The following is an opinion article and should be treated as such.
Things are really starting to get spoopy as we head into late October for Halloween, and as such I thought I’d ‘festive up’ this edition of Five Things with a look at one of my all time favourite franchises. Capcom’s ‘other’ zombie-centric game series: Dead Rising.
If you missed the last entries in the ‘Five Things’ series, check out the previous articles that focused on Mario and Donkey Kong.
5. More Capcom References
The entire Dead Rising franchise is filled with nods to other Capcom games. There are Blanka masks, Servbot masks, and you can even dress head to toe in a Megaman X power suit complete with Mega Buster. Dead Rising 3 saw a rather over-the-top multiplayer game mode with this in mind, rather bizarrely named: Arcade Remix Hyper Edition EX Plus Alpha, but it’s not really the same.
We need to see this idea expanded, centred in the main game. Give players more tasks that reward them with these kinds of power ups. I’d especially like the light to shine on some obscure older games. Who wouldn’t want to dress up as Lou from Three Wonders? Nobody, that’s who.
4. It’s Too Damn Big
Dead Rising 3 had a lot of issues, but perhaps none were more damaging than the sheer size of the area you had to traverse. It was so large it adversely affected key aspects of the game, resulting in their absence from the main game. Navigating such a large area in context of the game was tedious and difficult to memorise.
Large areas work well for RPGs, but they need to be avoided in sandbox games.
These two have tremendous chemistry
3. Survivors
While survivors do appear in Dead Rising 3, there’s a feeling of monotony in regards to saving them. This is another casualty of the size-issue. The previous system resulted in a lot of funny scenarios, where you’d perhaps have to take them on missions with you because time could get so tight. You may even have to ditch them and let them die.
Taking Survivors back to the safe house is one of the most satisfying elements of the past-gen Dead Rising experience.
2. Carry on the story
Dead Rising 2 shifted the focus away from lead protagonist Frank West. A decision which was met with enough criticism for Capcom to reintroduce Frank in Dead Rising: Case West (and give him his own non-canon Dead Rising 2 adventure, titled ‘Off The Record).
Case West saw Frank bump into Chuck following the events that transpired in Fortune City. They promptly make their way to a nearby Phenotrans facility where they uncover the truth; that there is a cure to the zombie infection. They set their sights on taking apart Phenotrans and rescuing Frank’s old squeeze, Isabella. Dead Rising 3 was ultimately set itself 10 years after and these events were entirely ignored.
1. T. J. Rotolo
Dead Rising 4 brought back Frank West! Yet, it’s not really Frank at all. He’s thinner, younger, more rugged, and his voice is borderline horrific. It’s baffling to me that they’d adhere to fan demand only to change the exact thing that the fans were demanding to a point of being beyond recognition. It’d be like putting King K. Rool in the next Smash Bros., but changing his animal species to a Pelican and dressing him in a flower-covered tutu. I don’t want that, and I don’t think you want that either.The new redesign has stripped Frank of everything that made him the everyman we all know and love. Gross. Some characters have too distinct of a voice to ever get replaced. It already didn’t work in Tatsunoko vs. Capcom, and it doesn’t work now. Frank West isn’t Frank West without T.J. Rotolo bringing him to life.
Manly Frank pulls of a manly pose.
What would you like to see in the next Dead Rising game? Let us know in the comments!
5. Can’t argue with that. I loved the Mega Buster in Dead Rising 1, both the real one and the one that fired tennis balls.
4. I never got the chance to play anything past the first, so I can’t really speak on this point.
3. Yeah, rescuing survivors did help the atmosphere of the game, so I would hope that they’d work on making that system more interesting and connected to gameplay.
2. tfw i never beat dr1 and i dont know the story
1. Well, I haven’t seen or heard this new Frank West, so lemme just take a look and…
Oh.
I mean, it’s not *that bad*, but it’s not Frank West. He doesn’t sound, look, or act like him. Might as well make him a new character at that point.
Since I have played Dead Rising 1 and 2: Off the Record, and watched the entire 3 through Youtube, and since that I LOVE FRANK WEST, let me answer every parts of this topic.
5. I agree, Dead Rising was full of Capcom references from Mega Man to Street Fighter, and even Ghosts N Goblins to Bionic Commando. Oh yeah, I think you forgot to mention Arthur’s undies in Dead Rising 2. They could’ve possibly added more references from classic to modern, like Arthur’s armor which can give Frank more strength but probably breaks easily in few damages, or Wesker’s outfit that’ll somehow give Frank some ultimate power and speed but not effective towards powered up zombies.
4. I could agree that the map can be too large when it come with time limited missions, but since I mostly enjoy playing the sandbox modes, I pretty much don’t mind about it too often when I wanna play it freely. Sure, I might sound boring for saying such, but it depend on players.
3. I agree. 3 lost that system as survivors disappear so quickly after defeating certain boss, and can recruit them anytime whenever need help. I don’t think we need that system as we could lend the survivors help temporary and keep them in the safe house afterwards. Otherwise, we don’t wanna lose them for no reasons.
2. I don’t know if Case West was non-canon, but I do agree that story was ignored in 3. Frank West was everything about Dead Rising, and having no sign of him does look different entirely. I actually liked Off the Record; it was interesting they used Rebecca as the main heroine and a love interest with Frank. For Stacy…let’s just say that Stacy from OtR was fake.
1. I watched the 4 demo. I was still glad that Frank’s back in the game, but slight disappointed that his voice was no longer the same. Maybe they should’ve chose his niece Vick as the new protagonist, or someone else that their name ends with a “-ck”. But I don’t know, voice actors does change a lot; even Tails had his voice changed many times in the Japanese Sonic Adventure series before Sonic X. So if we have confidence, we’ll get used to it, but it’ll take a freakin’ long time.