First Run vs Second Run

[RaMb0RO]

Hello.I just bought the game 2 days ago and its my first time when i actually play or see something about Resident Evil(i mean i heard something about the movies).Anyway..
I started the game for the first time and i selected to play with ma men Leon.One hour ago i completed his story(which is so awsome).
After i got back in the menu it says that now i can play the game with a second run to see the other ending(which is Claire's)
Ok all clear.Now the questions:

1.Is there a difference if i start Claire's story from the "NEW GAME" section or if i start her from the "SECOND RUN" section?
I mean let's say CLAIRE A vs CLAIRE B.

2.And if it is a yes,can you tell me what has changed?

Thank you and have a nice day

[Jc]

https://www.polygon.com/resident-evil-2-remake-guide/2019/1/25/18197749/leon-claire-campaign-differences

This pretty much sums it up.

But the differences are much more less than in the original game, but at least some are still there. For example some areas you can't access with Leon but can with Claire and vice versa. And with Claire you'll meet different characters as well for example, also you'll acquire different "special" weapons as well along the way.

"Along with the different paths the two take, Claire and Leon have different goals as they explore and survive Raccoon City. Their goals are often similar, but their objectives will sometimes be in different places."

The short answer, though, is that you’ll only get the full story of Resident Evil 2 by playing it (at least) twice — once as Leon and once as Claire, that will give you the whole picture.

Back in the day in the original game we had Leon A - B and Claire A - B, so basically 4 playthroughs, so this approach offered a vast majority of differences between the campaigns, now in this Remake they kinda merged these together into a "New Game" and into a "Second Run", so this time it's kinda like: Leon A and Claire B. I'd say this covers the main plot of RE2: Remake now, so first you complete it with Leon, then you go for the Second one with Claire. So it will fill in the "missing" story pieces and will make it a whole.

But don't wanna spoil the fun, so just go for it :)

[Bullett00th]

There are places and events exclusive to A/B and places and events exclusive to characters

[Nico]

Little differences, like who gets to meet Marvin. None that are a big deal but the game is so replayable and fun you'll probably play Claire A and Leon B at some point too. :)

[RaMb0RO]

And is there a difference if i play Claire from "New Game" vs "Second Run"?

[Bullett00th]

Originally posted by RaMb0RO:

And is there a difference if i play Claire from "New Game" vs "Second Run"?

If you played Leon, you should go for Claire 2nd run.
If you played Claire, you should go for Leon 2nd run.

Going for default run again means pretty much replaying the same game as a different character, except the character-exclusive bits

[DragonCurse4]

Originally posted by RaMb0RO:

And is there a difference if i play Claire from "New Game" vs "Second Run"?

If you play the second run, you get the true ending.

[EbonHawk]

Ok, thanks for this! I might have missed it otherwise.

I chose Claire (A?) for my first playthrough, thinking it was a one-time thru thing.

[RaMb0RO]

Ok so just now i finished Claire 2nd run and i have a question...WHAT JUST HAPPENED?:))
I mean i have some unclear things:

So i played Leon 1st run and Claire 2nr run.Leon enters the station and he if followed by Tyrant...he fights with William in the underground..then in the lab...etc.
Question is how is this happening to Claire too?I mean if Leon is followed by Tyrant and he fights it at the end...how is he killed in Claire's 2nd run and in the same time he fights Leon
Another one is how Annette really dies?
OR the biggest question:how Leon and Claire both enter the station and they can't see each other and do the same puzzles..

There are a lot of unclear problems for me but if you can answer those here...thank you so much.

[lexilogo]

Originally posted by RaMb0RO:

So i played Leon 1st run and Claire 2nr run.Leon enters the station and he if followed by Tyrant...he fights with William in the underground..then in the lab...etc.
Question is how is this happening to Claire too?I mean if Leon is followed by Tyrant and he fights it at the end...how is he killed in Claire's 2nd run and in the same time he fights Leon
Another one is how Annette really dies?
OR the biggest question:how Leon and Claire both enter the station and they can't see each other and do the same puzzles..

From my understanding the two playthroughs are not supposed to be 100% coherent and the answer as to what really happened is somewhere in the middle?

Someone solved the puzzles, fought Birkin in the relevant locations, ecetera, it's just that who you picked determines who did those things in that playthrough with no canonical answer.

Though in Annette's case, I think it can be explained as her faking her death to Sherry in order to get away from her to stop the G-virus from being stolen. After they leave, she goes to the G-virus containment area and Leon sees her actual death.

[Nacho]

Originally posted by RaMb0RO:

Ok so just now i finished Claire 2nd run and i have a question...WHAT JUST HAPPENED?:))
I mean i have some unclear things:

So i played Leon 1st run and Claire 2nr run.Leon enters the station and he if followed by Tyrant...he fights with William in the underground..then in the lab...etc.
Question is how is this happening to Claire too?I mean if Leon is followed by Tyrant and he fights it at the end...how is he killed in Claire's 2nd run and in the same time he fights Leon
Another one is how Annette really dies?
OR the biggest question:how Leon and Claire both enter the station and they can't see each other and do the same puzzles..

There are a lot of unclear problems for me but if you can answer those here...thank you so much.

Each one of the 4 scenarios are different realities, while you play as one character, the other characters does absolutely nothing (except story bits like grabbing the g virus for example)

So for example if you play Claire A, she fighst all the bosses and Leon does NOTHING, and if you then play Leon B, you aren't playing the other side of the story, you are playing a NEW variant story where Claire does NOTHING.

And it's not me that's saying this (altough it's pretty obvious), the developer director said so himself. That's why tyrant dies "twice" (there's only one tyrant).

[Jc]

Compared to the original RE2, what I really miss from this Remake is the brief connections / interactions between the two characters. So for example when Leon gave the walkie to Claire in the STARS office etc, the brief talks over the walkie. It wasn't much, but you got that sense that you're not alone in there, so it kinda gave you the impression like as if while you were doing xyz for example, the other char. were doing xyz as well, so it made it more real. Too bad they didn't include this small but still important part in the Remake. Also the arrival of the Tyrant scene, which was in the trailers, but for some reason it got cut out from the final game. And last but not least, arriving to the RPD also feels a bit rushed compared to the original, so could have used at least the same length of street time in there as in the original one. But these are just minor stuff, so the Remake is perfect imo regardless.