Resident Evil 2 (2019) Story weirdness

[Hel]

WARNING:
UNMARKED SPOILERS concerning both the story and the story mechanics of REmake 2 ahead!

So... I just finished the game (first run Claire, second run Leon), and overall I think it's great - I'm saving my full review for later, and it will be very positive. But there is one thing that really disappoints me.

When Capcom announced that classic A/B scenarios were a thing of the past, I assumed the intention was to tell the true story as it was meant to play out, without leaving any more questions as to who did what and which events are canon. Sure, the character you pick first enters the police station through the main gate whereas the other comes from behind, and the second character also gets to fight the true final boss, but that's it - or at least so I thought while playing through the game the first time. I expected that by the time I finished the other side of the story, the parts would assemble like a puzzle.

But then I actually played the second scenario and quickly discovered that, apart from the beginning and some interactions with NPCs, Leon's and Claire's experiences are identical - basically like Chris and Jill in RE1, but even weirder because the first and the second scenarios are supposed to become one full story in the end, right? So how can it be that...
... Claire and Leon fight the exact same bosses in the exact same locations in the exact same way?
... Sherry and Ada end up trapped in the same garbage dump for quite some time, but never meet?
... Leon can never find Sherry sleeping in the NEST lobby, no matter at what point in his lab section he goes there?
... both characters individually meet Annette and see her get fatally wounded by William, and then she dies in different places?

All these things would make a lot more sense if we still had classic A/B scenarios. In the original, the story elements from A and B always added up no matter the order of the characters, except that we didn't know for sure which parts of the overall story were canon.

But maybe there is a fixed order this time around and I just went with the wrong one? Can people who picked Leon first and Claire second tell me if Annette still died twice in their game, or if the story in general made any more sense? Maybe (hopefully) I'm missing something here...

 

[Springhosen]

WARNING:
UNMARKED SPOILERS concerning both the story and the story mechanics of REmake 2 ahead!

So... I just finished the game (first run Claire, second run Leon), and overall I think it's great - I'm saving my full review for later, and it will be very positive. But there is one thing that really disappoints me.

When Capcom announced that classic A/B scenarios were a thing of the past, I assumed the intention was to tell the true story as it was meant to play out, without leaving any more questions as to who did what and which events are canon. Sure, the character you pick first enters the police station through the main gate whereas the other comes from behind, and the second character also gets to fight the true final boss, but that's it - or at least so I thought while playing through the game the first time. I expected that by the time I finished the other side of the story, the parts would assemble like a puzzle.

But then I actually played the second scenario and quickly discovered that, apart from the beginning and some interactions with NPCs, Leon's and Claire's experiences are identical - basically like Chris and Jill in RE1, but even weirder because the first and the second scenarios are supposed to become one full story in the end, right? So how can it be that...
... Claire and Leon fight the exact same bosses in the exact same locations in the exact same way?
... Sherry and Ada end up trapped in the same garbage dump for quite some time, but never meet?
... Leon can never find Sherry sleeping in the NEST lobby, no matter at what point in his lab section he goes there?
... both characters individually meet Annette and see her get fatally wounded by William, and then she dies in different places?

All these things would make a lot more sense if we still had classic A/B scenarios. In the original, the story elements from A and B always added up no matter the order of the characters, except that we didn't know for sure which parts of the overall story were canon.

But maybe there is a fixed order this time around and I just went with the wrong one? Can people who picked Leon first and Claire second tell me if Annette still died twice in their game, or if the story in general made any more sense? Maybe (hopefully) I'm missing something here...

I haven't finished my second run yet because my fiance wanted to do that one, but I most definitely agree that, if it's anything like the original A/B, the story leaves more questions than answers.

I am a little confused about one thing, though and maybe you can help me seeing as how you finished the B scenario for Leon.

Spoiler

So I promised my fiance that I wouldn't play his save game while he was at work today, so I played Leon A instead. Does Leon still fight Mr. X in his B? As I recall in the original, both end bosses were there same for both character's A but instead of fighting Birkin at the end of the remake, he fights Mr. X instead.

