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Dead Rising/YMMV

< Dead Rising


  • Alas, Poor Villain: In Cliff's death scene, he comes back to his senses and explains himself. It's... depressing. Still, remember why the Psychopaths are the way they are in the first place and he's not the only one who can take on a Woobie factor.
    • Thomas Hall too. He doesn't actually get a cutscene as he's part of a family of three, but if you take out his brother and his father the rest of the fight is a Curb Stomp Battle he has no chance of winning- and he was the Only Sane Man trying to stop his family from shooting you. Many internet comments wish there was a way to save him- though he'd be saved by the man who killed his family.
    • While not to the level of Cliff or Thomas, quite a few people felt bad for Cletus, too. While coming across as sort of hypocritical, he was just desperate to survive, and was quite pathetic during his death scene. It's worth noting that in the Wii version he is actually savable.
  • Anvilicious/Accidental Aesop: Possiby, but, basically, few actions are Justified if they involve killing, if one looks at it.
  • Complacent Gaming Syndrome: You know that whole mall full of stuff you can use to kill zombies? Yeah, that just there for you to use until you kill Adam, take his Small Chainsaw, and triple-book it.
  • Crowning Music of Awesome: Weeeeeeeeeell... he ain't ma boy but the brother is heavy!
  • Crowning Moment of Awesome: In infinite mode, you get to kill Otis as soon as you start. And you get items for it too!
  • Crowning Moment of Funny: These are easily creatable, as you have 'an entire mall as a weapon.
    • "CLEAN UP! REGISTER 6!" (dies again)
  • Demonic Spiders: The Raincoat Cult and Special Ops are this to the zombies' Goddamn Bats, the former of which appearing in path-blocking clusters and capable of knocking Frank out instantly, the latter toting machine guns, having high health, and being immune to headshots (which is the best way to take out the cultists) and both emptying Frank's inventory and dragging him off to their bases upon incapacitating him.
  • Designated Protagonist Syndrome: Frank, in some fan circles.
  • Ensemble Darkhorse: Adam the Clown. He's enough of one that his brother appears as a psychopath in Dead Rising 2: Off The Record.
    • Fans also really love Stephen Chapman. He got a Heroes & Heralds Ability Card.
    • People also like Cliff a lot. A lot of it comes from his incredibly tragic death, where he reveals that he snapped thanks to his granddaughter's death at the hands of the zombies which triggered his PTSD from the Vietnam War. A lot of people wish that he could have been saveable after this.
  • Fan Nickname: Players tend to call psychopaths by epithets rather than their names. We've got the clown, the gunshop owner, the fat cop, the pyro, the shopkeeper/stooooore guy, the butcher, and the Shell-Shocked Veteran, and the Halls particularly are much more commonly called the sniper family than the Hall family.
  • Game Breaker: While the game is difficult, you can get to Level 50 in no time by going to the garage right away and running over zombies constantly. Then restart the game and transfer the stats and you start the game at Level 50.
    • Upgrading the Small Chainsaw with all 3 upgrade books makes the game much easier than intended. You can pretty much carve your way through all but the largest zombie crowds, and boss fights end within seconds if you just charge and swing away. Escorting Survivors from point A to point B without them getting eaten or you running out on a mission time limit is still a huge pain, though.
  • Americans Love Frank West: According to Capcom.
  • Good Bad Bugs:
    • You can perform fatalities on survivors; this has no ill effect other than knocking them to the ground for a second and possibly causing a very small amount of damage to their health. It is extremely cathartic to punch through Ronald's stomach and rip his guts out or bodyslam his head into the concrete, given how much trouble he gives you later on in the game.
  • Memetic Mutation: He's covered wars, y'know?
    • Lampshaded in that there's actually an achievement/trophy in Dead Rising 2 called "He's hasn't covered wars..."
    • Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeell he ain't mah boi but the brothah is hevay~
    • MY STOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOORE!!!!
  • Moral Event Horizon: Many examples. There's Carlito sending infected orphans to different areas in America to cause more zombie outbreaks, Brock Mason razing Carlito and Isabela's village to the ground, Cletus blowing away an innocent man who simply wanted to use one of his guns, Kent attempting to zombify a man so he can capture the moment on camera he succeeds if you take too long to get to him, Roger and Jack Hall trying to shoot at Frank for the hell of it as well as coercing Thomas to do the same, and the Convicts murdering an innocent man while laughing about it to his wife/girlfriend/partner while attempting to abduct her and possibly rape her afterwards.
  • The Scrappy: Kent is widely hated, due to his obnoxious laugh as well as his continous taunting. Many players didn't know that he was a boss fight later due to killing him during the photo challenge, or from just ignoring him.
    • The Convicts get this as well for not only being ridiculously hard to beat, but for respawning even after you kill them!
    • Otis as well is this for being one of the most obnoxious Mission Controls in the history of gaming. If he calls you up about something, you have to basically stop defending yourself against zombies, psychopaths, or anything else in order to hear him out, and his messages take a while to listen to. And if you hang up or even accidentally do so due to being attacked, he'll call you back, call you rude, then say what he wanted anyway. It's even worse due to the fact that it's very easy to accidentally hang up on him while you answer him!
