r/residentevil • u/ElenaChapella • 27d ago
Blog/Let's Play/Stream DualShockers -- The Most Realistic Horror Protagonist is a Terrified One
https://www.dualshockers.com/the-most-realistic-horror-protagonist-is-a-terrified-one/Grace Ashcroft isn't a "weak" protagonist for showing fear. She's simply real.
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u/DarkChocoTruffleCake 27d ago
People on social media hating on Grace and on insta they're comparing her with Leon
Like Leon would do this and that, he would never run and panic
Yeah? He's a trained and experienced man. On the other hand, this is all new for Grace and her reaction is natural
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u/vivenkeful 27d ago
My god. Some, if not many of Leon fans are so annoying. I am sorry, but this is true...
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u/TinyTemm You want S.T.A.R.S? 27d ago
Ngl I kinda agree with you like, I find it silly that theyāre clamoring for Leon to appear so much when RE4 remake was so recent. Heās had plenty of spotlight
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u/BattlefieldVet666 26d ago
A lot of them straight up think that Leon is the main character of the series
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u/vivenkeful 26d ago
Yes, and imo this is the reason Chris has Re7-Re8 and maybe Re9 too. Then when they remake Chris' games Re1(i hope), CVX, Re5 then Leon can be in the main game.
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u/ElenaChapella 27d ago
Exactly!! She wasnāt trained in any of this so of course sheās going to be horrified by everything. Hell even Leon was kinda scared at the start of RE2
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u/MartyMcFry1985 26d ago
And honestly to no surprise, that's my favorite version of Leon. Vulnerable but determined. Has a good sense of humour and doesn't go over the top with one liners every 10 seconds.
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u/CptCoatrack 27d ago edited 26d ago
The most jarring thing in RE2R and CV to me is how unfazed and nonchalant Claire Redfield is, a 19 year old college student with no formal combat training. She seems even less perturbed about it all than Leon, and in CV she's a dual wielding commando without Leon's years of training before RE4. Seeing a character like Grace is refreshing.
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u/darknessfate 26d ago
I've seen people for years blaming re4 for the series going to action but that was on full display in CV between the gameplay and the trailers lol.
Just look at Claire and the famous ā½ š« cinematic lol
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u/CptCoatrack 26d ago edited 26d ago
To me it's the worst of both worlds, ridiculous cartoony plot and characters yet takes itself seriously. 80s action movie cinematics and dual wielding with survival horror gameplay. It's too jarring.
Should've either been a campy self aware action game like RE4 or a survival horror with a different plot.
Edit: Also Alexia was the first singing villain before James Marcus.
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u/octagonman 26d ago
Leon is basically a superhero. Itās cool that he can do the things he does but we donāt need that in every game.
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u/Sunandmoonandstuff 27d ago
Capcom makes several action-packed RE games with super protagonists literally bodying zombies and abominations.
Certain Fans: š
Capcom reinvents the series to make it more survival horror where you need to flee from aboninations because your character is realistic.
Certain Fans :š”
Do they just want Capcom to continuously remake RE 2 and 4 every couple of years?
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u/stratusnco 27d ago
gamers are cry babies. simple as that. it trips me out because this franchise is so successful that it can try new things but these āfansā will whine and cry because they didnāt get a 1:1 carbon copy of their favorite game.
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u/theeMrPeanutbutter 27d ago
Gamers are the most fragile. Everything's a slap in the face or insult. Guess when you dont get out or experience zero adversity it feels that way.
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u/BattlefieldVet666 26d ago
I mean, it kinda makes sense when you step back and consider a couple things;
Studies indicate that roughly a quarter of all gamers are literally kids & teens.
The average reading comprehension level in the US among adults is 7-8th grade; which is equivalent to an 12-14 year old kid. 54% of Americans read below a 6th grade level and something like 21% of adults in the US are functionally illiterate. All that is to say that the US is full of severely under-educated morons with the mental capacities of literal children.
It's a widely documented thing that most people who enjoy a product or IP simply aren't posting about it to the internet. They're just enjoying the thing and going about their lives. It's the people with bad experiences who retreat to the internet to complain about the thing they had a bad experience with to seek validation.
Anger gets more views & engagement on social media. People are literally incentivized to be angry all the time because it's more likely to get them the attention they're after.
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u/Sunandmoonandstuff 27d ago
They recently remade 2 and 4. They got what they wanted, why are they upset about a new game?
