No windy preambles: I'm beginning to feel that Revalations, Operation Raccoon City, and RE6 are tossing in waaaaaay too many new characters into the pot for our belvoded RE franchise to handle.
Now, I'm not saying thats a bad thing. The franchise is 15 years old and as such as seen its fair share of regulars come and go, with The Big Six (Chris, Jil, Claire, Leon, Ada, Wesker) more or less being the staples of the franchise as well as becoming the most marketable characters (Leon and Wesker especially). But beyond them very few if any characters really get any more time in the limelight. Some make unexpected comebacks (Barry and Krauser) while one in particular (Hunnigan) is starting to get more apperances as neccesary. But otherwise most of the supporting cast doesn't last very long.
The reason for that seems simple. Death.
Resident Evil has seen its fair share of dead characters. If I'm not mistaken, more than half of the characters we have articles for on this Wiki are listed as "deceased". Characters can be very disposable in this franchise about zombies, viruses, and survival.
As such, it seems to me that the slew of new characters that were revealed for the three most recent entries in the franchise are beginning to really set a record. I think the only other games to incorporate so many new faces were the two Outbreaks, but they already had a good headstart because they had eight playable characters. Racheal was the warning sign that this was just a recipe for well...not total disaster (because that implies chaos) but formulaic disaster.
Its true, Resident Evil has a tendency to kill characters. A lot. At least every game. With poor S.T.A.R.S. Bravo Team beginning the headoun way back in the first RE. But come on this is a little ridiculous. Figure in all of the playable USS and Spec Ops members in ORC, all the new BSAA or VELTRO people in Revelations, as well as Helena, Chris' squadmates in China, Immunity Douchebag, and that chick who's identity is still debated (all from RE6) and that's quite a few already. I mean man, way to come full circle with your formula Capcom. How many disposable groups of people does one franchise need?
I guess the only way to really get a decent grip on so many people is to have them reappear at least once, be it a sequel or prequel, and then kill them off.
My argument here is mostly an observation as opposed to an actual arguement. My opinion may actually change depending on how many of these characters actually die or get decent character arcs before getting put out to pasture. But if the rest of the franchise is anything to go by, characters who go MIA tend to stay MIA...especially if they're dead.