Survival horror aficionados will fondly rememberResident Evil 3as perhaps the scariest amongst the first trilogy ofCapcom’s beloved horror franchise. After all, thisResident Eviltitle deviates from the first two games with two distinct factors. Firstly, Jill Valentine faces the horrors of the Raccoon City zombie outbreak by herself. Secondly, she has a way to find a city while the game’s main boss - Nemesis - relentlessly stalked her.
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As such, players not only roamed around Raccoon City withRE3’s fixed camera angles. Rather, they need to stay on top of themselves as Nemesis can pop out from almost any door at any moment. Unlike the first two games, Jill Valentine is constantly on the run. However, Nemesis hides a lot more than what his hulking figure and signature phrase made players to believe. What other secrets does Nemesis hide?
10A Clone With Augmentations
Players who have gone through the first threeResident Evilgames might wonder why Nemesis and Mr. T had similar appearances - from the black overalls to their hulking appearance. In the game’s lore, the similarities are actually rooted in the fact that the Nemesis T-Type serves as a clone of the T-103 Tyrant model - of which Mr. T is also a part of.
In turn, Nemesis possessesthe base abilities of a T-103. These include superhuman durability, strength, and even regeneration. However, while a conventional T-103 Tyrant had limited intelligence, the Nemesis T-Type received “power-ups” from the Nemesis-Alpha parasite.
9Joint Product To Bypass Degeneration
Interestingly, the Nemesis T-Type formed out of a “competition” between two international teams - Umbrella North America and Umbrella Europe. According to lore, the two Umbrella teams had to engineer a practical application of the Tyrant Virus. Whereas the North America team created the Tyrant bioweapon, the Europe team created the Nemesis-Alpha parasitebased on Spain’s Las Plagas legend.
Acccording to Umbrella Europe, the Nemesis-Alpha became the team’s answer to the severe mental degradation and brain damage that came out T-Virus infections. With the Nemesis-Alpha, hosts not only exhibit human-like intelligence, but also self-awareness. This parasitation explains the Nemesis T-Type’s capability of handling weapons or even pursuing objectives.
8A Live Test For Practicality
Given Umbrella Corporation’s sick take on practicality, they used the ongoing Raccoon City outbreakto deploy and test their newly-created Tyrants. Essentially, Umbrella wanted to find out the viability of their BOWs. The Nemesis T-Type eventually fit the criteria for deployment, and the STARS members remaining in the city became its new targets.
As per Umbrella Corporation’s logic, the STARS members made sense as targets given their knowledge of Umbrella’s bioterrorism research. Moreover, the Nemesis T-Type’s pursuit became a way to determine its capacity to recognize targets and pursue objectives. In this regard, the Nemesis T-Type deployed in Raccoon City earned the name “The Pursuer.”
7Three Forms, Two Unique Variations
As mentioned, Nemesis remains a special boss forResident Evilfans due to its three major forms. However, appearances differ across the second and third forms depending on the game in question. For instance, the originalRE3simply had a topless Nemesis for its second form, and a monstrous beast in its third.
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However, inThe Umbrella Chronicles, Nemesis’s second form will have its upper body inflate. In this iteration, its ribcage becomes visible, and spikes now appear in his body. Lastly, in theRemake, even Type 1 Nemesis will inflate his upper body and have a tentacle arm when damaged enough. This tidbit may serve as a reference to both his Type 2 and Type 3 forms. Moreover, theRemake’s take on the forms had more visual differences.
6Original: A Tyrant In Suffering
Despite the dominating appearance of the Nemesis T-Type, the primary design theme for Nemesis seems to revolve around the idea of constraint and pain. For instance,RE3’s Nemesis had a trench coat that largely concealed its body, save for its horrifying face. Nemesis sheds its coat during its second transformation, this time more unhinged and free-moving. However, his original third form had Nemesis clutching to the ceiling like a large four-legged animal.
