Resident Evil 5 has been out for about a week now and for some reason I've decided that's a good enough reason to start talking about Resident Evil 4. I guess you might remember that RE5 was on my list of "games I am excited about" basically because RE5 is approximately equal to RE4 (which was excellent). Anyway that's not really what I'm here to talk about. I am here to ponder over the existence of RE4's infamous "merchant." If you've played the game you'll know who I mean. He's a mysterious man in a lot of dark, heavy clothing that conceals most of his features as well as his "goods." He also sounds like a sex offender and gets particularly "excited" when you purchase something hefty, like a rocket launcher (which he keeps under his coat?). One of the first strange things about him is he is the only local who is not affected by the "Los Plagas" (some sort of zombie bug), which makes him pretty suspicious in my books. He also has a rediculous supply of weapons which he is only too happy to sell to you, a strange foreiner. Why does he want money anyway? He's the only person in the entire country who you can buy anything off so what does he want it for? To buy things from himself? Also in these desperate times all you want is guns, ammo and medicine and he's getting rid of it. Just to illustrate my point I've done up a list of items describing their appocolypic usefulness.
- Guns/Ammo - When the whole country wants you dead and doesn't particularly care about their own wellbeing or safety then you are going to want a buttload of guns and ammo. Especially when they're armed with chainsaws.
- Medicine - Sure it won't help if you had your head cut off but you're bound to be injured if you're fighting so many creatures.
- Money - Money is good for...errr...making you rich?
Apparently even more valuable to the creepy old merchant than money is random treasures. I'f you've picked up a ming vase during your travels the merchant will part ways with his precious, precious money in order to posses this artefact. So he loses weapons, he loses supplies, he loses money and he ends up with a crown missing a jewel. How does this guy stay alive? What does he want treasure for so badly that he's willing to put his own life at severe risk just to hold it?
Oh yeah and there's one more thing that the merchant does that is detrimental to his survival. He runs a shooting gallery. At anytime in the game Leon can stop shooting zombies and just for a change of pace shoot wooden targets instead. Guns and ammo used are not from Leons personal inventory, meaning that the merchant MUST supply them. So now he's just throwing supplies away just so Leon can have some fun during the zombie appocalypse? I realised here and now that the merchant is a nutjob and decided to end his sad life here and now to save the zombies the trouble.
Just a little while later there he was again. He greeted me, "Welcome Stranger, I've got some rare things on sale." I hate that creepy merchant.
