49 Fun Facts About Resident Evil

What is the Resident Evil series called in Japan?

Biohazard is the Japanese title; the series launched under that name in March 1996, and the name Resident Evil was coined only for the Western release.

Which company makes Resident Evil?

Capcom, the Osaka-based publisher of Street Fighter and Mega Man, has made every Resident Evil game since the 1996 original, its best-selling series.

Who directed the first Resident Evil game in 1996?

Shinji Mikami directed the 1996 original, then the first Dino Crisis and Resident Evil 4, and later founded Tango Gameworks, maker of The Evil Within.

The original game was inspired by the limits of which earlier 1989 horror game from the same publisher?

Sweet Home was itself based on a Japanese horror film, and its limited supplies inspired the scarce ammo.

Why could the Japanese title not be used in the United States?

"A DOS game and a punk band already had it": an earlier MS-DOS title and a New York hardcore band both used the name, so the publisher's US arm coined Resident Evil instead.

What is the name of the fictional Midwestern town where S.T.A.R.S. is based?

Raccoon City, the fictional Midwestern home of the S.T.A.R.S. unit, is overrun by the T-virus outbreak of Resident Evil 2 and 3 and destroyed by a missile strike at the end of the third game.

What does S.T.A.R.S. stand for?

Special Tactics and Rescue Service is the expansion; the police department's elite unit is split into Alpha and Bravo teams, and its July 1998 mission into the Arklay Mountains opens the first game.

Which two characters can you play in the original 1996 game?

Chris Redfield and Jill Valentine are the two playable S.T.A.R.S. members, each exploring the Spencer Mansion in the Arklay Mountains with different inventory sizes and support characters.

The mansion's pre-rendered backdrops were partly inspired by the hotel in which horror film?

The game used fixed camera angles and tank controls.

On which console was Resident Evil first released in 1996?

PlayStation got Resident Evil first, in March 1996; the project had begun as a Super NES remake of an earlier Famicom horror game before moving to Sony's new hardware with pre-rendered 3D backgrounds.

Who is the villainous S.T.A.R.S. captain revealed as a traitor in the first game?

Albert Wesker, the S.T.A.R.S. Alpha team captain, is revealed as a double agent for the company behind the mansion and is impaled by the Tyrant he unleashes, surviving only through an experimental virus.

What is the name of the pharmaceutical company behind the T-virus?

Umbrella Corporation, founded by Oswell E. Spencer, developed the T-virus whose leak caused the 1998 mansion incident and the outbreak that consumed the city two months later.

In Resident Evil 2, rookie cop Leon Kennedy arrives in town on what occasion?

His first day at work is the occasion: Leon Kennedy turns up late for his first shift with the city police and finds the town already overrun, meeting Claire Redfield on the way in.

What was the 'Zapping System' introduced in Resident Evil 2?

"Two characters facing different puzzles and encounters" describes the Zapping System: Leon and Claire each have A and B scenarios, and choices in one, such as items taken, change the other.

The scrapped early version of the second game is commonly known as what?

Resident Evil 1.5 is the fan name for the build scrapped in 1997 when it was roughly two-thirds complete; Hideki Kamiya directed both it and the rebuilt game released in January 1998.

Ada Wong was originally conceived under what name for the RE2 prototype?

Linda was the prototype's name for a scientist character; for the finished game she was rewritten as the spy Ada Wong, taking her name from a researcher's girlfriend mentioned in the first game's files.

The relentless Nemesis in Resident Evil 3 was inspired by which movie villain?

Jill Valentine escapes Raccoon City with the creature in pursuit.

Resident Evil 4 popularised which camera perspective, later used by Gears of War and The Last of Us?

Over-the-shoulder is the perspective Resident Evil 4 popularised in 2005, placing the camera behind Leon's shoulder with laser-sight aiming; Gears of War adopted the view the following year.

In Resident Evil 4, Leon must rescue the president's daughter from a cult in which country?

Spain is the setting: Leon tracks Ashley Graham to a rural village whose infected residents, Los Ganados, take their name from the Spanish for "the cattle".

Which parasite controls the villagers and cultists in Resident Evil 4?

Las Plagas, ancient parasites revived by the Los Illuminados cult, control the villagers Leon fights in Resident Evil 4; Leon and Ashley are implanted too and must purge the eggs with a radiation device.

From whom does Leon buy and sell items in Resident Evil 4?

The Merchant, a hooded trader who greets Leon with "What're ya buyin'?", sells and upgrades weapons throughout Resident Evil 4 and buys the treasures Leon finds for pesetas.

Resident Evil 5 is set in Kijuju, a fictional region of which continent?

Africa is the setting: Kijuju is a fictional African region whose villagers are turned into Majini by a parasite, and its sun-bleached streets marked a sharp break from the series' dark corridors.

Which game finally kills the traitorous ex-S.T.A.R.S. captain, at the hands of Chris and Sheva?

Resident Evil 5 ends with Chris and Sheva firing rocket launchers at the mutated captain in a volcano after he tries to spread the Uroboros virus worldwide.

Resident Evil 7 was the earliest main game to use which perspective?

First-person was new for a numbered entry when Resident Evil 7 arrived in January 2017, with Ethan Winters searching for his missing wife Mia in the Baker family's derelict plantation house.

In which US state is Resident Evil 7 set?

Louisiana is the setting: the Baker family's derelict plantation sits outside the fictional town of Dulvey, in bayou country the game renders with swamp, humidity and Southern Gothic decay.

Which game introduced the series' timed bonus mode The Mercenaries?

