- Not a hard stretch to imagine. The tone between the two is radically different though.
- In gameplay, sure. But the stories outside of zombie curb-stomping are both equally serious - or, at least, try to be. As an aside, since Umbrella canonically collapsed as a legitimate corporation in 2004, albeit leading to the rise of the Neo-Umbrella Bioterrorist group, two years before the Willamette Incident. It's more likely Phenotrans was formed from former employees of Umbrella that were either pardoned for their crimes in order to gain their expertise in combating the new strain of zombies, or not arrested in the first place, while serving as the legitimate front for Neo-Umbrella.
- Also, keep in mind the first game had a store called "Jill's Sandwiches" perhaps Barry Burton inspired by his famous line, opened a Sandwich chain? After all seeing as Raccoon P.D is gone, he's out of a job.
- Not a hard stretch to imagine. The tone between the two is radically different though.
- This seems to be supported by a few things in the story, mainly that the odds are drastically altered to make Frank look cooler. For example, he has to fight an army of Phenotrans troopers and a giant robot.
- This also explains why Chuck is both the sidekick and a psycho at the same time, Chuck could be reading the book.
- Granted, the Vitriolic Best Buds bit with Chuck is more lighthearted in Case West, but Frank has a motive to hate him - not only did Chuck possibly make a bigger scoop in Fortune City than Williamete, but he also got Rebecca Chang (who is possibly Frank's Love Interest) killed. So, what WAS different about Case West? Well, aside from Frank taking most of Chuck's story verbatim, he saved Rebecca, killed Stacey in Chuck's backstory, made Chuck a Psycho, and turned Stacey into the Big Bad instead of Sullivan. Bonus points if the reason of the last switch was because Sullivan reminded Frank of Brad.
- Katey’s dead and this will turn Chuck into a psychopath. Frank has to fight him instead of Leon.
- Kinda unlikely, since Chuck is the co-op player.
- Probably confirmed. One of the leaked OTR achievements is called "Out With the Old", and the achievements is Chuck Greene with more facial hair. Description is "Defeat the motorcycle-riding psychopath." Chuck's a motocross champ.
- However, one could consider this to be a situation which is needed for co-op gameplay. If Chuck could be a rescueable psycho, this could explain the co-op mode. Besides, wouldn't it be weird to have co-op Chuck fight Psycho Chuck? And besides, Katey could be a survivor that Frank and Chuck could save, right?
- Confirmed by this video. Spoiler-haters and Chuck Greene fans should probably avoid clicking the link, though. You've been warned.
- The Twins are survivors. After Frank saves them they will fall in love with him. Because Frank West is so badass, even lesbians want him.
- Jossed. They're psychopaths again, according to the OTR achievement "Save the Girl", featuring the Twins in the achievement icon. The description is "Rescue a damsel in distress from the Twin Terrors."
- Sullivan is just a security guard who wants sit to it out until rescue arrives.
- Confirmed: while his personality is still very much a hardass, he's not a Phenotrans mole in Off the Record.
- There’s a picture that shows Brandon handing over something to TK. So perhaps in this story C.U.R.E. is indeed behind the outbreak and Stacey is the Big Bad. Instead of her Otis will be the Mission Control.
- Chuck and Katey will likely not be anywhere near Fortune city (the co-op is just a game gimmick).
- Possibly jossed. In the leaked achievements, one of them is called "Out With the Old" (probably referring to him replacing Frank in Dead Rising 2), and the achievement icon is Chuck Greene with more facial hair. The description states "Defeat the motorcycle-riding psychopath." Remember how he's a Motocross champion?
- Stacey will probably have the same role, but this could reveal that Brandon had been intended to have involvement all along, he just snapped before we found out his part.
- That might change. Stacey might be a Big Bad, as one of the leaked achievements is called "True Colors", featuring Stacey's face. The description is "Defeat the mastermind of the Fortune City incident."
- Confirmed by Word of God: Chuck is a psychopath that can be fought. He also doubles (for some reason) as Frank's partner in co-op mode. Stacey is also the Big Bad, replacing Sullivan.
- Chuck and Katey will likely not be anywhere near Fortune city (the co-op is just a game gimmick).
- Claiming that she was just naked under her costume was just a cover so she wouldn't have to reveal her true nature. This is also why she asks if she can borrow a shirt, but never asks for pants.
