My thoughts on Resident Evil's return to a more survival horror style than the more action based titles since the 4th installment. It's a HD VHS sandwich or something! phelous.com / phelous
Radioactive Canuck Not only that, but the “Not A Hero” DLC reveals he’s also working for an unnamed evil corporation who’s not Umbrella. But yeah, he’s an A-hole.
@@lucaschannel726 Maybe some people who work for umbrella had to split up and hide for the time being and build some power. Then came this other organization and maybe it'll be interesting.
Really? I know they picked the title as a cheeky wink wink to the Japanese title, but I didn't think about the Japanese name being reversed. That's funny.
The game's healing system makes sense if you remember that Ethan is infected with the Mold. Pouring a liquid herbal solution on the open wounds alone is not what heals the injuries, but it triggers the Mold to start feeding on it and regenerate new tissues as result. The player is literally holding off the infection by feeding the mold in them with extra nutrients instead for their own bodies. For the first time in the Resident Evil series, the healing-system is completely justified.
Wriest Heart the First Aid medicine has cellar regenerative abilities as said on the label. The infection takes time, though it is odd how it works. In the Daughters DLC it happens quickly and it's not seen what "accepting her gift" involves. Maybe there's a faster form of infection that Eveline can cause, idk. As for granny, yea idk.
Ethan had been infected the very same night, making his Mold infestation nowhere near as extensive as the one within the Bakers or Mia, who had been infected for years before Ethan came along. This also shows in how their healing factors manifests, as Ethan must trigger his through feeding the Mold with any herbal solution he can find, the Bakers and Mia's on the other hand runs on automatic. In other words, with this narrow time-frame, Eveline's influence was minimal at best, but growing as evident near the end of the night, especially when he starts hallucinating her little girl self. Also, perhaps in her advanced age and declining health, Eveline is no longer able to so quickly overtake a person's will. She's effectively a Dark Lord on life support. If Ethan had arrived much earlier, he would have been mentally overpowered just as easily as the Bakers.
He is infected, considering the sheer amount of abuse he takes throughout the game, the hallucinations he has of Eveline and because of his constant close contact with the infected Bakers and Molded creatures. He used the first serum on Jack Baker to ultimately kill his giant boss form, and gave the second serum to either Mia or Zoe because he considered their welfare a higher priority than his (chivalry I'd imagine). Ethan is still more than likely infected at the end of the game;'s events, but since Eveline is dead and there's no more Hive Mind she can control him with, he will likely not mutate much further and will perhaps keep his abilities like how Lucas kept his.
Dont see why Phelous was complaining heavily on Lucas' segments. The game gives you the tip about the boxes if you died by one, or if ya know, stand by one and hear the tick. Plus, the trip wire was super noticeable the first time in went through it. If understanding Lucas' mind, especially when playing the Happy Birthday tape, you'll know the damn thing would explode.
Spoiler warning: The weird puzzles and keys felt more like a Lucas thing. He was pulled out of Eveline's influence, but stayed inconspicuous since he could still hear her and she more strongly influenced than outright puppeted people completely.
Phelous, this POV bit in the beginning of the video is very well made! Had a great atmosphere and even if it was made in a comedic way it could have worked as part of a horror movie. In short: You're a very talented guy, Mister Phelous! :) Greetings from Germany!
From what I gather many seem to be saying the Umbrella helicopter is actually from Umbrella Corps which is actually a team of good guys going against what Umbrella was about. So why don't more people know about it, even diehard fans? Because the literal only way to know this is to have played a large portion of that Umbrella Corps game they released last year that had literally zero advertising and was broken to the point the average rating was a 2/10 and no one touched it. Again though, this is what I've been told. Hard for me to know for certain since, as I said, it would require playing Umbrella Corps which you'd have to be crazy to WANT to play.
Yeah, that's dumb. That game is never going to be in my head canon and I prefer my fan fiction's explanation for RE7's ending, anyway: www.fanfiction.net/s/12593027/1/Resident-Evil-7-Biohazard-2-Resident-Evil-8-Superhazard
I appreciate how Mia isn't especially attractive even when she's human. She's not exactly ugly, but for a video game love interest, she's refreshingly plain-looking.
yeah, some effort into character and relationship building really would've made this game go from an 8.5 to a 10. We really could've used more bits of scenes like we got in the sisters dlc in the main game
The ending phone toss didn't really bother me. I assumed since she was missing for years he had already mourned her as dead, but having her come back as alive only to be killed for real probably emotionally drained him to the point that he was numb. However, that doesn't explain his 'meh' reactions to everything else. If he had a very strong character and even over the top reactions, that reaction in the ending would've had a stronger impact. It would've been a 'damn' moment, not a 'same shit as every day' reaction. Ha ha Also, I love how phelan pronounces Zoe. 'Zo-eh' you make us Canadians proud.
