Resident Evil Gaiden is a portable installment in the Resident Evil series released for the Game Boy Color in 2002. It was published by Virgin Interactive (in one of their final releases, and also the final Resident Evil game published by the company in Europe), and co-produced by Capcom and UK-based developer M4 based on a scenario written by Code: Veronica director Hiroki Kato. The game came into existence when the Game Boy Color port of the original Resident Evil was cancelled and Capcom needed a replacement game to fill their lineup.
After the events of Resident Evil 3, Barry Burton and Leon S. Kennedy joined a secret anti-Umbrella organization, comprising former S.T.A.R.S. members and ex-Umbrella employees and set on putting a stop to the operations of the evil medical corporation.
The game starts with the escape of a shapeshifting B.O.W. developed at Umbrella Labs. Leon managed to track it as far as the ocean cruiser, The Starlight before contact with him was lost. Now Barry must board the ship to find him, as well as figure out the mystery of a young girl he finds aboard.
The game itself is an overhead adventure game where the player controls a party of up to three characters (Barry, Leon and Lucia), switching between them at any time. Battles occur when the player character runs into a monster, in which the game switches to a first person view and must align their aiming gauge to where the monster is centered.
Gaiden is mostly notable for its cliffhanger ending that was meant to foreshadow an earlier version of Resident Evil 4. However, due to the changes in RE4's premise during development that disregarded this cliffhanger ending, along with Gaiden's own overall obscurity, the game has been relegated to non-canon status.
Resident Evil Gaiden provides examples
- Alien Blood: The escaped B.O.W. has green blood, as does the parasite B.O.W. in Lucia. The last shot of the game has a close up of "Leon" with a small cut oozing green blood on his neck.
- All of the Other Reindeer: Lucia was bullied in school due to her weird powers.
- And Then John Was a Zombie: The submarine captain instantly becomes a zombie after being attacked by the parasite. He also doubles as a mini-boss for having a ton of health and being able to shoot you.
- Anti-Frustration Features:
- The PDA in your inventory will remind you of your current objective and the map will often highlight in red the room that you need to visit to continue the plot.
- The red exclamation mark that appears onscreen to let you know if a zombie nearby is carrying an item.
- Bag of Holding: Unlike most other games in the series, this one gives you an unlimited inventory.
- Bittersweet Ending: Barry finds Leon and both of them survive with Lucia. Except for the fact that Leon might actually be the parasite B.O.W.
- Boom, Headshot!: In combat mode, there's small, dark purple area. If you manage to hit it, it will blast your opponenet's head off.
- Boring, but Practical:
- The higher a weapon's power, the less accurate it is, so the pistol tends to be pretty effective even later in the game.
- At least early on, the knife against non-basic zombies is somewhat this as it actually does only slightly less damage than the handgun, Crowbar/Female Zombies take longer to attack, so if you soften them up with a few bullets, it's pretty easy to consistently weaken a zombie with handgun rounds then finish it off with a knife slash or two without taking damage though regular zombies tend to attack the instant they enter knife range.
- Boss in Mook Clothing: One of the Palette Swap zombies later in the game are powerful enough to knock off more than a third of your health with just one hit.
- Broken Bridge: An odd example as one of the game's locations, Corridor C , will have impassible fire just before fighting a boss in a nearby room however once the boss fight is done, the fire has put itself out allowing you to proceed.
- Brought Down to Normal: Lucia has her parasite removed, which robs her of her super healing abilities. She doesn't seem to mind this.
- Canon Discontinuity: The events of this game seem to be pretty much ignored by Capcom. Leon at the end of the game being the parasite B.O.W. in disguise is never brought up again and rewritten out of the series.
- Combat Tentacles: Subverted. The escaped B.O.W. spouts tentacles from its chest and uses them to grab Lucia in a cutscene, but when fighting he just uses his fists.
- Continuity Nod:
- This isn't the first time Barry has been a mole for Umbrella while still remaining fairly innocent.
- It's also not the first time Leon's had to temporarily look after a little girl infected by a parasite and later cured.
- Cruel Twist Ending: Implying that "Leon" may actually be the parasite B.O.W.
- A Day in the Limelight: For Barry, one of the side characters from the original Resident Evil.
- Deadly Gas: The gas gun is potent enough to kill all zombies in the room, though the drawback is that it has very little ammo.
- Distressed Damsel: Lucia. She gets attacked and kidnapped by the escaped B.O.W., held at gunpoint by Barry after Umbrella try and take her, and then gets dragged into the sea by the parasite B.O.W.
- Event Flag: More obviously used than most Resident Evil games as not only are there more zombies that spawn in as the story progresses than usual due to the relatively small amount of areas, there are some ammo and health pickups that only spawn in after the plot advances.
- Fake Defector: Barry pretends to turn on Leon and Lucia so he can infiltrate Umbrella.
- First-Person Shooter: A hybrid much like the Gun Survivor series. You navigate in third person but enter first person mode when fighting enemies.
- Gaiden Game: It's even in the title. The game isn't a main entry in the Resident Evil series (and has actually been removed from continuity): instead, it's a side story about Leon and Barry investigating a boat overrun with zombies.
- Ghost Ship: Everyone on The Starlight sans the main characters have been completely zombified.
- Guide Dang It!: The game doesn't prompt you to use any key items, so you might end up having to walk up to every door that could conceivably fit with a certain item and try it until you get the right one.
- Healing Potion: A staple of the series, but in this game, the herbs you use to heal come already mashed up and in green, yellow and red (light, medium and large healing respectively) as well as blue and purple for poison.
- Hostage Situation: Barry holds Lucia at gunpoint so that they can escape the Umbrella submarine. Different from some examples in that it's the protagonist taking another good guy hostage.
- I Just Want to Be Normal: Lucia, due to her being picked on for her weird powers.
- Kill and Replace: At the end of the game, it's implied that the parasite B.O.W. managed to successfully kill Leon offscreen and take his place.
- Lethally Stupid: Leon deciding to leave a defenseless young girl in the middle of the sun deck, by herself, with zombies roaming around.
- Mission Control: The HQ will occasionally call in to spout some exposition.
- Non-Lethal K.O.: After defeating a zombie they'll fall to the ground. There's a chance that they're still alive and will jump you if you pass them, forcing you back into combat again where they'll have full health again though thankfully if you go far enough away they go off-screen, they despawn.
- Recurring Boss: The escaped B.O.W. shows up four times, and the parasite B.O.W. is fought thrice.
- Send in the Search Team: Partly the reason why Barry goes to The Starlight is to find Leon, who's lost contact with HQ. Turns out he fell down a hole in the ship and was knocked out for 24 hours.
- Sequence Breaking: Due to oversights, certain areas only get populated by zombies when you are "expected" to visit them, some of these areas can be visited before zombies are spawned in order to grab key items/weapons/health with relatively little/no resistance than if you explored them later.
- Spot the Imposter: The parasite B.O.W. impersonates Lucia during the game. It's found out when Lucia cuts her hand and shows her normal colored blood.
- Tempting Fate: Leon to a group of Umbrella soldiers:Leon: What are you going to do...shoot me?
Guards: OPEN FIRE! (start shooting)
Leon: I can't believe they opened fire! - Voluntary Shapeshifting: The escaped and parasite B.O.W.s are able to shapeshift into human beings. Unluckily for them, Lucia is able to see right through the deception.
- Where the Hell Is Springfield?: Like the rest of the series. The game simply states that the anti-Umbrella group's base is somewhere in North America, while the boat's location is somewhere in the Atlantic.
