biohazard 0 (Resident Evil 0) was released in 2002 to the United States and Japan, after a near six year development cycle, which took it across two platforms. Although Resident Evil 0 is the fifth title in the series's canon chronological release order, it is a prequel to the first Resident Evil. The game follows the events that lead up to the Arklay Mansion incident from the perspectives of S.T.A.R.S. Bravo Team and ultimately ends up centering around the teams medic, Rebecca Chambers and an escaped felon, Billy Coen.
Production Information
Developer: TOSE; CAPCOM Production Studio 3
Publishers: CAPCOM
Platforms: GameCube, Wii
Publishers: CAPCOM
Platforms: GameCube, Wii
Plot Synopsis
As the cases of morbid murders in the surrounding Arklay Mountains begin to pile up, the populous of Raccoon City becomes restless. In order to alleviate the people's growing fear, Chief Brian Irons orders Captain Albert Wesker to dispatch the S.T.A.R.S. Bravo Team to investigate the strange occurrences. However, while on route to the investigation, a sudden engine failure causes their helicopter to crash land deep within the heart of the mountain's forest.
Although everyone survives the crash, Bravo Team quickly finds themselves in unfamiliar territory. The team's leader, Enrico Marini, commands his unit to form a perimeter, leading Rebecca to discover an upturned military prison transport riddled with mutilated corpses. Bravo Team discovers a prisoner transport sheet which details the escort mission of the now deceased military police. The MP's were escorting Billy Coen, a convicted murder. Sensing danger, Enrico orders his team to hunt for the murderer.
Although everyone survives the crash, Bravo Team quickly finds themselves in unfamiliar territory. The team's leader, Enrico Marini, commands his unit to form a perimeter, leading Rebecca to discover an upturned military prison transport riddled with mutilated corpses. Bravo Team discovers a prisoner transport sheet which details the escort mission of the now deceased military police. The MP's were escorting Billy Coen, a convicted murder. Sensing danger, Enrico orders his team to hunt for the murderer.
Development History
Initially slated for release on the Nintendo 64, Resident Evil 0 began its conceptual phase in 1997. The cartridge media was initially chosen over the more popular cd media because it lent optimal conditions to the concepts of item dropping and partner zapping due to its lack of load times. Despite the game's relatively early conceptualization and hordes of perpetual rumors, it was not officially announced until January of 1999.
The first hint came from a Famitsu interview with Yoshiki Okamoto on August 7th of 1998. In the interview, when asked what Nintendo 64 games his company was working on, Mr. Okamoto blurted out Resident Evil 64; however, Capcom requested Famitsu not print the name and instead readers found "********." It was not until January 7th of 1999 that Mr Okamoto officially admitted that he was working on an unnamed Resident Evil game for the Nintendo 64 through an interview with the Japanese magazine Dengeki.
The first game demo was featured during Tokyo Game Show 2000, revealing Billy Coen as a playable character, the exclusion of the item box, and the ability to "zap" between Billy and Rebecca in real time.
Half way through production, Resident Evil 0 switched platforms to GameCube in early 2000 for a number of reasons. Firstly, with Shinji Mikami's remake of the original Resident Evil (hereon out referred to as "REmake") making huge graphical advancements on the GameCube, the production team of Resident Evil Ø felt pressure to compete with its lush atmosphere. As well, the GameCube's small disc size cut down on load times significantly, a factor which originally caused the production team to choose a cartridge media. It didn't take long for rumors of the platform switch to circulate and on September 7th of 2000, just five months after the first playable demo on the Nintendo 64, Capcom officially announced the switch to the sixth generation of gaming.
News on the game's development would not come again until nearly two yeas later at E3 2002. There, Resident Evil 0's transition to GameCube was revealed to have changed very little of the actual game with much of the beta's settings, characters, enemies, and scenarios untouched. However, there were a number of notable continuity and graphical changes:
The first hint came from a Famitsu interview with Yoshiki Okamoto on August 7th of 1998. In the interview, when asked what Nintendo 64 games his company was working on, Mr. Okamoto blurted out Resident Evil 64; however, Capcom requested Famitsu not print the name and instead readers found "********." It was not until January 7th of 1999 that Mr Okamoto officially admitted that he was working on an unnamed Resident Evil game for the Nintendo 64 through an interview with the Japanese magazine Dengeki.
The first game demo was featured during Tokyo Game Show 2000, revealing Billy Coen as a playable character, the exclusion of the item box, and the ability to "zap" between Billy and Rebecca in real time.
Half way through production, Resident Evil 0 switched platforms to GameCube in early 2000 for a number of reasons. Firstly, with Shinji Mikami's remake of the original Resident Evil (hereon out referred to as "REmake") making huge graphical advancements on the GameCube, the production team of Resident Evil Ø felt pressure to compete with its lush atmosphere. As well, the GameCube's small disc size cut down on load times significantly, a factor which originally caused the production team to choose a cartridge media. It didn't take long for rumors of the platform switch to circulate and on September 7th of 2000, just five months after the first playable demo on the Nintendo 64, Capcom officially announced the switch to the sixth generation of gaming.
News on the game's development would not come again until nearly two yeas later at E3 2002. There, Resident Evil 0's transition to GameCube was revealed to have changed very little of the actual game with much of the beta's settings, characters, enemies, and scenarios untouched. However, there were a number of notable continuity and graphical changes:
- The game would now feature FMA (Full Motion-Animated) backdrops, like REmake with real time shadow effects, but, unlike REmake, Resident Evil 0's put an even heavier emphasis on the animation aspect.
- Rebecca Chambers no longer wore the white beret she had in the Nintendo 64 build since the new character model was to remain consistent with her appearance in REmake.
- Edward Dewey was originally directed to lose his hand to a Cerberus before jumping through the train window. This would be the hand that Joseph Frost finds in the original Resident Evil's opening video; however, the REmake development team edited this out of their updated opening video and instead opted for Joseph Frost to find the corpse of Kevin Dooley. In order to keep continuity, Edward kept his hand in the GameCube incarnate.