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thebitcher69 · 1 year ago

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Revisiting Resident Evil Village (a full analysis)

Spoilers!!

Resident Evil Village is the continuation of Ethan Winters’ story. It follows from Resident Evil 7 in a linear fashion and ends up vaguely erasing the constant feeling of tension and turning up the amp on campiness. The game itself had a couple sections where I did feel scared but unlike the game before it I was not constantly terrified. It does better in my opinion as a survival game than as a survival horror game. In this analysis I will evaluate all of my good, bad and mediocre opinions on the plot, characters, terrifying sections and the game's tone.

The plot:

Resident Evil Village follows Ethan Winters after his seemingly new normal life after Louisiana is destroyed by someone who was meant to be his friend (Chris Redfield). His main quest is to find his daughter in a form of medieval village similar to the main village in Resident Evil 4 (There are quite a few similarities throughout the game). The village surrounds a giant castle which is Ethan’s first goal. After defeating monsters of multiple kinds within the castle, Ethan is informed that his child has in-fact been split into multiple pieces and is being kept by the various lords. Ethan’s quest now is to find the disassembled parts of his daughter and hopefully put them back together again, while facing creatures of many types repeatedly throughout his quest. Eventually he manages however, he does not make it out to see her survive. This game is incredibly tragic, a perfect end to Ethan’s story instead of making him a character who never dies due to plot armour. This also prevents the game from ever bringing him back and giving other characters motivation for Resident Evil 9. It prevents the curse of a character slowly becoming worse the more they are brought back throughout the series.

Character Analysis:

Ethan Winters:

Ethan is now more well versed when it comes to dealing with harsh areas like this. Not only does he have his experience in Louisiana but it is also implied that he did training with Chris Redfield after that. He is now a dad, well settled with ‘Mia’ and enjoying his life. Until it is all thrown out of the window by Chris. Who kills ‘Mia’ and kidnaps both Rose and Ethan. Then Ethan is thrown back into an awful situation like Louisiana, trying to both escape and get his daughter back. He is still more normal than the average Resident Evil protagonist, when Leon came back for Resident Evil 4 he had undergone intense training to turn him from a S.T.A.R.S rookie into a government agent well versed in combat. However, Ethan is still a normal dude with his only training being gained from just being thrown into the Baker residence in the previous game. Like I said in my analysis of Resident Evil 7, this makes him relatable and fun to play as. This also makes him funny, he has stupid one liners that you doubt he’d have if he was massively trained. Again comparing him to Leon, Ethan is more relatably funny due to his reactions, whereas Leon doesn't have much of a reaction and simply tells a joke. Ethan is a tragic hero, going to insane lengths to save Rose yet he cannot see her grow up after saving her. He chooses to kill himself to save her making him relatable to any parents who are playing the game. He only has character growth through this game and makes the game more fun.

Chris Redfield:

Chris is another character we play as in the game, in a small section after Ethan 'dies'. There isn't much to be said about him apart from how tough he seems to be. Hardened by constant military training as well as constantly dealing with bioweapons. However, we see a soft side to Chris when Ethan hands him Rose telling him to care for her. Chris wants to save him, get him back to his home. He may also feel a small amount of guilt to storming his house and making all of this happen. Chris is set up as the main character for the next game, finding a bioweapon in a helicopter.

Lady Dimitrescu:

