This gives us a closer look at Leon S. Kennedy and the zombies he fought in both games.
Resident Evil is a series that rewards curious players. There are always hidden notes, recordings, and images throughout the games that provide additional information. For example, players can learn about the structural integrity of Mr. X’s trench coat or the fact that Grace Ashcroft has no social life. It’s not just the notes, though. In Resident Evil games, we also get a wealth of information from seemingly insignificant audio recordings. With that in mind, a tipster has struck gold.
Keff0, a well-known modder in the community, posted two videos on YouTube last week. One video explores more than 600 audio clips cut from Resident Evil 4 Remake, and the other explores nearly 400 audio clips cut from Resident Evil Requiem. Reviewing the discarded voice clips from Resident Evil 4 Remake is interesting because we get to hear more from Leon, Ashley, Luis, and the Merchant. Leon is always a pleasure to hear more from, but the Merchant takes the prize for the most noteworthy cut dialogue, as he snuck in a reference to Resident Evil Village.
“Ah, I see you’re no stranger to villages. The Duke? He shows promise,” says the Merchant in a dialogue scene from Resident Evil 4 Remake. This is likely a reference to the Duke from Resident Evil Village, who serves as the village merchant and Ethan Winters’ guide. Interestingly, the Duke had previously mentioned the Merchant when he asked Ethan, “What’re ya buyin’?” and jokingly added that an old friend of his used to say that. Both characters seem omnipresent, all-knowing, and invincible. They randomly appear on the map unscathed and seem to know more than they should. However, the Merchant might not be immortal. Keff0 discovered unused animations for his death scene, suggesting that he wasn’t immortal at an earlier stage of development.
The audio clips cut from Requiem don’t contain any references to other Resident Evil games. However, they provide a wealth of information about the characters and, most importantly, the infected. As we knew, the T-virus strain featured in Requiem was slightly different; it allowed the infected to retain memories of their former lives and perform habitual actions, such as scrubbing the floor, eating, or singing. If we listen carefully, we can also hear the infected crying and asking for forgiveness. Thanks to the deleted audio clips discovered by Keff0, however, we now know it could have been much worse. The burning zombies would have begged for water while screaming about how much the flames hurt. The massive Chunk would have begged not to die and cried about how stressed he was. Some of the infected would have thanked us for ending their suffering.
The lines we received certainly drove home just how tragic the whole thing was. Then there are Leon’s cut lines. Most of them are just his usual grunts and groans, along with a few spider-themed jokes—there are tons of those. The most interesting line, though, comes toward the end of the game when he’s really starting to suffer from the effects of the infection and the numerous gruesome battles: “I promise I’ll make it home.” This might not seem like much. However, considering how somber Leon has been since Resident Evil 2, it’s significant that he didn’t return to Raccoon City as a last-ditch attempt to save Sherry and make amends for his past mistakes. Instead, he came with the intention of moving on and living his life free from his shadow.
Unfortunately, we would never have seen these lines in Requiem or the Resident Evil 4 Remake—there simply isn’t enough room. At least we got to see what could have been.
Source: PCGamer
