Imagine yourself as the director of Resident Evil 5. You have to follow up a game that completely discarded series convention, revitalized an entire genre, and became not just one of the most praised games in the series, but of all time. What’s your plan to follow that up? The safest bet would be to leave things mostly unchanged, and just address the little criticisms most fans agreed on. Ashley was a major point of ridicule, so ditching the escort mission is an easy choice. The mercenaries mode was well received, so expanding that would be great, and playing with your friends would make the game even better. The movement and inventory systems were a little clunky, so some streamlining would help improve the flow immensely. As you probably know though, Resident Evil 5 did all these things, and it still ended up an almost inarguably lesser game. So what happened? Well, it may be hard to admit for a game reviewer, but phrases like “more responsive controls” and “less interruptions” don’t always indicate a better design. Escorting Ashley was a pain, and Sheva was objectively more useful, but that exact improvement is what made the challenges less intense. Resident Evil 4 rarely felt scary in the first place, so the adding co-op should have only increased enjoyment, but having a partner drained the memorable atmosphere. Chris’ simplified grid inventory was much more accessible and easy to use than Leon’s attache case, but it lacked personality. It had no potential for player expressiveness the same way the old system did, and was a downgrade in spite of its better functionality. It’s not that these changes made for a terrible game, they just created a mechanically solid game with less of an identity, less colorfulness, and less uniqueness than its predecessor. For some people, the nuts and bolts of gameplay is all that matters, but I think the difference in each game’s legacy proves that limitations and clunkiness can give a game the charm that sticks with players for decades. It’s easy to think of game design as a set of scientific rules, but it’s important to remember that logic and emotion rarely agree.