Why did they kidnap Ashley? Story is so vague.

[deadbeef]

Is it just me or is the story in this game next to non-existent? Everything is VERY vaguely explained through in-game lore snippets, other than that there's no explanation at all, and left many questions unanswered. Was it like this in the original game?

Case in point, maybe I missed it, but there was never any explanation at all as to why exactly the cult / Sadler kidnapped Ashley. Why on earth did they do that? Did the original game bother explaining this either? Considering the entire point of the story is Leon trying to rescue Ashley, I think it would be pretty important to explain why she's been kidnapped, but nope the game didn't even bother.

Other unanswered questions:
What exactly is the Amber?
What's with all the bugs?
Who exactly is Sadler?
Etc......

Best I can put together of the whole story is basically that Umbrella was researching a mind control plague, they gave it to Sadler who was the ruler of some spanish village, Sadler used it to take complete control over the village and create a cult of personality around himself. Somehow the Amber is important to the plague, but unknown why. Then the villagers kidnapped the US President's daughter for some reason, so Leon comes to save her, then the whole game is just chasing Ashley through various situations until you finally rescue her and kill Sadler.

[Mögbär]

To be fair, their plan with Ashley doesn't make a whole lot of sense and seems overly complicated and depending on too many chances and risks for something they could achieve much more easily and directly by other means.

But Saddler spells it out less vaguely in a "villain reveals his plans before not killing the agent for no reason" monologue in the original than in the remake, so I guess it can be missed just playing that.

In the original, he also admits he actually does need the ransom money for his operations, too, but then again ... he has a seemingly unlimited supply of parasites that literally take away free will and give him control over other people. He could just infect some helpless billionair heirs partying on their yacht and have them send him money instead of pretending he will actually get away with any money by kidnapping the US president's daughter out of all people to kidnap.

(Also, I could see necessity for money until then, but sending Ashley home infected would, according to their plans, be the very moment destroying the economy and taking over the world starts, so ... no, Saddler, the whole ransom thing is pointless because when you receive the money you won't need it any longer. Who you're going to pay? Do the ganados get a a salary or something? Or is this some Scrooge McDuck fetish where you want to swim in a bunker full of coins?)

The lesson to learn is don't leave school, kids. And don't swap your brain for a bug, even if the guy says it's completely save.

[Mikal]

every RE explains the story in a very very textbook way, how is it vague at all? you probably just missed all the documents in games. There's every motives for every characters, there's even added back story for Luis, there's explanation for every villain in the game. My god, I can't believe anyone ever complain about RE's story telling.

[Dou B Jin]

Pretty sure they clarified that they captured Ashely and wanted to implant her with a plaga to mind control her. She's the presidents daughter so she would have been a great infiltrator to get close to the president.

It's a very straight forward story. I strongly recall you can find documents really early on talking about it in the original game.

Same reason why they decided to infect Leon so when he retrieves Ashely no one would raise a suspicion when he brings her home.

How did they do that? Krauser, a former US special operation orcastrated her capture as a trade for himself getting the power of the plagas. You can read a document in his camp talking about how he planned her abduction. Despite him saying he just wants power its strongly implied he wants revenge for the death of his squad. They were essentially left to die during operation javier due to political infighting which resulted in the squad not getting the evacuation they needed and Krauser was left as the sole survivor. In the original game he abducted Ashely as a gift to saddler to gain his trust. It was also revealed in the OG operation Javier that his arm was left damaged by the operation and he would have most likely been no longer fit for duty if it werent for the plaga empowering him.

[deadbeef]

Originally posted by Jin:

Pretty sure they clarified that they captured Ashely and wanted to implant her with a plaga to mind control her. She's the presidents daughter so she would have been a great infiltrator to get close to the president.

It's a very straight forward story. I strongly recall you can find documents really early on talking about it in the original game.
.

Actually they didn't do any of this. Literally as I said there's only 1 sentence in the entire game explaining it. "With that girl as the very source, your United States, and then the entire world shall overflow with his grace." That doesn't explain anything.

Seems everyone in this thread played the original game, (I didn't), then when the remake doesnt bother explaining anything, they are like "DUH ITS EXPLAINED SO MUCH!" when its actually not explained at all.

But they wouldn't know that because they didn't bother paying any attention, instead only have nostalgia goggles for the original game, and then they turn around and try to roast me for not paying attention.

[deadbeef]

Prove me wrong. Someone go find a single document or cutscene explaining why exactly they kidnapped Ashley, other than the 1 sentence I already quoted. Go do it.

Bet nobody will be able to do it.