If he does fight Mr. X again in B, does he still fight Birkin on the train or does Claire?

 

[Hel]

@Magnolia Grandiflora:

Spoiler

Leon's final boss before the train is Mister X in his strengthened form, but yes, if he's your B, he will get to deal with Blob Birkin on the train as well. Like in the original, Blob Birkin is always fought by the B character, so if you want to do it as Claire, just go for her second run next time.

 

[Springhosen]

@Magnolia Grandiflora:

Spoiler

Leon's final boss before the train is Mister X in his strengthened form, but yes, if he's your B, he will get to deal with Blob Birkin on the train as well. Like in the original, Blob Birkin is always fought by the B character, so if you want to do it as Claire, just go for her second run next time.

Spoiler

Okay, I was just wondering since he also fights Mr. X in his A instead of Birkin like the original.

 

[xMobilemux]

The continuity errors have hurt this game's canon appeal for me as it's just too confusing and yeah Leon and Claire fighting Birkin in the same places at the same time in the same ways just doesn't make sense.

What bugs me most of all is Ada's survival, I just found the original canon scenario where she is wounded by Mr X slamming her into that console and her showing up to help later in the final fight much better than her falling off the bridge cause unless there is a pool of water down below that we don't know about I find it incredibly hard to believe Ada could survive that fall in her wounded state, I didn't even buy it in the original game which is why I was happy that Leon A was considered non canon.

I doubt I'll ever be able to accept REmake 2 to be canon over the original and the Chronicles game like how I consider REmake 1 to be canon.

 

[Hel]

Yep, Ada's survival is yet another story element that I hoped the remake would clear up, because I'm afraid not even a pool of water could save anyone from a fall from that height. The only explanation I can come up with is that she already had her hookshot back then, although it would require incredible grip strength to hold on to it while falling, if it wouldn't outright rip her arm off or at least dislocate her shoulder - and given that one of her shoulders was already wounded, whichever way you look at it, no one could realistically survive that!

Oh well... I'm still keeping up my hope for an Ada DLC in the future, especially given how short and boring her section in Leon's campaign was, even though I realise I'm probably just setting myself up for another disappointment...

 

[xMobilemux]

The only explanation I can come up with is that she already had her hookshot back then

That's confirmed to be impossible according to Umbrella Chronicles as Ada didn't get her hookshot until after the events of RE2 when Wesker gave it to her in order to escape Raccoon City.

After having just finished another playthrough of REmake 2, the best explanation I have at the moment is that down below in the dark abyss is more of the overgrown Plant 42 vines and Ada hit multiple vines on the way down, slowing her fall until she landed on a web of them which softened her landing.

 

[Hel]

Yeah, well, the Chronicles games... The same games that claim Jill got extracted at the police station. And didn't they also depict Ada's other death, at the hands of Mister X? REmake 2 already contradicts that, so I wouldn't write off the hookshot too soon, but your explanation with the plant vines sounds reasonable.

 

[xMobilemux]

This is why I don't like REmake 2's place in the lore and don't like to consider it canon, cause it screws up a steadily established lore.

 

[UniqTeas]

I literally came back to this site after years of inactivity to talk about this specifically. This game is amazing, but it's hard to justify a perfect score when the Second Run scenario is just the A scenario with slight changes. They should've left it out OR completely made a B scenario. Overall, I still give the game like a 9.9/10 though. haha

 

[bSTAR_182]

Some good points being made here. I’m starting my second run as Leon and was wondering how things would play out with his character. Kind of surprised and disappointed to hear his bosses are exactly the same as Claire’s.

Something that is bugging me though, and the original game is also at fault for this, is the idea that the city has been dealing with the zombie epidemic for a good few days and neither Leon nor Claire have any knowledge of the chaos going down in the city (especially Leon since it’s safe to assume he lives closer to where he works- the friggin police station).

In general they could have cleaned up the story better but I do think that the design, gameplay and general character development was done beautifully with the REmake2.

