Instead of a single track, this episode of Bacon Bebop will cover the Save Room Theme from every Resident Evil game that contains one. Save rooms in Resident Evil are a recurring trend. The limited save system and inventory management are part of keeping the player on edge, along with the dangerous bio-organic weapons our protagonists face and the thick atmosphere each of these survival horror classics possess. To save your game using your limited ink ribbons or to swap out items in RE‘s magical universal inventory boxes, players had to make enough progress to earn access to save/safe rooms. For their hard work, players are greeted by a method of cementing their triumphs, a box to drop off useless or excess inventory, and a soothing melody to lower their blood pressure after the gore and chaos the rest of the game holds. This concept became an important part of Resident Evil‘s identity, and followed the series even through the radical change from fixed camera, adventure series into an over the shoulder, third-person-shooter in Resident Evil 4. Abandoned in RE5 and RE6, the “save room/safe haven” returned in Resident Evil 7. Shinji Mikami also continues the trend in The Evil Within, where portals to safe areas actually emit music and can be found by following a classical piano tune.

Resident Evil

Here we have the first melody that the Resident Evil series used to let players know that there’s no danger in the room we’ve just entered. It’s a song I find truly relaxing, both inherently, and Pavlovian. The calm arpeggios relax us after the horrors we’ve just fought through, while the distant, eerie wailing reminds us that danger lurks just beyond our safe room.  After tense encounters in the Spencer Mansion, running low on ammo and herbs, entering a room where you can save your progress, restock your inventory, and take a breather to this tranquil track is such a wonderful feeling. Finding a save room is both a moment to relax, and another landmark in your exploration of the mansion. Because of the need to backtrack and because of your limited inventory space, many players will come to remember chunks of the estate based on which save room is nearby.

Resident Evil: Director’s Cut

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0jiKienmRiQ

Good lord, this is creepy. If most of the save room themes are three quarters calming, one quarter harrowing, this is the exact opposite. It sounds like some kind of synthesized, taunting chime floating over an increasingly sinister keyboard in the background. This song conveys less of a safe feeling for me, and more of one that there’s probably a zombie hiding somewhere in the room. While there are a few good songs in Resident Evil: Director’s Cut, the soundtrack is largely inferior to the original and this is evident here in its save room theme. If you’d like more definitive proof of this game’s soundtrack being subpar, check out the Mansion Basement track from Director’s Cut.

Resident Evil 2

I love the mood of this save room theme. The piano melody gives off the feelings of hope and safety here, while the strings in the background provide a bit of tension, reminding us as always, that this safety is temporary and that danger looms. This track also sounds pretty melancholy. Resident Evil games are known for horror and action, but through the memos, diaries and side-stories, there’s often many cases of personal tragedy. There are friends and loved ones lost, people taken advantage of by Umbrella, individuals who experience infection and/or experimentation first hand, and many other horrible scenarios that the citizens of Raccoon City face. All of these dogs were once pets, and all of these zombies, were once people. In the safety of a save room, players are also given a moment to reflect, and when you take a step back from the thrill of the adventure and look at the actual events transpiring, there is quite a bit of sorrow to be found here. Most of Resident Evil 2 takes place in the Raccoon City Police station. Isn’t it sad that the concept of “safe rooms” even exists inside a building that until this outbreak was supposed to be entirely safe?

Resident Evil 3

This track is similar to Resident Evil 2‘s save room theme in many ways, featuring piano and strings, but I think the vibe is quite different. In most Resident Evil games, danger is present, but you are not the focus of its ire. Zombies/lickers/dogs/crows don’t attack you because they recognize you; they’d kill and eat any human that happened to catch their eye (or ear in the case of lickers). In Resident Evil 3, you are being hunted. Nemesis’ mission is to kill STARS members, and after the death of Brian Vickers, you’re the only one around. This is less of a song of safety or sadness, and more of one of determination. Jill’s tone throughout the game is one of a woman confident in her abilities who is intent on making it out of Raccoon City. The hopeful piano and resolute strings represent her mindset to me, with the threat of Nemesis and all of the horror in the city coming into the track with the repeating low piano note and the foreboding strings that start at 00:26.

