I got RE4 for the wii after many recommendations. Got to a part where the chick in the red dress appears and he says something about “she looks familiar”. Now I know this is n00bish, but I never followed the series so I was hoping each game had a new protagonist. Then, after looking it up, I found out Leon S. Kennedy was in every RE besides the first one.

What I want to know is, is it important to play the others first before I continue with 4? I’m sure it’ll still be fun, but would I get immersed more if I knew the whole backstory? Like with MGS.

RE4 follows a new storyline revolving a different form of the virus.  If I recall correctly back story mainly only helps with the main character, the chick in the red dress, and a main bad guy.  It adds a bit to it, but RE4 is mostly new so I don’t think you would get too much extra out of it.

yeah you can go along with re4 without knowing the rest of the story. if you play thru the old ones afterwards you might pick up on a few connections here and there… but nothing too major

yeah 4 is basically a standalone story with little cameos and references that don’t really serve a purpose but to be cool for longtime fans to appreciate. i jumped in on 4 without prior RE experience and then just wiki’ed everything afterwards, didn’t miss anything.

Alright, thanks. Yeah, I never really liked the other ones, so I didn’t want to have to sit through all of them just to fully enjoy 4. I WILL be playing the first one before playing 5 though.