Yeah and like Zelda 2 is the weird one, Doki Doki Panic mario romhack is the weird one. Fatal Frame 2 is supposedly better than Fatal Frame. At two related works, you definitely have the most ability to change things up because you've got the vague first story to start with, but can develop it in any potentially bizarre direction you like. After that things tend to just get forced back into copying the earlier formula if they are popular enough to warrant fans demanding a 2nd sequel, more like the first installment, with less new ideas that aren't acceptably "modernized" variants on the old ones.
But I don't know how this applies to Resident Evil due to my lack of familiarity with those games beyond the superficial. Is Resident Evil 2 the better regarded of the series because it tightens up and more masterfully hits the scary parts of the 1st and hasn't run out of good ideas yet? Is one's brain more amenable to accepting these games as good just because of totally random personal idiosyncratic unknowable factors, like, "This is the first horror game I played [in a while, in a year, since my first breakup, since i realized i like horror games, since i got into resident evil." Or even the Big One, the big secret catch that threatens to negate your opinions when you let it out loud, I PLAYED THIS GAME WHEN I WAS A LITTLE CHILDREN AND IT MEANT A LOT TO ME THEN, how can I talk about it with someone without making them assume that I am parroting out my feelings twenty years ago. Looking at forum threads it seems people mostly are citing "atmosphere" which is generally a good sign, if normies are talking about the game's atmosphere it's generally a good sign that the game cares about, or at least happens to behave as though it cares, just making you feel a certain way - happy, cute, warm, sad, freaked out - as opposed to "fun" or selling a subscription service
there was definitely some element to res evil 2 as far as, the scope of the game seemed 'bigger' even though it was mostly police station=mansion for the most part. I think placing it in the city itself rooted it more in reality by TOTALLY A VIDEOGAME standards anyway, at least in opposition to spoopy haunted house scenario of the first game. Resident Evil 3 maybe took things a little too far but trying to do the entire city exploration and maybe felt like those restaurants that are 'tapas', I dunno? And then by the other games all of those ideas were been there done that. I dunno.
Resident Evil 7 seems cool to me because it's centered on this one FAMILY and a very isolated situation? Not the same as Resident Evil 1, just zombie infestation in some mansion. 7 sounds weird, I understand there are like random monster things you encounter but it's very centered that you actually KNOW the zombie-type characters in the game? Definitely never been much of an approach in the games before besides Res Evil 4 Napoleon dude and it's just stupid taunts and one-liners
I guess it wasn't here, I'd like to see a Resident Evil game where they take the lab scenario of the end of most of the games, I said most of the older games play on "playing God" themes, WRECKAGE OF THE MAD EXPERIMENT lol. Science gone amok etc. So I was saying there should be the IDM version of a Resident Evil, zombie creation scenes to this
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hWGUnrIiOoI I dunno, like that one Resident Evil the first movie, scene with zombie being sliced with laserz, zombies in a lab like sterile environment does touch on scariness sort of, also original version of Resident Evil 2 in the ultramodern police station. I dunno if it could really be an entire game's worth of material though. Probably getting at something Romero Day of the Dead attempted too? Blade Runner 2049 but does zombie have soul possibly? I dunno