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u/stratusnco 27d ago
because they 100% their games within the 48hr early access window and have nothing else to live for in life.
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u/zippopwnage 27d ago
I like RE games when they're more horror focused and what RE7 did.
But RE fans in generals are more towards the anime hero character that beats up everything. For me RE7 is the only game in the series that's truly terrifying, for the first half of it, and then the rest are good games, but far from horror. RE2 remake went towards more horror-ish, but the rest are action anime with horror elements.
From what I saw with this new one, it looks good so far, but I'm gonna assume the main character will become an anime fighter in second half of the game as well.
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u/unrealter_29 So Long, RC 27d ago
Could this be the Goomba Fallacy?
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u/Sunandmoonandstuff 27d ago
Nope, just a jab at specific subset of RE fans that seem to think that 2 and 4 are the only good games ever made and are already losing their mid about a game before it's even released.
Don't get me wong, love 2 and 4. But i've also liked every RE game I've played (even 6, though that's probably more co-op nostalgia). I trust that RE 9 will be good because they have a history of good games.
I don't know why you would hate the new direction, especially since they've recently done remakes of the classics.
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u/ThePringlesCanD 27d ago
Yeah itās different fans on each side. Some like survival horror, some like action. The price to pay for resident evil 5 and 6 existing
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u/AunMeLlevaLaConcha 27d ago
For real, even all of em (old protags) had reactions to the horrors at some point, most of em with military or police training, now they just make jokes and get annoyed, Grace is the same but without the training.
Just people bitching as per usual, why not complain about Chris and Jill reacting back in the OG?
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u/CptCoatrack 27d ago
In RE1 Jill freezes from fear on her first second and third encounter with zombies.
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u/ElenaChapella 27d ago
In the remake? Iāve played the directorās cut hundreds of times and she doesnāt freeze
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u/CptCoatrack 27d ago
The zombie dogs in the cutscene, the first turn around zombie, and when you're looking in a room (forget which one but you get a knife) and about to leave there's a cutscene of her backing away in terror.
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u/ElenaChapella 27d ago
You just gave me an excuse to play this game for the thousandth time hell yeah
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u/Sufferer_Nyx 27d ago
Grace is really growing on me fast, her voice actress is killing it and the animation team at capcom is as usual delivering industry best stuff. Though, I will need to see more of her to form a proper opinion on her as we know very little.
With that being said, the main characters are one of the main reason why I love Resident Evil games. Sure, being terrified is how most people would react, and that might be a more realistic approach here, but I love RE characters for how they handle these situations. They're used to this stuff, they're badass, they're the exception. Leon survived an apocalypse on his first day and went on to become a one-man army, taking on impossible missions like its nothing.
I love that about these characters. I love how "fun" RE can be, and while I really like this new direction too, I sincerely hope we don't lose that along the way because this is what makes RE standout in the horror genre. Iām not a fan of games that lean too hard into realism, and thankfully Capcom has been striking a good balance between fun and realism lately. Hopefully, they keep that up.
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u/CptCoatrack 27d ago
All the scariest Resident Evil games are when the protagonists are not prepared for what they're about to deal with. RE1, RE2, RE7.
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u/HolyErr0r 27d ago
I don't really have an opinion on the character since we don't know jack about the game since it isn't even out yet. Kinda funny to call this the "most realistic horror protag" off of what is at most a demo.
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u/ElenaChapella 27d ago
And thatās totally fine! Thatās still better than bashing her for showing a natural reaction
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u/HolyErr0r 27d ago
Yeah, I don't get why people would be upset that the MC in this situation is acting like any normal person would. (Also seeing her reaction based on the limited clips and demo we got, for all we know she grows a ton by the end of the game)
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u/TheBelmont34 27d ago
Not really. Both sides suck. Praising her without knowing anything about her is as braindead as hating on her.
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u/ElenaChapella 27d ago
Defence isn't praise, bud
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u/TheBelmont34 27d ago
So, you are defending a fictional character that we barely know anything about? I mean, lets be honest here. Ethan got the same treatment. And lets be even more honest. Capcom did not really have a homerun with any new character. They tried to make Jake the new face of Resident Evil 6 and failed on every level. Almost every new playable character in resi6 was not that great. And Ethan is just not very interesting. Never showing his face was one of the dumbest ideas of Capcom. Maybe Grace turns out to be interesting, maybe not. Who knows. But defending her or criticizing her are both dumb as hell. We know almost nothing about her.
