#i only know re7 and re8 lore. that is it

[all-lars-bars]

I want to get it across to everyone that Ethan Winters, while very much just some guy, is also definitely not normal.

[rallamajoop]

The Baker Incident Report and the Resident Evil 7 Guidebook

While I’m talking obscure sources of RE7 lore, there's a couple more I’ve been poking through lately: the Baker Incident Report file (only available with the RE8 Trauma Pack DLC), and the BIOHAZARD 7 resident evil kaitaishinsho or RE7 guidebook (only available in Japanese, though some translations have made their way online).

I’m not the biggest fan of these kinds of ‘canon’ – fans shouldn’t have to go pouring through pages of DLC-exclusive-text-dumps or untranslated supplements to find out WTF was supposed to be going on – and both of these have other problems I’ll get into below. All that said, here's some of the more interesting new info they give us.

From the BIR, the Winters were moved to ‘Eastern Europe’, as witness protection from the Connections. That's still frustratingly unspecific, but more than we’re ever explicitly told in the game.

The lab that created Eveline is in Munich, Germany, per the BIR. This one does add up: close enough to Eastern Europe for Miranda to be involved, but not so close that it would necessarily ring alarm bells for Mia when the BSAA wanted to move them right to Miranda’s doorstep. Mia’s obviously been to the Munich lab, but presumably didn’t know exactly where the mould comes from (something redacted out even in their own reports). The guidebook also places the lab in Europe, but doesn't give a city. The BIR adds that the Connections are active in Eastern Europe, and we know they have facilities in Central America. Presumably there are offices in Texas too ‒ Mia can't be commuting cross continents to get to work every day.

Eveline was shipped to Central America due to an attempted raid by the BSAA, which is far more we learn from the "Orders" file from the game. The BIR goes so far as to imply that this botched operation was indirectly responsible for the whole Baker Incident, with Chris and his team leaving due to their frustration with the BSAA's attempts to cover the incident up. The guidebook, however, tells us Chris Redfield was actually the guy leading the team behind the failed raid. I assume we’re meant to take it that the mission failed because of an info leak, but I’m still amused by just how ineffectual this franchise keeps making Chris out to be.

Post RE7, Zoe is working as a reporter for a small paper in New Orleans. We don't know if she too went through witness protection but her name was listed among the dead at the Baker mansion.

Ethan is called a systems engineer in both the guide book and the BIR (this one does seem to have been spread around fandom more widely).

Eveline was created in the early 2000s, according to the guidebook. This one really doesn't add up for me: if the project started in 2000 and had already advanced through the A-E series by the early 2000s, why did it stagnate there for the next 10 years without further progress? Did Miranda leaving the project set it back so far? They can't have been waiting for Eveline to grow up, she can age 25x faster than usual, and is being deliberately maintained at the age of a 10yo girl. IDEK, I'd be inclined to ignore this one.

The guidebook states that Mia told people she worked for a "trading company," and was often away from home for work, something which had already strained the Winters’ marriage. I'd guess she told people she spent a lot of time accompanying shipments of goods when she was really smuggling materials or taking part in covert operations for the Connections.

The guidebook gives 2010 as the year she started working for the Connections (a year before her marriage to Ethan in 2011, though it doesn’t mention when they met, which may well have been 2010 or earlier). Mind you, this is also the one bit that randomly calls her "a researcher", so take it as you will (more on this below).

Of Mia's involvement with the project that created Eveline, it says only that the Connections' Special Agents Alan and Mia were assigned to transport Eveline to America. No real indication Mia was ever involved before then.

Of Mia's relationship to Eveline, it says that Mia "found Eveline creepy, but felt sympathy for her lonely situation." You and the rest of us, Mia.

Eveline forced Mia to lure Ethan to the Bakers' property in hope that adding Ethan to their family would make Mia more compliant, according to the guidebook. Eveline was especially fixated on Mia, having known her longer than the Bakers, and was frustrated with Mia's continued resistance to her control. Mia seems to have tried to keep Ethan's existence secret from Eveline to protect him, but somehow let it slip. All this is already implied in-game, of course, but it's nice to have it spelt out.

The Bakers feed people infected food because “oral and mucosal infections” are supposedly better for mould-powered mind-control. Ethan is obviously already infected AF well before their attempts to feed him 'dinner' (there's no way his severed hand would be usable otherwise), but IDK, maybe ingesting some extra mould would have made it easier for Eveline to control him? I'm sure a 10yo girl and a family of hillbillies do not have this down to an exact science, and I wouldn't even be surprised if feeding people mould was counter-productive somehow, given their success rate.

So why did none of those infected prisoners join Eveline's "family" alongside the Bakers? The guide book tells us simply that all were "deemed unfit" as family members, and were thus killed, and converted into molded instead.

We get official names for all the molded types we meet in the game (Moulded, Blade Moulded, Quick Moulded and Fat Moulded – pretty self-explanatory).

As a side-note, Ethan himself gets referred to as a ‘molded’ around this fandom a lot, which really isn’t correct. Ethan’s infected by the mold in the same manner as the Baker family, whereas ‘molded’ is a term coined to describe what amounts to mutamycete zombies (see above): the unintelligent, inhuman monsters that made up the generic enemy types of RE7, whose whole bodies are simply “superorganisms formed of countless mycelia.”

The guide book also implies that Jack’s final, mutated form reflects that he’s starting to become a moulded himself, which is a very interesting little detail.

Notes attached to concept art suggest that most moulded are created from dead bodies, covered by mould in bathtubs to convert them. Eveline is also seen spontaneously converting people to shapeless mould though, and clearly converted much of the ship’s crew into moulded-creatures in a very short time after her escape. It’s not super-consistent, but it is all horror-logic at its best (read: the rules are whatever will make this scene scarier).

There’s a bunch of additional stuff in the BIR naming the Connections’ founder as Brandon Bailey, someone who naturally has ties to Umbrella, blah, blah, blah ‒ I’m sure it all means more to fans of some of the older games. I can't pretend to have much interest in this part myself.

So with all that interesting info, what's my big problem with these sources? Well, for one thing, you don’t have to look far into the guidebook to find info that contradicts what we already know – and sometimes even itself. One page clearly describes Mia as a special agent working for the Connections ‒ a description that matches the wording used in the Orders document, and everything we see Mia doing in the game. But then another page randomly tells us Mia was hired as "a researcher" ‒ a description that matches nothing else we know about her (though it's an irritatingly common misconception, and this book may be the reason why). No-one's checking any of this stuff for consistency.