Resident Evil 3: Nemesis introduced The Mercenaries in 1999 as "Operation: Mad Jackal", a timed dash through the ruined city as Carlos, Mikhail or Nikolai; Resident Evil 4 later made the mode famous.

What is Lady Dimitrescu's first name?

Alcina Dimitrescu, the 9-foot-6 vampire-like lady of Castle Dimitrescu, lives with her three daughters Bela, Cassandra and Daniela and became a viral sensation before Village launched in 2021.

Who provided Lady Dimitrescu's voice and motion capture?

Maggie Robertson voiced and performed the motion capture for Lady Dimitrescu, winning The Game Awards' Best Performance in 2021; the character's look was modeled on Polish model Helena Mankowska.

In Resident Evil Village, who sells the player weapons and cooks hunted animals?

The Duke, the enormous merchant who travels in a covered wagon, sells and upgrades weapons and cooks the animals Ethan hunts into permanent stat-boosting meals.

What happens to Ethan Winters at the end of Village?

"He sacrifices himself to destroy a fungal colony" is Village's ending: Ethan, already dying, stays behind with a bomb to obliterate the Megamycete while Chris escapes with baby Rose.

Resident Evil Zero, the 2002 prequel, pairs Rebecca Chambers with which convict?

Billy Coen, an ex-Marine being transported to execution, escapes a train wreck and teams with Rebecca Chambers; players swap between the two to explore an abandoned training facility in the Arklay Mountains.

Code: Veronica was released in 2000 for which console?

Dreamcast got Code: Veronica in early 2000 as a Sega exclusive; Claire, then her brother, fight through Rockfort Island's prison and an Antarctic base, and the expanded Code: Veronica X followed in 2001.

Who is the playable character introduced in 2026's Resident Evil Requiem?

An FBI analyst, she investigates deaths tied to Raccoon City survivors, aided by Leon Kennedy.

Requiem is which numbered main installment in the series?

Ninth is Requiem's place in the numbered line; Village (2021) was the eighth, which is why its logo hides a 'VIII' inside the word.

Which consumable item was used up every time you saved in the original games?

Ink ribbons were used up at each typewriter save in the 1996 original and its early sequels, turning every save into a decision; Resident Evil 7's Madhouse difficulty revived the idea with cassette tapes.

Who plays Alice, the lead of the six live-action films?

Milla Jovovich played Alice in all six films from 2002 to 2016 and married their writer-director during the series; Alice was created for the films and never appeared in the games.

Who wrote and directed the first Resident Evil film in 2002 and directed four of the six?

Paul W. S. Anderson wrote all six films, directed the 2002 original, Afterlife, Retribution and The Final Chapter, and married the series' star in 2009.

In the 2002 film, what is the name of the underground Umbrella lab beneath the doomed city?

The Hive is the underground lab beneath the city in the 2002 film; its AI, the Red Queen, seals it and kills the staff after the T-virus is released, and Alice wakes with amnesia in the mansion above.

What did the six live-action Resident Evil films starring Alice gross worldwide in total?

Over $1.2 billion is the combined worldwide gross of the six films from 2002 to 2016, with The Final Chapter the biggest earner at about $312 million, most of it from China.

Who directed the first reboot film, released in 2021?

Johannes Roberts, director of 47 Meters Down, made the 2021 reboot, which returned to the first two games' 1998 setting rather than the Alice films and grossed about $42 million worldwide.

Who led the cast of Netflix's 2022 series as clones of the franchise's arch-villain?

Lance Reddick played the arch-villain and his clones in Netflix's 2022 series, developed by Andrew Dabb and cancelled after one season; Reddick died in March 2023.

Which model was Jill Valentine's face based on from the 2002 remake through Resident Evil 5?

Julia Voth, a Canadian model and actress, lent her face to Jill Valentine from the 2002 remake through the 2009 entry, after which the 2020 remake of the third game used Sasha Zotova instead.

Chris and Jill became founding members of which anti-bioterrorism body?

The BSAA (Bioterrorism Security Assessment Alliance) was founded with Chris and Jill among its original eleven members, operates under the United Nations, and is the organisation Chris serves through the later numbered games.

Which two Resident Evil rail-shooters were released for the Wii?

Umbrella Chronicles and Darkside Chronicles, released for the Wii in 2007 and 2009, retold earlier games as light-gun-style shooters; both were bundled as the Chronicles HD Collection in 2012.

Where was the actress who plays Alice born?

Kyiv, then in the Soviet Union, is where the actress was born in December 1975 to a Russian actress and a Serbian doctor; the family emigrated to the United States when she was five.

Which producer, the creator of Ghosts 'n Goblins, conceived the original Resident Evil?

Tokuro Fujiwara, the producer behind Ghosts 'n Goblins and the 1989 haunted-mansion game that seeded the idea, handed the project to a young director while expecting only a modest core-audience hit.

How many inventory slots does Chris have in the original game, compared with Jill's eight?

Six slots is Chris's inventory in the 1996 original against Jill's eight, one reason his campaign is considered the harder one; spare items go into the item boxes found in safe rooms.

Which two pre-production characters were replaced by Rebecca Chambers and Barry Burton?

Dewey and Gelzer were dropped during pre-production: Dewey was planned as comic relief and Gelzer, a hulking cyborg, as the strongman, before Rebecca Chambers and Barry Burton took their slots.

Which 1997 port of the original added a battle mode with a gold Tyrant?

Sega Saturn received the original in 1997 with an exclusive Battle Game mode that pitted players against a gold Tyrant and a zombified version of the traitorous captain, plus a new Tick enemy.