Zombiekilleryamato but I hate it when people say that RE7 is an Outlast ripoff, yet they praise P.T. (I'm not saying P.T. Is an outlast ripoff, it's just so odd how big of a double standard that is.)
Every single review ive seen so far sugar coats the game for its change, however almost none analizes Ethans lack of...humanity. "Hes meant to be a blank slate so people can relate to him/ be on his shoes". No, the very moment the characters speaks and its isnt just gruntings, its a character on its own, not a vessel for the player to help immerse them. Im so so happy that someone finally addressed this, its hilarious.
I agree. Ethan seems to be the least human character in this game, even when compared to Eveline. If he showed more emotions (not something to stall the game or anything, just comments and maybe some sort of sobbing after he thinks he murdered his wife), I think he would be a nice character that you feel sorry to and want to help him get out of that situation with Mia. Also, the fact that the telephones in the house are working, but it never went through his head to call the police. Hell, the telephone could only work in the local area, but at least *show* that this guy is a human worried about his life and the situation at hand and trying to call for help.
Id like to think that Henry has a certain degree of autism or attention deficit disorder. Which would explain his socially akward behaviour. As for Ethan hes just...generic. John Doe generic. If they wouldve hired an actor that can actually *act* human emotions, Ethan maybe wouldve been less forgettable. But thats just my 2 cents
Tyann Feldred that's actually an interesting thought on Henry. I never thought he might have mental issues, I just assumed the game didn't know what to do with him. I think I like your interpretation much better.
I like to think the VHS tapes in the game were imprinted by the trauma suffered by the people in the tape by the main antagonist's psychic ability (Like the Ring), so we are seeing things from their POV (Why we can see hands when we would think they are holding a camera). The moment you play the tape your player is tapping into the experience and has to play it out.
That would be a lot better and more clever, if not they make it clear that they're picking up and holding cameras. The first time this happens they literally refer to the guy you're controlling as "the camera man."
The only part that makes that idea more true is just Mia's bit at the end. I don't see any point in her having a camera and how the tape looks and could have even been gotten is strange. The others were pretty much recording.
And even then, that segment begins with Mia saying something along the lines of "if you find this..." meaning that she is very much recording this on tape. And on top of that, nothing within the game hints at this kind of psychic abilities being a thing. Granted, the game does come very close to it with the hive mind stuff but it never goes straight-up supernatural (well, except for that ghost woman easter egg that I have yet to find).
13:17 Ethan is able to have his limbs reattached because he is infected with the mold. Not that it's ever actually revealed out loud that he's infected, but the files you find in the salt mine lab make it plain that it must be the case. Limb reattachment and Eveline's ability to project illusions into a person's mind are symptoms. And, of course, it doesn't have any affect at all at the end of the game. You don't have find a cure for Ethan, he doesn't mutate into a monstrous form, never acts any weirder than he did in the first act, and Redfield doesn't immediately put Ethan in some kind of containment unit. It's as if the game developers didn't have enough time to create a resolution for this before the game needed to be released or just plain forgot.
I noticed that one of the news articles your find in the Baker house was written by Alyssa Ashcroft; as in the reporter character from the Outbreak games. Also on the freighter you find an article talking about the anniversary of the Raccoon City outbreak and annihilation. Overall, I loved Resident Evil 7, absurdities and all (played it on the PC since I'm not into consoles anymore) and I'd love to see the franchise continue on using this style, just improving on the existing aspects. Also if Phelous, or anyone who played this game, reads this; Did you momentarily think that the black goop that the Molded spawned from was something connected to Uroboros from Resident Evil 5 and Revelations 2? Cuz I kinda did, which is why I was pleasantly surprised that the main catalyst for the game's plot was a new bio-weapon, and a fungus at that instead of a virus or an endo-parasite.
I kind of figured the "steroids" weren't of the anabolic variety. More of a corticosteroid, which is still colloquially referred to as steroids. Since they permanently increase your health in RE7, it would make more sense for them to be of the therapeutic variety. If it increased your strength or run speed or something, then I could see it being anabolic. In the clip it's injected into a clearly inflamed arm, and since cortico's are used to treat things like vasculitis, that makes sense. I know I'm reading too much into this.
I literally just finished re-watching Phelous's old Resident Evil reviews, all the while thinking 'I cannot wait to see his review on 7.' and lo and behold here it is not seconds later after thinking that. I am glad that Video Games are returning to survival horror, after the PS2 era survival horror kind of dried up and went all action(Thank gaming industry turning everything into HALO and COD). If not for Let's Players bringing back just how appealing survival horror is for a new generation we probably wouldn't seeing such a resurgence of survival horror games. Concerning the VHS tapes? I assumed that maybe they were recording it on a digital camera and just converted onto VHS for Ethan to find. That makes the most sense to me...And SPOILER considering that Lucas Baker was an inventor, and working for someone providing him with technology to look after Eveline, he probably had the means to do so.
