No matter who Capcom pegs as Resident Evil’s next protagonist, they must not repeat some of their legendary missteps

Now that I’ve completed Resident Evil Requiem, I put myself through the usual ordeal of reviewing every piece of Resident Evil lore, contradictory though it often is. In this renewed interest in Capcom’s long-standing franchise, I began to wonder who a potential Resident Evil 10 should feature in the main role and came to realize that it’s actually a rather difficult problem to solve.

Though a very recognizable survival horror franchise at heart, Resident Evil is thoroughly narrative-driven, introducing and building up characters and environments that embedded themselves into the collective consciousness of gaming culture, no matter if you played the games or not. In fact, it is so heavily reliant on good stories that having bad characters in a Resident Evil game would completely break the mood, even more so than leaning into action over horror.

And some of its characters are so recognizable and unique that it’s almost impossible not to have them featured in an RE game in some capacity, because without them, the series is essentially starting from scratch. But that is perhaps what the franchise deserves to do and tried (rather successfully) with Resident Evil 7.

Since that game, though, Capcom has slowly circled back to its old, iconic cast. RE8 let you play a lot as Chris and turned him into a significant part of the story, whereas RE9 is essentially 50 percent RE4 Remake with Leon front and center. The best parts of all three of these games, though, are the slower-paced, horror-inducing moments with Ethan Winters and Grace Ashcroft, both of whom are the average Joe and Jane finding themselves in an environment far beyond anything they would have known up to that point.

It’s also what makes the first two Resident Evil games so amazing as well. Jill and Chris wind up in the Spencer mansion, encountering man-made horrors beyond comprehension, as do Claire and Leon when they first arrive in RPD. That shock and awe of first encountering something entirely unnatural and superhuman induces both in the characters and in the players a sense of dread and fear by default, and I’d even say the characters’ terror spills over to the player controlling them.

Later games started repeating the characters constantly, and while Jill’s encounter with the Nemesis is rather memorable, it’s still not her first run-in with Umbrella’s monsters and thus not as scary. The Nemesis is also more or less a repeat of Mr. X from RE2, which many players had seen before, further decreasing the fear factor.

So, Capcom’s ultimate misstep for RE4 onwards (even though RE4 was a good game overall) is the repetition of experienced characters, some of whom started to become almost superhuman due to all the plot armor surrounding them (cough, Chris punching boulders, cough), further and further reducing the horror and turning Resident Evil into a spectacle of action and absurdity. While that’s fun and all, I don’t think it suits the franchise whatsoever.

Now that Resident Evil Requiem is on track to completely wrap up the Umbrella saga, options are more or less endless. We can go back to the mold, have some new plotline open up, and get new places to explore, perhaps again outside of the United States. But that’d have to be accompanied by a proper protagonist, one that does not have enough experience to face-tank the monsters coming their way—one that needs to start small and grow as the game progresses.

Naturally, both Grace Ashcroft and Ethan Winters started off shocked, terrified, and emotional, ending up the wiser by surviving tremendous ordeals that’d have killed most other people almost instantly. Neither should come back, though, because now they’re no longer their initial selves, and their experiences helped them overcome their fear, which would defeat the purpose of a “survival horror” game.

Sure, I’m fine with having a dual protagonist setup, as most RE games do, but one should always be some average guy or girl, or at least someone who hasn’t met the worst of the Umbrella bunch. They need to feel fear and they need to know terror in their hearts, because if they’re an action hero, then we’re in an action game, and the only way to genuinely be a horror game, Resident Evil 10 should make our protagonist as powerless as they can get.

And from that state of no power, they should grow and mature and gain skills to take down the threats they’re facing.

But to that end, maybe our favorites should sit the next one out. Y’all are over 50 each, I’m sure retirement is on the cards.

Oh, and it should be first-person again, but I guess that’s more or less guaranteed at this point.

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Setting up an amazing squad in Monster Hunter Stories 3: Twisted Reflection is easier said than done, as you’ll need to look for monsties with the best possible stats.

This task is easier said than done. While you can always hatch the best of eggs, that doesn’t guarantee a perfect monstie. Instead, you’ll need to look for something called genes and master the concept.

How do genes work in Monster Hunter Stories 3: Twisted Reflection

Every monstie has a dedicated set of Active and Passive skills. The number and types of skills of a monstie are determined by genes. If you refer to the image below, you’ll find a young Rathalos that’s available for all of us at the start of a journey.

Notice the bottom right corner, and you’ll find nine slots in a 3×3 grid. This grid is applicable for every monstie when they hatch. Some of the slots will be filled, and some will be empty. To get your perfect mostie, you’ll need to fill these empty slots. Having nine filled slots will give the mostie the best set of skills.

While not all their slots might be filled at the start, you can inherit additional genes from other creatures. To do so, you need to understand how Bingo and Rite of Channeling work.

How does Rite of Channeling and Bingo work in Monster Hunter Stories 3: Twisted Reflection

Rite of Channeling allows you to switch the genes from one monstie to another. You can do so in different ways.

• Directly swap the genes from one monstie to another.
• Manually select which gene/genes you want to swap.
• Select the monsties and the genes you want to swap.

Once the swap is complete, you can continue to modify the genes of your selected monstie until you’ve filled all nine slots. However, randomly filling the slots is not the most optimal thing to do.

When you use Rite of Channeling, you should match up genes to get the maximum possible bonus. If you manage to do so, your monstie will have an extra 5% damage as a bonus for all Power attacks. To do so, you need to match three Power genes in a row. You can match them vertically, horizontally, or diagonally.

You’ll get the bonus damage for a Bingo even if the associated element and attack type don’t match. If they do, however, then you can get multiple Bingos in a single row.

To build up your perfect monstie, Excursions are important as well.

How do Excursions work in Monster Hunter Stories 3: Twisted Reflection

You can send your monstie on an Excursion to make it gain different stat bonuses and Environment Skills. To do so, you’ll need Training Talisman, which can be purchased from the Melynx Emporium. They’re expensive, so you should ration them properly. Additionally, only one monstie can be sent on an Excursion at any time.

To gain Environmental Skills, you’ll need to pay attention to whether the monstie was present in that region. If you add a monstie to a habitat and then send it on an Excursion at the same place, it will be able to learn new skills based on their Environment Rank.

The ultimate aim is to have three S-rank Environment Skills active on your monstie at once. Three is the maximum number of Environment Skills any monstie can have. If you send them to a region they’re unfamiliar with, your monstie will only learn the stat bonuses.

Every Environment Skill has three ranks for each region: B, A, and S. Your monstie can access the Skill if their Ecosystem Rank matches the region’s grade. Additionally, you can also Awaken every Environment Skill if your monstie has the required genes.

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