Resident Evil 7 Why is the character of Ethan so mysterious?

[Deleted member 21244]

You need to decide, because those two paragraphs contradicts each other. If there's no need for reaction, you shouldn't complain about Ethan's pathetic reaction to everything. But taking your second statement, then its just proves my point that Capcom failed. If you said Ethan's reaction was stupid, you agree that it breaks the immersion that they were supposedly trying to impose. If it's better if he was silent, like Artyom, or in my opinion, act like a normal person, but Ethan did neither, standing in the middle in his half assed robot reactions. That means...it was lazy. They didn't do this right, and it came out as half assed, like RE7 on a nutshell.

Anyway, I'm not pushing this forward, because I don't care enough about Ethan to go on a multi reply essay about it. If you're okay with what Capcom was trying to do there and the game concept, then you just enjoyed RE7 more than me, and this is totally fine.

Cheers!

Infact that's what i say... There s no need for reaction or background when they try to make the player immerse into the character, But capcom did a mistake because they added some reaction by Ethan and they are pretty stupid reactions, destroying that sort of immersion, it's like an hybrid between the two thing... But nonetheless I don't complain about Ethan, I like what capcom was trying to do, and i really think they will develop him farther in other game, like they did whit jill, Chris, leon ecc

I don't actually think they were lazy, because lazy mean they didn't even put the effort to make the game, while the game took 5 years to be developed, you can call it a bad decision to make Ethan like that but not lazy working

 

[RedfieldFan]

Infact that's what i say... There s no need for reaction or background when they try to make the player immerse into the character, But capcom did a mistake because they added some reaction by Ethan and they are pretty stupid reactions, destroying that sort of immersion, it's like an hybrid between the two thing... But nonetheless I don't complain about Ethan, I like what capcom was trying to do, and i really think they will develop him farther in other game, like they did whit jill, Chris, leon ecc

I don't actually think they were lazy, because lazy mean they didn't even put the effort to make the game, while the game took 5 years to be developed, you can call it a bad decision to make Ethan like that but not lazy working

While a completely silent character might work in other games, I don't think it would have worked in RE7 with Ethan. The story is simply too personal. I mean, it would be very weird if Ethan was attacked by his wife and had to fight back while remaining completely silent. It's must be a very personal experience for Ethan and not reacting at all would be weird, at least to me.
Sure some of Ethan's reactions weren't the best but it's better than him not reacting at all imo.

 

[Jen]

Making the game 1st person gives them an opportunity to make Ethan into ''the-player'' but I agree with others - it doesn't work here.
I didn't care about Ethan or his relationship with Mia. For this reason I cured Zoe on my first playthrough, at least she had helped a lot through the game.

Mia was the obvious choice in terms of story of course, but most people think I'm strange for picking Zoe. Glad it wasn't just me.

 

[Mr.R]

I actually think Mia is a better character than Ethan. Actually, I think Mia should've been our playable character. Maybe the plot would be better this way. A caretaker for a BOW trying to escape from the bakers after everything had gone wrong, or even trying to redeem herself by killing Eveline. The problem with Mia is that she is mishandled. The game wants us to "be" Ethan, so...when we MURDER our wife, Ethan reacts like the psychopath he is, but we're supposed to "feel" for him. But we can't? Why? Because we don't know Mia. We only know she's been missing for 3 years and we have a silly video of her. We, as players, can't care about Mia because we don't know her. Ethan does, but we don't. Maybe if we had a better backstory in the intro...maybe showing their wedding, or Ethan remembering sweet moments of them together, or if we could see his grief and worry when she gone missing, it would've worked. Or maybe that boat part we play with Mia, showing how Evelin got out of control, maybe that part should've been the first part of the game (altered slightly, to not spoil it so much or something like that.) After we kinda know Mia, after her brief stint as playable character, I think we end up caring more for her, but that happens after said choice between Mia and Zoe, the same Zoe who has been helping you all this time. Yet, of course Mia is the canon, obvious choice. We (as players, with the information the game has gave to us until said time) don't know Mia very well, but Ethan does, it makes sense for him to save his wife, but from a player perspective...I can understand the ones that had gone for Zoe first. Not that it makes a difference, because the game practically undone your choice in the next cutscene by taking Zoe out anyway. Eh, RE7 plot sucks, honestly, but that's just me.

