Resident Evil 4is an iconic game, and few of its hallmarks stick in the memory more than The Merchant with his trenchcoat filled with guns, bullets, and trinkets for Leon Kennedy to peruse. He comes back to life when you murder him and operates several stores across the rural Spanish countryside, in spite of the rampant infection and lack of potential clients.
We stan an entrepreneurial businessman, especially one who keeps us alive and wants to buy all the chicken eggs we keep collecting on our journey. The remake is set to recast him and likely expand on his expertise as a spooky shopkeeper, so ahead of release let us pour one out for the original and greatest. Please ask me what I’m buying one more time.
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The first time you stumble across The Merchant in Resident Evil 4 you’re paranoid that he’s just another common enemy. After escaping the shackles of your captors and bidding farewell to Luis Sera, a brief cutscene has our trusty salesman poke his head through the building’s rusted window to invite us to have a look at his wares.
Leon might be fighting for his life in this strange place in search of the President’s daughter, but now he has a loving new friend who will arm him to the teeth for the right price. This dude doesn’t seem to be carrying much, yet a peek inside his trenchcoat reveals a plethora of murderous goodies.
He will buy all of your weird crap, offer upgrades for every single weapon, and even deal out precious amenities like region-specific maps and first aid sprays. I’ve no idea where my dude is restocking his supplies or where he’s even spending all of this money Leon is giving him, but I’m not going to complain when he’s keeping me alive.
Despite his generous nature, The Merchant also exudes an uneasy aura that you can never quite put your finger on. I remember theorising with friends as a kid about what role he plays throughout the events of Resident Evil 4, pointing out his increasingly red eyes as the game goes on and whether the infection that holds him hostage will eventually turn him against us. It doesn’t seem so, since I kept shooting his ass and abusing the firing range for random collectibles.
His presence also makes no sense, with Capcom having absolutely no interest in telling us who this guy is and why Leon hasn’t bothered to question the presence of survival horror’s equivalent to an UberEats driver. He has what we need, and we’re willing to pay whatever is asked, so it’s better to have fun and not question it.
It reinforces the delightfully campy tone of the game that many fans seem to have forgotten in the run-up to its remake. This is an adventure with giant bug monsters, a short little tyrant with a silly hat, and a protag with the most ludicrous mid-2000s emo haircut I’ve ever seen. Some random dude with the ability to teleport through the danger to sell us essential goods is a trivial element to forgive when it serves the overall experience so perfectly.
The Merchant has gone down in history thanks to his iconic voice and sussy appearance, planting his appearance in our minds and refusing to budge even decades later. I doubt the remake will alter his position in the universe much, although it will take me along timeto adjust to a new voice as it greets me at each new crossroad. He’ll still ask me what I’m buying, but it won’t be the same.