- Jossed: The protagonist is a car mechanic.
When looking at the DLC page for the game on Xbox Live it mentions being in a new part of Fortune City. So it simply takes place in a part of Fortune City that is not accessible in DR2 and explains how Frank came to be there to meet Chuck.
- Jossed. The developers have already stated this story is pure non-canon fan pandering, plus Frank ends up fighting (and killing) most of the same psychos Chuck does in the canon game.
Lets think about these things, the man whom released the Zombies that TIR had was wearing a Motocross tracksuit and a Helmet covering his face as he used an explosive to blast the gate open. Notice on how after the Slicecycle game ended in the Beginning of the game Leon wasn't seen at all? How do we know that Leon kept his Motocross outfit on but was wearing a Helmet that covered his face and grabbed the explosive he was given and head over to the Zombies? (After all consider on how after when the Slicecycle game was over Leon would have a decent amount of time to do that.) What are the motives you ask? Simple for starters he would have a far larger amount of Zombies (and people) to kill for more points and since he hates Chuck Greene with a passion he would love the chance to have even more people hate him. Phenotrans would use Leon as a pawn by giving secret access to an explosive he would use to release the Zombies.
It's all just a Batman Gambit to gain sympathy for her condition.
- Or she just thinks ordering people around while sitting on a chair that moves is a sign of her power ala Frieza from Dragon Ball Z.
- He's cool, despite he is a psychopath in that game.
- The fans loved Chuck so much.
- He's just that tough. He's Chuck Greene, after all.
- Himself: Self.
- Sullivan: Id.
- Stacey: Ego.
- Chuck: Super Ego.
- Rebecca: Anima.
- TK: Shadow Archetype
This is supported by the giant robot plot, and the fact that almost all of the story is told through Franks eyes, there is nothing the player knows that he doesn't.
- There's not much in the original Dead Rising 2 that would contradict Stacey being Agent S, especially given her statement in Off the Record that the other conspirators were unaware of her true identity, other than possibly the fact that it's rather unlikely she would have taken TK's crap and let herself get captured and almost fed to zombies if she was really a Dark Action Girl secret agent.
- Katey's simply missing.
- Here's how it goes: the outbreak happens just like in Dead Rising 2. Chuck goes and fights his way to his room to make sure that Katey's safe. For her own safety, Katey takes off and leaves her headphones and bag behind. Chuck goes psycho; attacks Frank. When Frank (and a doppelganger of Chuck for reasons unknown) hands him his ass on a silver platter, Chuck notices Katey in the distance and runs to her, hence the reason why he disappears when Frank turns around. Also kinda provides a plausible reason for co-op Chuck at least after the battle.
- Co-op Chuck is what's left of his sanity.
- To some extent, it only works in perspective of his boss fight, but here goes. Chuck is sane when the outbreak happens, but doesn't go to the safehouse. He leaves Katey somewhere "safe" while he looks for Zombrex and meets Frank along the way (which he doesn't find, since Frank probably took it). He returns to Katey, sees her turn into a zombie (or get killed by zombies), goes psycho. He takes the doll as a replacement and fights Frank (the reason Frank doesn't remember him is that he looks different, reason why Chuck doesn't remember Frank is because he's drunk off his ass). When Frank beats him, Chuck regains his sanity and escapes. So to put it bluntly, co-op Chuck is regular Chuck before his boss fight, co-op Chuck during his boss fight is whatever is left of sane, old Chuck (probably beating some sense into himself), and co-op Chuck after the fight is Chuck regaining his sanity.
- Psycho Chuck is actually a Secret Test of Character.
- Katey isn't dead and Chuck manages to keep her somewhere relatively safe. He meets Frank and is repulsed by his selfish attitude, goes "psycho" and fights Frank (see reason no. 2 for the reasons why Frank and Chuck don't notice each other). Frank earns his respect and Chuck goes back to normal and helps him.
- Co-op Chuck is from the original timeline of DR2 and wants to help Frank.
- He's a time traveler. All arguments are invalid.
- Although none of those explain why Chuck is shotgunning whiskey by the bottle and looks like he's been out of it for much longer than the length of the outbreak (unless you go with the theory that Off the Record is either a dream of Frank's or a nightmare of Chuck's while the two of them fly off to the Phenotrans facility).
