A Short History of Resident Evil 5: Part 2
A continued look at RE5's conceptualization and development
For the most part, development and production of Resident Evil 5 was devoid of the issues that plagued past mainline RE games, particularly Resident Evil 4, which was rebooted several times. Thanks to the earlier releases of Dead Rising and Lost Planet: Extreme Condition on Xbox 360, Capcom had figured out HD hardware development by the time it was knee-deep in production of RE5, while continuing to iterate on their MT Framework middleware engine.
Instead, the greater challenges lie in the game’s creative direction. RE4 had all but ignored all of the overarching plot established up to that point, but with the IP revitalized and no longer in danger of irrelevance, Capcom decided to revisit characters and storylines that were left unresolved prior to RE4, particularly ones that were established in Resident Evil CODE: Veronica and Resident Evil 0.
Bringing Back Chris Redfield and Albert Wesker
Perhaps the two easiest decision for Capcom were the main protagonist and antagonist. Chris Redfield was the obvious choice for a protagonist here given his long absence since CV. Inversely, Albert Wesker was chosen as the primary antagonist, with his story picking up directly after Separate Ways, the extra mode added to the PlayStation 2 port of RE4. Rather than invent yet another new bioweapon, Capcom decided to finally elaborate on the Progenitor Virus, which had only been touched upon briefly in CV and RE0, with the intention of being fully explored in RE4 before it was rebooted.
Choosing West Africa as the Setting
Several things went into Capcom’s decision to go with West Africa for the setting. Although CV and RE0 did not explicitly state as such in their in-game files, Capcom’s storywriters had internally conceptualized the Progenitor Virus as originating in Africa (much like humanity itself). Billy Coen’s subplot in RE0 was meant to tangentially connect to the African origins of the Progenitor Virus, but the final game makes no mention of this at all.
Beyond that, Capcom saw positive feedback to the rural Spanish village setting of RE4 and wanted to replicate that in a different context. Capcom also wanted to use locales that the RE series had yet to explore, why was why RE5 and Resident Evil: The Darkside Chronicles prominently featured rural villages in their settings. (Fun fact: in Resident Evil: The Umbrella Chronicles, Capcom went with polar Russia for the setting, which actually includes a rural village as part of its lore, even if the final game barely depicts it. One can say Capcom has a long standing obsession with villages and boats in RE, even as of 2024).
Early on in development, Capcom realized that the West African setting would elicit more sensitive responses outside Japan compared to previous RE games. Certain international staff at Capcom involved in localization, marketing, and sales told the RE5 production team that the portrayal of Black people needed to be accurate and respectful. Acknowledging this, several Capcom staff traveled to Ghana in West Africa in order to location scout; this trip, along with Jason Crislip’s earlier reference materials, informed the visual design the team eventually went with for RE5.
Eventually, the gaming community would debate the merits of Capcom’s choice of locale. But Capcom, to their credit, did research the issue during production.
Introducing Sheva Alomar
Sheva Alomar, the co-protagonist of RE5, is a significant character in the RE universe despite having exactly one appearance thus far. The reason is quite obvious: she is the only Black female protagonist introduced to date, and the second major one after Ingrid Hunnigan in RE4. With RE5 taking place in West Africa, Sheva was also intended to represent the locality. In following with the RE series’ general approach of having co-protagonists of multiple genders, Sheva was selected in response to Chris being the other main protagonist.
Sheva, like other female protagonists in the RE series, was conceptualized as strong and capable. Initially, she was intended to be part of a militia before Capcom settled on the BSAA (effectively the successor of S.T.A.R.S.), which she was made a member of alongside Chris. In order to Sheva an emotional stake in the storyline, Sheva’s back story involved her family being victimized by bioweapons.
Unfortunately, the final game largely skips over Sheva’s back story, relegating it to the in-game trivia files.
In the next issue, I will continue my recap of RE5’s development by exploring Capcom’s decision to bring back Jill Valentine and Oswell E. Spencer, as well as its decision to introduce co-op gameplay.