There was a backlash when they first showed off trailers and gameplay footage which led Capcom to make the city-dwelling Majini more racially diverse, while leaving the literal spear-chucking, grass skirt wearing and grass hut dwelling tribesmen enemies intact
Uh oh, people are calling our game horribly racist, let's throw a couple of Arab, Hispanic and white looking guys into the crowds you're endlessly mowing down, problem solved!
-Capcom, 2009
No discussion of Resident Evil 5's depiction of Africa and Africans is complete without mention of this particular unlockable outfit for Sheva
Edit: Did Sheva even exist in the initial gameplay reveal or was she added in response to the criticism?
Not that it absolves them in any way, but I believe RE5 was Capcom just being incredibly ignorant of the implications of the imagery and tropes they were employing, and that the backlash truly caught them off guard.
Like they'd had the same approach with Resident Evil 4, where they decided to to set the game in Europe and then proceeded to fill it with all the European things they could think of
"Castles! Villages! Cathedrals! Monks! Napoleon!"
Unfortunately, most of the things you associate with Africa that have trickled down to you via news and pop culture tend to be... uhhh, not good (or true)
I mean Capcom has always done this. Look at the cast of Street Fighter. Every character is a fucking stereotype of the nation or culture they come from.
The American stages in SF2 are a casino floor on the Vegas strip, an Air Force base, and a pier full of hooting longshoreman, so at least they got the US right.
This was also right at the start of the """""realistic""""" modern military shooter craze and you can definitely feel Capcom leaning into that trend which didn't really help the game's politics either
There was a backlash when they first showed off trailers and gameplay footage which led Capcom to make the city-dwelling Majini more racially diverse, while leaving the literal spear-chucking, grass skirt wearing and grass hut dwelling tribesmen enemies intact
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I mean, the town Majini consisted in large part of guys that looked like this or this .
What makes me think they were a late addition is that literally all of the special Majini types were all dark-skinned Africans
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Uh oh, people are calling our game horribly racist, let's throw a couple of Arab, Hispanic and white looking guys into the crowds you're endlessly mowing down, problem solved!
-Capcom, 2009
No discussion of Resident Evil 5's depiction of Africa and Africans is complete without mention of this particular unlockable outfit for Sheva
Edit: Did Sheva even exist in the initial gameplay reveal or was she added in response to the criticism?
deleted by creator
Not that it absolves them in any way, but I believe RE5 was Capcom just being incredibly ignorant of the implications of the imagery and tropes they were employing, and that the backlash truly caught them off guard.
Like they'd had the same approach with Resident Evil 4, where they decided to to set the game in Europe and then proceeded to fill it with all the European things they could think of "Castles! Villages! Cathedrals! Monks! Napoleon!"
Unfortunately, most of the things you associate with Africa that have trickled down to you via news and pop culture tend to be... uhhh, not good (or true)
I mean Capcom has always done this. Look at the cast of Street Fighter. Every character is a fucking stereotype of the nation or culture they come from.
Blanka is the stereotypical brazilian. No, I will not explain.
They don't usually end up being quite as negatively politically charged, though
The American stages in SF2 are a casino floor on the Vegas strip, an Air Force base, and a pier full of hooting longshoreman, so at least they got the US right.
deleted by creator
This was also right at the start of the """""realistic""""" modern military shooter craze and you can definitely feel Capcom leaning into that trend which didn't really help the game's politics either