 

[RedfieldFan]

I actually think Mia is a better character than Ethan. Actually, I think Mia should've been our playable character. Maybe the plot would be better this way. A caretaker for a BOW trying to escape from the bakers after everything had gone wrong, or even trying to redeem herself by killing Eveline. The problem with Mia is that she is mishandled. The game wants us to "be" Ethan, so...when we MURDER our wife, Ethan reacts like the psychopath he is, but we're supposed to "feel" for him. But we can't? Why? Because we don't know Mia. We only know she's been missing for 3 years and we have a silly video of her. We, as players, can't care about Mia because we don't know her. Ethan does, but we don't. Maybe if we had a better backstory in the intro...maybe showing their wedding, or Ethan remembering sweet moments of them together, or if we could see his grief and worry when she gone missing, it would've worked. Or maybe that boat part we play with Mia, showing how Evelin got out of control, maybe that part should've been the first part of the game (altered slightly, to not spoil it so much or something like that.) After we kinda know Mia, after her brief stint as playable character, I think we end up caring more for her, but that happens after said choice between Mia and Zoe, the same Zoe who has been helping you all this time. Yet, of course Mia is the canon, obvious choice. We (as players, with the information the game has gave to us until said time) don't know Mia very well, but Ethan does, it makes sense for him to save his wife, but from a player perspective...I can understand the ones that had gone for Zoe first. Not that it makes a difference, because the game practically undone your choice in the next cutscene by taking Zoe out anyway. Eh, RE7 plot sucks, honestly, but that's just me.

I agree with almost everything you just said.
We don't get to know Mia until her playable section and sadly that comes after curing her or Zoe.
It might have been better if Mia ship-flashback had been the prologue to the game. Obviously with less spoilers like you said but also with more references to Ethan to really establish their relationship.

 

[UniqTeas]

My favorite thing about Ethan is his development in to a lead character throughout the game. In the beginning of the game, he is in horror, weak, and not a very good shot with his weapons. But as the game evolves and you upgrade your weapons and abilities, Ethan becomes a protagonist worth utilizing. Your first encounter with the Molded is very intimidating, but by the end, you're mowing them down by the bunch. I suppose that could be said about a lot of RE games, but Ethan starts off in a way worse off condition than others.

 

[mert20004]

I definitely agree that ethan is a very lame character and probably one of the worst if not the worst character in the series.

One of the ways to make him more interesting imo would be to make him and mia survivors of re6's events. ( Also changing the disconnected story a bit would help too so that it's connected to re6 and other re games in the series. ) They would talk more about these events throught the game.

I also saw this comment about re7 and ı agree with it:

" It's barely connected to the Series prior (but not as egregious as when 4 did it), and the sad thing is that they only needed a few changes and it would have been remedied. The D-Series and E-Series Mold should have been from the C-Virus (especially considering D and E are the letters right after C). Eveline should have been the remnants of Carla Radames who has forgotten pretty much everything other than her ever-increasing desire for love and family and (and forcing said family under her control) after being betrayed by Simmons, who she loved. Her needs have been brought back to their childage and most basic form. They could have the ship be the one she was on at the end of 6 where the Connections took the opportunity to capture it during the chaos in China.With these story changes we could have had pre-Mold Zombies, maybe Molded Crows, (I don't know about Pre-Mold/Mold Cerberus), and The Evil Eye (that's been around since Resident Evil 2) that Jack had in his Boss Fight where Ethan shoots one of Serums into him would have made since as the C-Virus has the G-Virus in it (mixed with the T-Veronica Virus). "

 

[PinkHerb]

