I wasn’t expecting to, but I really like Ashley in RE4 Remake.
I didn’t particularly mind Ashley as a character in the original game, but every time she ran off/got re-kidnapped was definitely met with a “Oh thank god, she’s not my problem again. Fuck escort missions.” And her propensity for running into danger/death was so damn annoying.
Remake Ashley just falls over instead of dying because someone breathed on her too hard and wasting all my herbs. Storming the castle front gates and the Room of Doom and Cranks was so much more fun when I wasn’t getting constant game overs from Ashley walking into death.
Girl’s got gumption. She tried to brain Leon with a candelabra the first time we meet her. (I know she threw things in the OG, but the candelabra was more up close and personal.) I like her little back and forth conversations with Leon and how she will comment on the ridiculous nonsense he gets up to like jumping on chandeliers. She takes initiative helping with puzzles. Ashley will warn me when someone’s sneaking up behind me. She ran off this time in the castle because she nearly killed Leon with his own knife instead of just… running off because she was coughing. (I forget the exact reason she ran off in the OG, but I do remember rolling my eyes and going, “Good riddance.”)
I am now genuinely disappointed whenever Ashley disappears for whatever reason. I was not expecting any of that.
