Resident Evil 4... a hybrid?

I love this game tons but you know what it reminds me of?  Sword of the Berserk on Dreamcast (with the Mandragora parasites that take ovewr people's minds but mutate them into being super strong) and Metal Gear solid (minus the sneaking... but... you should know what I mean).

Also in some ways it remidns me of The Faculty because weren't the parasites in that (very stupid, awful) movie sensitive to light?  Cool game anyways, I heard in PS2 version you can get a chainsaw.

uh... PAC MAN!!!
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Tristram said:

I love this game tons but you know what it reminds me of?  Sword of the Berserk on Dreamcast (with the Mandragora parasites that take ovewr people's minds but mutate them into being super strong) and Metal Gear solid (minus the sneaking... but... you should know what I mean).

Also in some ways it remidns me of The Faculty because weren't the parasites in that (very stupid, awful) movie sensitive to light?  Cool game anyways, I heard in PS2 version you can get a chainsaw.

uh... PAC MAN!!!
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I just beat RE4 a few days ago. Great action but completely trash story. As for the game parallels... well, I think you're looking a little too much into it but visually, I can understand the Mandragora aspect. Though Las Plagas are more like bugs than the mandragora, which are plants.

Walter said:

I just beat RE4 a few days ago.  Great action but completely trash story.  As for the game parallels... well, I think you're looking a little too much into it but visually, I can understand the Mandragora aspect. Though Las Plagas are more like bugs than the mandragora, which are plants.

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Still are tentacally and parasitic.  Also yeah the story was awful.  "Welcome my brethren"  "NO THANKS BRO" 

What's sad is, the game gets worse when you know enough Spanish to translate all the garbage the enemies spew out. Seriously, "To die is to live," is probably one of the worst phrases I've ever heard out of an enemy. I did figure out though, after several troubles with leadges, ladders, and the context sensitive action button, that that girl your supposed to rescue will get angry if you try to look up her skirt.

Love this game. In fact, I got it out again today for the first time in about a month.

I decided I'd try professional mode. Got my ass handed to me. I guess I need to get the hang of it again.

As for the story, I didn't think it was THAT bad. That being said, it certainly wasn't the reason that made me keep playing or why I loved the game so much. Story was just mediocre IMO.

krumm47 said:

Love this game. In fact, I got it out again today for the first time in about a month.

I decided I'd try professional mode. Got my ass handed to me.  I guess I need to get the hang of it again.

As for the story, I didn't think it was THAT bad. That being said, it certainly wasn't the reason that made me keep playing or why I loved the game so much. Story was just mediocre IMO.

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You're supposed to play professional mode after you've already gone through once and have an upgraded Red9/Striker/Magnum... Having the semi-automatic rifle upgraded helps alot too.

The thing I dont get though, is there is a gun called the hand cannon that you have to beat the mercenary mode (all five characters, all four levels each) to get it, then you have to spend 300,000 to upgrade it. I'm sorry but even I cant play a game for that long, Capcom. Sick thing is, I have a person I know (I wont say friend) who does that kind of crap, locking himself inside for a week straight and unlocking all the ph4t l3wt and easter eggs.

Speaking of easter eggs did you guys notice anything wierd in RE4? One thing I though was hilarious is you can use eggs as a weapon, though I never actually killed anything with them... I threw about 5 eggs at Dr. Salvadore (the first/second/fifth chainsaw maniac enemy) and all it did was kinda stun him each time... hilarious, though. <splat>

Tristram said:

unlocking all the ph4t l3wt and easter eggs.

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By definition, you don't unlock ph4t l3wt, you loot it.

Actually, RE4 reminds me more of Stuart Gordon's Lovecraft-inspired film Dagon (isolated Spanish village inhabited by mutant cultists). It's not surprising, since some popular novels and manga in Japan were influenced by the seminal horror writer, like Wicked City, Hellsing, and probably tentacle hentai.

The movie Dagon is actually based on Lovecraft's story, "The Shadow Over Innsmouth". Lovecraft did write a story called Dagon but its nothing like the movie. TSOI is about a small isolated community in the New England area with strange inhabitants.

Alucalb said:

Actually, RE4 reminds me more of Stuart Gordon's Lovecraft-inspired film Dagon (isolated Spanish village inhabited by mutant cultists).

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Well, it's more than just inspired since it's a direct adaptation of one of his short novels. Anyway, I never found that Hellsing was inspired by Lovecraft (I don't really follow the series, though), is that something that Hirano said? Just curious.

EDIT: You're too fast, HawaiianStallion.