The guidebook also features such other gems as telling us Ethan currently lives and works in Los Angeles, when both Mia’s driver’s license and all geographical logic tell us they’re from Texas. Then there's that weird bit about Eveline being created in the early 2000s... and realistically, I can only assume a lot of what made it into the book may have come from earlier concept notes that were never updated as the story developed ‒ and if you read anything else on the production of this game, you'd know that concepts changed massively as development went on.

But more frustrating is everything the book doesn’t tell us. There isn’t a word said about the oh-so-mysterious "imprinting protocol" that Mia references in the game. How does it work? Is it, as the ending text spiel seems to imply, merely something that can be implemented in a hurry when Eveline needs to be transported across the globe? Can she be imprinted on more than one person at once? Has she ever been imprinted on anyone else? That seems likely, given that the lab’s in Munich while Mia lives in Texas (and if she's really been around since the early 2000s and Mia joined the company only in 2010, she logically must have been), but we don’t find out. Does Eveline get similarly obsessed with everyone she’s imprinted on, or is Mia special? Not a clue.

Since the guidebook was released in March 2017, long before the Not a Hero and End of Zoe DLCs, neither expansion is mentioned in the text. And since we don’t even learn the name ‘The Connections’ until the Not A Hero DLC, the group that created Eveline is referred to simply as the “mysterious organisation” (with quotes) whenever it comes up.

Nothing is said in the guidebook about the new incarnation of Umbrella which was so prominently involved at the end of RE7 either. Possibly, this too was to avoid spoilers for Not A Hero, which does at least give us some info on them – but then, the Baker Incident Report doesn’t mention the new Umbrella at all either, and it doesn’t have that excuse. That omission is all the stranger, considering that Zoe’s whole purpose in writing it is supposedly to expose the cover-up after the Baker Incident – doesn’t Umbrella factor into that at all? It’s like their whole role in RE7 has just wiped clean.

It's also obvious there was so much more lore written for this game that the guide book doesn’t share. Early versions of collectable documents that can still be found in the game files give the D-series head and arm some fascinating backstory, but there’s nothing about them in the guide book, which is a real shame.

Mia especially stands out as a character who must have so much backstory we never hear anything about. How did she get involved with a company as evil as the Connections? How did she justify it to herself for so long – what excuses did she make to herself? Did she genuinely believe they were finding ways to win wars without losing soldiers? Was she gathering evidence against them, was she scared they’d kill her if she left? Not one single word in either the guidebook or the BIR to explain.

Even more annoying to me, though, is just what a wasted opportunity the Baker Incident Report is to add more to Zoe’s story, when she’s one of my favourite RE characters. Included in the text is a letter she received from Mia, giving what should have been the perfect opportunity to flesh out the relationship Zoe and Mia must have built in the three years they spent trapped in the Baker property, the only two (semi-)sane people present – and what does the letter do? Imply they hardly knew each other at all. It’s the most boring possible answer, it contradicts hints from the actual game (Marguerite outright tells us they've been working together, even!), and GDI, you do not get to tell me that my girls didn’t know each other! ;_;

Ethan and Mia similarly get the short shrift. Throughout RE7 their every interaction is building to a big scene that never actually happens where Ethan finds out the truth – Ethan knows Mia’s been keeping secrets, he never stops asking questions about it, and Mia says outright that she wants to come clean. So what does the BIR tell us? Well, post RE7, Mia mentions in an interview that she doesn’t want anyone telling Ethan. Not a word about what changed her mind. Not a word about why Ethan would just stop asking. Total cop-out.

And there’s so much more it could have covered too. There's nothing about Ethan’s ‘military training’. Nothing about the Winters' relationship with Chris. Mia’s conversation with him in RE8 suggests he was personally involved in relocating them to Eastern Europe, but the BIR doesn’t mention that either. The BIR at large is basically just an extended lore dump, and it doesn’t even sound like Zoe’s voice.

So this is about where I finish up with both of these sources: frustrating, inaccessible, inconsistent, and more missed opportunities than real material. There’s a lot in both I’ll happily go on ignoring. But I’ll still pour through them for every last interesting detail, because I am that obsessed with this canon right now, and they’re what we’ve got.

[miasknife]

I have gotten so obbesed with mia winters to the point when I meet new people I use HER personality, HER terrible humour until I know them enough to mirror them, I AM HER. If I actually truly loved someone of course I'd do what she did, (stab them cuz all I need is mia) I sleep next to a PHOTO of HER, I'm on the verge of buying all her fits just to be more like her, I could tell you the WHOLE re7 re8 resident lover LORE/STORY THE ONLY WORDS COMING OUT MY MOUTH ARE MIA WINTERS, we have so many same traits, I literally Could tell you anything you want about her ANYTHING. ive read her biography MULTIPLE times I LOVE MIA WINTERS I LOVE MIA WINTERS SHES witteraly my bestie and I am HER

[whosmarinette]

hi i have a question about your re7/8 post

idk anything about the resident evil franchise outside of re7/8 (i was mainly interested in ethans character)

so i just wanna ask why it wouldve made more sense for claire to show up instead of chris

Oh my gosh I was hoping someone would ask!

I think the simplest answer is, while Chris’ main concern has always been and always will be Umbrella and its activities, so it’s not unrealistic that he shows up, Claire’s main concerns are civilians that are victims of bioterrorism and bioweapons.

Now, I’m gonna assume you don’t know the lore super well so I’ll give you a bit of background: Claire Redfield herself was a civilian caught up in a huge act of bioterrorism in 1998. By 2004 she was working with back then just establish organization called TerraSave. The main mission of this organization is to provide aid and evacuation for victims of bioterrorism. She made saving people her life mission, and, if my memory serves me right, in Death Island she even gets criticized for focusing mainly on saving people instead of working on outright preventing the things they need to be saved from.

Now, what does Chris do at the end of RE7? He saves Ethan and Mia (who, as far as anyone is concerned, are civilians) and evacuates them from the sight of a bioterrorism threat. That is his sister’s job. Literally. And it would’ve been great to see TerraSave actually, actively in action.

It could also make for a far more interesting conflict in re8 if Ethan never properly met Chris before the events of it - having Chris barge in and kill his wife and kidnap his child would be way more shocking if he only semi-recognized him from Claire’s descriptions. And then later in the game seeing Claire and Chris together, and finally getting answers, as well as getting to see their dynamic, would be both more satisfying for Ethan and for the fans of classic games.

Why didn’t it happen? Your guess is as good as mine. Maybe they didn’t have an updated model for Claire since they significantly changed the way she looked in the re2 remake, making even her DI model look like it’s not the same person. Maybe Claire having to be around 40 to appear in the game melted off their puny coward hearts. Maybe they forgot what her job was and just wanted to push in Chris because he’s one of the all-time fan favorites. Maybe they wanted to but couldn’t fit all her swagger in the budget. Maybe she was making sweet passionate love to Leon Kennedy and couldn’t come to the phone. Who knows!