I'd find the idea of them sitting around converting video to VHS just to give Ethan something to watch pretty funny too. I do like that they had VHS tapes in the game though, it's just also amusing when it's set in present day.
Very interesting. I like this experience. It was the best game since 5. Even though the survival horror element was gone, the pacing was great, the narrative worked, and there was a fitting end for Wesker. 6 was quite a letdown, and I wanted to love it. 7 is quite a turnaround. How somehow appropriate that RE gets both a rebirth with this, and a painful death with the "Final Chapter" in Paul W.S. Anderson's idiotic film series. P.S. Sorry you don't like Tidus. I've always found him to be a very relatable character in the Final Fantasy series, certainly the one I could picture as a stand in for myself.
Japan still had VHS as a format until 2016, so during production of this game VHS was still there and only the reason they stopped making them is scarcity of parts.
If you make it makes you feel any better there's a DLC called end of Zoe So if you do choose the Cure Mia instead of Zoe it reason to the DLC where Jack's older brother Joe Baker find Zoe crystallized
Am I the one to tell Phelous that it's not a ranch but a plantation and I will like to point out Lucius is in fact evil and helping the Company that made Eveline by keeping an eye on her he even kill a bully when he was a kid by locking him in the attic on his birthday but that takes more looking to find and I learn it from someone doing lore on the game
I think this game is a good example of how to implement jump scares. They're not over done, they are built around the atmosphere, you don't get a jump scare every time the atmosphere supports it so it stays unexpected, and the things that cause the jump scares are something the character should be afraid of and not dumb things like pop tarts.
+Phelan Porteus It is Blue Umbrella. It was made to atone for the bad deeds of the former Umbrella's Crimes. Chris is a part of this group (BSAA members I believe make up them I believe)
Chris doesn't actually work for them he's still in the BSAA. Blue Umbrella asked the BSAA for co-operation for this particular mission and they sent Chris who had major reservations about working with them
The moral choice feels tacked on as heel, as if you choose Mia she survives out of nowhere and without any explanation, she just shows up at the chopper, and if you choose Zoe, Mia shows up at the tanker without a explanation, though Mia dying makes much more sense from a storytelling point. The final boss also makes no sense from a thematically standpoint, it feels like the put up a giant monster there because RE games with a boss fight against a giant monster.
Late response but no she didn't. She TRIED to send an email to keep Ethan away but it didn't send because it was being sent on a ship in the middle of a storm. It wasn't until much later where Eveline made either her or one of the Bakers write to Ethan so he could become "the father" of the family.
I just figured Ethan was in shock. Over all this was a welcome return to what I love about RE with new stuff I think fits in. I respect that not everyone else feels the same way but for me this game was amazing and I love it to bits
While not directly stated, it's implied that Ethan is infected with the Mold from Eveline, which is why his limbs reattach so easily. The clue comes from his blood being black.
There's two things I thought I'd not see for a long time: Resident Evil being spooky again... and being in 1st person again. I might need to get this one. :P
It's too scripted to be spooky though, you see every jumpscare(like, the two of them) coming from a mile away and ugly monsters have always been a thing in RE and no one cared, it's more of a hype spookyness, people want to scream just like their favorite youtubers doing a let's play.
I despise jumpscares, honestly. They're a cheap play on the fight or flight response and can be triggered with anything, not just horror. I could sneak up and yell "WANT SOME CHIPS?" and do that. So seeing them from a mile away isn't an issue for me. It's more a gameplay thing for me, anyways. It seems to have taken a step back from the action shiz to survival, like the older ones. Not to mention having relentless enemies makes a victory that much more satisfying, because you've been killing this guy/girl/whatzit many times and now it's finally over. Really though, I won't know until I try... and I do plan on trying. :P
It's a minor quibble but you can make the Jack 2 fight a lot easier on yourself if you've got some balls. While you still take plenty of damage if you do the normal block, if you swing your own chainsaw at the right time you can parry his chainshears and take no damage. It's also tuned, on Normal at least, so that if you use the thrust on him when he kneels and turns into a swollen testicle it only takes three to down him proper. Alternatively if you just want to save up some ammo and cheese out his second form with your guns, you can literally troll him into his second form by continually kicking the bodybags into him. It takes a little but he'll eventually get so butthurt he smashes his weapon on the floor and stomps off to get the chainshears. Also thank you so much for only ever referring to her as "Zoeh"
Yeah, that seems about right, I agree with pretty much everything said in this review. Very happy you liked it since you're a long-time fan and are way more familiar with this franchise than I am. Couple things I'd like to add, though: I've noticed a lot of people who played the game on consoles complained about the load times but having played it on a PC, I never had such an issue and indeed, as far as I can tell, PC players didn't report long load times so I guess it's only a problem on consoles. Weird considering these games usually seemed to be designed for consoles. [SPOILERS AHEAD] Ethan reattaching his limbs and regaining health by splashing some healing juice on himself IS explained in universe: he is infected with the mold, although not yet to the point that the effects are permanent and the potions only feed it nutrients, with the mold itself being what causes the healing. I don't remember if it's ever explicitly stated that he is infected but you can easily gather that from the hints the story gives and the fact that the Bakers have a healing factor. How Ethan immediately knows that he is infected and can just reattach his leg back on though, I don't know. I guess maybe you could say the hive mind gives him instinctive knowledge but that seems like a bit of an excuse.