The Lovecraftian elements in Hellsing are hard miss. For example, Alucard's monster form is an amorphous black creature with hundreds of eyes and teeth, like the Shoggoth from "At The Mountains Of Madness". And in episode twelve of the anime, there are dog-faced monsters reminiscent of the ghouls from "Pickman's Model", and there's a Hellsing agent named Pickman, too.


Back to RE4. Like HawaiianStallion said, the movie Dagon is very loosely based on "The Shadow Over Innsmouth". Instead of a private detective investigating the strange goings-on in a New England fishing town in the 20's, Dagon has a college student trying to save his friends after they're stranded in a Spanish fishing town in 2001. RE4 seems like a blend of the two (government agent looking for the president's daughter in spooky Spanish village, tentacles and gory hijinks ensue).

Alucalb said:

Alucard's monster form is an amorphous black creature with hundreds of eyes and teeth, like the Shoggoth from "At The Mountains Of Madness".

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I'm afraid I have to disagree. Alucard transforms into a variety of things, and yeah, he takes an "amorphous" shape while doing so, like Victoria does with her arm in volume 7. However that's just when he's reduced to tiny bits, and even so, that "black cloud" (apparently formed from blood half the time, so maybe not that black) always end up taking actual shapes, like bats or bugs, and generally it forms his silhouette. He's also shown with a score of eyes, but not hundreds, more like two dozens at max. As for the teeth, it's because he morphs part of his body into hell hounds (to quote him), so it's just a hellish dog head, he's not covered with them... I don't remember them being more than two at once (I've read volume 1 to 7).

Not only that, but reducing Lovecraft to monsters with many eyes and teeth doesn't really do him justice, there's a context and an atmosphere to his works, something that Hellsing entirely lacks.

Alucalb said:

And in episode twelve of the anime, there are dog-faced monsters reminiscent of the ghouls from "Pickman's Model", and there's a Hellsing agent named Pickman, too.

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Episode 12 of the anime has nothing to do with the manga nor the original story of Hellsing, so there's not much relevance to that, if only to tell that the anime's director is a Lovecraft enthusiast and felt like including a nice reference.

So yeah, in short, I'm not convinced.

Alucalb said:

the movie Dagon is very loosely based on "The Shadow Over Innsmouth". Instead of a private detective investigating the strange goings-on in a New England fishing town in the 20's, Dagon has a college student trying to save his friends after they're stranded in a Spanish fishing town in 2001.

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Whether the director deviated a lot from the original or not, it's still more than just inspired. I think that it's actually one of the not so many official adaptations (as opposed to inspired creations) of Lovecraft's work (full title of the movie being: "H.P. Lovecraft's Dagon"), that credits him for the writing (both "Dagon" and "The Shadow Over Innsmouth" are credited) and based the advertising campaign on it. These are just unimportant details anyway.

Changing the main characters, time and locations has never been a problem when "adapting" novels, look at War of the World.

Aazealh said:

Not only that, but reducing Lovecraft to monsters with many eyes and teeth doesn't really do him justice, there's a context and an atmosphere to his works, something that Hellsing entirely lacks.

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I didn't say all monsters in the Cthulhu Mythos are blobs with lots eyes and teeth (I know they aren't!), I was just saying that one of Alucard's forms (I meant to say one of, honest) is pretty similar to one that is.

Hellsing Headquarters had a list of references (like Integra's middle name, Wingates), but that sites been down for a few years so I'm buggered.

Alucalb said:

I didn't say all monsters in the Cthulhu Mythos are blobs with lots eyes and teeth (I know they aren't!), I was just saying that one of Alucard's forms (I meant to say one of, honest) is pretty similar to one that is.

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Haha well, I still think that it doesn't look so much like it if you take into account the design of it all (Alucard has stylish eyes and all that) compared to Lovecraft's good ole cyclopean monstrosities. Now that's just a matter of point of view.

Alucalb said:

Hellsing Headquarters had a list of references (like Integra's middle name, Wingates), but that sites been down for a few years so I'm buggered.

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Hehe, actually Hellsing really is full of references to everything... Seriously, there are so many it's hard to remember them all (from the Vladimir Harkonnen gun to bad Bruce Willis jokes, "Apocalypse Now" lines, "Final Fantasy" titles, etc). Anyway to get back on topic, Resident Evil 4 sure is a nice game. And I actually think that in terms of ambiance, the original Silent Hill has a pretty strong Lovecraft influence...

Alucard nor Cthulu are present in Resident Evil 4. Trust me.

Yes they are, but you need the hot coffee mod to access them.