Project Umbrella RE:Digest

In an interview with director Kato & producer Mikami, they say Steve Burnside was initially written to survive. Kato wanted writer Sugimura to make the scenario more interesting & sad, so insisted he kill Steve.

Source: Dengeki Dreamcast Vol.31 (24/3/2000)

An ad for the limited edition 10inch Barrel "Leon Custom" Desert Eagle, released for the 10th anniversary of the CAPCOM X Tokyo Marui partnership. Its manual has a short story with Leon.
Scanned from COMBAT Magazine No.384 (March 2008).

The sad goodbye scene between Ada & Leon, but it's odd bandages are wrapped over his jacket... It was the director's order, please don't make digs. - Shinkiro
As the enigmatic East Asian beauty Ada Wong, she wears a qipao. I think it captures her beauty well. - Shinkiro

"The burning underground lab in the mansion. Wesker's sunglasses, fallen on the floor, bear the Umbrella logo. So they were an issued item." - Shinkiro

"Wesker, resurrected. The t-Virus is truly terrifying. The BIOHAZARD series is also Wesker's story." - Shinkiro

That seems likely! The Ashfords were indeed originally the "von Kruger" family, and in the final game still, the Gold Lugers were a gift from Hermann Goring.

The plant in the central cylinder is considered the primary research subject. This is the African-native Asteraceae plant “Sonnetreppe”. Although this plant was only found in Africa until the 1960s, its ease of cultivation and robust vitality led to it being cultivated worldwide from the 1970s onward. To date, there have been no reports indicating the “Sonnetreppe” contains any toxic or narcotic substances, or substances with special compositions. Developing a bioweapon using this as raw material seems unlikely, but this photograph alone is insufficient for a definitive conclusion.

They also exported the Stairway to the Sun flower under the German name "Sonnentreppe." There's also the CQBZ gear conceived by HUNK which use German names: the Zombie Beil & Zombie Eisen.

Umbrella A huge multinational corporation that uses a pharmaceutical konzern as the parent organization. Established 1968. The head office is in Europe but it has branch offices all over the world and above all it constructed a factory in Raccoon City that promoted the city's development, initially merely a single small-scale local town in the country. In addition, since Umbrella usually offered a large amount of financial aid to Raccoon City used for city welfare, constructing public accommodation and maintaining public order, Umbrella now serves as an indispensable existence for Raccoon City. The company name and logo signify an "umbrella" and express the company's policy "protecting the health of the people."

UMBRELLA A huge multinational corporation with a pharmaceutical konzern as the parent organization. Its headquarters was established in Europe and affiliates/branch offices were set in various places including Raccoon City. Although it widely advocates an image of a bright, healthy top-rated company "protecting the health of the people", its true nature's a merchant of death that develops and supplies bioweapons. As for those involved in its foundation, Oswell E. Spencer, Edward Ashford and James Marcus have been confirmed so far.

Underneath the facade of a pharmaceutical konzern that advocates an illustrious corporate motto of seeking the health and happiness of people along with the company's advancement, the Umbrella Corporation has been committing heinous acts with no regard for bioethics. At its core it's a biological weapons developer with collusive ties to the military. They covertly create bioweapons called Bio Organic Weapons (B.O.W.). An accidental outbreak of the so-called "T-Virus" during the research phase leads to an unprecedented disaster.

KONZERN A monopolistic corporate giant formed by subordinating various industrial sectors to monopolistic financial capital and holding companies.

Umbrella HQ may be in Germany. The BIO1 remake, BIO0 & Outbreak File 2 official guides call it a "konzern", a usually German business group & a term in the Archives glossary. The parent company was Umbrella Pharmaceuticals.

The BIOHAZARD OUTBREAK OFFICIAL GUIDE BOOK reveals Jill Valentine did in fact leave the city along with Chris & Barry, but returned secretly to hide out & investigate Birkin's underground lab.

The mansion in BIOHAZARD UMBRELLA CORPS contains faded & scorched paintings incl. one for the clock puzzle from the first game's remake. This seems to indicate Umbrella salvaged them from the original mansion & used them in a similar recreation to the Raccoon & RPD maps.

It's unclear when exactly the Terragigia Panic took place but some timelines put it after BIO4. A REV1 file from that time may give a closer indication as it mentions the Director of National Intelligence, a position created on December 17th 2004 in the real world.

"I must report some enormously sorrowful news. After assessing the survival of the city's inhabitants to be hopeless as a result of lethal viral contamination, the President and Congress moved to execute a military Sterilization Strategy. This operation has wiped Raccoon City off the face of the Earth, with the death toll from the incident expected to reach roughly one hundred thousand..."

In BIO3, the ending reports the incident's cause as "lethal viral contamination", making it public knowledge. The EN script oddly localizes Congress as "the federal council" & the Sterilization Operation as "Bacillus Terminate", mistakenly referring to bacteria instead.

"Throughout the BIOHAZARD series, I want to pursue the ‘fear’ of unsanitary conditions and the ‘fear’ of darkness. The instinctive dread of unsanitary places teeming with germs, viruses, insects, and rats. The fear of being in a place with poor visibility where you don't know what lurks. I want to show that through visuals. There's a recent photo book called "DEATHTOPIA: Ruins Play". These photos precisely capture the concept of BIOHAZARD. It's not just about being visually beautiful, it's about composition, the way space is created, the lighting, it skillfully produces images that are beautiful yet terrifying, creating this contradiction. That's the kind of imagery we're aiming for."