SsnakeBite Uhhh, the bottle has cellar regenerative capabilities, but he is infected. As for load times, they're long on consoles and yea they would be better on PC. But I really don't mind loading screens if they aren't annoying and constant, which they aren't in this game so yea.
Awesome review Phelous! Though out of curiosity: would you ever consider reviewing the classic-era Resident Evil games, as since the series is one of my personal favourite game franchises (top favourite when it comes to horror), I'd love to hear your opinion about them.
Screw the haters, this is what Resident Evil needed the most. Bringing back the survival horror the way it was meant to be. P.S. wished you'd cover Revelations 2 since it had Barry and they stole one of your jokes in Claire's campaign.
Fun fact. There are HD VHS, called D-VHS, which can hold up to 50GB of memory, and play up to 1080i in H-mode, and they are still a little bit popular in Japan, which can be used to record TV just like in the good ol'days. In fact, it was one of the earliest ways to record HDTV before the advent of Bluray recorders.
Holy shit I thought this was a reupload at first I'm watching all of this shit glad to see phelous and Obscurus Lupa uploading again so glad I didn't miss out on the RU-vid golden years entirely
Chose Zoe the first time I played. Mia cut my hand off and tried to kill me. She was also responsible for this shit. Zoe spent her time at least helping behind the scenes in some ways.
The first job my sister had out of college was at a local news station where the only computers they had ran on floppy disks. That was almost three years ago. The low tech VHS tapes do not surprise me.
Looking back at your first Resident Evil review and looking at where you are now; whenever the next movie or game is released I'm always happy to know you're not far behind and always look forward to the next review.
Nice catch on the Tensu thing, P. One thing though, Mia never sent the video to Ethan. The opening clip is her recording it on the boat, which you yourself can do when in that section. Ethan has a print out of the email she did send, under Eveline's influence, at the beginning of the game.
I was honestly very satisfied with this game as the last two leading up to 7 really didn't fit my fancy since I had started the series from Resident Evil 4. I had played the games out of order but after playing the others I really disliked 5 and 6 with the only part I liked actually being Leon's section. When this game was over, I felt horrible for the Bakers, in the Daughter's DLC they were so sweet... and Marguerite wasn't so demonic lol. But besides Jack's early fight I loved this game and can't wait to see what they do next time. Hopefully their next protagonist expresses a bit more about their situation lol
"I was surprised to see a load time this long on a modern console game." HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA *YOU HAVE NO FUCKING IDEA* But seriously, you need to keep in mind that these tapes are the ONLY loading screens in the game because the ENTIRE GAME'S MAP is being rendered. If you do a playthrough without watching any tapes (except for the one that is unskipable) there's only like 2 loading screens. Most of the game is one long fluid experience.
I wished phelan can review the dlcs of re7, and the blue umbrella is umbrella under new management and is trying to clean up old umbrella's messes so they hired chris Redfield from the bsaa
Absolutely loved this game, I had given up on resident evil after the ending to 5 being inside a volcano, if they weren’t gonna be serious or try anymore I wasn’t gonna play anymore, but 7 is such a breath of fresh air. This is the first time I can remember since 4 that something actually scared me and made me feel on edge, not just a jump scare. I remember actually yelling out our when Jack baker came waltzing into the bathroom with a hole in his head after the first boss fight and grabbing you, I loved this game so much I went back and bought the part 1 remake for my switch, the Baker house actually feels a lot like the mansion because of how massive it is, I sincerely hope they keep making the next games like this one.
I honestly want a new SilentHill game for the XboxOne, and it might be old school but, what happened to the third person perspective that both resident evil and silenthill had? i mean that was pretty awesome and now its gone. :C