All I know is that it could’ve been much better.

[wazzappp]

I drew. a lot for this. Also heads up for non RE mutuals this is going to be. confusing for you. I'm going to do my best to annotate and provide context but you are in for a wild ride.

Anyway long ass lore post for how Lisa and Robbie go from fighting to working together in this AU.

In the RE8 cannon all of the Dimitrescu daughters are made at the same time but for the sake of ✨the situations✨ I am going to change that. Lisa lived the longest as a human before being assimilated into the mold with a Cadou (infecting extension of the Megamycite). Technically her 'sisters' are older than her, as they were assimilated a while ago. Lisa has been a member of house Dimitrescu for about 2 years now. This puts her in this. Weird middle child zone. She wants to make her 'family' proud but she's also aware that what makes them proud isn't really the most achievable thing in the world (expecially with Bela to contend with. Older sibling overachiever to the maximum). She's got a certain degree of distance from them and sometimes wonders if she wasn't better off before all of this. Her memories are fuzzy but still there for the most part. She cant remember faces or names but she remembers feelings and situations. She doesen't remember families being like this (she wants OUT).

Chasing prey brought in is fairly standard for her. It's some of the only entertainment she gets. So when she catches Robbie exploring around the castle she has no idea that he's special in any way. He's just some new guy she gets to mess with before eating and DAMN he's FUN. If she didn't know any better she could almost think that he has experience being chased around (he does. he very much so does. all of RE7's worth). What she ALSO doesn't know is that Mother Miranda (big bad. Different from Lady Dimitrescu, who she refers to as 'mother') is planning on using Gabe (who is replacing baby Rose in this) to try and resurrect her dead kid with a 'perfect vessel' and this requires. uh. disassembly (in the base RE8 gameplay the reason Ethan goes to each house is because uhhhhhhhh his infant daughter has been dismembered and stored in jars and he needs to collect them so he can put her back together.... yeah). Robbie intervenes before this can get going and is instead going house to house because if he wants to get out of this stupid fuckass villiage he needs to collect the key components to unlock the gate keeping him in here (i need him to have a reason. to kill everyone. its important to me ok).

When Lisa finds out this random, but fun guy, she's been chasing who she thought was JUST SOME NORMAL GUY killed one of her sisters she mentally goes 'Oh. OH. THERES A CHANCE FOR ME TO GET OUT OF HERE'. That in conjunction with discovering Mother Miranda is planning on FULLY DISMEMBERING A CHILD she uh. Makes some decisions.

What you have to understand about her plans of matricide is that neither Lady Dimitrescu or her sisters can actually really fully die. Sure, their bodies are gone, but their consciousness is stored in the hive mind and they can reform later after gathering their strength. If she has to put her kinda shitty found family in time out for the sake of getting herself out of here + keeping her newly revived conscience clean she's absolutely going to do it.

(fuckin. backgrounds. dialogue. fuck. why can things not just take place inside of the void. DUKE MY BELOVED WE LOVE AND RESPECT DUKE IN THIS HOUSE HES A REAL ONE fuck now I got it in my head that he keeps trying to play matchmaker for them and i need to. go draw that because its too funny not to.)

Lisas plan involves this lab I had her mention in the comic above. It's where Robbie needs to go to synthesize more poison for the dagger of deaths flowers, and SUPPOSEDLY where a medicine that might allow her to go outside again might be (enemies of Lisas type become SIGNIFICANTLY weaker in the cold. She could try to bundle up but its still really not a good idea). She would love to go there herself, but it's in an area of the castle thats exposed to the cold of the outdoors.

The Two of them make a fairly decent team and Lisa finds herself having a LOT more fun hunting with someone else than she does on her own. They balance each other out pretty well; Robbie works primarily with guns so he can watch Lisas back while she's up close wrecking any grunts they run into. It's also pretty helpful having someone who can turn into a swarm of flies for puzzle solving purposes.

After all this Robbies trust for her increases SIGNIFICANTLY. He's still not really sure about her, but she's moved out of the 'active threat' classification into the 'kinda helpful' zone.

Lisa's plan has three ways it could go:

They all fail miserably and get sent to mental and physical time out in the megamycite.

They win and get to go free but either the medicine isn't there or it doesen't work. In which case she's just planning on getting as many coats as possible and Try-or-Die-ing it.

The medicine is there and she actually gets to roam free

Luckily for her, the medicine IS there, it DOES work, and Robbies sense of honor / noticing her usefulness (its hard to wage a one man war on an entire community of mutants ok you cant blame him for appreciating having some ACTUAL HELP for once) all align for the best possible scenario.

The cold does still affect her; her healing isn't as quick as it usually is and her increased strength / speed is a bit reduced, but she can go!! outside!!

She decided to stick with Robbie in getting out of the village as a whole. She doesen't really know what the world outside is like but anything has to be better than here (plus if she stays here she's probably getting shoved into the Megamycite by Mother Miranda PERMENANTLY and that just. wont do).

Also yes Lisa being with Robbie for the rest of his adventures means that she is there for Heisenbergs 'proposal'. She uh. Does not like that much.

this all made. more sense in my head I hope it at least makes a little sense out loud.

[theninth09]

More Headcanons about Thiam and video games (part 1 here)

im slapping another greek mythology inspired game onto liams game list and claiming that he'd like hades

when theo plays stray, liam watches the entire time. even though he knows the whole game, liam plays it himself after theo finishes it because he loved it so much. and theo watches liam play the entire time too, because he also loved it <3 (im spreading the thiam kitty agenda)

liam almost cried when the wolf fenrir died at the beginning of gow: ragnarök, hated having to fight the wolf garm and then actually cried when fenrir got resurrected

he sees himself in both kratos (having been deceived into killing someone he loves, having to control his rage, evolving from being someone aggressive into being a gentle person/a god of hope and accepting that people will follow him as a leader) and atreus (constantly trying to prove himself, being impulsive and reckless.) the way their father-son relationship and their characters in general develop is very cathartic for him to watch

liam had a pokémon go phase and made theo drive him around constantly during it. he gets into pokémon in general afterwards

Liam's favorite Pokémon

Lucario (fighting, canine-like pokémon. prideful & loyal with a natural sense of justice that only trusts trainers with a righteous heart. can read the aura of their opponent)

Mewtwo (artificial/modified clone to make it the most powerful. it got experimented on, making it extremely vicious and lack compassion. in the 1st movie its later to be shown caring, protective & altruistic. liam makes theo watch the movie/explains its lore to him)

Type: Null/Silvally (chimeric pokémon that was made to be a weapon. need i say more? it turns into silvally when it finds a trusted partner & forms a powerful bond with them)

Umbreon (he mainly likes it bc he thinks it looks cute. its his favorite eevee evolution since its the result of being exposed to moonlight)

Mienshao (fighting pokémon are his favorite & he likes its design)

Resident Evil 7 & 8 (thank you to @greysonalexander for pointing out these parallels to me!!)

