New information has surfaced indicating that the artists’ reasons for changing Jill Valentine in the remake of Resident Evil 3 fits more in line with what most people would expect in justifying why we can’t have attractive women wearing sexy clothes in today’s generation of gaming.

Many people may have noticed that instead of wearing a tube-top and mini-skirt, Jill is now wearing form-fitting jeans, boots, and two layers of tank-tops, making her look very much like the rebooted version of Lara Croft. Well, in a recent interview we now find out why that is.

Den of Geek did an article about the design changes that came from an interview that Resident Evil 3 producers Peter Fabiano and Masao Kawada had with Famitsu. They explain that Jill was redesigned for more modern standards. However, they picked up their story from a translation that was made by Siliconera, who originally grabbed the news from a Japanese blog post, Ryokutya2089.

Siliconera translated Ryokutya2089’s snippets from the Famitsu interview, and had this to write about Jill’s outfit…

“Jill is one of their most popular characters. They took care to make sure she retained her image even with the design change, and the design changes was made so that she’d look more action-oriented. The original costumes for Jill and Carlos will be available as a bonus.”

This translation isn’t entirely accurate and leaves out a very key noun that Ryokutya2089 included from their snippet of the Famitsu interview.

In the original post from Ryokutya2089, the section reads…

“「ジルはアクションをさせても違和感のないデザインに変えた」（ジル＆カルロス原作コスチューム＆髪型は特典で”

The parentheses segment refers to the original costumes from Resident Evil 3 being part of the special pre-order bonus.

The real tell, however, is with the phrase “違和感 の ない”. Siliconera opted to completely exclude it from their translation. If you did include it, the phrase from Ryokutya2089 reads…

“Jill performs a lot of action so her design change was made to ensure she doesn’t seem uncomfortable or out of place.”

I added the bold segment for emphasis.

Excluding “違和感” meant that the translated part only accounted for Jill’s design as an action icon, and not for the fact that the change was made so that Jill would look “uncomfortable” or suffer from “discomfort” or “physical unease”. It’s also connected by the possessive form of “ ない”, which means that it’s “not there” or or “won’t happen”. So the literal translation of that phrase is “uncomfortable/discomfort/out of place not present”.

If you check some other coverage of the news, such as from PlayStation Lifestyle, they do include the phrase and explain it in their article as follows…

“Jill’s outfit was updated because of how action-packed the game is (more than Resident Evil 2). They wanted to give her an outfit that wouldn’t seem uncomfortable during intense moments.”

So why is it so significant that her outfit is being described as one that wouldn’t make her feel “uncomfortable”?

Because she’s a fictional character!

They’re trying to use real-world physics for a fantasy-horror property that defies logic and physics on a regular basis.

Now we’re supposed to apply real-world logic and physics to a fictional character’s state of comfort, which is why she’s no longer wearing a tube top and mini-skirt?

Did no one tell them that the Nemesis’ teeth seem very unrealistic? Or that zombies are fake? Or that lugging around a rocket launcher all day would wear out the muscles rather quickly?

In short: why is it that when it comes to Jill’s attire realism and “comfort” come into the equation, but it’s not applied to other aspects of the game?

It reminds me of the people who jump through ridiculous hoops to explain why Tifa needs a sports bra to justify the removal of boob jiggling physics in Final Fantasy VII: Remake, all while other-dimensional spirits wielding fire and shooting ice streams from their hands is a-okay, and a scrawny soldier carrying around a sword twice his size is completely fine.

Basically, it’s a matter of “we’ll apply realism and physics to the fan-service elements but ignore every other over-the-top aspect of the game”.

It’s all part of the Censorship Bingo that a lot of the Regressive Left and Centrists™ use to justify censorship and allow our hobby to become increasingly more restrictive when it comes to artistic expression for fictional female characters.

As for the Resident Evil 3 Remake, the game is due out April 3rd, 2020 for the PS4, Xbox One and PC. According to the Famitsu interview, the game is 90% done and the gold master disc is coming down the pipeline soon.

(Thanks for the news tip Grandmaster Shadow)