 

[Noble Alfred]

Internal consistency aside. I don't think we have to fit this game into existing timeline, it feels very much like remake 1, remake 2 and RE7 make their own new timeline. Maybe dump Revelations 1 and 2 in there as well.

The 2 paths really are confusing, I suppose all we can get is the events happened(as in the cutscenes) but not exactly the way in the game, which just makes it even more confusing.. It's not like capcom was ever shy about contrived nonsense, but I guess it comes to the forefront when the tone is much more serious.

 

[Deleted member 21244]

This game story doesn't make any sense, it s a disappointing in every way

 

[Hel]

As I've heard from some other fans, instead of having A and B scenarios, I would have preferred one fleshed out campaign for every character. Here's how I would have avoided the inconsistencies:

Leon is the A character and Claire B, period - no switching around. Leon is brought to the front yard of the RPD via cutscene and gets to explore most of the building, while Claire only stays there for a comparatively short time, but gets the gas station, the city streets and a larger orphanage section to make up for that. She's also the first to leave the RPD, explaining why she can't enter Kendo's gun shop: Ada hasn't been there to unlock the door yet. If she returns to the RPD later from the sewers, there should be a van crashed into the wall of the parking garage, suggesting that Ada and Leon dealt with Mister X there shortly after she left. As for Mister X himself, he survives both being crushed by Ada's van and impaled by Birkin's claws, but the latter attack especially damages him so severely that he needs some time to recover. Therefore, I would cut him out of Ada's section in the sewers (where he doesn't really do much, anyway) and only have him reappear in the lab.

Claire and Leon meet up again in the sewers, where Sherry and Ada are both trapped in the garbage dump. (I still have to come up with an explanation as to why Annette, who locks Sherry up herself, would allow her to be in the same room as the spy she's trying to kill; maybe because Ada is still unconscious from her leg wound.) The playable characters then split up to recover the chess pieces, with Leon collecting the Rook, King, and Queen pieces (the section that is already in the game), and Claire going for the Pawn, Bishop, and Knight, which are somewhere in the part of the sewers that was previously explored by Ada. (That way Capcom wouldn't have to design an entirely new area and, by sending Claire there, could avoid having the player explore that same area twice within Leon's campaign). Once they reunite and solve the puzzle, they have to fight Birkin together - the only part of the game that has "coop", if you can call it that.

After a brief introduction, Leon, Claire, Sherry, and Ada then get into the cable car together, and depending on which campaign you're playing, the cutscene focuses either on Sherry telling Claire about her family, or Leon and Ada flirting. The latter two promise to catch up later and stay in the cable car to talk more about Ada's secret mission while Claire carries Sherry to the lobby, but are then attacked by a recovered Mister X who destroys a part of the scenery so that Leon has to take a different route into the lab. Mister X actually has to be fought and (temporarily) defeated this time, replacing Leon's fight with Birkin later on. Annette runs into Leon one more time in a different scene to tell him what she knows about Ada, then meets Claire while trying to stop her mutated husband, and gets fatally wounded in the process. Leaving Claire to deal with William, she sets out to cure Sherry and apparently dies shortly thereafter, but gets back up to make sure the G-virus doesn't leave the building, leading to her final confrontation with Leon and Ada. After that, the story concludes as we've seen.

 

[Deleted member 21244]

As I've heard from some other fans, instead of having A and B scenarios, I would have preferred one fleshed out campaign for every character. Here's how I would have avoided the inconsistencies:

Leon is the A character and Claire B, period - no switching around. Leon is brought to the front yard of the RPD via cutscene and gets to explore most of the building, while Claire only stays there for a comparatively short time, but gets the gas station, the city streets and a larger orphanage section to make up for that. She's also the first to leave the RPD, explaining why she can't enter Kendo's gun shop: Ada hasn't been there to unlock the door yet. If she returns to the RPD later from the sewers, there should be a van crashed into the wall of the parking garage, suggesting that Ada and Leon dealt with Mister X there shortly after she left. As for Mister X himself, he survives both being crushed by Ada's van and impaled by Birkin's claws, but the latter attack especially damages him so severely that he needs some time to recover. Therefore, I would cut him out of Ada's section in the sewers (where he doesn't really do much, anyway) and only have him reappear in the lab.

