Summary
Resident Evil 7turned heads by planting seeds in a classic slasher horror atmosphere only to immediately uproot these new roots and its protagonist Ethan Winters and toss them into a fantasy horror atmosphere withResident Evil Village.Resident Evil 7was fully unprecedented regarding what it would achieve and what themes it would produce. It wasn’t even clear how precisely or explicitly it would connect to the greaterResident Evilmythology.Resident Evil Villagewas a true sequel toResident Evil 7and even ifResident Evil 9behaves like a threequel it’ll have a tough time succeedingVillage’s absurd inciting incident.
Resident Evil Village Begins with What is Believed to Be the Brutal Murder of Mia Winters
Villagehas a calm opening where players learn Ethan and Mia have had a child, though there are strange undertones apparent in Mia’s passive-aggressive behavior. It’s easy enough to brush that aside becauseMia wasn’t given any screen time inResident Evil 7where she was in a normal scenario, anyhow, and now that she’s finally at home and not fearing for her life it would’ve made sense for her to not be as wholly ordinary as anyone else would be who also endured what she had.
Still, there’s enough there for players to dig into if they’re taken aback by how sharp her responses to Ethan seem. Then, before players have an opportunity to question anything going on, Chris Redfield is suddenly there—which is jarring enough given howChris is now more aesthetically reminiscent of hisResident Evil 6appearance—and firing a ludicrous number of silenced bullets into Mia.
Chris refuses to explain the situation to Ethan despite how much easier the entire predicament would’ve been to comprehend and stomach if he did and that narrative oversight is directly a consequence of Capcom hoping to maintain a plot twist regarding Mia and Miranda.
This wasn’t necessary, though, since theplot twist concerning Ethan’s death inResident Evil 7far outweighs anything to do with Mia and Miranda and eclipses that reveal fully. Either way, Chris gunning Mia down in front of Ethan and then neglecting to explain himself further was an absolutely wild choice thatResident Evil 9can’t afford to make, nor could it ever hope to elicit the same bewilderment from players.
Resident Evil 9 Shouldn’t Try to Dupe Its Playerbase
Treating Ethan that way was also Capcom’s way of keeping players in the dark. Now thatResident Evilmay have lost the trust of many of its players, a similar opening asVillage’s inResident Evil 9won’t go over well and also probably wouldn’t be believable at face value. Details can be withheld from the protagonist if it’ll benefit the story, but Chris never had a salient reason for not simply explaining the situation to Ethan. Therefore, both Ethan and the player were misled unnecessarily.
Nothing concrete is known yet aboutResident Evil 9and, while it could attempt another huge narrative reveal, it shouldn’t go near how silly its predecessor’s introduction turned out to be. The opening is made worse with the context of the story itself and why such a choice was made because it’s purely for shock value and to trick players into maybe believing Chris is going to beVillage’s lead antagonist.
That said, anyone who is familiar withChris as aResident Evillegacy mascot characterwouldn’t ever assume he randomly became an antagonist unless there was some hidden reason as to why. It’s a failure in every regard, especially in retrospect, and unlessResident Evilcan embrace and support its silliness with foolproof narrative purpose it should resist making similar decisions for its ninth mainline entry.
Resident Evil Village
WHERE TO PLAY
Ethan Winters finds himself in an entirely new nightmare in Capcom’s latest installment of the acclaimed Resident Evil franchise. Whether you’re defending against Lycans in the grim dwellings of the village or exploring the lavish Castle Dimitrescu, the meticulously designed environments immerse you in this eerie world, powered by Capcom’s proprietary RE Engine. Run from, hide or face off against a diverse cast of terrifying village inhabitants in dream-like - no, nightmarish - situations and fight your instincts to push through classic horror-based sequences. Also, be sure to check out “The Mercenaries” that unlocks once you’ve finished the campaign, a fast-paced and arcade-like game mode which challenges players to blast away enemies against the clock.
