Okay, wanna say thank you to everyone for the feedback. It's definitely helped contextualise the game a little more and given me more of a window into what people like or
liked about it. I think despite seeing the pockets of love for it both on Era and elsewhere I'd maybe overestimated how beloved it was.
The contextual review scores for it were off the charts, and
Jawmuncher's
thread from yesterday indicated it's sold pretty well for a game originally locked to a doomed console. It's got higher sales that Rev 1 and isn't really that far behind Rev2 either.
These numbers are pretty nuts. Even contextually.
Also who uses an out of 400 scoring scale? Honestly.
It seems like the main take-away from people is it was a "you had to be there" game, and based on what people are describing about it, I can totally understand where they're coming from. But I'll get to that in a bit. I'm gonna pull in some quotes from the last few pages of quotes I wanted to respond more directly to.
...Some things hold even now such as the unique setting and atmosphere. In Japan there's an easy mode but the US versions have never had that. So you're stuck with just the retry option or glitching infinite Ammo/herbs....
So yeah, I think for all my moaning I have neglected to mention some things I DO like about CVX. I can respect the ambition of the title, the mood of Rockfort island, the music, the atmospheric lighting... hell, the fidelity of the in-engine cutscene models was VERY good for a console game that launched before some of the final major releases on competing machines - This is a game that released months before Majora's Mask and Final Fantasy 9, a year before Conker's Bad Fur Day and mere months after RE3 Nemesis. It's technical leagues ahead of any of those in terms of fidelity.
I also had no idea about the no easy mode thing for international releases. Was this a "Western Gamer attitude" choice or a "stopping weekend rentals choice"? Or even a bit of both?
...It was the first proper 3D RE and the opening CG was cool. The lighter lit dark areas and stuff. The stuff that's 'good' about Code Veronica isn't stuff that stands the test of time. I think Capcom are getting ready to retcon it entirely and maybe roll some of it into the RE4 remake (probably Wesker).
Yeah, similarly to above I can see how people would've been wowed at the time, but I also agree it's not anything that would age immediately well, let alone 21 years later. I'll get to the bolded part in a bit.
They really tried to hype up that Albinoid boss battle for what......a dud battle where you just watch it in a pool.
Yeah, I'm... not too sure what was up with this. I kinda figured there was no point even attempting to fight it and I quickly learned it would never damage me on the ledges of the pool. Eventually I just decided to tank the damage and run in there for the item before running out and not engaging. I also equally just ran past the Gulp Worm (is that really what they went with?) and the Giant Black Widow. There's just no point to fighting any of them. I wish I could've run past the first Tyrant encounter BEFORE the plane honestly. That was another annoying re-load because I wasn't fully equipped for it.
I also think it was a missed trick to have the Eagle Plate here and not have Chris take it from the door that led to the Piano Scroll.
Would've made more sense and was fresher in my memory.
I played thru CVX for the first time, no nostalgia, roughly 2 years ago and loved it (immediately after playing RE1/RE2/RE3 classic back to back, also for the first time, no nostalgia), so lemme respond as An Official Fan.
...I dug the big maps... I enjoyed the largeness and found the backtracking slightly less annoying than in RE3.
Compared to [RE1-3] it definitely felt like "hard mode RE", but in a way that I appreciated... it felt like that was the intent - to challenge people who were very familiar with classic RE gameplay.
[On T-Veronica Steve] - I realized there was an incredibly stupid trick for getting past this with no damage I was so amused I kinda forgave it :P
So, firstly, I apologise for butchering and truncating this post in an attempt to keep my own post short. I really appreciated the detail of this reply and I've tried my best to keep the original language for the points I want to talk more about.
Yeah, I think on the map-size and backtracking, I can maybe be too forgiving of RE3: Nemesis due to my familiarity with that game having played it to death. It can be equally as punishing to a newcomer as I found CVX to be. I actually recently watched a friend stream through Nemesis for the first time and they definitely struggled at various points in terms of where to go and what to do through no fault of their own whatsoever.