Claire and Leon meet up again in the sewers, where Sherry and Ada are both trapped in the garbage dump. (I still have to come up with an explanation as to why Annette, who locks Sherry up herself, would allow her to be in the same room as the spy she's trying to kill; maybe because Ada is still unconscious from her leg wound.) The playable characters then split up to recover the chess pieces, with Leon collecting the Rook, King, and Queen pieces (the section that is already in the game), and Claire going for the Pawn, Bishop, and Knight, which are somewhere in the part of the sewers that was previously explored by Ada. (That way Capcom wouldn't have to design an entirely new area and, by sending Claire there, could avoid having the player explore that same area twice within Leon's campaign). Once they reunite and solve the puzzle, they have to fight Birkin together - the only part of the game that has "coop", if you can call it that.

After a brief introduction, Leon, Claire, Sherry, and Ada then get into the cable car together, and depending on which campaign you're playing, the cutscene focuses either on Sherry telling Claire about her family, or Leon and Ada flirting. The latter two promise to catch up later and stay in the cable car to talk more about Ada's secret mission while Claire carries Sherry to the lobby, but are then attacked by a recovered Mister X who destroys a part of the scenery so that Leon has to take a different route into the lab. Mister X actually has to be fought and (temporarily) defeated this time, replacing Leon's fight with Birkin later on. Annette runs into Leon one more time in a different scene to tell him what she knows about Ada, then meets Claire while trying to stop her mutated husband, and gets fatally wounded in the process. Leaving Claire to deal with William, she sets out to cure Sherry and apparently dies shortly thereafter, but gets back up to make sure the G-virus doesn't leave the building, leading to her final confrontation with Leon and Ada. After that, the story concludes as we've seen.

To avoid inconsistency they should have use the same story of the original since the original doesn't have inconsistency

 

[Springhosen]

To avoid inconsistency they should have use the same story of the original since the original doesn't have inconsistency

Or they could've done it differently since this isn't the original. Just saying.

 

[UniqTeas]

I like what you're putting down Hel. But I still would like to have A and B scenarios.

One of the strangest things in REmake 2 is that Leon won't meet Sherry until the very end of the game no matter what. The actual dialogue is this:

Leon: Who is this?
CLaire: This is Sherry.
Leon: OK.

WHY?

 

[Springhosen]

I like what you're putting down Hel. But I still would like to have A and B scenarios.

One of the strangest things in REmake 2 is that Leon won't meet Sherry until the very end of the game no matter what. The actual dialogue is this:

Leon: Who is this?
CLaire: This is Sherry.
Leon: OK.

WHY?

I always hated that they had Sherry all like "Leon saved my life!" in Resident Evil 6 when Leon did nothing but administer a cure Claire mixed up for her and Claire was the one who chased her ass around trying to save her.

Now Capcom has made it right by literally admitting with this remake that Leon ain't ****.

 

[Deleted member 21244]

I always hated that they had Sherry all like "Leon saved my life!" in Resident Evil 6 when Leon did nothing but administer a cure Claire mixed up for her and Claire was the one who chased her ass around trying to save her.

Now Capcom has made it right by literally admitting with this remake that Leon ain't ****.

If it wasn't for Leon In resident evil 2 sherry would have died... By saying: Leon saved my life, sherry dosent mean was all his merit, also soon after re 2 claire left sherry because he went to find Chris, and leon take sherry and stayed whit her and protected her until she was taken by the government

 

[Rain611]

So, a little off the immediate topic.

I read another thread that was pointed back to this one talking about how the story doesn't make sense and the OP listed much of what is in this thread, which I certainly can't argue with.

They did make one point that I kinda can though. They were talking about how a good bit of story took place before Leon meets up with Claire in the courtyard, but to be honest, I reached that cut scene less than 10 minutes into Leon's A scenario lol. So it doesn't seem all that unusual to me.

As for the other stuff though, it really can't be justified so I'm not going to try.