I don’t understand this game’s lore…

[R1ch4rd N1x0n]

If Saddlers mission was to infect Ashley and send her back to the president, then why the ♥♥♥♥ did he not just let Leon take her back? He had already infected both Leon and Ashley and if he would just let them leave they would both turn into ganados later on, then mission accomplished, right?

He shoots down the two choppers that try to come get him, but all he had to do was let them leave.

Why the hell was he so set on capturing Ashley when she was already infected?

[talgaby]

The game was redesigned and rewritten twice. None of the story makes any sense, unlike in the other REs. Saddler's backup plan also was an invasion against the US. Using a few hundred soldiers armed with wooden shields and crossbows.

The usual fan-made explanation is that Ashley was supposed to stay on the island until her parasite took over her, so Saddler was trying to keep her there.
The other one is that he thought Ashley had the sample, but that of course does not explain the last two kidnappings.
There was another upcoming fan theory in the visual novel, but Capcom axed it after the demo.

[MarkedMarkyMark]

Originally posted by talgaby:

The game was redesigned and rewritten twice. None of the story makes any sense, unlike in the other REs. Saddler's backup plan also was an invasion against the US. Using a few hundred soldiers armed with wooden shields and crossbows.

The usual fan-made explanation is that Ashley was supposed to stay on the island until her parasite took over her, so Saddler was trying to keep her there.
The other one is that he thought Ashley had the sample, but that of course does not explain the last two kidnappings.
There was another upcoming fan theory in the visual novel, but Capcom axed it after the demo.

I dunno, resident evil was always a schlocky of silly storylines due to sequelitis, its how we got to RE6, except that schlock wasnt as fun. the exception being the RE1 remake which, really is kinda of the best in the whole series.
I feel like it's more that Leon WAS kinda killing the whole country there so its not like he was just a ''nuisence'' and felt like he had to deal with that, it's just, kinda of stupid really, what matters is the fun stuff, i mean plotholes are plotholes, but, every game had them really, starting with ''oh boy making monsters is a good idea!'' or the whole wesker shenanigans, just, its all convoluted and at least RE4 is a standalone game without much of the baggage of ''its a sequel gotta cram all the references to all the things!''

[RedLion7420]

Don't try to understand RE plots. RE games are mainly "Gameplay" and "Ambiance" focused, Not "Story" focused. It was however better in RE1/2/3 before the stories writers start to take some weed between writing sessions, making some characters appear then vanish like they never existed for example.

[R1ch4rd N1x0n]

I mean, RE5 has a decent story.

[Lanzagranadas]

If we look at RE games credits: we'll notice how RE4 doesn't even have a script/scenario writter. Shows how much passion and work they put into the game story :P

The series has been known for using different script writters and directors, and while some of them put work and effort into writting a solid and cohesive story, some others just don't give a flying ♥♥♥♥. RE4 is amongst the second group. The early versions of the game had Kawamura (RE3 scenario writter), but he left during development, so Mikami took total control and they didn't bother hiring a new writter.

That's why RE4's plot feels like some disposable ♥♥♥♥ they came up with in the last minutes. There's plenty of nonsense, Saddler's plan was hilarious and poorly written, Ashley gets kidnapped over and over again in really stupid ways just to artificially extend the game length because she's the sole excuse for Leon to be there.

If Saddler had a brain, he could just have held Ashley close to him, and either killed Leon or jailed him after infecting him with the Plaga and wait for a few days until he could take full control of his mind. The only reason why Saddler just leaves Leon free roam so he can send his minions after him is because gameplay. Saddler had a few opportunities to kill Leon himself, yet he decides to let him alive so he can become his bodyguard, but then he sends every other enemy in the game to straight kill Leon, which doesn't make any sense. At least with Ashley, it was clear that Saddler wanted her alive.

[Monk]

It's RE, don't overthink it

[MarkedMarkyMark]

Originally posted by Lanzagranadas:

If we look at RE games credits: we'll notice how RE4 doesn't even have a script/scenario writter. Shows how much passion and work they put into the game story :P

The series has been known for using different script writters and directors, and while some of them put work and effort into writting a solid and cohesive story, some others just don't give a flying ♥♥♥♥. RE4 is amongst the second group. The early versions of the game had Kawamura (RE3 scenario writter), but he left during development, so Mikami took total control and they didn't bother hiring a new writter.

That's why RE4's plot feels like some disposable ♥♥♥♥ they came up with in the last minutes. There's plenty of nonsense, Saddler's plan was hilarious and poorly written, Ashley gets kidnapped over and over again in really stupid ways just to artificially extend the game length because she's the sole excuse for Leon to be there.

If Saddler had a brain, he could just have held Ashley close to him, and either killed Leon or jailed him after infecting him with the Plaga and wait for a few days until he could take full control of his mind. The only reason why Saddler just leaves Leon free roam so he can send his minions after him is because gameplay. Saddler had a few opportunities to kill Leon himself, yet he decides to let him alive so he can become his bodyguard, but then he sends every other enemy in the game to straight kill Leon, which doesn't make any sense. At least with Ashley, it was clear that Saddler wanted her alive.

