MovieChat Forums > Biohazard 4 (2005) Discussion > Was a little research too much to ask?

Was a little research too much to ask?


Alright I know it's a game. A zombie-fantasy genre game. But still, would it hurt to try to back the story with some good, factual research? I think in every good zombie story -even capcom's-, the location is as important as the story or the characters, in fact, Racoon City was one of the main characters of the first games. I think a powerful reason why many fans feel more and more detached to the later releases of the franchise is because they no longer identify with places like "unknown location in spain, or africa, or some island somewhere".

Being spanish myself I felt excited for the fact that -for one time EVER- some cool game's storyline is set in my country. It took me about 10 minutes to feel somewhat embarrased. They obviously couldn't help the flamenco tunes in the introduction as if it was more important to state that "that was spain" more than "this is supposed to be a thrilling introduction" taking away every possible suspense. I was impressed with the police officer uniforms, really accurate. They're actually National Police (their jeep is pretty accurate too, despite the lack of any crests or names on it) although in a rural area like that it should have been the Civil Guard who were there. The landscape suggest they're somewhere northern (at least from Madrid on) wich leaves the flamenco as something really trivial.
That's the introduction. Now what's with the dubbing? how many voice actors besides the main characters did they use, 2?3?. Would it be so hard to TRY just try to sound a little local? It can't be that hard finding a spanish advisor, c'mon. The appearance of the peasants also suggest that this was set in Spain, indeed, but in 1936. Like, why can Raccoon city have checkered shirts, jeans and trainers and Spain's are XIX century?
I'm not even going to mess with the cult, because that's pure fantasy and storyline and I'm cool with it. I do wonder why, being hundreds of castles in Spain, would it be too hard to google them and find some actual inspiration to create the story? that way you can use a spanish looking castle and appropiate whereabouts. In the game, the castle looks particulary french, and so does Salazar's outfit.
And don't get me started with Luis's outfit... pancho villa's here anyone? and the guy says specifically "I used to be a policeman in Madrid". Wow he really went country after he left the corps!.

I don't mean to be all picky, I'm sure they make this flaws when depicting for instance the United States, what they do more than often. But when you see Racoon city you see genuine american streets, cars, ambulances, dinners... they can make it personal and it still looks very real, that's why the atmosphere is so great. I hope Capcom realizes the importance of this recreations for their next releases, they would really improve the gameplay. Look at Dead Space, what they achieved with the Ishimura was so great, that in Dead Space 2 when you return to the ship, you're literally at the edge of your seat even when they're no enemies around.

So what do you think? maybe you're from the american midwest and at some point you felt "hey that's just ridiculously wrong"? or you're from africa and got offended by some huge flaw or innacuracy? Sorry if the post was too long!

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[deleted]

Moron, Salazar was a Portugese dictator. (in the same lines as the Spanish Franco was) Maybe do some research before you speak...

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