True Left

https://trueleft.createaforum.com/questions-debates/turan-and-gentile/msg26538/#msg26538

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What is your opinion on the first Resident Evil games? Why do you think Capcom, one of the most qualified game companies for Counterculture, created a fundamentally 3D game franchise regarding graphics? Even the beta design was 3D.
Could it be to highlight the horror theme using Western-style graphics?
Could it be because the few 3D Capcom games of Counterculture-era had a different approach to 3D? (For example, Misadventures of Tron Bonne, which you said is the best a 3D game can get, also used static shots as well as simple dynamic shots)
What is your theory?

Just found this little bit of information after doing a preliminary search on your subject, which might further this thread:

Resident Evil was initially played in 3D from a first-person view, but the PS1's polygon-pushing abilities weren't enough to render a convincingly scary environment. As a result, they shifted to pre-rendered backgrounds with fixed camera angles. The title "Resident Evil" was conceived because the game takes place in an enormous and dangerous mansion inhabited by monstrous creatures.

I also found an interesting chart that illustrates the growth of the Resident Evil franchise:

Best-selling Resident Evil video games worldwide as of September 2024, by units sold


I remember watching my friend's brother's friend playing the first Resident Evil. We used to watch him for hours playing that game...

“Capcom was best known for Street Fighter, Darkstalkers, etc. (plus the Marvel crossovers), all of which was in 2D at the time, so no one could accuse 90s Capcom of neglecting 2D”
So the problem is not making 3D games but neglecting 2D games? Well, at least Capcom makes the effort to promote its golden age:
https://trueleft.createaforum.com/counterculture-era/recommended-games-to-play/msg19644/#msg19644
But that may seem a little exploitive since Capcom seemed to forget how to make its great games.

“there were few cases of SF etc. fans also trying RE out of sheer loyalty to Capcom, but many cases of prior non-fans becoming Capcom fans via RE, and then later also trying out MvC2 (due to Jill Valentine being in it) and from there gradually getting to know SF etc..”
I think it was because SF (2D) was more established among Capcom fanbase so it prioritized promotions for SF at the time RE (3D) was released, thus SF fans would play RE via Capcom. As for the Counterculture RE fans that got into SF, of course they would have got into SF when Valentine was included in a game that resembled more like the established SF than the rookie RE.
In that case against natural selection (especially against progressivism), would you say that Capcom was National Socialist in that sense? Would that same sense be described about SF anniversary collection (despite being exploitive for the reason stated above as well as clumsy and separated in promotion) that it made an effort to promote its Counterculture games?

As for the BGM, I don’t think that was Jill Valentine’s theme. I think that was the carnival stage theme.

“The worst is to change a franchise that was originally 2D into 3D“
Which is basically neglecting 2D.

“Promoting its Counterculture games is especially insulting, as that signals that Capcom is actually aware that 2D fans still exist and wants their money, but refuses to cater to them with newly produced 2D games”
So my intuition is partially validated. Partially as in that it is not National Socialism. Validated as in it is exploitive.
But would you agree about the way Counterculture Capcom prioritized (and made) their established 2D games (including SF) over their then new RE to be National Socialism? That being said, without Capcom’s prioritization of its 2D games, RE would have subdued its 2D games (which would have been classified as natural selection).

“It had to prioritize SF because it was competing intensely against SNK's KOF at the time, whereas RE was not initially competing against a similar game by another company.”
So had Counterculture era not ended by the time RE had competing games, what do you think Capcom should have done with RE? Because RE already existed so it would have already established to have competitors.

And regardless when Counterculture ended, Capcom would still made new 2D games even if they were released after RE. I know the Capcom vs games were still 2D, but were there any rookie franchises released after RE (and before Capcom vs SNK 2) that were 2D at the time?

Are you a fan of Ace Attorney? If not, what does it lack compared to Capcom’s Counterculture era franchises?

I never played it, but I just searched a gameplay video for the first Ace Attorney you mentioned. The missions seems like a multiple choice quiz with no adventure, battle, action, or otherwise ‘energy’. Not to mention how much language is filled just to tell a plot.
I can even see this pattern with other post-Counterculture franchises like Another Code (originally for the DS) where the entire game feels boring and with a heavy use of dialogue for the same motive.

The only post-Counterculture games with missions that feel less boring are games of franchises that started during Counterculture era. But the mission quality seems to fade as they become ingrained with 3D graphics and other embellishments and fashion.
(Similarly Counterculture-influenced post-Counterculture era music may surpass non-Counterculture-influenced music in terms of songwriting and performance but gradually downgrade as production ‘quality’ and trends upgrade. But that can be continued in another topic)