What Could Have Been / Resident Evil

Quite a few different things have been cut from Resident Evil over its history, usually in the form of either entire game stories/setups or specific creatures.

Lost Games:

• Resident Evil Dash, also known as Resident Evil: 1.25, was an alleged planned interquel intended to be set between Resident Evil and Resident Evil 2. The story revolved around the self-destruct system at the Spencer Mansion failing to completely destroy the labs, instead releasing plant-based B.O.Ws from a hidden sub-level; set three years later, it would revolve around Chris and Jill returning to the overgrown ruins to defeat the festering infection. However, it seems that this game is actually an Urban Legend of Zelda, based on scraps of Concept Art and fanbase speculation run wild. What has been confirmed is that the "overgrown Spencer ruins" was intended to be a level visited in Resident Evil 1.5, while the concept of battling an outbreak based on T-Virus infected plants was a scrapped prototype plot for Resident Evil 3: Nemesis
• Resident Evil 1.5: The most famous of the lost Resident Evil games, this was the original version of the game that became Resident Evil 2. The buggy, unfinished beta version eventually found its way onto the internet, where a fan project has spent years restoring it and working to turn it into a complete, full-fledged game. A playable ISO of their work so far can be found online with a little snooping around.
  • The biggest differences came down to the characters. The female main character was Elza Walker, a college student and motorcycle enthusiast who is returning home to Raccoon City on vacation. She would be Retooled into Claire Redfield in order to have a greater connection with the first game. Robert Kendo (known here as John) and Marvin Branagh were to play much larger roles in the game, acting as supporting characters for Elza and Leon respectively much as Rebecca and Barry did for Chris and Jill in the first game. Annette Birkin was to get infected with the G-virus and turn into a monster like her husband William, Ada was to be known as Linda, and Chief Irons was to be a hero rather than a villain. There would also be numerous NPCs who would interact with the protagonists over the course of the game.
  • There was also an array of cut monsters and content. The zombies were to be more varied and gruesome, and the Chimera and Eliminator B.O.W.s (which would appear in future games) were to serve as enemies. The police station itself was also going to more closely resemble a real-life office building, complete with a firing range, as opposed to the repurposed art museum it was in the finished product.
• Various ports of Resident Evil 2 were proposed over the years.
  • One was for the Sega Saturn, but trouble adapting the game to the Saturn's weaker hardware led to Capcom scrapping it and moving on to the more powerful Dreamcast.
  • Meanwhile, an Italian studio called Raylight Studios pitched ports of the first two games to the Game Boy Advance. Capcom had 'lost interest in the viability of Game Boy ports' by that point and the projects were scrapped. For the curious, a playable (but very brief) proof-of-concept demo for RE2 can be found online as a ROM image. The demo looked nearly identical to the PlayStation version in the graphics department, with the only difference being the low framerate.
• There were four different prototypes for Resident Evil 4 before the final version was produced, collectively known as Resident Evil 3.5.
  • The first iteration of RE3.5, known as the "Stylish Version", is the game that, with a glitch removed from the concurrently-developed Onimusha serving as inspiration, would later become Devil May Cry. It boasted far more action-packed gameplay and mechanics that were a far cry from what was expected of the series, and a story based on unraveling various mysteries behind new protagonist Tony Redgrave and his twin brother Paul, who were both infected with the Progenitor Virus and made superhuman. (They would later be reimagined as Dante and Vergil, respectively, with the source of their power going from a virus to them being half-demon.) Its development included several trips to Spain and the UK to study the local architecture as inspiration for the game's environments. This version was deemed too much of a departure from the Survival Horror genre and not cut out to be a Resident Evil title, but those trips to Spain and the UK would be put to use for the final version of the game.
  • After that came the "Fog Version" or "Castle Version" in which Leon infiltrates Umbrella's European headquarters (a castle owned by Oswell Spencer), gets infected with the Progenitor Virus after surviving a fight between friendly USSTRATCOM units and a force lead by Albert Wesker, fights fog-like creatures, and learns the origins of Umbrella and the Progenitor Virus. One of the levels was to take place on an airship. The fog enemies proved to be the sticking point, as the hardware of the Nintendo GameCube couldn't handle them. The plot point about Leon becoming infected was another thing that made it into later builds, including the final game.
  • After that version was scrapped, Capcom made the "Hooked Man Version" or "Hallucination Version" that incorporated many plot elements from the Fog Version. It was set in a seemingly haunted mansion and incorporated more surreal Psychological Horror elements that would be explained by Leon's infection, including Leon fighting what appeared to be paranormal enemies, such as medieval suits of armor (which would make it into the final game), living dolls, and the eponymous, ghost-like "Hooked Man", a possessed-looking man who wielded a giant hook on a chain and would stalk Leon throughout the mansion. The game was reportedly so scary that, when the trailer debuted at E3, Shinji Mikami told the audience, "Don't pee your pants." However, the game would be scrapped for two reasons. First, much like the Fog Version, there were technical issues concerning how Leon's hallucinations were to be shown, necessitating the creation of two 3D models for every level, which was both beyond the limitations of the Nintendo GameCube and would've massively increased the work load for the team. Second, it was deemed too outright supernatural for an RE game. A few technical details remained from this version, however, notably having a button for quickly switching to another weapon (grenades in this version, a knife in the final game) and the over-the-shoulder aiming with a Laser Sight attached to Leon's weapons. Some assets from its development are also rumored to have been recycled for Haunting Ground. Capcom would later make an RE game with a similar Gothic Horror tone and enemies in Resident Evil Village.
  • The final version proposed returning to a more traditional RE survival horror style. Little is known about this version, beyond zombies serving as the main enemies once more and a plot involving Leon being infected with the Progenitor Virus like in the Fog/Castle Version. This game was discarded for being too formulaic, especially with the remake of Resident Evil and Resident Evil 0 selling below Capcom's expectations, which led to the next iteration, which was ultimately released as RE4, going in a more action-heavy direction with a new enemy design. Resident Evil: Dead Aim may have been based on this version of the game, explaining the heavy similarity of its protagonists Bruce McGivern and Fong Ling to Leon and Ada.
• Resident Evil: Outbreak began life as a single, three-disc game which would be made up of twenty story scenarios to play through. What actually got released was a single-disc game containing five scenarios, with a follow-up subtitled File #2 that contained five more scenarios plus a training area, as well as incremental updates to the gameplay, characters, and overall balance. Several characters and costumes existing within the existing games' code are Dummied Out and largely believed to have been intended as part of the original three-disc package or for a hypothetical File #3 which never surfaced.
• Resident Evil: Portable was announced as a brand new, original title for the Sony PSP. The announcement was at E3 2009, but after that event ended, Capcom never uttered another word about it.