Lady Dimitrescu was likely the driving force behind Resident Evil Village's marketing campaign. Many people who had never played Resident Evil before played this game simply for her. I'm going to refrain from discussing her appearance and attempt to simply discuss her character. The first time we catch a glimpse of Lady Dimitrescu, she is arguing with Heisenberg over who gets to 'take care' of Ethan. She makes a point that she is the most loyal to Mother Miranda yet is the first of the lords we battle as Ethan. When we see her after that she begins simply taunting Ethan. She wants to eat him and savour his taste, commanding her daughters to string him up for her. We come close to her but not fighting her occasionally at the beginning. However, it is only after we kill one or two of her daughters that she begins to stalk Ethan throughout her castle. Before she begins stalking him we see her get angry at Mother Miranda's decision to keep him alive (pictured in the GIF above). She was clearly beginning to doubt Mother Miranda's power and her decisions. The only reason I believe she continued to hunt Ethan was because of pride and grief due to him murdering her daughters. Eventually Ethan makes her mutate into a dragon format. This is her boss fight, a disgusting dragon form who attempts to kill and eat Ethan throughout. After finally managing to take her down, she tries to bring Ethan with him yet he survives. She is rather tragic with her end, and the fact she served Mother Miranda yet her home was left unprotected and her daughters were murdered by Ethan's rampage. She is completely centred with her pride and that is the reason she attempts to murder Ethan when her loyalty to Mother Miranda is clearly wavering anyway.

Bella, Cassandra and Daniela:

The three daughters of Lady Dimitrescu don't have many defining features. Their main one is corruption, being addicted to the taste of Ethan's blood. They aren't too hard to deal with when it comes to their boss fights and again their connection to their mother is greatly tragic. Listening to Lady Dimitrescu shout in pain when discovering one of her daughters can be rather heart-breaking to hear.

Donna Beneviento and Angie:

Donna and Angie are made known to be the same character yet their actual personalities are very split. This leads to show that Donna may have a split personality disorder or only be able to showcase her true personality through Angie (her puppet). Donna herself is shy, either invisible completely or covered in a cloth. The only times we see her face is when Ethan eventually kills her and a portrait of her in the main house. The rest of the time she is Angie. Donna herself only has one line where she tells Ethan that she can't let him take her part of Rose. This again shows that the only reason she has to stop Ethan is because of the punishment she will face at the hands of Mother Miranda. Angie however, is very cocky and quite a nightmare to deal with. Her voice is annoying and she serves the purpose of irritating the player. However, her boss fight is pretty easy, its just a glorified game of hide and seek. The only issue with her area is the entire concept of the basement which I will touch on later. All in all, the worst part about these two as a collective is how annoying Angie is.

Moreau:

Moreau is the disgusting creature of this game. A bundle of flabby skin, eye like pustules and weird tentacles that leave his body. As well as a babbling voice, constantly vomiting and the general area he lives in. It all combines to make him truly disgusting and unsettling. While I don't believe he is the most disgusting enemy in the entire Resident Evil series, he still makes me almost retch at the sight of him. Moving away from the pure body horror that he is. He again is tragic. With an unrequited love to Mother Miranda even though she decides to push him down. The other Lords also bully him, referring to him as a freak or ugly. The entire reason he attacks Ethan is because he wants to be better than the other Lords. His character is on the basis of being better as he has always been put down. Even Ethan constantly insults him, and its obvious why considering his appearance. Moreau also hunts Ethan through the water being quite easy to fight once the water has been drained. After he has been killed, he screams for Mother Miranda, swells up and explodes. As Ethan says, even in death he is disgusting.

Karl Heisenberg:

He is the final lord and as the Duke says 'the most dangerous' . His powers are incredibly interesting compared to the rest as he can control metal. He is also increasingly intelligent compared to the other Lords. Building a robotic army through his factory. He also is very against Mother Miranda. He wants to utilise Rose's power and team up with Ethan in order to crumble Miranda's empire. He is also constantly testing Ethan, from their first encounter where he tests his survival skills without weapons till sending Ethan to the Lycan den to retrieve the final piece of Rose. He wants to see how effective Ethan will be at defeating Mother Miranda. He is simply misunderstood, a child roped into Miranda's corruption and he wants to break away from that. Yet Ethan doesn't see this and not only murders him but with the help of Chris he destroys Heisenberg's entire factory and army. Heisenberg is not in anyway a villain, he classes as an enemy in my eyes but never a villain. He has no malicious intent originally, he only seeks out to murder Ethan after he refuses to help him kill Mother Miranda. His boss fight is one of the most interesting boss battles throughout the entire Resident Evil series, it isn't too hard or too easy but it is really fun to do.