RE7 is difficult to play for theo. its main antagonist has some similarities to him (a child turned weapon that longs to have a family/pack, gets called a monster & punished for the aggressive way they go about acquiring it) and the setting (stuck in a house with a family that doesnt act like a family at all) reminds him of how he grew up: stuck in operating theaters with the dread doctors as his "caretakers" and the fake-families he got set up with

he has to take a lot of breaks and sometimes liam takes over for him and plays through the especially emotionally challenging parts for him until theo is ready to continue

RE8 is difficult for both of them. there are a lot of werewolf-like monsters (that were previously human) you have to fight, and the beneviento house + the DLC feature a lot of bullying, which liam struggles with. heisenberg's & moreau's area and miranda's lab are extremely triggering for theo due to heavy themes of experimentation and heisenberg's soldiers having a similar look to the dread doctors

usually they each play through a game on their own, but for RE8 they only play it once together and really take their time. they each take care of the especially triggering parts for the other. they dont skip playing it because it's also quite cathartic for them: they're in a safe environment, have control over what's happening and can pause at any time. they both have problems with being vulnerable and opening up about their trauma, so it's a good tool for them to confront these past experiences and also understand each other even better

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild

they both got really excited over botw. liam absolutely hates the horses in the game, but theo has a soft spot for epona and is disappointed that she isnt in it. liam finds out that you can get her through an amiibo and buys it for theo

liam loves that you can change link's clothes and spends a lot of time farming rupees so that he can buy multiple copies of the outfits and dye them different colors

theo always drops the rocks onto the koroks' heads and once tears of the kingdom (the sequel) comes out, he makes it his mission to attach a rocket onto them and send them off into the distance every single time

More Games the Puppy Pack would Play

Pico Park (more yelling. so much yelling. uncoordinated, claws get unsheathed, threats are being made)

Stick Fight: The Game (alec loves the flamethrowers. thiam keep tag teaming everybody and keep winning without even having to use weapons)

Splatoon (alec thought the squid forms looked cool and begged the other members to play it with him. theo is the only one who ever covers the base and keeps reminding everyone that they wouldnt have won if it wasnt for him doing that. corey and liam love playing stealthily, either as snipers or just trying to otherwise surprise their opponents)

not a video game, but: mason got really into DnD when he was younger and tried to rope liam into it, who was only mildly interested. they ended up not being able to play anyway since it was only the two of them. so when the puppy pack forms, mason brings it up again as they now have a big enough group

mason is the DM. thiam basically end up playing themselves as their characters reluctantly fall in love bc they cant stop flirting with each other. alec casts fireball at literally everything. nolan plays a rogue, and all of them judge him for that at first, but he ends up getting really into character and surprising all of them. corey flirts with mason to get information out of him. gwen plays a lesbian barbarian (yes, her favorite bg3 character is karlach.) hayden is basically the only one with braincells

additionally: liam trying to flirt with theo (theo finds it endearing)

[heavensmortuary]

So @major-fukkup and I were talking about Resident Evil except neither of us know hardly anything about Resident Evil except what we learn from both following you.

This is an open invitation to talk about Resident Evil. Enlighten us

HELLO HII HELLO!!! AND ON THE RESIDENT EVIL FOUR REMAKE DAY LETS GOOO

:] silly silly zombie games my beloved it's so silly wowza

I think RE is so good bc you get ZOMBIES and MONSTERS and HORROR but at the same time it's like. You can do it!! You just gotta push through the fear!! You gotta help people!! And it's like. It's such an optimistic outlook on the zombie apocalypse?? Like it can be stopped and people WILL help and I LOVE it so so so much. Like I WILL be brave but things can only get better if I AM brave. It rules

My faves are RE2R, RE3R, RE7, and RE8, but honestly I love all of them :] I like RE2R and RE3R because I love how challenging they are but also. The aesthetic rules. the monsters are scary and I love my lil dudes (Leon, Claire, Jill, Carlos) so so much. They do their best!!! Waugh!! Zombies and neon and grime and conspiracies and motorcycles. It rules. RE7 and 8 have this kind of gritty desperation that the earlier games don't have, but with RE8, it had SO much heart. Swamps and snow and grief and terrified hope and love. ITS SO GOOD.

Also they're just fun :] the allure of being scared shitless while solving a puzzle and wondering what's behind just one more door is so fun. It kinda tests your limits on how brave you can be to press onwards. It's real fun and each game usually has a pretty good ending that feels worth it. Also save room music. It rules

This is super everywhere but these are the vibes why I like RE a lot LMAOOO I could go on a rundown of each game but the lore is SO SILLY AND COMPLEX AND CRAZY that's it's ok. You just gotta see what I mean AHAH

[hidingoutbackstage]

Random, but do you think RE8 would be better if there was more exploration of The Connections as an evil organization?

I think RE7 did a good job in establishing it via Eveline and to some extent, Mia. But I feel that was all put away to waste in RE8.

What are your thoughts on the potential of Yhe Connections? Do you think The Connections would have any other connections to Umbrella apart from Mother Miranda and Spencer?

I really do! I think that after the og games had Umbrella as the big bad, including other corporations like Tricell and Neo-Umbrella and w/e, that after the introduction of a new bioterrorist company in this universe that it makes sense that people associated with them would be the next big bads. And they kiiiiinda did this but not really. Miranda worked with The Connections, sure, but her motivations had nothing to do with it, and not in a fun “I am going to betray these people for my own personal gain” way like Wesker did, she just used them for what she needed and then disappeared to continue being a cult leader, not using her bioterrorist connections (no pun intended) as part of her plan at all.

Hell, the game focuses more on UMBRELLA’S origins in that game and how they relate to Miranda than The Connections. If you look at the files, The Connections is actually rlly relevant to the og games because its founder is someone who was close with one of the og founders of Umbrella. That’s interesting! The building may be knocked down but the foundation still stands and build again! The founder is Brandon Bailey, right hand man of Dr. James Marcus. Bailey was presumed dead, killed by Albert Wesker, but he’s live and founded The Connections with his influence and wealth. And the only reason we know that is because of optional game files when that’s actually interesting for this universe. It’s such a disappointment.