Lost Creatures:

• A video series displaying collected concept art for the various cancelled monsters described on this page can be viewed here.
• Resident Evil 0:
  • Wesker's Monster: A large, white-furred primate B.O.W. resembling a monkey, complete with a tail mutated to feature a scorpion-like stinger, Wesker's Monster was intended to be Wesker's means of assassinating most of Bravo Team. When Wesker was dropped as the main villain in favor of James Marcus, Wesker's Monster was redesigned and became the Eliminator, the white-furred infected chimpanzees seen in the released version.
  • D.A.L.I. (DNA-Arranged Lack of Intelligence): A horrifying, slimy-skinned abomination, with humanoid arms and a vaguely grub or leech-like body. Initially, it hung from the ceiling in a cocoon, and then later hatched and fell to the ground. Abandoned in favor of Plague Crawlers, as the developers realized that, with the game's fixed camera angles, there was no easy way for players to look up and see where these monsters were.
  • Spider-Man: A mutated spider that had developed the ability to "mount" human corpses and puppeteer them for its own purposes. Whilst visually similar to the below-mentioned Manspider, it was in fact an entirely separate creature. Resident Evil 4 (Remake) would use a similar idea for the Araña.
  • A monster intended that only made it as far as the concept art stage was "The Contamination Monster", a former human transformed into an infection-spewing bio-hazard, reduced to crawling on all fours with an elongated neck, rotting flesh, and distended stomach full of virus-laden bio-slime. It possibly may have been canceled because the concept art makes its stomach look too much like an oversized scrotum.
• Resident Evil 1.5/Resident Evil 2:
  • Zombie Ape: A hulking infected gorilla (or at least an overgrown baboon) that was similar to the Eliminators, but much larger, and capable of hanging from the ceiling. This monster was scrapped when the game was retooled into RE2.
  • Manspider: A spin-off of the Chimera project from Resident Evil, this is a hideous and misshapen amalgamation of human and spider DNA found in the underground lab. They were scrapped and replaced with Enhanced Lickers when the game was retooled into RE2.
  • Tyrant Inferior: An uncommon zombie mutation caused by hosts that were more compatible with the T-Virus than usual, resulting in them gaining increased strength, durability, and stature. The idea of mutated "elite" zombies was eventually reworked into the Lickers, although the Crimson Heads of Resident Evil (Remake) and the Bloodshots of Resident Evil 6 clearly tap into this early concept.
  • Golgotha: A hulking dinosaur-like creature with Albert Wesker's face on the end of its tail. It was originally planned to be the Final Boss, but was cancelled in favor of William Birkin.
  • Zombie Horse: An infected horse that had grown into a gargantuan, almost giraffe-like stature.
  • Zeigram: A serpentine or dinosaur-like B.O.W that was planned as a Resident Evil 2 boss, but whose different forms were ultimately cancelled or amalgamated into William Birkin.
  • G-Infected Annette Birkin: William's wife, revived as a hideous monster after being killed by her G-infected husband and then revived by one of his viral embryos.
• Resident Evil 2 (Remake):
  • The "Mid-Mutation Licker" was an idea brought up which went through multiple concept art iterations, largely centering around a zombie with a mutating head.
  • Two monsters considered but scrapped were a paraplegic Umbrella scientist essentially dissolving into a tumorous mass in his chair as a result of G-virus infection, and an emaciated, scarred child in a disfiguring neckbrace.
• Resident Evil 3: Nemesis:
  • Zombie Wildcat: A mutated, furless cat that had evolved into a twisted, near-humanoid physique. For unknown reasons, it was scrapped, and its place as the primary B.O.W. infesting the park was replaced with the Hunter Gamma model.
• Resident Evil 3 (Remake):
  • Concept art exists for unused Hunter Gamma designs. The first is inspired by the design from the original game, but adds a more putrid appearance and longer arms. The second one replaces one of its arms with a tentacle-like appendage. The third is a Xenomorph Xerox.
