This Week in Games

SNK Sinks, Resident Evil Bling, and How Lara Croft Came to Japan

SNK Reveals AI Slop, Also Some City of the Wolves DLC

CAPCOM Unveils Resident Evil 9 Info, Also... Wristwatches?

Last Thursday saw a Resident Evil 9: Requiem showcase; it was a bit too close to cut-off, so we'll be talking about it here. Which is just as well, because half of the showcase is dedicated to stuff not entirely pertinent to the game, and I'm not sure what to think of it.

According to the trailer, Leon and Grace will have their own unique styles of gameplay. Grace's segments are described as being more akin to the survival-horror roots of Resident Evil 2 and Resident Evil 7, while Leon's plays out like an evolution of Resident Evil 4. To wit: Grace has a powerful hand-cannon, the titular "Requiem" pistol, to clear the screen of B.O.W.s. But the gun has limited ammo and is meant only for emergencies. Grace is instead expected to sneak around B.O.W.s, creeping up behind them and dispatching them with hemolytic injectors made out of scavenged zombie blood. Emphasis was made on RE9's zombies having set behaviors based on their personalities while they still lived, like a janitorial zombie fussily cleaning a mirror or a zombified businessman camping around an elevator call button; Grace's segments expect you to consider these behaviors when deciding to give zombies a wide berth or give them the chunky salsa treatment.

Meanwhile, Leon S. Kennedy's story picks up after his appearance in Resident Evil 6. He's still got his himbo one-liners ("I think I'll get a second opinion!"), and he can still aim to shoot zombies in specific body parts, which makes them react accordingly (shooting them in the hand makes them drop their weapon, shooting them in the leg makes them stumble). Leon also keeps his close-up finishers, useful for kicking away zombies while conserving ammo. You've also got two new options in the form of a reusable hatchet for parrying (though the hatchet requires periodic sharpening—we're never escaping Monster Hunter), as well as the new ability to pick up weapons dropped by enemy B.O.W.s. The showcase highlights Leon picking up a chainsaw that a zombified doctor drops and summarily using it to chop another zombie in twain (sidenote: sick).

A neat twist for both Grace and Leon is that their modes can be played in either first-person or third-person views. Long-time fans who are used to the third-person controls from the original Resident Evil 4 are catered to, as well as more recent fans who came on board with the first-person mechanics used in Resident Evil 7 onwards. I was a little put off at the idea until I realized how many people likely started with the first-person games. It's a great accessibility feature, I think.

What is less understandable is the big, fancy Porsche collab presented in the showcase. Now, I mean no offense to car people. I'm a Kamen Rider fan, I'm not about to rag on someone else's hobby. Show me a bloke who's passionate about customizing his Ford Falcon AU, and I'd easily spend a few hours listening to them break down Australian car history and the AU Falcon's place in it. But inserting a car promo in Resident Evil doesn't feel right. The Resident Evil games are about being trapped in an enclosed area with limited means of escape. Leon getting to drive around between locations in a souped-up luxury car feels totally at odds with the whole thing. I don't deny that the sponsorship deal probably subsidized a good chunk of RE9's development, which is likely a huge factor. But this'll definitely go down in history as one of the weirder moments in Resident Evil, and that's saying something for the franchise. Similarly, Leon and Grace's watches are a major element in the game and are immortalized in real-world luxury wristwatches produced by Hamilton, each manufactured at just 2,000 units worldwide. Again, luxury watches are a major hobby for some people, and this collab likely served as a subsidy. But I genuinely wonder how many Resident Evil fans also care about wristwatches.

Watches and cars aside, there was also news about RE9 coming to the Switch, with Resident Evil 7: Biohazard and Resident Evil 8: Village in tow. This'll also open the door to an exclusive Amiibo of Grace (not sure what that'll do, however). We won't have to wait long to find out, though; Resident Evil 9: Requiem releases this February 27 on Switch 2, PS5, Xbox Series X|S, and Steam.

Flipside of Localization: How Lara Croft Came to Japan

The nature of our hobby means that we're mostly clued into the American side of stuff, and even those of us who are super-into Japanese games still miss out on a ton of the oddities released in Japan. Did you know there was an instructional game on the Nintendo DS based on Japanese celebrity Duke Saraie's famed walking exercise program? You've probably never even heard of Duke Saraie, but the guy's on the Nintendo DS. You know who's not on the Nintendo DS? Clint Eastwood. 

When the subject of localization comes around, we only really see the American side of things: how stuff is changed to accommodate sensibilities, dialects, or cultural touchstones in the United States. Very little do we see of what happens when media made primarily for European or American markets is shipped to Japan. As an exercise, look up the Japanese titles for the Fast and the Furious movies; it's a hoot. Games are no different! We've talked about how American games have been censored in Japan in the past, but also worth discussing is how these games are localized for Japan to begin with. Crash Bandicoot fans are well-aware that his iconic dance wholly originated from the Japanese commercials for the first game; it wasn't until Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back that the dance was retroactively incorporated into the games. And fans of PS1 platformer Pandemonium might well know that the cracked medieval adventure was remade into the science-fiction time-traveling romp Magical Hoppers in Japan, not unlike the Famicom Solbrain title getting localized as the wholly original Shatterhand in the United States.

Last week, we got a curious bit of insight into the process courtesy of Paul Douglas, the former Producer of Core Design's Tomb Raider back in 1996. Following an account sharing the above illustrations from Tomb Raider's Japanese instruction manual, a user questioned Douglas regarding the art change. Douglas' explanation? Victor, the company responsible for localizing Tomb Raider in Japan, was concerned that the game's aesthetic was turning Japanese fans off and proposed redesigns for the entire cast. Lara Croft still has all the hallmarks of her design, like her braided ponytail, tank top, and cut-off shorts. She's even fairly busty in her art, accounting for the loose clothing. Douglas mentioned that the design changes mostly revolved around the kind of thing that stereotypically appeals more to Japanese players, specifying a bigger head with larger eyes. As seen in the cut-ins in the illustration above, these proposed changes were even implemented using a 3D model. According to Douglas, Tomb Raider co-creator Toby Gard refused the changes. Douglas had also explained some of the process a few years back, clarifying that Victor had initially proposed changing all of the 3D models, both in-game and in cutscenes; with this having been the early days of 3D modelling, this would've been costly, not to mention complicated. So Victor was talked down to just changing Lara's model, then just changing Lara's head, then just changing her artwork in the instruction manual. As a user replies to Douglas, this also explains Tomb Raider's Japanese cover art, which obfuscates Lara Croft's face and head entirely.

I've seen a few people who actually like Lara's design in the instruction manual, although the crowd is largely split on the proposed 3D model. Bluesky user Dave Silva deduces that the artwork is courtesy of one Hiromasa Ohta for the Japanese art; Ohta is better known for the designs in cult-favorite cute-'em-up Keio Flying Squadron.

The fact that this is just one story we're only hearing now, out of years and years of titles that have released in Japan to Japanese audiences, speaks to how much wider the world of localization is. And it's not like American games don't get any play in Japan; plenty of Japanese artists I follow are big on games like Lethal Company or even Skyrim. (One thing I remember about Mamoru Oshii's Vladlove is the recurring references to Fallout 4.) I can only hope we hear about more of these stories, because much like the famous clips of King of the Hill dubbed into Japanese, it's fascinating to see how our stuff is brought to Japan.

Let's wrap up with some quick tidbits