8 Was such a separate thing from the rest of the series, even 7, I don’t think anyone disagrees with that. And I think 8 kinda recycled Ethan’s motivation of “I’m only doing this to rescue someone who’s important to me” instead of doing something different with his motivation and character, or just having a different character for 8 entirely. Idk 8 was just such a let down esp for me as someone who cares abt lore

[valleynix]

your mother miranda vid was so good!! she's one of the most interesting resi characters period, and seeing her get mishandled - and as a result overlooked or misinterpreted by the fandom - is super frustrating!!

out of all the things they cribbed from re4 the one thing they didn't was making the game like 20 hours long while juggling 5 villains (8 if you count the dimidaughters)......... hell, they could've had an entire game in castle dimitrescu. imo re7 is the best written re and playing these two back-to-back was so jarring lmao, so much potential absolutely wiffed.

i do wonder, has your fic writing ever been motivated by like, spite-fueled creativity? when i think about things i love but wish were better like this it makes me want to write or create something as like, a better version of that thing, and one of the funnest parts of your fics is how you expand on the lore/characters in the base material.

AAA THANK YOU <33 she's literally such an interesting character and she's been through so much, it's really not fair that someone like her is just... sidelined and written so poorly. the fact that so many people misunderstand her or just plain hate her is so UGH i love the mama bird dearly and it hurts seeing her mistreated </3

I WISH IT WAS LONGER- like even when i didn't know much about it (early stages of hyperfixation), it didn't take me that long to get through?? whereas 7 was HARD to get through and took me like... actually idk but it was LONG. seeing all the concept art, all the things they skipped and we missed out on... capcom you COWARDS

biohazard was genuinely so fun and so well-written, Ethan was just Some Guy stuck in a bad situation and that in itself was incredibly interesting. the mold, the mind control, their powers??? and then it's like they hired a new team of people who'd only been told the bare minimum about biohazard and went from there and it SUCKS

but also yes, absolutely LMAO. i've definitely said or written things purely out of spite, and given my knowledge of re8, i like incorporating what i know as much as possible and making it as... "canon"?? as possible. which just means having characters talk about things, even if it's brief, including subtle hints, even having the readers speculate about things based on what they know in the moment (like TPtM Reader pondering the Megamycete and the mold, stuff like that)

i would joke and say that capcom should hire me to write for them but i feel like plenty of people wouldn't like that LMFAO, i'd be adding all kinds of hints about the characters and demanding they're handled with care

[sapphire-weapon]

I think it is very probable the protagonist for RE9 will be Chris and it might even be his final game as a protagonist.

RE7 had Chris show up at the end with new lore and info that we still don't know too much about, RE8 continued that and knowing that the Winters family won't be returning as main characters it honestly makes the most sense for it to be Chris.

Besides if RE9 lines up with RE5R's release then that would just make the most sense, the same way we expected an RE4R after Village being so similar in many ways.

i'm really betting on RE9 being the end of the entire legacy cast, not just chris.

if DG is right and RE9 comes out in 2025, then that means that the game will take place in 2025, and the legacy cast's ages are:

chris - 52

jill - 51

leon - 48

claire - 46

rebecca - 45

considering the fact that the average dev time for an RE game these days is 4-6 years, the only ones who feasibly have one more game left in them after RE9 are claire and rebecca, and that's even pushing it.

we're not going to see 54 year old leon. i just don't see that as a thing that's going to happen.

and if DG is also right in saying that RE9 is the most ambitious title that RE has ever attempted, i would not put it past them to have five individual campaigns to play through that finishes out the story of all five mains.

they already had four campaigns in RE6.

i'm just saying.

and we won't see RE5R until at least 2027. i don't know why anyone thinks it's coming out within the next year or two. that doesn't make any sense from a dev standpoint.

the village comparison doesn't work because village was built as a test drive for RE4make's assets. unless you mean to say that RE9 will take place in a similar setting as RE5, which is like

why would they do that even when the setting was the #1 complaint about RE5

[lesbianwyllravengard]

Hi, so, thanks to your posting, I started thinking about getting into Resident Evil. I'd like to see your faves and unfaves for myself, but... There's a whole lot of RE games. Do I have to play them all? Is it all one closely connected storyline, or can some of the games be understood without knowing the previous ones?

I did look it up, but well... It's not that clear to me, and I thought that maybe asking the person because of whom I'm considering even getting into the games in the first place, and see whether they have some good advice, which of course, you're not obliged to give me, if you don't feel like writing stuff out, that's fine, I'm good with a short answer or none at all. But nonetheless, I just kinda felt like like you'd be the best person to ask here.

Which of games are important and/or good? Also, there are some remakes, are the changes worth the likely way higher price? I usually buy/play original versions of remade games because of the price and/or because it takes up less space on the PC, and takes less time to download. Should I change that here?

Also, in the games themselves, how many jumpscares should I expect? I'm not really good with horror, and while your advice about imagining all the monstrous villains or whatever just want to fuck Leon is amazing and I would utilize it, maybe I should just watch a playthough. Because I'm not good with jumpscares.

Thanks for any answer, bye!👋🙏

You. You want answers from ME? From little old ME? Okayg. Uhm. I will do my best:

You don't have to play all RE games to be a fan of RE. You also don't have to play all the games to understand the general story. It really depends what you're interested in. I personally got into resident evil 7 and 8 first, because they have a separate story; but because I loved it so much, it got me into the other games. I wanted to know every last character and piece of lore I could get my hands on, but that's just me. I'd recommend at least watching a playthrough of all of the games and see from there which ones you'd like to personally play, but you don't have to know all of the games to follow the story.

As for what games are the most connected story wise, I'd say it is probably about every other game that's connected. For example, while Re2 and re3 both occur on the same day during the same outbreak, their stories are vastly different and follow different characters. Re1, re3, and re5 are the most directly connected to each other. Re2, Re4, and Re6 are the most directly connected to each other. (re6 also connects to re5 through Chris Redfield, but not drastically enough that you would absolutely have to know the other games to understand Chris's story in 6). Re7 and Re8 are almost solely connected to each other. However, over all, all of the games connect in SOME way, even if it's small. I'd say the most important games if you're only looking for the overarching storyline would be RE1, Re2 and 3, and Re6. Re7 and Re8 are both great games, but they are more separated from the main storyline that you could almost solely watch them, and never need other RE content. They reference other games, but it's never to such a degree that you wouldn't understand what's going on if you haven't seen the other games.

