Resident Evil Village

Resident Evil Village
Development
Developer(s)	Capcom
Publisher(s)	Capcom
Platform(s)	Microsoft Windows, Playstation 4, Playstation 5, Google Stadia, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation VR2, Nintendo Switch, iPhone 15 Pro
Genre	Survival horror
Release date(s):
7 May 2021

Resident Evil Village (stylized as VII.I.AGE RESIDENT EVIL, and known in Japan as Biohazard Village [バイオハザード ヴィレッジ, Baiohazādo Virejji]) is a 2021 survival horror game developed and published by Capcom. It is the sequel to Resident Evil 7: Biohazard (2017). Players control Ethan Winters, who searches for his kidnapped daughter in a village filled with mutant creatures. Village maintains survival horror elements from previous Resident Evil games, with players scavenging environments for items and managing resources. It adds more action-oriented gameplay, with higher enemy counts and a greater emphasis on combat.

Resident Evil Village was announced at the PlayStation 5 reveal event in June 2020 and was released on May 7, 2021, for PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Stadia, Windows, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S, followed by a macOS version and a cloud version for Nintendo Switch in October 2022. An iOS version will be released in 2023. The game received generally favorable reviews, with praise for its gameplay, setting, and variety, but criticism for its puzzles, boss fights, and performance issues on the Windows version; the story and increased focus on action divided opinions. Resident Evil Village won year-end accolades including Game of the Year at the Golden Joystick Awards. The game had sold 8.3 million units by June 2023.

Gameplay

Like its predecessor, Resident Evil Village uses a first-person perspective, but also has the option for a third-person perspective. It is set in a snowy explorable European village, in Romania, described as "pulled straight from the Victorian era" and much larger and more immersive than its predecessor. Structures and buildings in the central village can be climbed and used to fight enemies. Compared to Biohazard, the game is more action focused, with protagonist Ethan Winters now equipped with more combat skills due to military training. The game's primary enemies, the werewolf-like Lycans, are not only agile and intelligent, but can wield weapons and attack in packs, forcing the player to rethink their strategy on whether to use sparse ammunition, use melee combat, or simply run away. Similar to Resident Evil 4 (2005), makeshift barricades can be used to fend off enemies.

The inventory management mechanic is similar to that of Resident Evil 4, featuring a briefcase and the ability to move and rotate items for better storage space. Players can buy supplies, weapons, upgrades, and items from a merchant called the Duke. The players can also hunt animals in the village and have them cooked into dishes by the Duke. Eating side dishes allows the player to gain certain advantages such as decreasing the damage taken while blocking. Treasures and collectibles can be found around the village, and sold to the Duke for currency.

Players can manually save the game progress by locating and using typewriters, which replaces the tape recorders seen in Resident Evil 7 and marks their first appearance in a mainline game since Resident Evil 4. A map of the village can be accessed from the pause menu, as well as a diary with sketches recapping the player's progress in the story so far. Two new features added to the game were photo mode, which gave players the opportunity to screenshot in-game moments, and a button to skip cutscenes.

The Mercenaries Mode, an arcade-style game mode of past Resident Evil games, returns in Village. In this mode, players fight through timed stages, and purchase items and upgrades from the Duke's Emporium. Players who purchased Village also received Resident Evil Re:Verse, a six-player online multiplayer third-person shooter. After nearly a year and half delay, Re:Verse was finally activated in October 2022.

Synopsis

Setting

Resident Evil Village is set three years after the events of Resident Evil 7, largely on the day of February 9, 2021. Ethan Winters returns as the protagonist, having defeated bioweapon Eveline in Resident Evil 7. Ethan has been living with his wife Mia and six-month-old daughter Rosemary when Chris Redfield—the primary protagonist of previous entries—and his men suddenly appear, murder his wife in cold blood, and kidnap him and his baby daughter, bringing them to a mysterious European village. Ethan has to traverse the village to rescue Rosemary. The village is invaded by werewolf-like mutants called Lycans and governed by four different mutant lords, each controlling their own forces from strongholds within the village. Lady Alcina Dimitrescu, an unusually tall vampiric aristocrat, resides at Castle Dimitrescu with her three daughters Bela, Cassandra, and Daniela, and mutated female attendants. The hallucination-inducing and ghost-like Donna Beneviento rules from her mansion, House Beneviento, and acts through her puppet Angie. The grotesque Salvatore Moreau operates from a reservoir in close proximity to the village and is described as a "merman". Karl Heisenberg, who can manipulate electromagnetic fields, leads a group of Soldat simulacra from a contemporary factory. All houses respond to a supreme leader figure called Mother Miranda, the witch-like ruler of the village who is a "presence worshipped by the villagers."