- While Chuck in Off The Record can be a drunk-ass dad, it doesn't necessarily mean that he wasn't a bad dad to Katey. Plus, one could say that he lost Katey during Case Zero, hence, Drunk-Off-His-Ass-Chuck.
- Since the original Dead Rising got sued by the owners of the Dawn of the Dead (1978) license, in spite of putting a disclaimer that they weren't affiliated with them, I could see how the team in charge of Off The Record would exercise caution about that.
- A boxer who's taken too many hits to the head. He goes after the protagonist while babbling about his mom's cooking and his vacation to Florida.
- A genuine sociopath. He looks normal, but there's clearly something off about him...besides the fact that he's trying to kill you.
- A psychotic teacher who keeps his students (or people to function as students) in class. After dying, he'd do a similar Jump Scare to Slappy and Steve, saying "CLASS DISMISSED! POP QUIZ ON WEDNESDAY!".
- A properly placed kindergarten teacher who talks to a non-existent class and goes berserk when the main character somehow messes with her "kids".
- In a mall?
- Field trip.
- A properly placed kindergarten teacher who talks to a non-existent class and goes berserk when the main character somehow messes with her "kids".
- A Mad Scientist who rockets around on a jetpack and attacks with a Laser Blade. He can dish out the hurt, but he can't really take it.
- An Ax-Crazy former baseball player who attacks you with a modified baseball bat. His attacks are slow, but he can take a beating.
- A group of corrupted assassins/mercenaries who just attacks both zombies and survivors, all for the lulz.
- A deranged maniac who enjoys using live humans as zombie bait, hanging their hands on a rope and pulling them down for the zombies to munch on. He goes berserk when he sees the main character trying to free the survivors. He is fast and is armed with a Power Fist.
- Another cult/more looters/a cult of looters.
- A slasher film fanatic who enacts his psychotic fantasy in a movie theater. Would carry a chainsaw, but he appears to be wearing a striped sweater, a longcoat, and a hockey mask. Fairly stealthy, but his failing is that he never shuts up.
- A Frank West impersonator.
- Or a Chuck Greene impersonator. The two could work together as a Duel Boss.
- A wrestler who went off the deep end as he saw his co-workers and loved ones eaten alive by the undead. He holds several survivors hostage as his "audience". The main character will fight him in a ring. Obviously he attacks the main character using various wrestling moves.
- A nurse/doctor who went crazy after failing to save many survivors from the outbreak. Wields various medical equipment as weapons.
- A construction worker holding a few survivors in a deathtrap of a construction site. Attacks the player with a cordless drill, a 2 X 4, and a sledgehammer. Throws explosives at you at a range.
- An ex-special forces sniper who was always a bit unstable, bot got pushed over the edge by the outbreak, causing him to acquire a military grade sniper rifle and board himself up, killing zombies and survivors alike. Armed with a sniper rifle, and can use a variety of powerful hand-to-hand combat moves.
- A known serial killer who happens to be prowling through the mall so everyone will think that it's the zombies who kill his victims. At close range, uses a machete. At long range, uses a handgun.
- Zombies have a very hard time using weapons, so the framejob is really poor.
- Okay, maybe not firearms, but the guy could use melee weapons as his weapon of choice and use them in a savage way. To further the illusion, he could wear lots of zombie makeup and bodypaint.
- How about a serial killer who knocks you out, and puts you through a Film/Saw -esque system of traps before you actually fight him? This guy is either doing this For the Evulz, or putting people through tests to weed out possible zombies.
- A Private Military Contractor company that's a very thinly veiled parody of Blackwater, found in employment of various individuals and occasionally doing some looting. Like the Security Guards from Case West, but stronger, with faster reaction times and roughly twice as much health. Most carry Assault Rifles and Flashbang Grenades, though a couple may carry a BFG instead. Also have a helicopter patrolling the mall as an optional boss, only killable with some sort of BFG (a heavy machine gun? Rocket launcher?).
- More escaped convicts, though with a completely different battle style than the last group.
- After that last group, let's hope they have a different battle style!