If you plan on playing the games, I would say yes, the remakes are different enough that I would highly recommend playing them over the originals. I mean I'd definitely still recommend watching a playthrough of the originals, because they do have some good content and you'll appreciate the remakes more, but the remakes are just better quality, better playability, better story, and better characters. For example, I severely dislike the original RE4 for many reasons, but the Re4 remake is my favourite RE game by far. The remakes keep the essences of the originals so it's not like you're getting a completely different story, but they're different enough that unfortunately you'd be missing out by only playing the originals. But I understand the prices thing. They have some good deals throughout the year, and g2a is a secure site to find better deals on video games

As for which games are good... Honestly, you'll be hard pressed to find many RE games that are really good. They're mostly just fun and have great characters that you'll love (eg. I love Code Veronica because it has Redfield siblings content, but it's really just bad😭). However again I will say the Re4 remake is hands down the best Resident Evil game when it comes to all of the factors that make up a video game, plus the story. It's beautiful. I love it. The better RE games in my opinion are Re1, re2 and 3 remakes, RE4 remake, re6, and re8. Re7 is the scariest game which is the only reason I didn't include it, because you mentioned not being good with horror and it definitely has the worst jump scares and the most anxiety inducing gameplay; but it is a great game. The rest you could honestly do without if you're picky, or just by watching playthroughs. But again, re1-6 are the more main story, and re7-8 are the more separate, singular story.

The games in order of most scary to least scary (factoring in jump scares, environmental horror, and also graphics quality lol) are:

- Re7 (by far the scariest RE game)

- Re8 (specifically the Benneviento section)

- Re2 remake

- Re3 remake

- Re4 remake

- Re6

- Re5

- og Re4

- Revelations 1 and 2

- Re1

- Re0

- Code Veronica

- og Re2 and 3

(I've kinda been desensitised to all of it so the only one that actually scares me is 7. But this is hopefully an accurate list)

I think that's it! Lemme know if you have more questions, I'm happy to answer them <3

[mk-wizard]

Resident Evil: New directions lead to dead ends

Hello. I warn in advance that this article will be a negative review on Resident Evil (aka RE) the video game series. Specifically, the new direction it is taking.

Everyone is roasting the Netflix Resident Evil series like a Thanksgiving turkey, but I will not be hard on a show that was made for fun considering Capcom had no involvement and the true RE is a video game series not a TV series. I am going to be hard on the video games though for that reason. Usually, I am a very easy going fan when it comes to new ideas including bad ones in a beloved series, but let us just say you are a doughnut shop; no matter what your new product is, it should always still be a doughnut or at the very least, a coffee based beverage. Well, let us just pretend RE is a doughnut shop. Right now, it is trying to serve mille-feuilles. In other words, RE is trying to be something it is not and it is hurting it.

Now, I was there when the first RE was made and I have stayed with it since. I know what RE is and what makes it a great series. I also know its true themes: science, viral weapons, BOWs, mutants, zombies (duh), conspiracies, military cops, mansions with puzzles, labs and facilities. And I know the true cast of RE: Chris and Claire Redfield, Jill Valentine, Rebecca Chambers, Barry Burton, Leon Kennedy and Ada Wong. And sometimes, Hunk.

I even know the exact moment RE started to take a different direction. It all started in RE4 when zombies and viruses got dropped and traded in for los plagas which is a parasite that takes over the host making them violent and mutated. I have nothing against the los plagas, but they just don’t hold a candle to the zombies and mutants. Yet, Capcom decided to stick with it for a while which lead to RE6 and bombing. After that, it tried to find itself again with RE7 and I admit, it was a good comeback and it felt more like the RE I know and love. I even overlooked the lack of zombies and the fact that the main character was (supposed to be) a one off character, but then... RE8 happened and it was a huge regression.

Maybe I am the only fan who feels this way, but... I did not like RE8. In fact, I hated it. RE8 felt like a Silent Hill copycat and so far, the upcoming RE9 looks like another one. This makes me disappointed because this amazing series doesn’t need to copy existing series in order to be great. As the Revelations spin offs (and all spin offs especially Dead Aim which expanded the lore and filled in the gaps about tyrants) have shown us, RE is most beautiful when it is being its true self and makes use of the amazing characters it already has. When I saw the reboots of RE2 and RE3, I thought Capcom was going to use this chance to retcon the los plagas and everything after while staying true to itself with a nice clean slate, but instead... I see the RE4 reboot in the works which is staying true to the original RE4. I mean, there’s a reason this series is called Biohazard in Japan.

As stated at the beginning, I can let it slide when other people attempt to make a RE anything that is not true to what RE really is, but what excuse does Capcom have? It doesn’t. And shame on it for that.

I think RE has done enough experimenting (no pun intended) and it is time for it to stop. It is time for RE to be RE again, but then again... maybe I’m the only fan who feels this way.

What about you?

Thank you for reading and as always, stay safe.

PS: Capcom, if you really want to write a new story with the characters from RE7, 8 and 9 that badly... do what you usually do which is make a new video game series altogether and put those characters in their own story.

[hohoz]

How RE Village (8) SOLVED almost every problem that I had with RE Series

Okay - a few weeks ago I made a post that was “The ones that suffer the most” where I showed and explained my main problems with Chris and Jill and the RE series in general 

RE 1 is my fav game of this series and probably one of my all time favs, I player every RE there is to be played except 4 (because I dislike Leon, sry) 

Recently, specially after 4, the franchise had a few problems, specially in writing/map design/lore 

Resident evil 5 for example (I love this game) but it has it flaws, Chris there is only driven by anger and action - Sheva is used as a tool for lore exposition and to be Chris’s new partner 

PLEASE: be aware that game at that generation didn’t have much lore - with some exceptions, like God of War 1 2 3 were a simply game with a simple lore, and the most recent GoW has evolved a little bit in the storytelling

Until we hit rock bottom in RE6 - I know a lot of people like this game, but this is only and action game, bad writing and generic stages. 

Chris there is so mistreated that makes me mad (if you want to read more about this go to my other post “the ones that suffer the most”)

Until RE7 appeared, Capcom had a new engine and they wanted to do a game that was more horror like - since RE is know for being a Survival horror game.

I liked 7 - some people complained about Ethan being without emotion and others complained about the mold, a few didn’t like the FEAR vibes from Eveline. 

I personally enjoyed the game, I thought RE series was going back on track, that game has it’s problems but it was really nice compared to what we had in 6.

After that game I had a conversation with my best friend and I said that I wanted a game that portrayed Umbrella’s fall since the only game that shows this is Umbrellas Chronicles (and that is most a resume of what happened)

And I said: “Bro, I wish that when they made that game, they could tie some mythological lore and human evolution before Umbrella - using Spencer, this would solve LOT OF STUFF and open new ways to handle this series”

and guess what - this happened in RE8 and kudos to the one writer that did that, i have my gratitude. 

RESIDENT EVIL 8 is probably one of the BEST RE games that we had IN YEARS

And I want to address all thing that I loved in this game and do some predictions to what will happen in the next games.

“WELL WELL IF IT ISN’T ETHAN WINTERS” (The Father of the year)

My father was not a great guy... really, so I want to be the best dad ever, I really want be like Ethan - a guy who is ready to sacrifice and fight every monster in the way to save my family. 