Dude, RE4 had such a crazy development cycle that the final product we got is...it shouldn't be as good as it is, TO BE SUPER HONEST i think RE4 is good by accident, it's such a milkshake of ideas and stuff just thrown together and stitched and somehow instead of an ugly slow frankenstein we got a sexy one, like, everything about this one works so much better honestly, than the sequels, it's, it's not horror but it has an nice horror theme with call backs to many horror movies, but at the same time it's action based but at the same time ammo is somewhat scarce but at the same time if you methodically take down enemies with the knife you get a lot of ammo, like, it's all fun, Re 5 has shevas ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥, RE6 is just...too many stuff, RE4 stands right there in the middle, this weird but charming kid that is neither and that was at points Devil May Cry and Haunting Grounds.
RE4 shouldn't be good, but it is, and, the story is just that, an excuse for the setting, and the setting is fun and the dialogue is cheesy as any 90's action flick like die hard and ♥♥♥♥ and even ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ saddler knows it, like, it's....weirdly self aware even, unlike RE6 and 5 that takes itself too serious (except in 5 whenever wesker is there its fun, hes Dio, he's just Dio at this point, they even sound alike) this one feels like a parody of itself, but not a schlocky parody, more like, Edgar Wright parody.

[El Fuerte]

Because Luis told Leon and Ashley in the cabin that they had to cure themselves. By that point they decided not to escape and go cure themselves first. Saddler was trying to prevent that i suppose?

I don't see the difficulty in it. Its quite a braindead plot.

[duhmzdaih]

Why would you want to? it doesn't make sense anyway. Just shoot stuff and have fun.

[Merrrio]

Because Saddler, being the sneaky snakeoil salesman that he is, thought he might oppose to Leon just a bit in order to make him look like he did a good job. I mean, if you're plan is to infect the President's daughter with a parasyte to infect the major head of the "free world" and extort a cure for money, wouldn't it be better to involve a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ of villagers, giants, mutated dogs, fishes and even the Predator?

[Lanzagranadas]

Originally posted by FightThePowah!!!:

RE4 shouldn't be good, but it is, and, the story is just that, an excuse for the setting, and the setting is fun and the dialogue is cheesy as any 90's action flick like die hard and ♥♥♥♥ and even ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ saddler knows it, like, it's....weirdly self aware even, unlike RE6 and 5 that takes itself too serious (except in 5 whenever wesker is there its fun, hes Dio, he's just Dio at this point, they even sound alike) this one feels like a parody of itself, but not a schlocky parody, more like, Edgar Wright parody.

I've never heard from devs that RE4's plot was meant to be taken as a parody, it just feels that way at times because the story is really poorly presented and the amount of absurdity and random stuff exceeds that from other RE games.

All RE games have their plot-holes and hilarious stuff, but in most cases the plot at least has a purpose and a place within the series universe. They somehow try to follow previously established plot lines and things and tie to other games to build something that at least makes sense.

With RE4 they didn't even try, the plot is basically: Umbrella and its viruses from the previous five games are just gone, go with it. Now follow Leon S Kennedy's adventures on some Spanish village to rescue the president's daughter who has been kidnapped by a resurrected medieval cult. Cult that is led by some evil man you've never heard before (and has no background to explain where the heck he came from) whose plan is to control the United States by sending an infected president's daughter back to his dad :O

On top of that, we got Wesker, and a Leon's old friend we've also never heard or seen before, trying to revive Umbrella (ignore Wesker betrayed Umbrella in the very first game and did everything he could to destroy them since then). And also Ada working with Wesker but Not working with Wesker at the same time because she actually works for some other organization that still doesn't even have a name up to date.

[duhmzdaih]

Well, I see RE4 as a spin-off, with only an indirect relationship with the main plot of the franchise (plot I've never taken seriously anyway haha).

[ice]

Not to mention he leaves a convenient machine that instantly kills the parasite just waiting around for Leon to use.

Saddler is a geniune idiot who never stood a chance against Ada, Wesker, and Krauser.

[El Fuerte]

Originally posted by Lanzagranadas:

I've never heard from devs that RE4's plot was meant to be taken as a parody, it just feels that way at times because the story is really poorly presented and the amount of absurdity and random stuff exceeds that from other RE games.

They don't really need to say it on interview. None of Shinji Mikami directed games ever takes itself serious and they're all bloated with his signature nonsense.

You should see his Killer 7, God Hand, P.N 03 and Vanquish. The most "serious" game you'll ever get from that guy in a director's chair is RE1 Remake.

[Lanzagranadas]

Originally posted by RED:

Originally posted by Lanzagranadas:

I've never heard from devs that RE4's plot was meant to be taken as a parody, it just feels that way at times because the story is really poorly presented and the amount of absurdity and random stuff exceeds that from other RE games.

They don't really need to say it on interview. None of Shinji Mikami directed games ever takes itself serious and they're all bloated with his signature nonsense.

The plot of RE4 was meant to be taken seriously and was meant to be cohesive with the previous games as we know from the early trailers and some interviews, when the game actually had a script/scenario writter. But he left at some point and nobody bother finding a replacement.

Mikami was never in charge of story writting in any RE game anyway, he's a Producer/Director, and was a director back then. He was in charge of the game overall development process, and even if Mikami doesn't give a ♥♥♥♥ about the plot (because he doesn't have to), he wasn't above Capcom so that's no excuse not to have a competent writter to take care of that. In fact, Mikami wanted the first RE to be a "haunted house" game with no story, yet Capcom did want the game to have one so they put Kenichi Iwao in charge of the story/scenario writting.

It's not a dumb and inconsistent plot because its writter made it that way on purpose, it's just dumb and inconsistent because there wasn't even an actual writter there, because they didn't even care.