Resident Evil 5/YMMV

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


  • A.I. Is a Crapshoot/Artificial Stupidity/Artificial Brilliance:
    • The partner AI is very controversial, receiving wildly varying statements regarding how good or bad it is.
    • The AI partner's finely-tuned aimbot actually misses more often than you'd expect from an AI, but to prevent some frustration the AI partner has a 100% success rate with QTEs.
    • One quirk that is likely to frustrate players until they figure it out: The AI will not help you escape from grabs unless you press the Talk button, even if they're standing right next to you.
    • The AI in Lost in Nightmares is even worse. In the final battle against Wesker in LiN, Jill will never dodge Wesker's attacks.
  • Ascended Meme:
    • Remember the infamous "Jill Sandwich" line that has been the most memorable thing about Barry Burton ever since the first Resident Evil? Well, Barry is a DLC character in Mercenary Reunion now, and one of his melee moves is called "Barry Sandwich"...
    • Chris' infamous line "Barry? Where's Barry?" from the original game was played-with in Resident Evil 5. One of Barry's Pre Ass Kicking One Liners is "HERE'S BARRY!"
  • Boss in Mook Clothing: The Reapers, man-sized cockroach monsters that are extremely resistant to general damage, run fast, and regrow lost limbs in seconds. Shooting them anywhere that isn't their weak spot causes them to unleash blurring vapors, and their only weak spot is only vulnerable for a brief time (if they're not shocked into submission, that is). Topping it all off, they have a One-Hit Kill grab attack that they'll use as their primary offensive method whenever they can. Good thing the stun rod makes them your bitch, and that they walk slowly when they have the insta-kill grab ready.
  • Crowning Music of Awesome: Majini IX.
  • Ensemble Darkhorse:
    • Josh Stone is becoming quite popular since the game's release. Whether it be his accent, his knack to save Chris and Sheva multiple times, especially from Jill Valentine, the spectacular wrestling moves he performs in the Mercenaries Reunion Mode, and the fact that he's the only minor character in the whole game that makes it out alive and was there to save Jill Valentine after she was released from Wesker's mind control and piloted the helicopter to rescue Sheva and Chris along with her. By the way, did you know that he's A LEGEND!!!
    • Doug the helicopter pilot from the Desperate Escape DLC actually has a recently growing fan base. His Tear Jerker death certainly helped play a large part in this as he's another sad victim of the curse of dying helicopter pilots in the series.
    • Ricardo Irving was seen as a spiritual successor to Ramon Salazar and has a large fanbase.
    • One of the series' long standing Darkhorses, Barry Burton was brought back for the Mercenaries Reunion solely because of this reason. Same applies for Rebecca as well.
  • Foe Yay:
    • "Seven minutes is all I can spare to play with you."
      • "Poor performance indeed..."
    • "Suck on this, Wesker!"
    • Wesker only pays attention to Chris during the game. Sheva might as well not be there. The only time Wesker will face her is when she attacks him first.
  • Fountain of Memes: As you may notice by the memetic mutation section below, Wesker is out to cause complete global saturation of memes out-of-universe. DC Douglas' deadpan delivery of the most ridiculous lines known to man may be helping on it.
  • Game Breaker:
    • S.T.A.R.S. Wesker in The Mercenaries is just one example. On the other hand, Midnight Wesker is das professional character, meaning he has all that is needed for overinflated combos and scores, but you need to be good.
    • Rebecca. Yep, that Rebecca. With an auto shotgun that can one shot most enemies and a MP5 for long range work, a good player can kill everything before time runs out.
    • Giving AI Sheva a SIG P226, especially once you upgrade the damage to 480. Sure she focuses on her handgun, but if you're playing on New Game+ , you've probably got a decently upgraded AK47 which can do double duty for pistol-style work against enemies anyway. And AI Sheva is a dirty, cheating AI on your side, able to two- or three-shot most standard enemies at an absolutely ridiculous range right up until Licker Betas and other high-HP enemies start to appear regularly.
    • The Rocket Launcher can become this in a flash in story mode if you unlock infinite ammunition for it. Sure, it requires you to beat the game first, but you can unlock the good stuff on Amateur difficulty and proceed to one-shot bosses even on Professional.
  • Goddamned Bats:
  • Hilarious in Hindsight: Chris says "Do you take all of your ideas from Comic Book Villains?" to Wesker, then, it turns out that Wesker and Dr. Doom are teaming up in Marvel vs. Capcom 3.
    • The same line also becomes hilarious with the release of Captain America: The First Avenger and its climax, where its main villain, Red Skull (himself a Comic Book Villain), enacted a very similar plot to Wesker in this game, complete with a large bomber jet and delusions of godhood.
  • Magnificent Bastard: Albert. Wesker. So magnificent. Such a bastard.
  • Memetic Mutation:
  • Most Annoying Sound:
    • "I need an egg!" "I need a HERB!" "COME ON!" Easily spammed by your teammate. Especially fun with Wesker in Mercenaries:

Wesker: "You will GIVE me an egg!"