• Resident Evil: Outbreak.
  • Two-Headed Cerberuses were zombie dogs who had started growing a second head as a result of infection.
  • A giant zombie alligator was planned as a possible boss monster for the zoo level. It was most likely scrapped because a) such a boss had already been used in Resident Evil 2, and b) regular-sized zombie alligators appear as enemies already.
  • Concept Art exists for "mid-mutation" lickers in Outbreak, which were never used but did serve as inspiration for the Suspen-Dead, a unique boss enemy.
  • While the Outbreak games use a unique licker model that is quite lithe and slender, a model for a more Resident Evil 2-accurate licker was created as well, only to be cut after the beta version of the game.
• Resident Evil 4: As the game with the most redesigns, it should be no surprise that this game has perhaps the largest amount of cancelled creatures, most of which never made it past concept art.
  • There were plans to include "Adult Plagas", plagas that have outgrown their host body and no longer require them to survive. These ultimately made it into the remake in the form of the Araña, which could jump onto Ganados and take control of them to make them more powerful and aggressive.
  • One monster that made it as far as 3D renders was a scrapped design for the Colmillos, the plaga-infected wolves, that would have given them visibly rotting bodies like the zombie dogs of past games, and with their canine head replaced by a centipede-like plaga similar to the "Type B" plaga seen in Zealots and the weak spot plaga seen in El Gigante. The final version of the creature was more of an homage to The Thing (1982).
  • A cancelled monster that only made it into the Concept Art was the "Lurking Man", a hulking brute that would possess Voluntary Shapeshifting and a similar Healing Factor to the Regenerador.
  • There are many, many Ganado designs that failed to make the jump from concept art to game, including multiple different cultist leaders, a Wolverine Claws-wielding assassin, and Ganados partially clad in bulletproof armor (who made it into the remake).
  • Whilst the final game only included female Villager Ganados and the Bella Sisters Mini-Boss, the concept art had a lot more female Ganados, particularly female cultists (who ultimately made it into the remake). There were also scrapped plans to do "Parasite Woman" enemies, which were straitjacketed women being visibly overgrown from within by parasites.
  • A nameless concept art enemy is a bloated Frankenstein's Monster whose head is a jumble of oversized eyes.
  • Another nameless concept art enemy is a hunched-over, troll-like brute with a dangling head that, despite having multiple oversized eyes dotting its back like boils, is actually blind and stalks enemies with sound.
  • Yet more nameless concept art enemies show men being visibly deformed and subsumed by giant parasites growing out of them, male counterparts to the scrapped "Parasite Woman" designs. These were probably replaced with the concept of plagas emerging from certain Ganados at low health that actually made it into the game.
• Resident Evil 5:
  • U-9: An enormous, vaguely humanoid monster made up of squirming black tentacles, this is an Uroboros monster that was ultimately reworked into the Uroboros Aheri.
  • U-11: Another cancelled Uroboros monster, which was planned to be fought atop a moving train. It was planned to be Irving's fate, but it was replaced with the piscine Plaga-mutation fought aboard Irving's boat instead.
• Resident Evil: The Darkside Chronicles:
  • The Laughing Killer: A disfigured and deranged human psychopath characterized by his perpetual grin and deranged laughter, whose arms have been replaced by two massive hooks on chains that he uses as not only weapons, but also tools to climb walls or hang from ceilings. His design might have been reworked to create the Jabberwock B.O.W.
  • The Mimic Creature: A name shared by two creatures originally planned for the game, both of which were rejected. The first was a carnivorous plant-man thing, which was likely rejected for its similarities to the Plant 43 "Ivy" B.O.W. The second was an octopus-based humanoid mutation that could, like a real mimic octopus, mold its squishy body to imitate aspects of the environment.