Mother Miranda:

Mother Miranda has been mentioned multiple times throughout this review. She is the main antagonist, the others can be argued as simple enemies not villains. They are all vaguely tragic yet Miranda isn't. She is likely one of the most important villains and possibly even one of the most important characters in the entire Resident Evil series! On the basis of her importance in Resident Evil 8, she takes the form of Mia at the beginning in order to get close to Rose. She wishes to use infant Rosemary Winters to resurrect her own daughter who tragically met her end. She is a very mysterious character till right at the end. An old woman who is seen as a devout worshipper while Ethan talks to and about her was actually Mother Miranda in disguise. To me this kind of seems both self-centred and insecure. Mother Miranda believes herself worthy of worship, yet must do it herself in order to gain the others trust. The other two times we see her before the end, is killing a villager in a field and deciding Ethan's 'fate' when it comes to which Lord can kill him. She is rather mysterious till right after Ethan kills Heisenberg. When she reveals herself to him and 'kills' him. However, her entire place in the series originates before the first game. Without, Mother Miranda, Umbrella corporation would have never been founded by Oswell E. Spencer. She also influenced him to develop the T-virus. It is revealed that Mother Miranda discovered the umbrella symbol that Spencer adopted as the logo for his company. Without Miranda the entire series would practically crumble. With her importance it will be interesting to see how they beat her character in Resident Evil 9.

The Duke:

There isn't much to really say about the Duke apart from him being even more mysterious than Mother Miranda. He aids Ethan throughout the game, not only selling or purchasing items from him, but also informing him about Rose being inside the jars and rescuing him after Mother Miranda 'kills' him. He has an entire mystery around his motives and who he is. He even alludes to being friends with the Merchant from Resident Evil 4, which is possibly a simple reference to the similarity of the games or it could be a small part of lore dropped in to connect the games. People even believe that the Merchant and the Duke are the same person, however I doubt this theory is true. There is also an entire mystery around how a man his size can get around with the amount of stuff he has. He is also never attacked throughout the game either by basic enemies or the actual villains, which is strange as he constantly assists Ethan. I understand that his lore is more revealed in the Rose DLC, however I unfortunately have not got around to playing it yet (so I wont talk about Rose).

General enemies:

Lycans:

The Lycans are the first enemies we encounter in the game. At first they are slightly mysterious, tugging an animal corpse away from Ethan. Then we get our first main battle. Where Ethan gets chased around a small portion of the village by multiple Lycan's and a giant bearded Lycan until a bell rings and they all leave. This is again similar to our first main encounter in Resident Evil 4, where Leon is chased by both Ganado's and a Ganado wielding a chainsaw, until a bell rings and they all retreat into the church. The Lycans then begin roaming the village constantly throughout the game, having multiple versions getting harder each time. From Lycan's with armour, crossbows or even giant wolves we will occasionally encounter. Ethan even gets the last part of Rose from the Lycan den, where we see them roaming around and eating seemingly human flesh. There is again a mystery with the Lycan's as we see a villager transform into one after seemingly being bitten. Personally, I think Resident Evil 8 took a gamble with all of these iconic villains, from werewolves to vampires. I enjoy the versions of zombies from the first few games, however the Lycan's can be pretty scary to deal with especially in your first playthrough.

Moroaica:

In my opinion the Moroaica are the scariest villains in the game. In general they are freaky and always manage to take me by surprise. They occasionally pop out of the ground or turn around corners as you walk through. In the dungeon of the Dimitrescu castle you can hear their heavy breathing as you walk through the halls and they in general make the area really tense. These go back to Resident Evils roots of zombie like beasts that stumble and groan as they chase after you. There is a winged enemy similar to these that also appear around the Dimitrescu castle, they aren't as scary however they are quite difficult to deal with. There is also a giant version of these that sucks to deal with unless you have countless landmines.

