Resident Evil 3's Nemesis is one of the most iconic and frightening villains in the Resident Evil franchise. It is perhaps the most defining factor and inclusion in making Resident Evil 3 a unique classic in its own right, among the many Resident Evil and survival horror games over the years.
However, for such an iconic monstrosity, there is a lot that remains unknown about the origins, creation, and identity of the Nemesis in Resident Evil 3. If Capcom can provide more insight into the Nemesis as both a monster and a character, it will both satisfy hardcore Resident Evil fans who wish to soak up every bit of lore available to explain matters, as well as help create a more frightening monstrosity.
Four key questions remain, which some of Resident Evil's most die-hard fans may want answers to. This includes the origins and creation of the parasite that turned a Tyrant into a Nemesis, an explanation to explain why only one Nemesis was ever created, a possibly deeper connection to the infectious lore that other Resident Evil games are deeply entrenched within, and, finally, an identity which can better explain just who was the Nemesis originally, even if it may be a Tyrant clone.
What is the Nemesis Parasite exactly?
The creation of Resident Evil's Nemesis was done by taking a regular Tyrant and infecting it with a parasite that takes over the brain and essentially controls the Tyrant host. It is known as the Nemesis Parasite and was created by Umbrella's European facilities. Its American facilities were known to focus on Bio-Weaponry that demonstrates brute strength, while their European facilities focused on Bio-Weaponry that demonstrated high-intelligence or specifically preserved the intelligence of hosts.
The Nemesis Project was the ultimate culmination of Umbrella's American and European research. However, the Resident Evil series still never explained exactly what is the Nemesis parasite, which was inserted into the Tyrant in order to turn it into a Nemesis.
Essentially, there is just a brief explanation of a genetically-engineered parasite created by Umbrella's European facilities. It was utilized in order to compensate for the mental deterioration and brain damage that most Tyrant hosts suffered from the T-Virus strains during transformation. Nemesis was created to better take orders from human leadership and was less prone to developing a consciousness of its own self-ego, as all of Resident Evil's Tyrants could sometimes be prone to abandoning a mission by looking out for their own self interests for survival.
But none of this explains the basis for which this parasite was created from or how. Even if it was genetically-engineered, one would assume there is some key information for which it drew inspiration from in order to capitalize upon its genetic strengths in intelligence, or some sort of biological blueprint it drew a basis from. It certainly would seem as if it was genetically-engineered from some sort of biological origins in which its original manifestation came from.
Given Resident Evil's deep universe of virology and infectious monstrosities, a more detailed explanation of the Nemesis Parasite would be much welcome, especially in consideration of how much depth Capcom goes to in most cases of Resident Evil's biological lore.
Why was there only one Nemesis ever?
In the Resident Evil universe, there was only one Nemesis ever created, and the Nemesis Project was shutdown soon after the Raccoon City outbreak. The Nemesis was created with the mission to hunt down Resident Evil's S.T.A.R.S. members during the Raccoon City outbreak as a means to disable their efforts to investigate and incriminate Umbrella's connection to the outbreak. It was also a twofold agenda, as its role as a sick and twisted experiment was put to use as a test to see how well the Nemesis would perform in such an environment with a specific set of directives.
Unfortunately, there is not a clear answer as to why only one Nemesis was ever created and why the project was completely abandoned almost immediately. Clearly, a lack of human hosts would not be a valid reason, given the high number of failed hosts that were disposed of in unsuccessful projects to create regular Tyrants.
If the aim was to circumvent some of the intelligence gaps and failures in preserving the brain functions in regular Tyrant hosts, the Nemesis Project clearly succeeded in that regard. Some possibilities may include difficulty in creating the Nemesis Parasite or possibly a very complicated procedure involved in bonding the parasite to the Tyrant hosts, which could have made mass production of these Nemesis Bio-Weapons difficult to profit from in future endeavors from Umbrella's Bio-Weapon industry.
Another possibility is the fact that the Nemesis ultimately fails in its mission in Resident Evil 3, given that the protagonist defeats it in battle a number of times, and ultimately kills it off in the end. However, the protagonists Jill Valentine and Carlos Oliveira are no ordinary fighters, and it certainly took all their efforts to put the Nemesis down, in what was clearly a close call overall. Perhaps, given the difficulty, time, and cost in creating a Nemesis, Umbrella still sought something that would be a sure bet without any risk, and superior to all of Umbrella's creations.
Overall, more explanation would be welcome in the reasons for which only one Nemesis was created in all of Umbrella's history, despite a much more numerous number of the inferior regular Tyrants which were created, in addition to a high number of human hosts that were disposed of in failed Tyrant Project initiatives.
Is the Nemesis Parasite connected to other Resident Evil games?
The T-Virus, or the Progenitor virus before it, has always been the backbone of the Resident Evil series' lore and monstrous creations, with a few exceptions, such as the Mold in Resident Evil 7 and the Las Plagas parasites in Resident Evil 4 and 5. It would be interesting to find out if there is any historical connection between the Nemesis Parasite or its creation, and any of the other fungal, viral, or parasitic monstrosities in the Resident Evil series.
Given that the Las Plagas parasite came from Europe, specifically Spain, and Resident Evil 4's main villain, Saddler, had mysterious connections to the lucrative Bio-Weapons industries, it could be left up to fan-theories and speculation to surmise a possibility of a connection between the Nemesis Parasite and the Las Plagas parasite, which share some similarities in taking over the minds of hosts. Even a loose connection, or even a connection to past T-Virus research, would help give the Nemesis Parasite a more defining context to the overall Resident Evil universe's lore and story.
Is there a backstory to the Nemesis' identity?
Finally, given that there was only one Nemesis ever created and the purpose of its creation was to fully take control of the Tyrant host's self-consciousness and ego, it would be interesting to know just who was the host originally, before the transformation. Given that the later Tyrants eventually were cloned Tyrants, in order to increase the odds of successfully creating a fully fleshed out Tyrant without having to go through the complicated transformation process of a human host, the Nemesis was almost certainly based off the host of a cloned Tyrant.
However, just who was the original host from which these Tyrants were cloned from could give them a more frightening level of depth, especially the Nemesis. And especially if some degree of consciousness of this former self persisted, the Nemesis could become more nuanced among Resident Evil villains.
Given Capcom's heavy duty use of stories that revolve around concepts of cloning in previous games, such as the Ada doppelganger in Resident Evil 6, and the cloned Ashford family members in Resident Evil Code: Veronica, this would actually seem light in comparison. It would be an easy way to create a more frightening Nemesis with a deep backstory.
Recent concept art for the Nemesis' creation demonstrate the possibility that we may actually obtain a deeper insight into the creation and origins of the Nemesis. In the photos of what may seemingly be an earlier form of the Nemesis' host, a more human form is shown, which does not resemble a regular Tyrant. There is the possibility that this particular Nemesis may have gone through the full transformation process of a Tyrant, rather than being a Tyrant clone.
This opens up the doors for a numerous number of theories, which can explain a lot of questions. If it was not a clone, and required a human host in its original manifestation, it may explain the extreme difficulties in trying to flesh out a Nemesis creature, given that many human hosts fail the Tyrant transformation process. This could explain why the Nemesis Project was abandoned or why only one Nemesis was created. At this point, it is probably best to wait until April 3 for the release of the Resident Evil 3 Remake to see just what sort of expanded storytelling and insight in Resident Evil 3 Remake may transpire as players hopefully learn more about this iconic villains, the Nemesis, as it is fully unleashed on anxious players.
Resident Evil 3 Remake will release on PC, PS4, and Xbox One on April 3, 2020.