Fans are excited about the announcement of RE:3 remake, so in this special feature we’re going to take a look back at the original Resident Evil 3 from 20 years ago! Will Famitsu editor Dedeo and writer Gojira Ota talk about the Famitsu strategy guide articles from back then!?
Dedeo (Famitsu Editor) – His first job for Famitsu was writing the strategy guide articles for Resident Evil 3 in 1999. Finding the fun in knife-only runs and speed running the game, he’s eager to walk around a more modern version of Raccoon City once again!
Gojira Ota (Freelance Writer) – He joined Famitsu in 2000, and has been a freelance writer since 2007. He had a lot of fun with the series from parts 1 through 3 (his favorite), but he’s a little foggy on them now. When RE:3 remake comes out, his job will be…just playing the game!
Talking About the 20 Year Old Famitsu Strategy Guide for Resident Evil 3!
(Dedeo) Has it really been 20 years since the original RE:3 was released? The first thing I wrote back when I first started working for Famitsu was the strategy guide. It really brings back memories.
(Gojira) I joined Famitsu a year after it came out. But I was one of the top players when it came out.
(Dedeo) And because of that you were in the same strategy guide division that I was.
(Gojira) Right. At the time Famitsu had teams that would play games very thoroughly and make strategy guides for them. They really would do nothing but play the game they were making the guide for from morning till night, and wrote them from several different points of view.
(Dedeo) Since 20 years ago it was 1999, it was still pretty much the dawn of the Internet. These days we take for granted that we can just look up anything with our smart phones, but back then you needed a PC for that. And there were a lot of people who just couldn’t do that at home.
(Gojira) And that’s why paper magazines like Famitsu were the source for game information and strategies.
(Dedeo) Right. And that’s why the editors put in the effort to make the strategy guide division as well.
(Gojira) Incidentally, the first thing I wrote after I started at Famitsu was an article about Breath of Fire IV.
(Dedeo) We’re getting away from Resident Evil…
(Gojira) I only mentioned it because it still has to do with Capcom!
(Dedeo) Let’s leave the Famitsu memories there, and move on to the topic of the Resident Evil 3 articles.
(Gojira) What really surprised me was the page count. It took up so many pages issue after issue! I guess we were putting in all that effort to write the strategy guide, but even so…that was 10 straight issues with Resident Evil 3 features!
(Dedeo) When it came to big titles like Resident Evil, it was pretty normal to focus on them and have that many features. And for the strategy guides there were not only maps, but lists of all the items that you could get. We wrote it to contain just about every piece of information there was. It was a fantastic strategy guide, if I do say so myself.
(Gojira) But it was laid out in such a way that each page was so packed full of information that it was difficult to read. And the copy on this page…
(Dedeo) (Blushing) How embarrassing! Don’t look too closely at articles I wrote way back when I was so inexperienced! But I have a lot of confidence in my enthusiasm for writing guides from back then.
(Gojira) It’s amazing how extremely in-depth it is. Even though the articles didn’t stop running until about two months after the game released, it had flowcharts that took you through the entire thing. It even had all the passcodes and such, which were kind of spoilers.
(Dedeo) Well, it was a long time ago…The strategy guide division, including me, all got carried away about making people read those strategy articles. So as I was writing I’d be thinking “Check it out, THIS is how much I’ve mastered this game!”.
(Gojira) So you also wrote articles about speed run play too. Is this a good time?
(Dedeo) I expect 1 hour 20 minutes 34 seconds was a pretty good time for back then. The feeling of fumbling around until you figure out the fastest route makes speed running very fun.
(Gojira) Huh. Speaking of, you had a notebook packed full of information on RE:3 back when I first joined Famitsu. It was as amazing as any strategy guide.
(Dedeo) It was a college ruled notebook that had things in like it which routes to take to avoid zombies. I wonder what happened to that thing…
(Gojira) Maybe you lost it somewhere since the editorial department moved around so many times? But maybe if it was still around it would be useful for the RE:3 remake?
(Dedeo) It certainly could be useful, even though I’m sure a lot of aspects will be different from the original. Gojira, try to find it for me!
(Gojira) I have no idea where it could be! But in looking at those articles again, I did remember something: They gave you a lot of fun little things after you cleared the game, like hidden costumes and epilogue files.
(Dedeo) It was also the first game to have the mercenaries mode, which became a series standard afterward. That brings back memories!
(Gojira) You had to play that mode in order to get the infinite rocket launcher.
(Dedeo) I’m sure they’ll be lots of cool things like that in the RE:3 remake too, I can’t wait!
(Gojira) I lost sleep getting the platinum trophy on the RE:2 remake, so I’m sure the same thing will happen when 3 comes out. That’s the sound of me screaming with happiness.
(Dedeo) I just want the next three and a half months to pass already!