Resident Evil: Code Veronica

Wow, this song is chill. I don’t get any spooky, sad, or ominous feeling from this at all. This sounds more like something that should be played over a credits roll or a results/ranking screen after a happy ending to a game than a brief moment of relief in an expedience filled with abominations who want to chew on your flesh. While I like this song less than most of the other themes, I don’t hate that there’s no creepy tone to this. Who doesn’t need a moment of pure serenity after the shit Resident Evil protagonists and players go through? Good on you, Code Veronica.

Resident Evil: Dead Aim

Here in this echoey, ambient save room theme, there appears to be static in the background, and if it isn’t just poor upload quality, I’m sure that it’s to mimic the sound of rain or the sound of cruising through the ocean, as Dead Aim takes place on a giant ship, and the name of this track is Haven in the Rain. I don’t know if the static is supposed to be there for sure, because Dead Aim is the only game here on the list that I haven’t actually played through. The soothing ambient noise is partnered with a repeating back and forth, mechanical sounding noise, appropriate for being on the giant vessel. Dead Aim is the least connected to the series out of all of the games on the list, as it’s actually one of the titles in the Gun Survivor series of light gun games by Capcom. Fittingly, this save theme hardly sounds like anything from other titles in the series. While it is a pretty calm piece, there’s very little going on here, and I’m not a big fan. I do appreciate them keeping with the trend, though.

Resident Evil (REmake)

Hey, wasn’t this song already on the list? That’s right, this is the same save room theme as in the original Resident Evil, redone here for REmake. I prefer the original for nostalgia’s sake, but this version does sound higher quality, and I think wailing in the background here is much more haunting. Here in REmake, this piece is still great for marking places of spooky sanctuary.

Resident Evil 0

This might be my personal favorite of all the save themes. Resident Evil 0‘s theme leans more toward Code Veronica, with very little, if any, malice to be found in this track. Forgive my lack of technical music knowledge and my unsophisticated take here, but this piece is just pretty. Any knowledge of the series also taints this song and any sense of triumph or safety found in it. This is because even upon completion of this game and defeating all of its horrors and challenges, this is just the beginning of very, very terrible things to come. For Rebecca, she emerges from RE0 only to immediately become involved in the events of RE1. It’s a true bummer. Maybe it’s Rebecca’s unbridled, childish optimism that we hear in this song.

Resident Evil 4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TOe9FG1P5vI

Despite many thinking that Resident Evil 4 abandoned just about every Resident Evil convention, it kept as many as it did away with. Tank controls, emblems to open doors, Wesker, inventory management, lore through memos, 90s haircuts, and save rooms (complete with theme) are all included. RE4 has an excellent save theme, with a harp melody here to put players at ease. And really, what’s more relaxing than a harp? What’s present here to supply us with some dread or unnerve us then? Though I’d say this track is mostly uplifting, the choir in the background does add just the slightest bit of spook. In the context of the game, choirs come off as much more sinister. Leon’s biggest problem in this game is a large group of people associated with a religious cult. Choirs might not be what he wants to hear right now.

Resident Evil 7: Biohazard

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RUL7cMnLnlk

With the latest title in the series, we’re introduced to the first track that I believe to be just about perfectly split between disturbing and soothing. As RE7 is set in Louisiana, the use of a banjo is appropriate here, and a neat touch. The warm banjo melody is layered on top of a bothersome, buzzing, warping synth. The synth seems more unstable than sinister. Overall, to me, the track feels like something that perfectly encapsulates the protagonist Ethan’s mindset here. He’s safe for the moment, but still definitely anxious, terrified, and probably is, or feels as if, he’s losing his mind. Us too, Ethan.

That’s it for Resident Evil save rooms thus far! I’m sure that we’ll see more save room themes as the series continues, and the Resident Evil 2 Remake has been confirmed to have a remix of the original game’s theme! I’ll be sure to expand this list when we get more RE games featuring these spooky and serene, creepy and calm songs for us to rearrange our items to!

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