  • The Kidnapper: A mutated bird of prey which has grown to an enormous size, with its feet and talons in particular swelling to gargantuan appendages large enough to allow it to carry off humans, hence its name.
  • Veronica Zombie: A cancelled subtype of zombie that mutated due to the T-Veronica virus, causing them to begin partially sprouting insect limbs or organs from their bodies. They were to appear in Operation Javier.
• Resident Evil: Revelations:
  • Concept art reveals multiple unused monsters, including a twisted axolotl thing, a giant gulper eel, a fish woman that resembles the Creature from the Black Lagoon, a literal mothman, a half-woman half-axolotl thing, a woman with a giant anemone growing out of her chest, and a hulking yeti-like ape-bat with an Eyeless Face.
  • Jack Norman went through multiple iterations before his finalized "Aquatic T-001" look was chosen, ranging from slight variations on his "Fish-themed Tyrant" look to full blown Animalistic Abominations, including a creature that can only be described as a carnivorous aquatic elephant from hell.
  • Richard: A doomed NPC. It was planned that he would be an officer in the FBC who was killed in an ambush by the Oozes, and then revive due to the T-Abyss virus in his wounds, becoming a hideously disfigured, blood-drinking mini-boss. In his last moments, he would write an Apocalyptic Log as he fully mutated into a monster. He was cut from the game, but the concept would live on with the female NPC Rachel Foley, who suffers a similar fate.
• Resident Evil 6:
  • The Mollusk Enemy: A rejected C-Virus Complete Mutation with a vaguely mollusk-like design. Never made it beyond the sketch phase.
  • The Flying Creature: An oversized dragonfly that was scrapped after the concept stage.
  • Tortured: A hideously malformed creature whose body has become a breeding ground for oversized, C-virus-infected lice. These deformed parasites will constantly eat their way from its flesh and seek out human victims.
• Other/multiple/unknown:
  • The Transforming Creature: An unused concept from an unknown game. A female nurse, scientist, or test subject that had been infected and would metamorphose into a horribly deformed humanoid, characterized by a pair of extra eyes on her forehead and both arms splitting down the middle into monstrous mouths. An alternate design had her instead transform into a humanoid creature covered in mouths. It may have been intended as a female counterpart to the G-infected Birkin.
  • Kamado-uma: A T-virus infected spider cricket that grew into an enormous size. The idea was dropped very quickly; its name is literally just the common Japanese name for spider crickets (technical name: Rhaphidophoridae). It may be an inspiration for the Plague Crawler from Resident Evil 0.
  • The Sea Snake: A giant water-dwelling serpentine predator, looking almost like an aquatic version of the Gravedigger worm mutant from Resident Evil 3: Nemesis. It was abandoned at the concept stage.
  • Mysterious Creature: A horribly deformed creature, consisting of a man's body twisted into the semblance of a cricket-like bug, moving on all fours with its legs jutting straight up into air before bending back down at the knees. Its head has devolved into a vestigial hump, dominated by an enlarged yet still hideously human mouth. Like a cricket, it can leap huge distances.
  • The Dissolving Human: A virus-infected human which is steadily dissolving into a mass of pus, losing chunks of liquefied flesh with every shot and dissolving into a pool of slime when killed.
  • Powered-Up Zombie: An array of "evolved" zombie forms that were concept sketched, but ultimately cancelled.
  • Infected rats are commonly believed by fans to have been at least discussed for inclusion into Resident Evil 2 and/or Resident Evil 3: Nemesis, only to be cancelled, possibly to avoid comparisons with rival Survival Horror franchise Parasite Eve, which features mutated rats as basic enemies. Concept art does exist which proves that T-infected rats which had grown to a massive size were planned for Resident Evil: Outbreak, only to be scrapped.