    • Voice director Liam O'Brien admits that "I need an egg" is one of his favorite lines in the game... which led to this hilarious exchange at SacAnime '09 with Roger Craig Smith, Chris's voice actor.

"I NEED AN EEEEEEEEEEEGGGGGGG!"

  • Ms. Fanservice:
  • Narm: It wouldn't be Resident Evil without it; see Memetic Mutation.
  • Scrappy Mechanic: In Mercenaries, have fun being randomly grabbed by Majinis while you are desperately trying to keep your combo up. Bonus points if the Executioner is around.
  • Scrappy Weapon: Proximity Mines. Though they have some use in Story mode (usually by leading bosses and strong enemies on them), in Mercenaries they are next to useless since you need to do melee anyway and you can't even use them to clear the mob in a pinch. And in Versus, if you happen to be seen placing them, the enemy player can detonate them by shooting while you are still close. This added to the fact that good players won't be caught stepping on them anyway, since it's easy to tell the set mines from the dropped ones. Further, they only sell for 30 even though they cost 1500 to buy, making them even more of a waste of time.
    • On the other hand, a strategically-placed proximity mine can kill large groups of Majini at once in Mercenaries.
  • That One Boss:
    • Ndesu, aka El Gigante of Africa. You are caught in an immobile truck, and the only ways to not be hit are to either shoot him enough to stop him or hit the action commands that flash for a split-second. You need to concentrate fire on him (unless he tosses a hard-hitting boulder) while keeping an eye out for action commands. Random enemies like to come throughout the fight and shoot you with flaming arrows or molotov cocktails, and you can't even heal yourself if your health is too low! This is just a midgame boss, even!
    • Fights that aren't exceptionally difficult normally become ridiculous on Professional. Irving's tentacles become one-hit kills, and the window for the dodge command is buggy and sometimes lasts less than a half-second. The Wesker+Jill fight is even more absurd, at least on single player. Normally, the enemies on professional ignore your partner for the most part and focus on you, but Wesker and Jill ignore this entirely. Your partner will die, A LOT. Two of Jill's SMG bullets will kill you, and it's almost impossible to incapacitate her in the first phase, as your partner refuses to help after you restrain her. Once you get to the second phase, your partner will run off to try to knock out Jill, but will usually just get SMG'd or smacked by Wesker.
  • That One Level: Level 5-3. Chris and Sheva have to go through three Reapers, a spinning Elevator Action Sequence, a small army of lickers, Wesker, and Jill Valentine. Also any level which requires splitting up for extended periods, making one partner useless, or any level that utilizes Hollywood Darkness.
  • The Scrappy: Sheva's generally is very polarizing with most Resident Evil fans. To some she's a typical bland, one-dimensional and uninteresting character who's main purpose in the game is to be Eye Candy and to push the new "partner" system in the game (which judging by how the AI was negatively received failed in that regard). A vast majority of fans also were quite disappointed she got to assist Chris in finishing off Wesker; an honor that many believed she was undeserving of and should have gone to Jill. There's also a few who believe she was created due to the racism allegations surrounding the game before release (Even in that regard she's controversial). But there's no proof either way.
    • On the other hand Sheva also has her supporters that thought her characterization was ok. And think she's unfairly maligned due to the aforementioned controversy. So at the very least she's polarizing, but at the most she's either liked, or people are just indifferent to her.
  • Villain Decay: For almost the entirety of the series, and most of the game, Wesker, being the resident Magnificent Bastard of the franchise, seems to be the exact opposite of this trope -- until his motives are revealed to be nothing more than generic Social Darwinist bullshit (influenced by Spencer). Chris even calls him out on it, saying that "He's taking his plans from comic book villains". This is Hilarious in Hindsight now that Chris AND Wesker will both be in a crossover with Marvel characters. Funnier still is that Wesker is in cahoots with Doctor Doom, so Chris may as well have been prophetic.
  • X Meets Y: Resident Evil 5 is The Constant Gardener meets The Puppet Masters meets Black Hawk Down.
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