With each phase, Nemesis appearsmore mutilated and grotesquethan usual. Yoshinori Matsushita, who designed Nemesis for the original game, said Nemesis’s third form, in particular, reflects the Tyrant’s suffering - as its transformation meant mutilating its original body.
5Remake: A Tyrant In Restraint
By the time Capcom released theRE3 Remakein 2020, its design team followed a different approach towards the star Tyrant. Yonghee Cho, theRemake’s art director, wanted to maintain the original look Nemesis had in the original game. However, they also had to consider some elements. For instance, a Tyrant in clothes seem hard to deem as “realistic.” Moreover, considering the Tyrant or Mr. T inResident Evil 2already had a coat that hid its body, how can the team make Nemesis unique?
Interestingly, the answer fell on a returning design motif: restraint. In theRemake, the lore declares the Nemesis T-Type as a prototype and not a finished model. As such, the chosen aesthetic for Nemesis reflected this “test subject” theme. In turn, the rather “stitched up” appearance of Nemesis’s black “coat” actually serves as a temporary seal. After all, Jill also encountered Nemesis' worse and more unstable second and third forms once its “coat” was removed.
4Defeated By A Railgun
Interestingly, the main incarnations of the Nemesis T-Type will always meet its demise on the hands of a next-generation railgun. However, the railguns Jill used to damage (inRE3: Nemesis) and destroy (inRemake) Nemesis differed in their backstories. In the original game, the US Military designed the Sword of Paracelsus as an experimental railgun in its attempt to retrieve the G-Virus. In this regard, the Sword served as their “insurance” should another Tyrant-type bioweapon appear.
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However, in theRemake, Jill used something called the Ferromagnetic Infantry-use Next Generation Railgun (FINGeR). As with the Sword, the US Military also created the FINGeR. However, this time, the US Military simply wanted to use the FINGeR againstany type of horrifying bioweapon, not particularly just Umbrella’s.
3Relentlessly Horrifying
Of all the creatures in the earlyResident Eviltrilogy, it’s the Nemesis T-Type that only relentlessly stalked the player throughout the game. Except for Save Rooms, Nemesis can chase players from one area to the next. Moreover, except for the three encounters where players have to fight Nemesis, players have eight other encounters where they can either run away or temporarily bring Nemesis down.
Giventhe scarcity of bullets in the game, the latter might not be a recommended option for players. However, if they attempt to escape Nemesis, the game prompts a special “stalking music” where Nemesis can appear anytime and anywhere. It’s when the music ends that players can safely roam the city again.
2The Chilling Prelude
Fans know that Nemesis stays best as the boss of anyResident Evilscenario that happens inside Raccoon City. However, the modern Nemesis actually makes a cameo as early as theResident Evil 2public demo. In theResident Evil 2 R.P.D. Demo, fans who go to the graveyard outside the Raccoon Police Department can hear a familiar phrase echoing from the distance.
When they listen, it turns out Nemesis howling the iconic “STARS!” dialogue just beyond that wall. Given Capcom made no comments on aRE3 Remakeby the time of the demo’s release on January 2020, the subtle cameogave quite the chilling impactto fans eager to wait for Nemesis’s reappearance.
1A Contradictory Report
Interestingly, fans who want to get to know more information about the Nemesis T-Type might want to look into China’sGameplayers Magazine. Back in the heyday ofResident Evil 3: Nemesis, the publication released the “Biohazard 3: Last Escape Complete Domination Official Guidebook.” In this guidebook, a “Nemesis Report” contained non-canon accounts regarding Nemesis.
However, the report did mention some items grounded on lore back then. For instance, Birkin’s research towards obedient Tyrants (the T-002 model and the NE-Alpha parasite) led to the Nemesis T-Type. Moreover, Nemesis had three main “forms.” Unfortunately, mistakes in descriptions start appearing in more specific statements - such as the inner biology of the Nemesis.