And yeah, I hadn't considered the possibility that this might have been designed as a "Resi fan's resi" for the difficulty aspect. Though, even as a huge fan myself I found it more annoying and tedious than hard, and similarly was swimming in ammo by the end. Though I did basically burn through all my remaining heals on the final fight.
I
think I know the trick you're talking about. It involved running forward and juking Steve first and THEN sprinting for the door, right? I actually did attempt this on the first try... it didn't go well. I had to reload, do all of my item management again, get back there, skip the cutscenes and this time I just used 3 full heals to tank through it because I REALLY didn't want to have to reload all over again.
But yeah, thank you for the depth of this response, it was great!
...while I love the schlock of the original games/4, CV was always a bridge too far.
I think this is where I sit on CVX and 0 too. The campiness of the original three games feels in earnest. 4 KNOWS it's being cheesy and ridiculous and how to play it off, with a wink to the camera and a pose on a throne. There's SOMETHING about RE0 and CVX that just sits badly with me.
The way I've always described how I feel about 0 is kinda like this: People love The Room. It's a terrible, disaster of a film, but it was made earnestly, with some kind of creative vision even if the technical ability wasn't there to make it good. It's a product of love. Asylum films like Sharknado 4 are terrible by design. They lean into campiness in an inauthentic way that never sits right with me. If the films were actually GOOD and campy, I'd be 100% fine with it probably. But the fact they're trying to capture that earnest cheesiness whilst also not being great experiences on their own merits just throw me off.
It truly ain't easy bein' cheesy.
The Dreamcast version of code Veronica is basically the one to play, the X version went full anime meme on PS2/GC and then the 360/PS3 ports decided to darken the image because why not ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
...The game is a cake walk, you have way more ammo than necessary. I finished it countless time as a kid. I never understood the complaint about the tyrant fight, just find and save 30 explosive arrows and you're done in 30 seconds.
I was actually unaware of what the CVX differences even were until reading some of these responses. It seems like CVX contextualises Wesker a bit better or gives him more focus but at the cost of more of the stuff I just mentioned I don't really enjoy?
Also, I mean, flex away, but there's no way in hell anyone could be expected to just know to save 30 explosive arrows for that part without explicit direction to do so. I had 16 saved which seems like it was just under what I needed to quickly blast the Tyrant away, and that was even going in with the knowledge that I should save ammo for that fight.
it's not great
but it is very, very funny
Yeah, I would also like to rectify and say whilst this is my least liked Resi by some margin I at least got SEVERAL great laughs out of it. I'd be lying if I said the terrible voice acting wasn't also hilarious as shit, and some of the cuts between in game cinematics and Claire's dopey ass model standing dead still with her arms down by her side never failed to kill me.
FATHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
Yeah, as above this shit is golden. It's the closest the game comes to that authentic, earnest campiness for me. I left it out of the OP to try and save on space but it has a place in my heart.
Don't forget to bring that empty fire extinguisher halfway around the world with you. Still absolutely furious about that.
I thankfully did bring it with me, and I know now it's only to get the Magnum which thankfully made the second phase of the final fight so much easier... but yeah this could EASILY trip up other people and not having it could really, really suck.
CVX needs a remake. It needed one long before RE4 ever did. You messed up, Capcom.
So, this is the last point I also wanted to bring up, going WAY back to the part of snausages' post that I bolded. I actually don't know how I feel on this front. I think CVX would benefit the MOST from a radical overhaul, and I also believe that rougher, less polished titles should be getting remakes instead of all-time greats. But in this instance I really don't know.
It feels like nothing would be lost if CVX's contributions to the overall story were simply rolled more elegantly into RE4 - neither of which really do a great job of explaining Wesker's return or even his motivations. In fact, a lot of that simply gets stapled on to Resi 5 and it seems to just about work fine. From a gameplay perspective, absolutely. I'd love to see a complete tear-down and rebuild of CVX, but I'm torn on the narrative necessity of it.
also hi Nate I really like your and MVG's podcast, keep up the great work!
Anyway, that's another ramble over. Thanks again to everyone that's posted so far, it's been great to read through!