Cancelled Characters

• Dewey and Gelzer were characters planned in the early stages of Resident Evil, only to be cut from it. Gelzer was a huge cyborg man who was planned to be a Load-Bearing Hero for the game's shotgun ceiling trap. Dewey was a foolish and cowardly African-American man who cracked jokes and constantly ran away from the zombies. Both were cut early in development — Gelzer was cut when the futuristic aspects of the plot were dropped in favor of a more down-to-earth modern day setting, and Dewey was cut when they quickly realized the character was just an all-around horrendously offensive idea.

Changed Plot Points

• Originally, Billy Coen of Resident Evil 0 was planned to be a much darker character, with a far more malicious personality and evil characterization. He was even supposed to betray Rebecca towards the end of the game, becoming one of its final bosses. However, Capcom changed their minds and tone him down into the more morally grey, borderline-antihero interpretation actually seen in the published game.
• Resident Evil 5 had several omissions evidenced by the concept art, which include Wesker becoming human for the final boss battle and getting a better send off, an Uroboros battle on top of a train, Jill being your partner for half of the game, a boss battle with a horde of Ndesus, and a Tyrant the kills Excella.

Scrapped Gameplay Elements

• Resident Evil:
  • The flamethrower in Resident Evil was supposed to have ammo pickups, but it got scrapped, likely due to how little time the player gets to spend with the weapon before needing to discard it to progress, leaving little point in giving ammo for it. Similarly, the magnum would have had dumdum rounds, which would be weak against zombies, but stronger other monsters. Due to how the regular magnum rounds nearly kill any non-boss enemy in a single shot, including zombies, dumdum rounds were scrapped for being redundant.
  • Early builds showed Chris and Jill exploring the mansion together, implying that the devs were toying with the idea of a co-op mode. Due to the technical limitations, the idea was scrapped and Chris and Jill got their own scenarios. The co-op idea was revisited in Resident Evil 0, where there are two playable characters who work as a team, the player able to switch between them with the press of a button while the other character is controlled by an AI. True co-op with two players would be introduced by Resident Evil 5.
  • Originally, every item box was supposed to be its own storage instead of being linked with each other, which meant that players who placed specific items in one box would have to go back to that particular box to get the item back. Also, the original game was meant to have an auto-aim feature to make combat easier, but the game released with manual-only aiming possibly due to lack of time to implement it. Auto-aim was restored in the Director's Cut version, and the REmake brought back the manual-only aim and unlinked item boxes as a part of Real Survival mode.
• Resident Evil 4:
  • Early builds showed Leon dealing with ghosts and other supernatural elements that could hinder his progress, forcing him to find ways of dealing with them.
  • The castle area was originally supposed to be much larger, but it was cut due to time constraints and the developers deciding that many of the extra areas weren't fun to explore.