Ethan was a character that in RE7 was used to make us fell like that it was us in the Baker’s house, so that is why he didn’t had that much personality (in my opinion) but they changed that in RE8, here he has nice dialogues AND a diary 

He has one of the best story line in the whole REverse, a guy that did EVERYTHING in his power to save his daughter - and you saw that playing the game, every sentence line that he delivered, he tried to save others too and even tho Chris said to him stay put ... but he couldn’t, he had to go to the altar, he had to help Chris, he had to go forward and keep going, specially after having the tools to face Heisenberg. 

The plea from a father, that was his last wish, after he heard that Mia was alive he knew that someone had to stop that monster, he made a promise to his daughter “Daddy won’t let those weird fairy tale monsters get you” so he trusted Chris, to be the one that teaches his kid how to be brave and strong

I will not address Chris and Rose situation here because this is Ethans part and he deserves completely all the spotlight, his sacrifice was 100x times better than Steve (CV)/Piers(6)

My cheers to Ethan Winters - You have my respect !

Revelations -> RE8 

So leaks from earlier times said that RE8 sucked and Revelations 3 was amazing

Revelations FYI is know for using old tales in RE stories 

Revelations 1 - Dante’s Inferno 

Revelations 2 - Frans Kafka 

Revelations 3 - Dracula 

But since RE8 sucked, Capcom said to the REV3 team that they could make REV3 become RE8 and they accepted 

Revelations series is one of the best in the games, they handle Jill in a way that I love, Claire and even Barry - so they deserve all the spotlight for making this awesome game - you CLEARLY can see that they love this series and that they treat all the characters with the love that they deserve. 

Keeping that in mind, they are the same team that made Rev 2 and in REV 2 we have this file here 

So they had a plan for Jill and we can see that in RE8 - I will address that later but keep that in mind - this team cares for the old characters, they were the ones that brought Barry back to the games :V 

Chris Redfield 

This is a hard one, because he is my fav character and I usually have the most critics regard him, since I’ve expect a lot from Capcom 

In the latest games they made him kind dumb, only muscles type of guy and an alcoholic that let all the people in his surroundings die (RE5,RE6,Vendetta) 

RE6 treats him the WORST

But in RE8 he had an amazing part in the storyline, it was obvious that he wasn’t evil and they FIXED HIS EYE COLOR - FINALLY 

I still don’t like the model face that much but it’s way better than 7 - so I believe Capcom, I still feel that he need more jawline 

But let’s go to the most important thing - here he really feels like a squad leader and a veteran, he has his team but he is the one in the front line, he covers and ask for help when he needs, everything about his line delivery makes you feel like “Woah, this guy is a badass, he is not some stupid guy only driven by emotions”

THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR FINALLY GETTING THIS RIGHT 

If you remember my post about the ones that suffer the most / Jill is also in that list and I will talk about her a little bit later but if my guess is right RE8 saved her character aswell

Another thing that I enjoyed here is the fact that he is kind of a mercenary / Neo Umbrella kind of guy, even tho he is one of the founders of the BSAA

So I will give you all my score to this game: 

9/10

I won’t give 10/10 because of some technical issues, the cursor lock didn’t work and mouse sensitivity was i dunno, not the best. 

RE8 and the future (PREDICTIONS)  - Jill Valentine, Chris Redfield, BSAA, Neo Umbrella, Ada Wong and Rosemary

First let’s look Rose

The first time I saw Rose all grown up - I thought to myself : She has the same problem as Eveline (age a lot faster than normal) 

But she also absorbed Miranda’s power since the metalicite (something like this) thought that she was a better host. - so maybe she will live longer or something because I doubt that they will do a 14 years time skip. 

This is not the same as Terra Save logo (Claire’s job) but it kind reminds me of it - her shoes appeared at least 3 times in this cut scene so maybe they are trying to show some hints with this 

She really reminds me of Jodie (Beyond two souls, a game where a girl has a lot of power and the gov uses her in missions and stuff, but she also is learning how to be her own person) 

Another thing here is that they don’t have a logo in this car, it really reminds me the car that Chris as using in RE8 

This supports the theory that Chris’s organization is dealing with her instead of the BSAA, the she is a hot headed girl and that she had a lot of powers. 

So here you can say that she is just a kid because she is a teenager, but what if she actually grows older really fast (like Eveline) maybe this is just 1 year later / 2 yrs later. (after RE8)

So this is the tricky part, this is Chris’s guard/soldier, someone that Chris trust to stand by her side, in my mind I do believe that Chris is kind of a father figure to her, so when this guys says this he is thinking about hot head Chris but she replies “Yeah” thinking about Ethan - (she has the mold memories, so she can actually remember Ethan’s memories) 

Now let’s look at this 

BSAA 

So in REV1 is hinted that BSAA is not the best organization in the world, but since our heroes work there we think that they are the good guys right ? 

In REV 2 (it’s important to remember that the team that created RE8 is the same from the REVELATIONS and they had this file here in REV2)

This email is from Jill and what does Jill have ? T-Virus 

Wesker is a different case since he was a project and she had the vaccine but this would make a lot of sense if they had this tests with Jill to get the T-Virus

If that is the case, they explained Jill’s absence in the main games, could even explain why Chris left BSAA and opened a new window to a lot of possibilities 

My Predictions: 

- Chris had trouble dealing with BSAA and Jill’s case, he wanted to get her out of there, maybe he removed her from there but that resulted in him being expelled from the force

-Jill may or may not know what they are doing with her blood, but she will have a huge part in the BOW used by BSAA 

-Chris is married to Jill (sorry- I had to place this here, in a perfect world he has two kids with her and they all love aunt Rose) 

-Chris will hopefully be a father figure to Rose and they will be in a game together since in the end they came to get her

-Rebecca is still involved in BSAA activities (leak from new REV3) if you consider Vendetta canon, she maybe the one that used Jill’s sample of blood to create the virus soldiers

-Barry maybe retired 

-I don’t think Leon will be in this game, but he will get his RE4 Rmk 

- I do believe RE9 will be release after Code veronica rmk and MAYBE they will do a game about Umbrella’s Fall (Chris and Jill in Europe against Red Queen and BOWs) 

But that is it, you can see a lot of elements from old RE games in RE8, they tried to do something really smart and the game felt amazing to play, that was something else and it’s been a while since a player a RE game that made me feel that way <3

[rjshepherd]

RE8- Crystals part 2

ok so i decided to simplify my long ass post down into a few key points. here are things we know for 100% about the crystal remains found in various states ( from tiny crystal fragments right up to body sized remains like Alcina and her daughters.

