I apologise for the variable screenshot quality in this post….
AAARRGGGHHHHH!!!!!! … I just want to scream because I’m no closer to clearing this up…
Ok, so last week during my stream of the PS1 version of Resident Evil 2 I pointed out something that has bothered me for years and years. Take a look at the classic RPD stained glass window in the picture…
Nice huh? Well, in the next camera view over it look like this…
Weird right??? Same window in the top right of the picture, but the window isn’t there, or is broken, or something…
Ok, ok, ok, so It’s not a big deal. The backgrounds were pre-rendered so I guess this was just an oversight; maybe an earlier version crept in to the release, or maybe it just wasn’t rendered properly and nobody caught it. It’s a neat little thing that I noticed years ago and I’ve never seen anyone else mention (I’ve read many things about secrets and easter eggs in this game).
So earlier today I thought “Hey, I should tweet about this and see if anyone else noticed this!” Except the screenshots from the stream didn’t look too hot so I decided to delve in to a folder of the extracted pre-rendered backgrounds that someone helpfully posted online… and that I happen to keep handily in my Googledrive. I figured I could pick out the exact backgrounds and tweet them as this would show the difference the clearest… only… well, take a look below.
Erm, what the c**p right?!? There it is, exactly the same place except the window is intact in all its colourful majesty. Only I had no idea where this one was from…
…. so i started watching YouTube videos of the different version of the game that have been released…
So the U.S. only Dual Shock version seemed a good place to start. It was the first re-release of the game, and sure enough the window is intact in this version. Makes sense right? they caught the original error and fixed it. Next up I check out the N64 port.
As far as I can tell the window is there in all releases of the N64 version. So far I’m on a roll! How about the Gamecube version… well…
Yes; window is there in the US Gamecube version too. Beginning to look like it’s only the original release that was the problem, but then….
Soooo… the window is missing in the UK GameCube version, but not the US version. From here things began to spiral; my next theory was that it was just the US versions that had the window, but then…
Yes, that’s right, in the US PS1 version, the window is also missing, just like in my UK version. Also it’s missing in the PS1 Japanese version, Dreamcast port, and PC (All releases as far as I can tell)…
So my appeal is this… please please please… can anyone see any logic to this???
Hundstrasse 
I have never noticed this before- and now I’m really curious! I can’t think of any events that might lead to this that happen in the game, and it doesn’t make sense that there would be a lack of processing space or something that would stop the texture from loading, especially if the background is pre-rendered.
…I’m going to have to check my current run-through and see what things look like there now. I suddenly feel invested in this…
LikeLiked by 2 people
I know right?? They’re just flat images… And why would they be different in different territories on the same console? 😵
LikeLiked by 2 people
What manner of sorcery is this?! Your discovery of that one in-game part of Resident Evil 2 is puzzling. Maybe, there is a light. When you enter the room and walked into a space that can turn on and off the light causing the classic RPD stained glass window to appear and disappear? Just my wild guess. Anyway, interesting post Hundstrasse.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Hahaha! I like the lateral thought process!
LikeLike
I can’t even remotely see what that image is supposed to be, but if it’s a fancy stained glass window then it’s probably some kind of religious scene and religious iconography was often censored in non-Japanese versions of games for seemingly arbitrary reasons back in the day.
LikeLiked by 1 person
🤔hmmmm… good theory, Maybe, but it’s in all the other camera views, it’s literally just this one. If only there were higher resolution versions of the scenes.
LikeLike
Well maybe they also thought it was too blurry to be seen there and thought that’s good enough for those angles.
LikeLiked by 2 people
It’s actually a pretty convincing argument… After all this is the closest that you get to the window. If only I could make out what it was supposed to be…
LikeLike
You think that’s bad? Look at the Resident Evil 6 logo and try to see it as anything other than a giraffe man getting a blowjob from now on.
LikeLiked by 1 person
….😲….
LikeLike
I agree with the religious censoring… it’s possible that for later versions it was removed??
Or, perhaps, sometimes it is a Resident Window, and sometimes it’s not.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Agreed, I think censoring is a pretty sound conclusion. But it’s weird that it’s only absent in that specific view, but I guess it’s to do with what you can “see” in that shot (not that you can make the window out at all really)
LikeLiked by 1 person