Miscellaneous

• Resident Evil 3: Nemesis for the original PlayStation wasn't originally conceived as the third mainline Resident Evil installment, but a side game. The third installment was originally supposed to be the one in the works for the PlayStation 2. However, development of the PS2 game ran into issues due to the new hardware, which likely would've resulted in a longer wait between installments. As a result, Capcom made the side game into the official third installment. In turn, the PS2 title became the fourth numbered installment: Resident Evil 4.
• Due to the very low sales of Resident Evil (Remake), Resident Evil 4 was made to be more action-oriented in order to revive the franchise and attract a new audience. Series creator Shinji Mikami stated that if the remake had sold better, he would have likely made 4 as survival horror like the other games in the series had done.
• A number of bonus outfits were planned for various games, but ultimately didn't make the cut.
  • In Resident Evil 0, Billy was to have had an unlockable cowboy outfit to go with Rebecca's cowgirl outfit, as well as a sleeveless red karate gi. Rebecca, meanwhile, was to have had an unlockable Tatsunoko-inspired costume resembling Jun from Science Ninja Team Gatchaman, as well as a variety of concepts for casual wear.
  • In Resident Evil, unused concepts for Jill's bonus outfits included a low-cut black-and-white striped suit resembling Beetlejuice, a sleeveless, tiny-shorted version of the same, a Spy Catsuit with a full tactical face mask and goggles, a yellow crop top and hot pants, and and a sexy teacher/secretary outfit with a short pencil skirt, a button-up white shirt, and glasses. For Chris, unused concepts from the remake included a biker outfit with a black leather vest and sunglasses, and a karate gi. Chris and Jill's default outfits also evolved considerably, with earlier concepts for Jill including a pink beret, a bare midriff, pants with one leg torn off, and more tactical gear, while Chris' outfit was originally blue instead of white and green and included a bulletproof vest.
  • Resident Evil 2: Leon's default outfit was originally supposed to include an orange bulletproof vest, but this was changed for the final game. An alternate outfit for him in 1.5 would've included a blue-and-white jacket and blue jeans, which was dropped for the final game. There was also originally supposed to be body armor that Leon could locate during the game that would reduce damage when worn and would be visible on him when he did so, and which would take visible damage as it got increasingly worn out before eventually falling apart. As for Claire, her default outfit (and that of Elza Walker before her) also evolved considerably. Originally, Elza was supposed to wear a motorcycle racing suit, which was changed to a biker vest when the character became Claire.
  • In Resident Evil 4, one of Leon's bonus outfits was to have been an all-black "tactical" outfit resembling his RE2 uniform. Another one would have had him carrying the Merchant on his back.
  • In Resident Evil 5, one idea for a bonus costume for Chris was a skeleton.
  • Jessica Sherawat in Resident Evil: Revelations went through many concepts before the developers settled on her final one-legged wetsuit. One of Jill's alternate outfits was also a bikini.
  • Many characters in Resident Evil 6 had unused concepts for bonus costumes. Chris' were an "American Hero" superhero costume and a Greek warrior outfit, Ada's was elegant black lingerie, Helena's was a mechanic's overalls and tank top, Piers' was a mariachi, Leon's was a stone-colored Greek god resembling a statue, and Sherry's was a 1920s flapper gangster's moll.
  • In Resident Evil: Revelations 2, an unused concept for Barry's bonus outfits was him shirtless and wearing a pair of bandoliers and sunglasses, and an unused concept for Claire would've been Morrigan's outfit from Darkstalkers.

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