When he’s “Got some rare things on sale, stranger,” you’ll be the first, and presumably only, person to know about it. With classic quips like, “What’re ya buying?”, and “What’re ya sellin’?”, it’s clear the Merchant isn’t hanging around for small talk. Although he’s hugely helpful figure in annihilating those larger, later enemies, one overpriced machine gun at a time.
He’s an enigmatic figure and a testament to video game logic. Despite Leon’s difficulties in traversing the Gothic plains of Spain, The Merchant is always fine: never infected never attacked.
The Merchant is a character that acts as the shop-keep of Leon Kennedy and seemingly nothing else he travels in toe, turning up around every tenth corner and appearing completely unscathed by the legions of infected foes roaming around. I could have written about any number of Resi’s characters, but a special place rests in my heart for Resident Evil’s 4 chief commerce aide, The Merchant. The original Resident Evil had some wonderfully terrible dialogue, but each subsequent game gave us its own brand of extraordinary poor writing masquerading as earnest seriousness. I’m not sure anything will beat the hilarity of hearing a tragic lament on a co-workers near-death situation with, “You were almost a Jill Sandwich,” or the overawed wonderment of simply existing within the confines of a police station that is, “Wow, what a mansion!”
You might disagree with but I’m pretty certain the best thing about Resident Evil is the dialogue.