  • Scrappy Mechanic: The time limit, which allowed absolutely zero diversion from it, was absurdly tight and strict, and turned what was touted as a mindless zombie killing game into a frantic race from point A to point B. And it's been fully retained in the sequel. However, it can be ignored with no consequence besides shutting down the plot, allowing you to run around and goof off at your leisure. However, there's a small minority of fans who actually enjoy the hard aversion of the near-ubiquitous Take Your Time mechanics of most modern games.
    • The survivor AI, at least in the first game, routinely made Scoops hellishly frustrating. The survivors' pathfinding is usually abysmal and they sometimes decide to hang around pushing over zombies forever instead of following orders. Trying to use firearms near them is a bad idea, since a shotgun blast kills them instantly and they'll often run into your line of fire. If given a melee weapon, they'll charge off gleefully into the nearest mob of zombies and attack until they get eaten. They are, however, bizarrely competent with firearms, and can give Frank adequate backup with shotguns of their own.
    • What about the save system? You have to find specific save points, then there's only one slot per account, and if you save yourself into a corner plotwise you have no choice but to start over from the beginning (though at least you keep your stats). Also the game doesn't offer you a "quit" option when you die, only the aforementioned "delete game and restart".
    • See Do Not Run with a Gun above, and recall that A: the over the shoulder camera means you cannot take cover and see what you're shooting at the same time, and B: Frank can take pictures in first-person while walking at a respectable pace.
      • Of course he can walk while taking good pictures. He's covered wars you know... Sorry.
  • Tear Jerker: Cliff's death scene. Nngh. Either Carlito's death or, more likely, as it doesn't include his Eagle Land Type 2 preaching, Isabela's reaction to it may count for some as well.
  • That One Boss: Nearly every boss is a major pain to deal with. Especially at lower levels.
    • The Convicts take the cake, though. They can run you over, crack your head open or just plain pump you full of lead (even at long range). It wouldn't be so bad if you could avoid them, but early on they hang out in the most direct route back to the safe room (good luck saving people without the Wonderland Plaza shortcut). They're annoying, hard to elude, difficult to beat even at higher levels due to their erratic movements and on top of all that they respawn every day! Goddamn. At least you don't have to defeat them as far as the plot is concerned.
    • Isabela has a gun and fast-moving motorcycle, and is incredibly difficult because of 2 bugs: She can't be attacked directly if she is moving at all (which is nearly all the time) and you lose instantly if the game triggers a load screen - if you go into another area, or if the clock hits 7:00...
    • Good god, Cletus. His ridiculously powerful shotgun gives you no time to move close enough to him to attack with a melee weapon or aim a ranged weapon. The only time he stops firing is when he takes a swig out of a nearby wine bottle - but he tends to only do that after he's hit you and Frank is still picking himself off the ground. Apparently he can be beaten more easily by standing outside the store and using a gun through the doorway - at the mercy of zombies, but hey, better than being blown around like a bottle at a shooting range. As if that weren't enough, his shotgun's spread means that it occasionally ignores the puny cover you get inside the shop itself, and he sometimes, inexplicably, gains a seventh shell if you dash out before he begins reloading.
      • Even better method, though requires you to deal with another issue: Kill the convicts, take their minigun. Run right into Cletus's store, and then let him say hello to your little friend. He goes down in seconds, provided he doesn't shoot you first and throw you off.
    • Brock at the end is also one. You have no weapons or healing equipment, he blocks nearly every shot and his attacks are fast and hard, not to mention that he can kick you off the tank into a load of zombies. And if you fail to beat him, you have to do the tank stage again. However, if you're a high level, jump kicking repeatedly knocks his health down fairly quickly.
    • Sean is also quite nasty: despite being a very old man, he's fast as hell and his sword attacks hurt.
  • Too Cool to Live: Brad. Some of the Psychopaths, too, Cliff most especially.
  • What an Idiot!: During Cletus's introduction, a survivor named James approaches his store and asks for some guns before being told to scram with Cletus firing a warning shot. While this and the fact that Cletus is clearly panicky should make it obvious that James is fighting a losing battle, he approaches Cletus's store anyway! Predictably, he gets blown away for his trouble.

Zombrex: Dead Rising Sun Provides Examples Of:

  • Moral Event Horizon: While Takahashi killing Shin can be excused since Shin did provoke him, him beating the flying pigshit out of George is a lot less excusable since George is a harmless cripple who poses no threat to him. In case you didn't hate him enough for that, you will hate him for torturing Mary by having a zombie tear out parts of her skin and flesh, and following up by kicking while she's down while taunting her the whole time.
  • What an Idiot!: Whenever Takahashi gives Shin an opportunity to simply surrender his money and other belongings in exchange for escaping with his life, what does he do instead? Hand over his belongings... then grabs hold of George's wheelchair and rams Takahashi. This puts both his and George's lives in danger as Takahashi and his goons retaliate, and also gets him killed. Even worse since not only did Takahashi and his two henchmen outnumber him, but Takahashi had a gun!
  • Wheelchair Woobie: George, big time. In the span of one night, he gets antagonized by a psychotic thug and his buddies, has his big brother die protecting him, and once he survives the night, gets shot down by someone who mistakes him for a zombie.
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