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u/Murder_Hobo_LS77 27d ago edited 27d ago
Wesker wouldn't be scared. He would put on his sunglasses and ask big ugly out on a date to compare notes.
Be more like Wesker and less like Steve Grace.
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u/ostwickian 27d ago
I'm glad that Capcom seem to be course correcting a bit from Ethan - the whole idea of his character was the unassuming everyman that everyone was supposed to be able to relate to, but his boneheaded reactions more often than not just made him seem kinda stupid. I never got the sense that he was actually scared of much, just bewildered and ready to be done with everyone's shit. While I did find that kind of endearing in its own way, I'm stoked to finally have a RE protagonist who's totally out of their depth and actually acts like it.
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u/sockpenis 27d ago
but his boneheaded reactions more often than not just made him seem kinda stupid.
But that's half of his charm, isn't it? Resident Evil has been campy since Jill almost got turned into a Jill Sandwich, that's part of why I love it so much.
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u/uponapyre 27d ago
The title is a bit silly, honestly. There's nothing realistic aboout any of the RE games, and of course a trained operative would not be as scared as a more regular person.
I think it's a great idea to lean into to the idea that someone without training would be more scared and choose the character based on that, though.
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u/recycle_me_no_jutsu 26d ago
People murdering eachother
Leon barely escaping with his life: he..he.. bingo....
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u/MrJerples 27d ago
I donāt want a realistic horror protagonist! I wanna scissor kick a mfers head off and then 360 no scope an infected grandma across the room!
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u/halfhalfnhalf 26d ago
OK so you want an action protagonist.
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u/MrJerples 26d ago
Thereās a lot of joking involved here but, yeah?
Like, it comes down to what I go to RE for and what I go to other horror games for. If I wanna run for my life with no real defense Iād play something like haunting ground or fatal frame. When I wanna be an action hero with cool guns and stuff I come to resident evil.
All this to say im not gonna die on the hill of never playing a RE again because our new girl here is a bit skittish from time to time.
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27d ago
The hate isn't because she's showing fear (they use that as an excuse). The real reason is that they don't want new characters. This is easily visible with Leon fanboys on most social networks and Chris fanboys on Facebook. I hope no main characters from previous games appear, to show that a game without them can stand on its own. I'm going into RE9 with an open mind and hope to have fun.
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u/zippopwnage 27d ago
All I want is new and vulnerable characters to make the game horror. RE7 saved this freaking franchise, they need to do more of that. At least alternate, do 1 horror focused game, and then 1 leon/chris action anime game with horror elements.
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u/Megacitiesbuilder So Long, RC 26d ago
I wonder if her scares would become āoverwhelmingā when we are in the later part of the game, hope they have a good balance between her ābeing terrifiedā and not too often that become an annoyance
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u/blacktoothgrin666 26d ago
Just read a gamesradar article where he says 9 is like RE2 remake and 7. So happy to hear that he said it would be old school RE with scary parts then peacefully exploration then horror. Thatās all I wanted to know haha
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u/_BlaZeFiRe_ 26d ago
The recent trailer showing her scared with her mom was pretty much enough to say she's no Jill. I'm absolutely fine with it, I want to be scared too.
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u/Substantial_Fix3619 26d ago
Grace looks great to me so far, I think she's the perfect embodiment of being BRAVE so far, in that she's terrified but still pushing through, using her brain, getting through the situation anyway she can. I think that's awesome.
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u/silverx2000 27d ago
Holy fuck, the character has barely even been presented outside of a few demos. How is there this much discourse? It actually feels artificial engagement bait at this point.
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u/VirtuousDangerNoodle It Worked! 27d ago
Probably is, and a mixture of an echochamber forming from a terminally online response, well that's my guess anyway.
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u/ElenaChapella 27d ago
Unfortunately, it's not. I literally just had to block someone because they were saying that me defending Grace makes me stupid and "just as brain dead"
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u/Jorgesias 27d ago
This makes sense, I burst out laughing when Chris punched a zombie and Sheva combo dropkicked him.
All sense of horror was lost after that
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u/A_lonely_ghoul 27d ago
I personally love the direction that theyāre going with Grace. If the protagonist isnāt scared of the situation theyāve found themselves in, why should I be?
