To be fair, I don't think this was a hugely prevalent opinion even among brain-melted gamers,
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compared to other inane bullshit they complained about like Ashley's underwear
but I did hear it come up a few times when the RE2 and RE4 remakes were topical
I've been watching some recent RE6 playthroughs to gauge how it plays with people who got into the series with the newer games and I've seen an interesting reversal where a number of people are confused by RE6 Ada, thinking she looks too different to be the same character, specifically because they think she looks too white. These same people didn't seem to have trouble accepting Leon and Chris' 2012 models
I do miss Leon's icy cold gaze from OG RE4, but my guess is that it wouldn't work as well with the newer photorealistic style. Haven't seen Wesker yet cause I've only played the RE4R demo though
He's not a million miles off or anything but he looks a bit doughier and more like someone's dad to me than the RE5 model. In some shots he looks better, other shots not so much.
I wouldn't be surprised if RE4 Leon was actually also based on a real person- pre-RE3R, Jill Valentine was modeled after another real-life model and had a pretty consistent look from REmake up until Revelations (setting aside her randomly turning blonde in RE5 because of mind control). Of course, they didn't use facial scans and mocap to nearly the same extent in those days.
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Speaking of RE character models, I'm really impressed with how consistent RE Village Chris is with his RE6 and RE5 looks and makes the blunder that is REVII Chris that much worse