People can be crystalised if infected with mold ( zoe re7 and Rose in re8)

people who have been crystallized aren't necessarily dead/ you dont have to be dead to be a crystal ( again, zoe re7 and rose in re8)

crystalised people can be put back together and uncrystallised with mold based serum ( again, again, zoe and rose are the main examples)

crystals contain memories, others can view those memories under the right circumstances. ( rose in re8 shows ethan flashbacks of what happened to her before she was put in jars)

Crystals contain "essence", something akin to a feeling or sense of being or sense of self ( duke comments that he can "feel lord heisenberg's essence" through his crystal remains)

SO.

Taking ALL that on board it is not only perfectly acceptable to canon resurrecting whoever you like of the deceased characters in re8*. not only is it canon compliant to bring back your favorite lord, its practically canon that it will happen at some point in the re timeline. there's no way in hell they'd set all this up, give us all these lore tidbits and then do NOTHING with it.

so go nuts friends. write that fan fiction, draw that art or Role that play? ( im sorry i dont know the lingo) Im going to go write some more of my au because its all my square brain can wrap around just now.

*Except maybe miranda and ethan since they have no confirmed crystal remains....but im not trying to tell you how to live your life

[bigprettygothgf]

Is re8 fine to play for someone who's only played re5 super long ago? I don't know much about the lore except "zombies"

id say you definitely at least need to play re7 before re8 since its a direct sequel and builds off most of the work from that, everything else isnt super necessary, theres a lot of connections and references to the older games but theyre mostly minor and presented in a way that wont make it confusing for new people

[saipng]

re7 anon, im bad with horror in general so im progressing really slowly but i genuinely thought losing hands was a re8 thing and i felt quite bad for ethan when he lost his left hand like .. he got it back but also i wish he could keep his hands. also if you don't mind me asking, why is re8 a bad game? i dont know anything about this franchise i just jumped straight into the 7th game with 0 knowledge

man oh man how i WISH you hadn’t asked that, for both our sakes. cuz now it is 5 am the day after my birth and there is no way that i am not going to go into an overtly long rant that idk if anyone will care about. but hey, you brought this upon us, so.

without spoilers, why is re8 a bad, bad game?

well, you see. that is simply because it is not a game.

it is a part of a franchise.

listen. listen here. what the hell is that supposed to mean???

there are plenty of franchised games, right. just because a game is part of a franchise, or even a sequel to another game, obviously doesn’t make it automatically bad.

the reason re8 is bad, however, is because that’s all it’s meant to be. it is a sequel and a prequel to yet another sequel. it is not a game.

because, if you look at it from the point of view of a self contained game, it is bad.

the story is all over the place. absolutely nothing is answered or explained, and only more questions are created with the promise to be explored in future games. new characters are introduced only to be very obvious sequel baiting, and absolutely none of them are explored beyond the surfacest of surface levels.

moreover, the reason for things to happen simply isn’t there. the story is so bad, the characters in canon literally cannot explain it to you. the reason is ‘just cuz’. it feels like capcom threw all of their budget into rendering every follicle on dimitrescu’s tiddies as opposed to actually creating a cohesive narrative that doesn’t fall apart at the simplest probing.

see, the reason that re7 worked and re8 doesn’t was because re7 was a GAME. any person, even a person like you, who has never heard of anything resident evil before or even cared about the franchise, could jump in and enjoy their experience with it. the horror works, the story works, the characters work. the pacing is immaculate. i’m not saying it’s a perfect game obviously, but it WORKS and it is FUN. and, for those who DO know resident evil, you get the hints and implications and the lore and even a familiar face and eventually, the dlc. it was an AMAZING reboot to the franchise.

re8 though? re8 assumes you’ve played all of resident evil games before and you’ve enjoyed them immensely and you want more and you will play again and again and again.

im not saying that a game, especially a sequel, has to be completely free of references or call backs to previous games or work alone without any previous knowledge. i mean. that’s not how sequels work.

but in the end, they’re still supposed to make sense. a game is supposed to be that - a game. doesn’t matter if it’s the first or eighth or seventeenth.

re8 feels like a weird wobbly bridge that you got across before the other side is finished building. it is awkward. it feels incomplete, stitched together from different concepts and ideas. they brought back ethan winters only to have no idea what to do with him. they introduced the lords only to be short term hype generators. they shoehorned in chris redfield because he is chris redfield and it really doesn’t matter how much he doesn’t fit.

in my humble opinion, the game needs to be at least 5 hours longer for it to actually start making sense. at LEAST.

the characters, protagonists and antagonists alike, need to actually be explored, the pacing fixed, flimsy writing tied together, map expanded, puzzles actually added in. then, it would be a better game. i don’t know about good. but definitely better.

that being said, you may be thinking. why the HELL is everyone obsessed with this trainwreck????

well, because we’re all mentally ill, that’s why.

okay, serious answer - because the less the assholes give us, the more power it gives us to project and play around. they created these extremely fun concepts and didn’t bother developing them despite the enormous potential and that pissed us all off. well, me. it pissed me off.

and, as we all know, NOTHING motivates me more than spite at this point. so me and the other content creators basically ripped the lords and ethan and rose and all the others out of capcom’s undeserving hands and said ‘okay thanks ours now’.

because dammit, resident evil village could have been SUCH a good game. the idea of it is FUN and we all love it.

the execution? perfectly terrible.

and again, i’m not saying that you’ll hate it. i think you can, and should play it (or at least watch a playthrough). and moreover, i think you’ll enjoy it. i think you’ll have fun, still. i think you’ll like it a lot, as did many others.

none of that erases the fact that it is still very much a bad, bad game.

now, i could go more into how the horror elements greatly suffered because of capcom’s desperate need to rehash re4, or just how much of re4 they actually ripped off and shoved into this game; i could talk about how ethan winters (and mia, to an extent) is a terrible character in this game and reason he works in re7; i could talk at extent why the bakers were truly scary and the lords very much arent; i could even mention all the unnecessary mechanics and how much they truly contributed jack shit to the experience.

i could, but i’m not gonna. this is long enough as it is, and i hope it all made sense, at least somewhat. i tried to not include any spoilers (as much as was possible).

and i also really hope i didn’t dissuade you from giving re8 a try.

because, like i said, it’s still fun. capcom gave us steel beams and pieces of plastic and said ‘go wild’ and we built our own playground. it’s like that post that’s like ‘this amazing new restaurant everyone talks about and you finally go there and they serve white toast bread and everyone brought their own jam’. literally that.

but it can be so good, if that’s something that you can be into !!!

oh and. this is my own personal take on the game, of course. draw your own conclusions, yada yada. but if you’re bad with horror, you’ll find this game easier to digest for sure.

anyway. periodt.😩��️