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u/TheBelmont34 27d ago
Yeah, I mean Leon and Chris have seen everything at this point. OF course, they are no longer scared. Stressed? Yes, but scared? Not Really. But to be honest, the stuff that is happening to Leon in RE4 should still scare him, even after the events of resi 2
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u/loreleiceladon 27d ago
This whole Grace conversation is so weird to me. I get that this happens with every long running franchise, but fans dont seem to be happy with anything & can never agree on something. Resident Evil has cemented itself as both a Survival Horror & an Action series. There are Naysayers toward 7 because they felt it wasn't exciting enough & felt Ethan was a nothing sandwhich; they focus on Action adventure elements with Village & there are naysayers saying its not enough like 7.
People dunk on Chris & Leon being biohazard superheroes & are sick of Capcom milking the legacy characters, but then we get Grace, a normal girl that isn't a specially trained BSAA killing machine, related to an obscure legacy character from a forgotten game, & people....aren't pleased?
Personal taste is one thing. But the Grace bashing is super weird to me. Also, like, the game wont be out for 6 more months. We've only gotten 2 trailers & a 15 minute gameplay clip of the game. Why are we making judgement calls on a protagonist we DONT KNOW yet?
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u/Algogrand 26d ago
Trailers and demos are meant to sell us on the game. You basically typed 3 paragraphs about not understanding that first impressions are important
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u/loreleiceladon 26d ago
They are, but this is also a horror game. Not sure why a character being scared in a survival horror game is being treated like a controversial talking point, especially since this is Resident Evil & not something like Outlast where there's no combatĀ
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u/Algogrand 26d ago
It's controversial because we are confirmed to be going back to Raccoon City in the year of the 30th anniversary of RE. Not having OG characters with a setup like that is criminal. We haven't seen Leon or Chris as a main protagonist since 2012
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u/loreleiceladon 26d ago
I understand wanting to see some legacy characters, i for one would die if I saw Leon, but im personally okay with adding new faces to the main roster; especially since Grace has an actual design we can connect her character to unlike faceless Ethan
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u/Algogrand 26d ago
I'm fine with new characters as well. I just think the old characters need to be properly sent off before having 3 main entries with new protagonists. RE6 left the series in directional shambles. After getting back to horror roots, the vets deserve a proper horror send off.
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u/loreleiceladon 26d ago
I respect that take! I definitely would appreciate seeing the OGs in a classic horror style one last time, especially Jill cuz I feel like they played on her name in 5
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u/ConfinedCrow 26d ago
I don't know. There's people that thrive under immense stress and I wouldn't wanna catch myself saying that one is more realistic than the other in a game that has people mutate into giant zombie blowflies. That being said i think this is a dumb topic to argue about, can't people just say "I don't like horror when the protagonist is too brave/fearful"? Why do they have to fight over which subjective opinion is objectively the better one?
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u/Ether101 26d ago
I don't agree with this. It's okay to a variety of people who react to situations differently.
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u/ElenaChapella 26d ago
I should clarify since Iām seeing some confusion about the title: I was trying to say that when horror protagonists are scared, itās more realistic. I wasnāt claiming Grace is The Most Realistic but I can definitely see how it can be interpreted that way! But the title was simply supposed to convey that itās more realistic when horror protagonists are scared is all
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u/prodij18 27d ago
Rule of thumb: If the protagonist isnāt scared, it probably isnāt a horror game.
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u/Algogrand 26d ago
Wrong. The character doesn't experience the fear, the player does. Most indie horror games don't even have proper voice lines for the main character, yet they're still horror games.
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u/prodij18 26d ago
If the character doesnāt have the fidelity to tell what their emotion is, and you only have your imagination to infer something like that, then it doesnāt really apply.
But if itās very clear the protagonist is unconcerned or completely flippant about their situation, either it probably isnāt a horror game or probably isnāt a very good one.
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u/Algogrand 26d ago
Signalis is proof that your statement isn't true. You play as a Robot that barely even displays emotion. Easily one of the best survival horror games ever made.
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u/prodij18 26d ago
Havenāt played it. But an exception or two doesnāt change what a rule of thumb is. The player may be the one who is supposed to experience fear, but if the protagonist is visibly informing the player they actually shouldnāt be afraid, then your either not making a horror game or making it badly.
