What's supposed to be the canon storyline?

[Zuao]

This question has been bugging me since I played the OG PS1 game.

When I was a kid that barely understood English and got stuck in the Art Gallery puzzle (yes, that one you have to press buttons from youngest to oldest person picture. I facepalmed hard when a friend told me what to do), I always went with Jill first, because I believed (and it is true) she was easier to play with. That was the difficulty setting before Director's Cut.
However if you play the game with Chris, you can see that the storyline isn't simply the two characters going each their own way, like it is with Resident Evil 2. It's more like an "alternate universes" thing. Dead giveaway is at the very beggining, where if you go with Chris, he, Wesker and Jill make it to the mansion. If you play with Jill, she, Barry and Wesker are at the main hall.

So, which is supposed to be the canon playthrough? Chris or Jill?
I always believeit was Chris's.

[talgaby]

Neither and both. I know it does not help, but that is the truth. None of them were imprisoned, both went through the mansion and did their stuff. Jill killed the Tyrant and I think Chris handled the big plant.

The closest we ever got to the canon was the RE pachinko game's storyline.

[Lanzagranadas]

The canon is a mix between both scenarios. Chris did some things while Jill did others, for example Chris and Rebecca found and cured Richard while Barry saved Jill from the "sandwich" trap.

[talgaby]

Because "chink" is a similarly derogatory word for Chinese as calling a Jewish a "kike". And the Steam auto-censor is the simplest and dumbest, half-working implementation a forum engine can get, which is, naturally, expected from Valve.

By the way, many machines have elaborate cut-scenes like that. It is one of the methods companies tried to make their machines more interesting than the competition. Some have ridiculous production values.
Well, not any more since that segment is slowly starting to deflate, but still…

[JaggedMallard]

Originally posted by holychair:

Originally posted by talgaby:

Because "chink" is a similarly derogatory word for Chinese as calling a Jewish a "kike".

I never would have thought of that - it's like reading the word "love" into "glove".

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scunthorpe_problem
Its a surprisingly common problem with low effort censor implentations.

[MaebeKnot]

Jill, Chris, Rebecca and Barry all survive. Yet no more then three can survive any ending in RE1.

I mostly like Capcom as a developer but they have early and often ♥♥♥♥♥♥ up the storyline of the RE series.

[ut]

Originally posted by MaebeKnot:

Yet no more then three can survive any ending in RE1.

The 4th survivor could be missing, maybe they found another way out.

And there is Wesker, the cheater.

[Nox]

Originally posted by holychair:

Originally posted by talgaby:

The closest we ever got to the canon was the RE pachinko game's storyline.

I only saw those cutscenes like 6 weeks ago for the first time

I can't seem to find them. Can you post a link?

[Zuao]

Damn, I brought the broken shotgun along and skipped that wholesome meme.

Anyways, I guess the only canon is that Jill, Brad, Barry, Chris and Rebecca survive, Wesker escapes and the Mansion is destroyed and everyone lives hapily ever after until a month later when the virus hits Raccoon City.

[My 600 Ping Life.]

Umbrella Chronicles. It shows the most canon telling of the story.

And according to UC, Barry was never at the mansion. (he probably escaped on foot after the Cerberus attack and was picked-up by Brad)

TL;DR: It's Chris' story only Jill and Chris are never separated.

https://youtu.be/gPNPd4lnRdw
skip to 24:00

[MaebeKnot]

Originally posted by Fred Fuchs:

Umbrella Chronicles. It shows the most canon telling of the story.

And according to UC, Barry was never at the mansion. (he probably escaped on foot after the Cerberus attack and was picked-up by Brad)

TL;DR: It's Chris' story only Jill and Chris are never separated.

https://youtu.be/gPNPd4lnRdw
skip to 24:00

It's really sad how bad Capcom is about keeping the story straight. It's one thing and completely understandable to have the series pick one specific ending from an entry when there are multiply endings. Yet to go completely off the rails on what happened or to change it from one entry to another is hot garbage.

Yet I can't think of a single RE game where it had strong storytelling. Keep in mind I have played maybe just under half of the games.

