This Week In Retro: Resident Evil 3: Nemesis

September 22, 1999: Literal Final Girl Jill Valentine 

by Diamond Feit

Fans underestimate the degree to which hardware demands shape the caliber and direction of the video game industry. Back in 1981 when Nintendo had 2000 unwanted arcade cabinets in a Washington warehouse, the company bet big on an unproven junior employee's ideas to move that surplus inventory; this gamble gave us Donkey Kong and changed the face of the company forever. In 1994, when Capcom likewise needed to utilize its own excess stock of CPS-1 and CPS-2 arcade boards, the resulting Street Fighter Alpha and subsequent crossover fighting games ended up becoming more popular than Street Fighter III.

Five years later, Capcom again encountered a major hardware issue with its burgeoning hit horror series, Resident Evil. The first game arrived early in the life of the Sony PlayStation and turned a lot of heads with its pseudo-3D haunted mansion. Production delays held back its sequel for over a year but when Resident Evil 2 offered a bigger, bolder survival horror adventure, it immediately sold millions of copies and justified its troubled development.

With Capcom's coffers flooded with zombie cash, the company quickly greenlit multiple Resident Evil games in 1998 to keep the franchise alive; series authority Alex Aniel puts the number at five in his 2022 book Itchy, Tasty. One of those five was a direct sequel, initially slated for release in the fall of 1999 on the PlayStation 2. However, when Sony announced that their next console would launch in 2000, Capcom suddenly had an undead hole in its software lineup. Rather than hope fans would patiently wait for Resident Evil to return in the next millennium on new hardware, the company took a planned spinoff project and re-christened it Resident Evil 3: Nemesis.

To the uninitiated, nothing about the Resident Evil 3 we got seems like a side story. It stars Jill Valentine, one of the heroes of the original game, shooting her way out of Raccoon City as the town descends into chaos amidst a zombie outbreak. As in the first two games, Jill must make do with an inventory system that limits the amount of weapons, ammo, and healing items she can carry, forcing players to make hard choices as they go; this includes consumable ink ribbons required to save the game.

The first clue that hints towards Resident Evil 3's true origins is its storyline, as Jill's quest takes place both before and after the events of Resident Evil 2, making it only partially a sequel. In fact, the project began under the moniker Resident Evil 1.9, later adding +2.1 to its already decimal-heavy designation. For one stretch, players lead Jill through the Raccoon City Police Department—a prominent location in the previous game—which enabled Capcom to save money by reusing existing art assets.

Resident Evil 3 also has no second protagonist or alternate scenario, a feature integral to both of the initial games. Instead, Live Selection opportunities arise at certain moments throughout the game, offering players a few seconds to decide what to do next. When interviewed for Alex Aniel's Itchy, Tasty, Resident Evil 3 director Kazuhiro Aoyama said these choices existed to give the game more replay value, since players could go back and find out how Jill's story might change based on their input.

One thing that never changes is the fate of Raccoon City. Swarming with the infected thanks to the villainous Umbrella Corporation's man-made virus and shoddy security, the United States government makes the impossible decision to launch a nuclear missile inside its own borders, wiping the zombies—and all evidence—off the face of the Earth. The player can alter the route Jill takes to this conclusion but nothing they can do will save the midwestern metropolis. Resident Evil 3 thus concludes the saga of Raccoon City, although Jill, Umbrella, and the deadly virus would all return in future games.

I'm burying the lede here, as Resident Evil 3's most distinctive addition to the series is the eponymous Nemesis, a persistent antagonist intent on destroying the remnants of the S.T.A.R.S. team who exposed Umbrella's misdeeds. Similar to Mr. X in Resident Evil 2, Nemesis stalks the player and attacks Jill Valentine on sight. Unlike that previous brute, however, Nemesis can pursue Jill through doorways and can appear at random locations around the city, making him a constant threat that looms over the game whether he's on screen or not. The fact that Nemesis says "STARS" in a guttural voice when he appears only increases his dreadful aura.

With enough ammunition, Jill can wound Nemesis to the point that he falls to the ground, but this only slows him down rather than stops him cold. He will drop useful items as a reward, incentivizing players to risk engaging him in combat instead of running away. A few key moments in the story require Jill to battle Nemesis; these encounters end with the creature seemingly dead only to return in a less-humanoid form. Again, these fakeouts make Nemesis even more frightening, like a slasher movie villain who insists on getting up no matter how many wounds he incurs.

Resident Evil 3 adds a few gameplay tools to aid players in their struggle against Nemesis and the zombie hordes of Raccoon City. A new Quick 180° Turn lets Jill instantly spin around instead of slowly rotating, making it easier to pivot in a firefight. Pressing either R1 or R2 will have Jill draw her weapon, but the former locks onto enemies while the latter allows her to target environmental objects that explode when shot. The L1 button also lets players quickly cycle through potential targets. A new Dodge function enables Jill to evade nearby threats by shuffling to the side. While not an invincible roll as seen in more modern action games, it's enough to get her out of harm's way—if only briefly.

When Capcom brass decided in 1999 to elevate a spinoff to full sequel status, it forced the team to expand a nearly-complete project to better meet player expectations in just two months. With its shorter length and periodic decision gates, Kazuhiro Aoyama's initial vision for a Resident Evil game would have wrapped up much faster than earlier titles. "The idea was for players to be able to complete the game in just one play-through, like an arcade game,” he said in an interview for Itchy, Tasty.

Despite this behind-the-scenes drama, Resident Evil 3: Nemesis made a strong showing upon release. Writing for GameSpot, James Mielke called Nemesis "the most accomplished of the three" PlayStation releases, even as he lamented its lack of a second scenario. Capcom executives had worried about increased competition from other survival horror games—including one Capcom released earlier that summer—but fans showed up in droves. As of this writing, the company's official website reports that Resident Evil 3 has sold 3.5 million copies to date. This places it far behind Resident Evil 2's nearly 5 million copies sold, but that game also took much longer to develop. Acknowledging its fast turnaround and smaller budget, producer Shinji Mikami called Nemesis "Capcom’s most profitable Resident Evil game at the time" in Itchy, Tasty.

As a fan but also a huge coward, I balked at Resident Evil 3 when I first laid eyes on it. I already struggled with the tension in the first two games when I had complete control over my actions, but now I would have to contend with a giant monster chasing me from room to room? Rather, I was content to wait for the forthcoming Resident Evil game for the Sega Dreamcast that promised better graphics and bigger environments; Code: Veronica arrived in the early months of the year 2000 and did not disappoint.

Today I have two different takes on Resident Evil 3 to catch up with, since Capcom saw fit to remake the game in 2020. While both versions tell the same fundamental story about the end of Raccoon City, the modern revision puts an even stronger emphasis on action, turning Jill's simple dodge into a full-on slow-motion counter-attack when timed correctly. It also scaled back Nemesis as an agent of chaos, making him more of a scripted—if no less aggressive—threat.

I'm old enough now that both the 1999 and 2020 incarnations of Resident Evil 3 appeal to me for different reasons. The classic survival horror fan inside me welcomes another trip to Raccoon City with tight spaces and hard choices. The experienced third-person shooter fan inside me relishes a chance to headshot zombies and roam more realistic urban ruins. Either way I'm less than eager to deal with Nemesis and his relentless hostility; for me the atmosphere of these games frightens me enough that I don't need a physical manifestation of my anxiety stomping around and threatening to clobber me.

Writer/podcaster/performer Diamond Feit lives in Osaka, Japan but xer work and opinions exist across the internet.