first two ''RE'' games were pitched to Capcom by Italian studio Raylight, only to be cancelled when Capcom "lost interest in the viability of Platform/GameBoy ports." [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZKELvrjzJwY A very short proof of concept demo]] for a Platform/GameBoyAdvance version of ''2'' was created by the studio, the ROM image for which can be found online.
38	** When 1.5 was tossed aside, Kamiya was nearly booted from the team as the majority of the team blamed him for how the game's development went. Shinji Mikami exercised his authority to veto their objections and allow Kamiya to remain in his position.
39	** For Resident Evil 2 proper, Marvin had a different death when you first met him; it would play out much like the same as what would happen, but then Marvin would start begging Leon or Claire to shoot him in the head, before collapsing. The corpses in the room would then reanimate and start attacking, followed shortly by Marvin himself.

Context Trivia / ResidentEvil2