Resident Evil is one of those series which rewards nosey players. There's always notes, recordings, and pictures hidden in the cracks and crevices, all of which give players more info. Whether that be the structural integrity, of Mr. X's trench coat or the fact that Grace Ashcroft has absolutely zero social life.

But it's not just all about notes—there's also a great deal of information given in Resident Evil games via their seemingly throwaway voice lines. So, with that in mind, one leaker has just found the motherlode.

Notable community modder Keff0 has posted two videos to YouTube over the last week. One goes through over 600 cut voice lines from the Resident Evil 4 remake, and the other explores nearly 400 cut voice lines from Resident Evil Requiem.

The Resident Evil 4 remake deep dive into the scrapped voice lines is certainly interesting, as we hear more from Leon, Ashley, Luis, and the Merchant. Hearing more from Leon is always a win, but the prize for 'most notable cut voice' line has to go to the Merchant, as he sneaks in a reference to Resident Evil Village.

"Ah, I see you're no stranger to villages," the Merchant says in a cut line from the RE4 remake. "The Duke? Lad shows promise." This is likely referring to The Duke from Resident Evil Village, who acts as the resident merchant and something of a guide to Ethan Winters.

Funny thing is, The Duke has also mentioned RE4's Merchant before, saying "What're ya buyin?" to Ethan before joking that it was "just something an old friend of mine used to say."

Both characters are also similar in that they seem omnipresent, omniscient, and unkillable, popping up at random across the map unscathed and knowing far more about what's going on than they perhaps should. Although the Merchant may not be as immortal as he once seemed, as Keff0 also uncovered unused animations for their death scene, suggesting that at one point during development players were able to kill him.

The cut voice lines for Requiem may not hold any connections to different Resident Evil games, but they do have masses of information about its characters and, crucially, the infected.

We already knew that the strain of the T-virus in Requiem was slightly different, in that it allowed infected to retain some memories of their past life and repeat some familiar actions like scrubbing the floors, eating, or singing. If you listened closely as well you could also hear the infected crying and asking for forgiveness.

But thanks to the cut voice lines found by Keff0, we now know that it could've been so much worse. Burning zombies would beg for water while screaming about how much the flames hurt. The huge Chunk would plead that he didn't want to die and cry about how stressed he was. Some infected would even thank you once you put them out of their misery.

The lines we did get were certainly enough to hammer home just how tragic it all was. But I can't help but feel a little sad that we missed out on some of these. I think I would've actually felt sorry for Chunk had I heard him whining about how stressed he was—it's certainly relatable.

Then there's Leon's cut lines. Most of them are just his usual grunts and groans along with some spider-themed quips—there's so many spider quips. But the most interesting line comes towards the end of the game, when he's really starting to suffer the effects of his infection and multiple monstrous fights: "I promise I'll make it home."

It may not seem like a lot. But given how sombre Leon's been ever since Resident Evil 2, it's actually quite significant that Leon came back to Raccoon City not as some hail mary mission to save Sherry and redeem his previous shortcomings, but with the intention of moving on and living his life away from its shadow.

Sadly, we were never going to be able to have all of these lines in Requiem or the Resident Evil 4 remake—there simply isn't the space to fit them all in. But at least we got to see what could have been.

The reception to Final Fantasy 14: Dawntrail's story has been as much of a journey as the expansion itself. It was never going to be easy, being the first expansion to build a brand-new arc following a decade of excellent storytelling, and unfortunately it didn't quite land initially.

Criticisms around its core narrative have largely abated over the last few patches, though, as we near the next expansion Evercold in January. And with its final batch of quests now unleashed upon players I'm here to declare: this might be the greatest final MSQ patch we've ever received.

Spoilers ahead for Patch 7.56 of Dawntrail, if that wasn't already obvious.

Dawntrail's final quests serve as less of a light teaser for what's to come in Evercold, and instead feel like a straight-up prologue to the expansion. That's wildly different from what I've come to expect from these patch quests. Sure, we usually spend a few patches building up to what's next, dropping little hints and then using the final patch quests to introduce a new character or setting as a fun little hype-builder.

But this felt… different, somehow. Almost as if we were playing the first few quests of Evercold. The patch already goes ahead and drops us straight into the ice-clad Fourth—that's the reflection we'll be spending our time in during the expansion—and almost immediately into an encounter against foes we'll undoubtedly face in the future.

Our character introduction teaser comes in the form of Visna, an adorable young catgirl with her wits about her and a dab hand with a crossbow. Oh yeah, that's the other thing: this patch seems to be straight-up showing off the currently unrevealed physical ranged job. Creative Studio 3 still seems to be keeping its cards somewhat close to its chest with it, though. Visna doesn't have many animations, aside from one move where she cleaves clusters of enemies and calls out to her falcon.

But just being able to see it, without even knowing anything about it, is the exact sort of pre-expansion hype I'm a total sucker for. Coupled with Visna charismatically explaining what the Fourth's all about: Differently-branded folks confined to certain homes, all of which happen to be gigantic airships on account of the surface being completely frozen over for the last 500 years. Get too close to someone with a different brand? Well, according to Visna, there's a good chance one or both of you will die for it. It's a great opportunity to info dump in advance, already letting us know what we're in for.

The whole thing builds up to getting us ready to head to Evercold's first location, Naglfar, while cleverly confining us to a tiny, separate area that still gives us a glimpse of what sort of vibe we can anticipate. The real thing'll come with Evercold itself, naturally, but it felt like I was already able to dip a toe into the expansion even while restricted to a singular floating platform.

Everything ends right before we plan to set off to Naglfar, leaving Evercold in the perfect position to throw us straight into the action. Not that I mind a little new-expansion-preamble, but Creative Studio 3 slapping it in the previous expansion is a great way to get the ball rolling on the next one even quicker than it might usually be able to. It was all incredibly refreshing in a way I simply had not expected, and I could feel myself getting those new-expansion fuzzy feelings even with Evercold four entire months away.

I think it's an excellent direction for Dawntrail's final moments to take—especially in an expansion that has been largely disparaged on the narrative front—setting the stage in a way that feels a little bit different to expansions past. It's still difficult to tell what sort of expansion Evercold is going to be based on a relatively short batch of quests, but I'm incredibly excited to find out.