What bugs me about RE7 is the choice between Mia and Zoe and picking latter leads to the bad ending. I just don't understand this, sure, the main goal was to rescue Mia, but Zoe was the one that had been helpful through the story as best as she could. Meanwhile, Mia attacked Ethan at the start of the game, chopping his hand off and tries to kill him and remains absent until the end of the game. Granted, it wasn't entirely her fault that happened, but we find out later that she was involved in the BOW business to some extent for her company, knowingly transporting a highly unstable creature and have knowledge of dangerous secrets. She's partly responsible for destroying the Baker Family, leaving Zoe to live with a deranged parody of her mother and father, her already disturbed brother, and the puppet master that is pulling their strings. I like Zoe more, that's why I chose her in my first playthrough, but the game just told me to eat a crappy Jill Sandwich and die

This could have been beneficial to Ethan's development, like if he picks Zoe then traveling with her to learn the secret of Evelyn and Mia and help her avenge her family...idk.

 

[Deleted member 21244]

What bugs me about RE7 is t the choice between Mia and Zoe and picking latter leads to the bad ending. I just don't understand this, sure, the main goal was to rescue Mia, but Zoe was the one that had been helpful through the story as best as she could. Meanwhile, Mia attacked Ethan at the start of the game, chopping his hand off and tries to kill him and remains absent until the end of the game. Granted, it wasn't entirely her fault that happened, but we find out later that she was involved in the BOW business to some extent for her company, knowingly transporting a creature and have knowledge of dangerous secrets. She's partly responsible for destroying the Baker Family, leaving Zoe to live with a deranged parody of her mother and father, her already disturbed brother, and the puppet master that is pulling their strings. I like Zoe more, that's why I chose her in my first playthrough, but the game just told me to eat a crappy Jill Sandwich and die

This could have been beneficial to Ethan's development, like if he picks Zoe then traveling with her to learn the secret of Evelyn and Mia and help her avenge her family...idk.

Well since you didn't cure her but you cured Zoe instead, Mia still have the virus inside her and her trust in you is not as strong as the other ending, so she transform and you're forced to kill her on the ship, pretty simple and coherent whit the choise you made before, you literally told Mia to **** up so she died XD

It's not actually mia fault if all that happened, eveline just went rogue and mia tried to stop her at any cost while on the ship but there was nothing she could have done...

 

[Hardware]

The problem with first-person games is that they are essentially simulations. You're not playing as the character. You ARE the character. That's all good as long as the game has no plot like "Doom" or "Quake". The minute you have a narrative, that's where things get complicated since you are seeing the action through the character's eyes but he\she is not you and whatever he\she says or does might not be what you'd say or do. Games like "Half-Life" solved this brilliantly by making the protagonist silent: everything the character has is a name, but the narrative is carried over by the supporting cast who do all the talking, and the only actions from your character that matter are what you do during actual gameplay. Also, the fact you don't see the character's face limits your chances of actually feeling empathy for him\her: empathy works because you and the other person are separated entities but you share the character's "pain" ("pathos") because you see how he\she behaves or reacts to events.

Third-person games are more like movies: you "help" the character while you play as him\her (does anyone remember the opening of "Oddworld"? "Get me out of here and help me rescue the others!" - that crystallizes what a 3rd person game is), but you're not that character and the narrative is told through animated sequences you have no control over (modern QTEs are just there to spice things up - they don't alter the concept). The characters generally make their own choices in those scenes and you just accept the outcome and are ready to resume playing once they are over in order to see how the story is going to end. Pretty much like watching a movie or reading a book. You only play when you're supposed to and move the story forward.

There are exceptions to this, like "Alien: Isolation", but that's a game you play in first-person while the story is told through a mix of first-person and third-person styles of narration...which, quite frankly, is odd if you have to take the whole product as both a game AND a narrative experience. "Not A Hero" took that approach and it felt even weirder since you're playing as Chris, a character you know very well and you're supposed to "enjoy" watching.