[Trapped in Purgatory]

Originally posted by Zuao:

This question has been bugging me since I played the OG PS1 game.

When I was a kid that barely understood English and got stuck in the Art Gallery puzzle (yes, that one you have to press buttons from youngest to oldest person picture. I facepalmed hard when a friend told me what to do), I always went with Jill first, because I believed (and it is true) she was easier to play with. That was the difficulty setting before Director's Cut.
However if you play the game with Chris, you can see that the storyline isn't simply the two characters going each their own way, like it is with Resident Evil 2. It's more like an "alternate universes" thing. Dead giveaway is at the very beggining, where if you go with Chris, he, Wesker and Jill make it to the mansion. If you play with Jill, she, Barry and Wesker are at the main hall.

So, which is supposed to be the canon playthrough? Chris or Jill?
I always believeit was Chris's.

Think of it as Chris and Jill going through the mansion, but like RE2, they each enter at a different door, meet different characters, but meet up at the end to face Wesker and Tyrant. The "character stuck in a jail cell" is only there as a gameplay thing.

In Resident Evil Canon;
~Jill, Chris, Brad, Rebecca, and Barry all survive the mansion
~Barry leaves Raccoon city after the mansion
~ Chris leaves to Europe as a "vacation" to get more info on Umbrella
~ Jill stayed behind trying to stop Umbrella, but the outbreak happens and she escapes
~Barry returns to save Jill at the end of RE3
~ Rebecca leaves Raccoon City and she appears in some movie a few years ago
~ Brad gets killed by Nemesis, then Leon/Claire kills him again as a zombie

[ut]

Think this way, it is like some old history books, the chararacters and end results are 'canon', but not the details. There is no way the recorder can know details down to dialogues.
It is a game in which you make choices, so maybe there is 'canon' game play.

[Nox]

Originally posted by Zuao:

In Resident Evil Canon;
~Jill, Chris, Brad, Rebecca, and Barry all survive the mansion
~Barry leaves Raccoon city after the mansion
~ Chris leaves to Europe as a "vacation" to get more info on Umbrella
~ Jill stayed behind trying to stop Umbrella, but the outbreak happens and she escapes
~Barry returns to save Jill at the end of RE3
~ Rebecca leaves Raccoon City and she appears in some movie a few years ago
~ Brad gets killed by Nemesis, then Leon/Claire kills him again as a zombie

& Billy rode of into the sunset, never to be heard of again

[vrx]

Originally posted by talgaby:

Neither and both. I know it does not help, but that is the truth. None of them were imprisoned, both went through the mansion and did their stuff. Jill killed the Tyrant and I think Chris handled the big plant.

The closest we ever got to the canon was the RE pachinko game's storyline.

In fact, the first time, Jill eliminates the tyrant by itself. In the second part are all members of S.T.A.R.S together, featuring Jill and Chris. The Snake, Yawn is defeated for the first time by Jill, and finally killed by Chris. The Plant 42, is killed by Jill along with the shark. Already Chris, beats Lisa Trevor. In itself Jill has more participation in the story than Chris, but Chris has won the most powerful enemy.

[Pudie]

From what I could see in Resident Evil HD, the only ending where Wesker doesn't die is Jill's ending saving Chris and Barry, Wesker never gets impaled, and is just knocked out by the Tyrant. Then, by the time you try to escape, you realize he disappeared and he suddenly turned out the self destruction mechanism for the lab.

You escape with Barry and Chris as Jill, on Brad's helicopter. Rebecca would then manage to escape the mansion in some other way.

I like to take Jill's ending as the most accurate mainly because it's the only one where Wesker doesn't end up dead and makes some sense to find him later. You also never meet Rebecca, so it would make sense that you never get to know how she managed to escape.

I also like to think that Chris' been rocking around the mansion and ♥♥♥♥, ultimately being taken out by Wesker himself halfway the game to be left imprisoned, initially as a"free getaway ticket" to threaten the other STARS in case things go wrong, because Wesker knows damn well his boys are damn good.