LogFAQs > #961792812

It was never Resident Evil 3 at any point in its development. After Resident Evil 2 was released, Capcom started developing several Resident Evil games: Resident Evil 3 (starring HUNK on a cruise ship) a light gun game, Resident Evil 1.9 (about a group of survivors trying to escape Raccoon City), a prequel on the N64, and a Saturn port of RE2. When development on RE3 stalled, 1.9 was retooled into the RE3 we know today, and the RE3 project became the RE4 project, which eventually gave us Haunting Ground, Devil May Cry, and the RE4 we know today. The light gun game became Survivor, and the N64 prequel became Zero. The Saturn port was abandoned after it was deemed unfeasible, but the developers wanted to give something to Sega fans, so they started developing an original game for the Dreamcast, eventually becoming Code Veronica. At the time, it was intended to stay on the Dreamcast, because it was a spinoff. If you want proof, here it is, straight form the horse's mouth: https://youtu.be/ID3tBEDfeeo?t=740

It has almost no relevance to the rest of the series; the only impact it has is showing that Wesker is alive and has superpowers (which would have been a great reveal in a game where he's actually the villain) and since the C-virus is partially composed of the T-Veronica virus, J'avo have little flame effects when they turn into cocoons in 6. The game ends with Chris and Claire going to take on Umbrella, but that's discarded with 4's opening.

If you're saying it's the real Resident Evil 3 because it continues Claire's story and 3 doesn't, that logic could be applied in a million different ways. Why isn't RE3 the real RE2? It continues Jill's story, and RE2 barely touches on what Chris is doing. Why isn't RE4 the real RE3? It continues on Leon's story, and it has far more relevance to the later games. Hell, you could say Code Veronica is the real RE2 because it continues Chris's story from 1.

I could go on forever, but no matter what way you slice it, it simply has no claim to being the real RE3.