Soldats:

The Soldats are definitely the most difficult regular enemies in the game. They not only are bullet sponges but they also manage to cover up their only weak spot. They have weapons that can practically be one-shot kills. They are examples of Heisenberg's intelligence as he made his own intelligent army that aren't basically mindless like the Moroaica and Lycans. They also have giant armoured versions that have jetpacks and double saws. Another version of the Soldat is a boss called Sturm, who has a giant propeller and the only thing remotely human about him is his legs. All versions of them make for genuinely difficult fights and a hard time when you are low on ammo traversing through the factory.

Area analysis:

The Village:

The village is generally a strange area. The entire place seems abandoned and empty, without a trace of life. Parts of the village are destroyed and many doors are left open throughout. It shows there was a small struggle as the villagers fought for their lives. Many homes are completely destroyed and have scratch marks across the walls showing the rampage of the Lycans. There is also a level of uncertainty with a small church all dedicated to Mother Miranda even though she is actively murdering people in the village. The village appears self sufficient, with livestock and crop fields. It all bears a striking resemblance to Resident Evil 4 as both villages are seemingly living in the past.

The castle:

The castle is again like the Village. There is an eerie emptiness to such a large area. However, we are made incredibly aware that the Dimitrescu sisters and Lady Dimitrescu are stalking you through the castle. The castle contains multiple old puzzles that are similar to the old Resident Evil games. There is a piano puzzle and multiple puzzles that require you to examine items. Almost everything is a riddle that requires you to use your head, however they aren't that hard to solve after a while of doing these puzzles. The castle requires you to walk through the same areas multiple times and each time the difficulty gets amped up with multiple Moroaica in each area.

The Beneviento house:

By far the scariest area in the game is the Beneviento house. It has the same feeling as the Baker house, with peeling wallpaper and in general an eerie feeling. This is also without mentioning the scariest part of the entire game. The basement. At first it is a simple puzzle area revolving around a doll based on Mia, and revealing to Ethan that his marriage has more problems than expected. Then after Ethan goes down a dark well we hear a loud crash and a baby screaming. Going back upstairs we find the most disgusting pile of flesh that resembles a foetus. It babbles at Ethan and cries when he runs away. The grossness of this enemy as well as the fact all our artillery has been taken from us makes this encounter one of the scariest in the entire Resident Evil series. After this area, we play hide and seek with Angie in a doll ridden area of the house. Dolls are already pretty freaky but them glitching around and occasionally attacking with giant knives makes for a very creepy encounter.

The windmill/lake:

There isn't much to say about this area apart from it being disgusting. It is constantly covered in gunk from Moreau, and multiple boxes Ethan opens are covered in maggots and grubs. It is a bit underwhelming after the horrors of the Beneviento house, but it is still gross in general.

The Factory:

The factory brings us to a dingy area full of incredibly difficult enemies around each corner. At this stage in the game Ethan is low on ammo and the difficulty of the game has been amped. It is very interesting especially with the propeller monster constantly being a threat. There is quite a few small puzzles in this section and it becomes an interesting part to playthrough.

My conclusion:

Personally this game does not live up to Resident Evil 7. It is quite campy and fun to playthrough however does better as a survival game than a horror survival game. The characters are all interesting and for my personal tastes there is a lot of fanservice if you know what I'm saying. The lore is also incredibly interesting with the fact that Mother Miranda is one of the main reasons Umbrella Corporation was founded. It makes for a fun yet tragic game throughout. The ending is sad but is a fair way to end Ethan's story and connect back to Chris for the next game. Overall in my opinion this game is a 7/10.

Again I am interested in hearing your opinions and ratings of the game, as well as anything I may have missed when it comes to the lore.

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