In Umbrella Chronicles, the word DEATHTOPIA's briefly visible. This refers to a photo book, "DEATHTOPIA: Ruins Play", by photographer Shinichiro Kobayashi who spent a decade shooting ruins across Japan. Mikami said this book captured BIO's visual concept.

Q. I keep hearing rumors that there might still be hidden elements in BIO2. Karayan, spill the beans! A. Everything hidden has already been revealed. I've heard some wild rumors, like being able to use a sword. Although the most shocking one was that a game called “Ada The Spy” is hidden inside. There were even screenshots around online that looked like they were composited. For a second I seriously wondered, “Did a little fairy make this while I was asleep?” When they go as far as creating screenshots, it really seems legit, so everyone, please keep your pranks in check, a'ight.

In Famitsu PS No.42 (26/6/98) programmer Karatsuma spoke about a fake rumor & screenshots circulating online after BIO2's release about a bonus mode called "Ada The Spy." This probably inspired the Japanese title for her first bonus mode in BIO4.

“Since this award came from user votes, it feels more moving than previous wins.” When asked about a sequel, he commented, “We have some great ideas and directions emerging, so the third installment should be another solid title.”

On August 24th 1998, BIO2 was awarded the top Grand Prix at the Japan Game of the Year '98 event held at Tokyo Kaikan, decided by user votes (1,958). Hideki Kamiya, pictured in a hat, accepted the award & was joined by Takeuchi, Ueda & Utsumi at the reception party.

Get you someone who looks at you like BIO producer Jun Takeuchi looks at the series airsoft guns he's in charge of & makes canon.

We've translated the BIOHAZARD REVELATIONS NAVIGATION & ART book. It includes character & creature information as well as interviews with the producers, director & planner, graphic designers & composer. Still much more to come.

URL: t.ly/iP4Ok

■ projectumbrella.net/v-jump-books...
■ projectumbrella.net/the-true-sto...
■ www.projectumbrella.net/bio-hazard-t...

Despite Oswell E. Spencer's importance to the series he was initially only mentioned in supplementals like a BIO1DC guidebook, The True Story Behind BIO HAZARD book & The Bewitching Beast of the North Sea novel. His first game mention's Gun Survivor, then CODE:Veronica.

In Famitsu PS No.37 (20/3/98) in an interview alongside programmer Karatsuma, director Kamiya said Claire's BIO2 bonus outfit was inspired when he saw a woman in a leather jacket who rode up behind him on a Harley. He felt she was a perfect match for his image of Claire.

--In the latter part of a document, it mentions the name "H.C.F." which has appeared in previous games in the series, but does this have anything to do with the earlier organization? NAKANISHI: H.C.F. itself hasn't been mentioned much, including in previous games, so I'll leave it to your imagination whether or not it's the same thing... That's all I can say. I've done my best not to include information that's not essential to play "7" because it would've been confusing, but as the series' worldview is ongoing, there are also some settings not depicted in the game. --When you make a game, do you also create settings around the characters who aren't depicted in the game? NAKANISHI: Not all of them, but we make settings for the main characters. For development purposes, we have a document that lists what all the major characters in the series did and when they did it. When you look at it, you may make surprising discoveries, like Sheva and Sherry actually being the same age.

In a Dengeki Online interview (9/3/17) director Nakanishi says BIO7's mention of HCF wasn't elaborated to avoid overcomplication, but the BIO world's ongoing with things not shown. He also notes a dev doc for what characters did & when.

SOURCE: dengekionline.com/elem/000/001...

A two-page in stores now ad for GUN SURVIVOR 2 BIOHAZARD CODE:Veronica, scanned from Dengeki PlayStation Vol.193 (30/11/2001).

In Dengeki Dreamcast Vol.31 (24/03/00) director Kato says CODE:Veronica's first-person view wasn't used in the main game due to slowdowns like in open areas with many Zombies, which Battle Game was tailored to avoid, as well as ethical concerns due to graphical realism.

Two-page variant from Famitsu XBOX360 (Apr.2009).

BIOHAZARD 5 now on sale ad, scanned from Apr. 2009 issue of book & comic magazine Da Vinci (ダ・ヴィンチ).

A talking Tyrant, the mansion ruins, Annette as a G host, an even crazier Irons, a second city section, a very different opening & many other scenes—We present Noboru Sugimura's BIOHAZARD 2 "final draft" script that Hideki Kamiya adapted.

URL: t.ly/aNECr

We've translated the BIOHAZARD VENDETTA pamphlet. It has info on the story, characters, keywords & trivia as well as multiple interviews with the director, producer & writer. It mentions Leon being late to Raccoon due to his drunken breakup.

URL: t.ly/0QtKp

We've translated the biohazard DAMNATION movie pamphlet. It has info on its story & characters with overviews of the previous main entries in the series, incl. Leon & Ada segments, as well as an interview with the director, producer & writer.
URL: t.ly/_iQa4

We've translated the biohazard DEGENERATION movie pamphlet. It features information on its story & characters with overviews of the previous main entries in the series, as well as an interview with the director, producer & writer.

URL: t.ly/HYCjk

Nine years since its first appearance in Umbrella Corps & a year later in BIO7, most information on "Blue Umbrella" is still isolated to Japan-only airsoft pamphlets & websites.
www.projectumbrella.net/samurai-edge...
www.projectumbrella.net/survive-maga...
www.projectumbrella.net/survive-maga...

All 60 issues of the BIOHAZARD 2 manhua have been translated by Lunar Indie Studios & are now available for viewing on our site. Officially licensed but wildly divergent, please enjoy & give thanks to Lunar for their hard work making them available!

URL: t.ly/_lUDd