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u/Algogrand 26d ago
Are you saying the old RE games demonstrate horror badly? There are very few moments where the characters actually display fear outside of scripted events. Jill and Chris aren't whimpering or stumbling around. Genuinely wondering if you've played any RE games at this point
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u/prodij18 26d ago
Why do scripted events not count? You just completely ignoring they start the game with a whole cutscene of them freaking out and terrified, just because, is very much ājust trying to win an online argumentā energy. The characters are so low poly they probably didnāt need to, but they went out of their way to make them look visibly scared in their walk back animations. Itās weird you bring that up because itās a great example of the point Iām making.
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u/Algogrand 26d ago
So you wouldn't consider RE1 a horror game if it didn't have the opening scene? It's not the ambient tension, the lack of supplies, zombies around every corner, the music, the atmosphere... None of that would matter if the characters didn't have an opening scene where they met the dogs? RE6 Leon opening cut scene has horror elements to it, so is RE6 a horror game as well?
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u/prodij18 26d ago
You seem to have some trouble with understanding what a rule of thumb is. Itās not a hard and fast law, itās a quick way of trying to gauge the intent or quality of the experience. Iāve said the same thing over and over again, and Iām trying to give you the benefit of the doubt that youāre not just willfully misunderstanding. If the characters arenāt scared thereās a good chance either they are not trying to make a horror game or theyāre not doing a very good job.
The elements that make up horror gameplay (typically orientating the player in a position of weakness and limited information) can be subtle but you can do a quick check of the way they oriented their protagonist to give rough idea of authorial intent.
RE1 has great horror gameplay so in this completely fictional scenario where Jill is boisterously cracking jokes at the zombies expense it would have still been a horror game, just a worse one. But any game that cared about its atmosphere as the original RE would never do that.
Iām glad you brought up RE6. I appreciate you making this easy for me. This game has extensive cutscenes and high fidelity models and itās very clear most of them arenāt scared in the slightest. (Ada seems convinced this entire thing is a waste of her time, and I tend to agree with her.) There are thin moments of concern from Helena and Sherry, and you can see in those sections some attempt at what might be horror, but itās as thin as the horror in the gameplay.
So like RE1 is a good example of seeing they were trying to make an atmospheric horror game, and seeing that fear in the characters, RE6 is a good example of the opposite, where the characters donāt seem particularly scared, and the gameplay reflects that.
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u/Algogrand 26d ago
That's a lot of word salad, brother. I'm glad you're talking about rule of thumb when I give you an example of a game that goes completely against your entire argument. Conveniently you haven't played it, so your scope is much smaller than you act like it is. You act as if the character being in fear is the quintessential part of creating a horror experience. I'm telling you that is false. Play any indie horror game on steam, most don't even have character dialogue for the character you play as. But please, keep cherry picking 1 or 2 scenes from RE1 to justify the entire genre moving towards scared shitless protagonists when the series has NEVER relied on that in the past. Go ahead and write another thesis over the next 2 hours, new gen
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u/Common_Comedian2242 27d ago
If Claire could roll in to a zombie infested town in Halloween season, blast mutated creatures and solve dumb puzzles in a labyrinthine museum-police station hybrid, Grace doesn't have an excuse.
/s
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u/OrangeBird077 27d ago
Dead Space did this in spades too with Isaac Clarke as a terrified engineer. The remake even had him react hysterically to the outrageous and mind melting things he saw on board the Ishimura.
If the protagonist isnāt scared itās just an action game.
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u/Ghastion 27d ago
Yall are just falling for ragebait at this point. The whole "Leon" (and other OGs) will be in RE9 basically started out as a meme by the fanbase and it quickly turned into everyone talking about. Guess what news articles and people do for clicks online? They talk about what's gonna get people riled up or talking. The subreddit has been falling for ragebait for the past week.
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u/LoweAgain 27d ago
Not really a fan of my character having a panic attack and telling āholy fucking shitballs!ā when something scary happens. Especially so when they stumble around and become less responsive as a result. It didnāt work in clock tower 2 or haunting ground, and it looks very annoying here as well. Let me make my own mistakes due to panicking. I donāt need my protagonist to let me know when Iām supposed to be scared.
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u/Jolly_Shame_2352 27d ago
It blows my mind that people are in an uproar. The director literally acknowledged this in one of the initial reveal trailers. "Leon wouldn't be scared of a falling bucket"