[D. Flame]

Originally posted by deadbeef:

Prove me wrong. Someone go find a single document or cutscene explaining why exactly they kidnapped Ashley, other than the 1 sentence I already quoted. Go do it.

Bet nobody will be able to do it.

Wrong.
1. They state she is the presidents daughter.
2. There are other documents that explain how the infected can infect others.
3. There are documents that state the newer versions of the parasite allow the infected to retain the personality and higher brain functions.
4. They are trying to capture her rather than kill her.
5. They repeatedly try to hasten the speed at which she her parasite matures.

Combine all this with the fact that they state that the infection will start in the States makes it blatantly obvious what they intentions were and why they kidnapped Ashley. It is elementary, really.

They want to kidnap Ashley, infect her with the enhance version of the parasite, then let her go home. Then she can get close to the president, infect him, then the president can infect the rest of the government then military, then it can spread across the rest of the world.

And with Sadler as the one with the "queen" parasite, he would be able to control the entire world like a hive at that point.

[deadbeef]

Originally posted by D. Flame:

Originally posted by deadbeef:

Prove me wrong. Someone go find a single document or cutscene explaining why exactly they kidnapped Ashley, other than the 1 sentence I already quoted. Go do it.

Bet nobody will be able to do it.

Wrong.
1. They state she is the presidents daughter.
2. There are other documents that explain how the infected can infect others.
3. There are documents that state the newer versions of the parasite allow the infected to retain the personality and higher brain functions.
4. They are trying to capture her rather than kill her.
5. They repeatedly try to hasten the speed at which she her parasite matures.

Combine all this with the fact that they state that the infection will start in the States makes it blatantly obvious what they intentions were and why they kidnapped Ashley. It is elementary, really.

They want to kidnap Ashley, infect her with the enhance version of the parasite, then let her go home. Then she can get close to the president, infect him, then the president can infect the rest of the government then military, then it can spread across the rest of the world.

And with Sadler as the one with the "queen" parasite, he would be able to control the entire world like a hive at that point.

lmfao, we really went from "they explain in the game!" to "you should have been able to figure it out without an explanation!" XD

[D. Flame]

Originally posted by deadbeef:

Originally posted by D. Flame:

Wrong.
1. They state she is the presidents daughter.
2. There are other documents that explain how the infected can infect others.
3. There are documents that state the newer versions of the parasite allow the infected to retain the personality and higher brain functions.
4. They are trying to capture her rather than kill her.
5. They repeatedly try to hasten the speed at which she her parasite matures.

Combine all this with the fact that they state that the infection will start in the States makes it blatantly obvious what they intentions were and why they kidnapped Ashley. It is elementary, really.

They want to kidnap Ashley, infect her with the enhance version of the parasite, then let her go home. Then she can get close to the president, infect him, then the president can infect the rest of the government then military, then it can spread across the rest of the world.

And with Sadler as the one with the "queen" parasite, he would be able to control the entire world like a hive at that point.

lmfao, we really went from "they explain in the game!" to "you should have been able to figure it out without an explanation!" XD

They did explain. They just expect players to have at least a little bit of reading comprehension.

1. The presidents daughter is infected.
2. The girl will be the source for further infection.
3. The spread will start from the US.

This is all the explanation that anyone should need.

Like remember those reading comprehension skills tests they gave you in primary school:

"Once upon a time Susan bought a puppy. She was happy, and she showed it to all her friends. They had fun playing with the puppy. A little later, Barbara showed up and kicked the puppy, then Susan and her friends were sad. The end."

1.) Who was the villain in this story?

2.) Why were Susan and her friends sad at the end?

It's like that. They explain it to you, and they give you everything you need to put the pieces together outside of just directly stating it.

It's like they drive you right up to the finish line of the race, and all you have to do is step over it. Like leading a horse to water then just waiting for it to drink. They told you everything you need to know. It's just up to you to actually try to comprehend it.

[Kung Fu RUSSEL]

To be fair that is one thing the original game does a lot better is actually explaining the plans of Saddler and the Los Illuminados.
Still it's not like it's super hard to figure out. Infect Ashley, send her to the President and infect him.
It's silly but it was good enough motivation

[InstableMonster]

Originally posted by Kung Fu RUSSEL:

To be fair that is one thing the original game does a lot better is actually explaining the plans of Saddler and the Los Illuminados.
Still it's not like it's super hard to figure out. Infect Ashley, send her to the President and infect him.
It's silly but it was good enough motivation

The original did it too much imo, every other note or call you get is a villain saying the next step in their plan so you can prepare yourself for it.


It went something like "he'll get eaten by the big monster in the lake" "he killed the lake monster, no worry I'll send one ogre to kill him" "dont worry about the dead ogre, tall fedora man will take care of him"