- Main plotline boss: A small team of maybe five Arabic-esque terrorists who try to blow up the safehouse. Are a Wolfpack Boss, and each is armed with their own weapon: An AK-47, RPG, machete and pistol, Dragunov sniper, or RPK.
- An Otaku. His gimmick would be protecting his "girlfriends" (in a Take That! to Harem anime), his outfit would be an elaborate cosplay of something out of an RPG, and his weapon? What else but a BFS ?
- On the flip-side of the coin, two Yandere girls who are fighting over a boyfriend, only to go berserk when he lets slip he was sleeping with other girls on the side, and rip him apart before fighting you. In addition to a gratuitous inclusion of a School Days Shout-Out, this fight will have two Psychos fighting the player(s) and each other.
- Another member of Adam The Clown's family seeking revenge. Since Frank might not be around, him/her would just go after the protagonist instead.
- A ninja. Either a crazy martial arts teacher with a bunch of ninja gear lying around his dojo, or a genuine mercenary. Quite fast, leaps around frequently, and doesn't make any noises during combat (or making various Funny Bruce Lee Noises), but also has relatively low health. Attacks with ninja stars / throwing knives (which deal medium damage and are thrown at a range), smoke bombs (which temporarily stun the player like "Flash Grenades" in Case West), a Sai (only in a leaping attack) and two hand to hand moves: a jump kick and a three punch combo.
- A tour guide from a historical exhibit on the Gold Rush, who went insane and now actually thinks he's a prospector. He's taken a few people as hostages in the construction store, and attacks with player primarily using a pickaxe.
- A group of five actors who are stars of a Super Sentai / Power Rangers type series that were filming their show at the time the zombies attacked. Like some of the examples above, after the outbreak they begin to think that they are this team of superheros that they were portraying.
- A Pro Wrestler, who uses wrestling moves like Frank does, and if it's set in a place that has an arena, he was meant to go to his match when the outbreak hit, and he thinks he's still on his wrestling show so he has a microphone for just rambling psychotically.
- A couple who serve as the snipers of the game. The woman is bubbly, has a weak semi-automatic rifle, and shoots wildly. The man is subdued, attacks with a more powerful bolt-action, and is more deliberate with his shots. Their weapons make different sounds.
- A white supremacist who blames all kind of minorities for the outbreak.
- A Radical Islamic Terrorist as a psychopath, with an innocent Muslim as a survivor to counter-balance that.
- An Indian-themed Quirky Miniboss Squad of Harjit Singh's friends fighting as a team and their main goal is to avenge Harjit. Fighting against them will be a Tearjerker because this team of Indian men are oblivious to Harjit's evil.
- Pam Greene's family, resenting that Chuck Greene failed to keep Pam alive.
- A delusional woman who thinks she's the character Jill Valentine.
- A delusional woman who thinks she's the character Claire Redfield.
- A psychotic woman who thinks that she's Pam Greene. Chuck Greene will NOT be amused at all.
- Wind-Up Dolls in the form of Chibi-fied versions of various Capcom characters, which lure zombies to them by spamming the character's Catchphrase (ex. a Ryu doll spams "Shoryuken" or "Hadouken", a Chun Li doll spams "Gomen Ne" or "Yatta!", a Frank West doll spams "I Covered Wars, You Know" or "FAN-tastic!", etc.). The doll by itself may only serve to draw zombies away from the player, but a duct-tape version straps explosives to it, and is either timed or detonated with the push of a button (perhaps making a special quote before detonating, and coming complete with a mushroom cloud in the form of the doll's face). The Scratch Card variant doesn't lure in Psychos (who realize what it is, and run in the opposite direction), but the Combo Card variant causes them to attack it by amplifying the voice of the doll so that it drives the Psychos into a violent frenzy]] (slightly balanced by the fact it can't kill a boss instantly, or that ranged Psychos can [[WhyDontYouJustShootHim just destroy it from a safe distance). Idea comes from the Monkey Bombs of Nazi Zombies, and this ending in Tatsunoko vs. Capcom.
- Specialized gloves that let the player perform a Hadouken. The Scratch Card variant only chucks relatively weak ones fireballs, while the Combo Card variant allows the player to charge the attack before launching a giant fireball.
Plus Stacey`s original design appears in one of the cutscene (when Frank is in the locker room after his appearance on Terror is Reality), so maybe Stacey did not made it much further than that interview before someone else replaced her.
