u/OkYam7295

Leon's parts are most of the reason of why the game is so successful and I know a lot of casual players love it, but I've heard traditional RE fans call the game mediocre because of it. The gameplay is awesome and just as good as RE4r, but the level design really suffers. Dissapointing progression/merchant system, bland environments and most importantly, the huge standout arena fights in RE4r are replaced with scripted bosses/segments which I'm sure would cost more to develop anyway.

Grace's segments are awesome and the pinnacle of survival horror gameplay, especially on Insanity which is challenging but fair. No other RE game rewards smart play as much as RE9. I agree with under the mayo that the care center is probably the best designed map in all of survival horror (although the mansion/police station have return trips that put them higher overall). I truly believe that if the following changes were happened, RE9 would be put on the level of RE2r, RE1r, Signalis, and the like.

1. After the basement, Grace has to travel through an extended care center with a new twist alike to Mr. X or the Hunters
2. Add a ~1hr area between the care center and the lab, replacing the Girl water plant boss (have the Girl die in the basement instead)
3. Rebalance the lab to have every zombie be able to spawn as a blisterhead if not dealth with, and have lickers drop 0 blood. Also add a final boss.

Sorry for the ramble just a thought I had

I recently finished the game and am just reading up on theories. I understand that the game is up to interpretation and the core of the game is Elster and Ariane's relationship (also with Lilith/Alina and Erika/Isa).

But I'm just wondering what the most popular theory is, since I don't quite understand the loop theory. Eg. in order for there to be a loop due to Ariane's mind, does that mean most of the game takes place entirely in dream and not IRL? To clarify, I'm not trying to defend/disprove a theory, I just don't understand how the loop theory works

A theory that I do understand is without a loop, where Ariane's bioresenance mixed with Falke's and corrupted both Falke herself and the surrounding environments. So there's no dream/loop, rather Ariane's bioresenance "infected" the ships through Falke's reach to be cancerous like her, essentially mixing her "dream" into the real world. And either Elsters are remade into the world through Ariane's dream upon every attempt OR Every LSTR unit gains the same objective (perhaps since Ariane is so similar to Alina, and LSTR is so similar to Lilith).