Summary

  • One of the strangest elements of Dead Rising is its respawning convicts, who are the only Psychopaths to do so.
  • It's never really been explained but Deluxe Remaster's director has given a reason why.
  • According to Ryosuke Murai, the prisoners are supposed to be different people whenever they respawn.

Dead Rising Deluxe Remaster's director, Ryosuke Murai, has explained that the Prisoners respawn every day because they're supposed to be different people every time.

As a game that's nearly 20 years old, the original Dead Rising has been almost entirely figured out by fans who have datamined and tested nearly every facet of Frank West's original zombie outing. There's always been one big mystery, though - why the heck do the Prisoners (or Convicts if you're classic like me) respawn every day? Related

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Posts 1 Every single other Psychopath in the game can only be encountered and defeated once, but the infamous Gone Guru lovers will respawn at midnight for the first three days of Dead Rising. This is something that was carried over into Deluxe Remaster and, while it's not explained in-game, it seems the director has an answer to why this happens.

Dead Rising's Respawning Convicts Are Supposed To Be Different People

Destructoid recently had the opportunity to speak to the developers of Dead Rising Deluxe Remaster, which included game director Ryosuke Mirai. Alongside asking him about the new survivor AI and the possibility of deluxe remastering Dead Rising 2, Destructoid also took the chance to question why the Prisoners respawn at midnight on each day. In response, Murai offered an explanation that I'd never considered before and frankly have a hard time getting on board with. Murai said that Prisoners that Frank runs into after the first day are supposed to be different convicts than the ones we originally see, which is why the boss fight is repeated.

Similar to the original game, the convicts that players face after the initial encounter on Day 1 are supposed to be different people than the original trio. - Ryosuke Murai

It's an interesting way of looking at it, but one that requires a lot of your disbelief to be suspended. Ignoring the fact that fans already have questions about how the convicts ended up in Willamette in the first place, all three of them actually have official names and aren't just called "Prisoner".

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Then there's the fact that the same models and voices are used each time they appear in Dead Rising, without any variations made to indicate that they're different people. That was surely a technical limitation in the original game, but it doesn't fly as well now in 2024. Overall, it's a nice theory and likely what the developers were thinking, but it's also something that's a little hard to believe. Next

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