- On the other hand, Stacey in OTR has the same voice as Stacey in DR2, and even says many of the exact same things she does in Dead Rising 2. Plus, Agent S seems to imply that she was leading C.U.R.E. for Phenotrans for a long time. Also, if she was an entirely different person, it'd be pretty noticeable to everyone else. The different appearance from the newscast is most likely a goof due to the programmers re-using a lot of assets from Dead Rising 2, while the wig is most likely to make her look more like a Granola Girl and less like a butch military chick.
- As said above, a scientist, specifically, one who had involvement in the Santa Cabeza incident: he deeply regrets it, and wants to make up for it somehow.
- A possibly crazy police officer, one type of crazy or another.
- A Mechanic has been (sorta) confirmed as the new protagonist.
- A very big blimp.
- A Californian beachtown, with the Survivors and Psychos fitting the themes of Action Movies and regional stereotypes.
- Additionally, he was part of the armed forces in the clean up of Las Vegas and Still Creek, and holds a grudge against Chuck and Katie for somehow escaping his dragnet, (perhaps because he was discharged for letting them get past?).
- Why not? We've got two games featuring young Katey Greene (one being a prequel when she's 4). Why would the developers create two games centered around protecting this girl if we're not going to eventually play as her as a teen/adult? Chuck's not getting any younger and sooner or later, he won't be around to protect her anymore. She'll have to learn how to fend for herself. Maybe as she grows, she learns the badass skills from her father, so when we finally play as her, she's ready to kick some undead ass.
- I agree, she should be the next protagonist. It's high-time we had a female one, at least.
- The next is unlikely, unless Dead Rising 4 involves at least a ten-year Time Skip. I could see her becoming the lead in a future installment, though.
- This is possible. Dead Rising 3 is 10 years after the events of Dead Rising 2 and Katey is in the game but is now known as Annie as she left her previous life behind after Chuck became a criminal. She also Took a Level in Badass during those 10 years so the idea of playing as Katey might be possible for Dead Rising 4.
Hear me out. After defeating TK above the Ti R arena, Chuck throws TK off the walkway and rescues Stacey and Katey. However, TK is still alive, having barely survived his fall. Eager for revenge, he pursues the three back to the safe house, and is bitten by a zombie along the way. Although Chuck manages to get Stacey and Katey onto the rescue helicopter, he is attacked from behind by TK and the chopper is forced to leave without him. Chuck and TK are forced onto the elevator, when Frank arrives...
- Possible, except TK getting bit again is optional. People on Zombrex will be turning eventually without further Zombrex use.
- Yeah, it's possible, especially if his Zombrex dose was wearing off by the time he lost the fight with Chuck.
- Trouble with that is, if the fall didn't kill TK, the zombies below most likely did. Not to mention, if you pay attention to most of the items Chuck is forced to grab for TK, the exposure of Phenotrans is decidedly less effective
So, somehow, Isabella wound up becoming Phenotran's little meal ticket, thanks to Zombrex. Howver, Isabella obviously loathes how Phenotrans refuses to make Zombrex easily accessible, and is even purposely slowing its effectiveness (Zombrex - now lasting 24 hours!), in order to make money and hold some of America's most powerful names in their hands. So, she slid a little something extra into Marian's cure. Now, rather than actually being cured, Marian's infection is actually merely dormant, waiting until some future game, where it'll return with a vengeance.
- Alternately, Marian's attempt to "finish" Isabela's project was flawed through some moral or intellectual failing on her part. Either she threw parts of a queen in there thinking that would do the trick and having no compunction about that, she got impatient and tested out the first potentially good solution she could devise, or she simply messed up and deviated from how Isabela would've done it. She still perceives it as an FU, though, as much as she likes to pretend she's in total control, which is why she enjoys putting the screws to Isabela so much.
- Due to being overprotective of Katey due to sheer paranoia.
- He has a lot of similarities to Larry Chiang from the first Dead Rising, as they are arguably the most dark and frightening psychopaths in their respective games, and his position as a member of the in-universe zombie rights activist group, CURE could've meant that the organization was meant to have more relevance in the plot. My guess as to why they changed this is that they found that Sullivan would be a more interesting Climax Boss.