Plot

Three years after Resident Evil 7, Ethan and Mia have been relocated to Europe by Chris Redfield to start a new life with their newborn daughter Rosemary. One night, Chris and his Hound Wolf squad raid the house, assassinate Mia, and abduct Ethan and Rosemary. Ethan awakens next to a crashed transport truck in which he was riding, and discovers a village terrorized by werewolf-like creatures called Lycans. Ethan fails to save the remaining villagers and is captured by Karl Heisenberg and brought before the village priest Mother Miranda and her lords: Alcina Dimitrescu, Donna Beneviento, Salvatore Moreau, and Heisenberg himself. Ethan escapes a death trap made by Heisenberg and ventures into Dimitrescu's castle to find Rosemary, with help from a mysterious merchant known as the Duke. Ethan eliminates Dimitrescu and her daughters, finding a flask containing Rosemary's head. The Duke explains that Miranda placed Rosemary's body parts in four different flasks for a special rite, and that she can be restored if Ethan recovers the other flasks, held by the remaining lords.

While killing Beneviento and Moreau for their flasks, Ethan learns Hound Wolf is also in the village. Ethan passes a test from Heisenberg for the fourth flask and is invited to the lord's factory, where Heisenberg proposes they defeat Miranda together. Ethan refuses, once he learns Heisenberg intends to weaponize Rosemary, and escapes. Ethan encounters and confronts Chris over Mia's death, learning the "Mia" Chris killed was Miranda in disguise. Chris reveals that Miranda possesses the power of mimicry and was attempting to abduct Rosemary, succeeding when she crashed the transport truck. Chris destroys Heisenberg's factory while Ethan uses a makeshift tank to defeat Heisenberg. After the battle, Miranda shows herself and mocks Ethan, revealing her plans to take Rosemary as her own. She then rips his heart out, killing him.

Witnessing Ethan's death, Chris leads Hound Wolf to extract Rosemary while a Bioterrorism Security Assessment Alliance (BSAA) assault force distracts Miranda. Chris enters a cave beneath the village and discovers the Megamycete (called the "fungal root" (菌根, kin kon) and the "Black God" (黒き神, kuroki kami) in the Japanese game), the source of the mold. He plants a bomb on the Megamycete and finds Miranda's lab, learning that she has lived a century since coming into contact with the fungus, and was a mentor to the Umbrella Corporation's founder Oswell E. Spencer; Oswell used her knowledge to develop the T-Virus. Miranda experimented with the fungus in an attempt to revive her daughter, Eva, who had succumbed to the Spanish flu; the four lords, Lycans, and Eveline were failed experiments. Rosemary, however, is a suitable host, due to her special abilities inherited from Ethan and Mia. Chris rescues the imprisoned Mia, who reveals that Ethan should be still alive, due to his powers.

Ethan revives after encountering Eveline in limbo, who reveals that he was already killed in his very first encounter with Jack Baker in Dulvey, but was revived by her mold, which gave him regenerative powers. The Duke brings Ethan to the ritual site where Miranda attempts to revive Eva, but ends up reviving Rosemary instead. Enraged, she battles Ethan, who kills her, before the Megamycete emerges from the ground. Ethan, with his regenerative powers finally having reached their limit, sacrifices himself to detonate the bomb planted on the Megamycete, while Chris transports Mia and Rosemary to safety. As Mia mourns the loss of Ethan, Chris discovers that the BSAA soldiers sent to the village were organic bioweapons and orders his squad to head for the BSAA's European headquarters.

Years later, a teenage Rose visits Ethan's grave before being called away on a mission for the BSAA. As she and her escort drive off into the distance, an unknown figure is seen approaching their vehicle.

Shadows of Rose

Set sometime shortly before the game's ending, Rose, now sixteen years old, has been separated from Mia while under the protection of Chris. She has become a social outcast due to her abilities gained from the Megamycete, and resents her powers. Canine, a member of the Hound Wolf Squad, informs her from Miranda's research that there is a Purifying Crystal within the realm of the Megamycete that can remove Rose's abilities; he proposes that she find the rest of Miranda's research within the sea of consciousnesses stored within the Megamycete fragment that the team has salvaged. Rose uses her powers for her consciousness to enter the Megamycete, where she discovers herself in a realm similar to Dimitrescu's castle. She finds it covered in spewing mold, with monsters led by a masked version of the Duke hunting and killing clones of herself. She encounters a guiding spirit whom she names Michael. Despite Michael's advice to leave the Megamycete, Rose persists, wanting to rid herself of her powers. With Michael's help, Rose escapes the castle but falls into a deeper stratum within the Megamycete.

Rose finds herself in a replica of Beneviento's house, where she relives her traumatic childhood of constant bullying by her school mates, with the realm's leader blaming her powers gained from her father. To comfort Rose, Michael shows her a realm similar to her house as a baby, where she finds a letter for her written by her father, saying that he loves her and will always be by her side. She is immediately pulled out of the realm and brought back to the previous one by the realm's perpetrator who reveals herself to be Eveline, seeking to kill Rose out of jealousy over being a failed and unloved experiment. Michael once again helps Rose escape.

Rose finds herself in yet another deeper stratum that resembles the village where she was kidnapped. There, she discovers and uses the Purifying Crystal which absorbs her powers. Just then the consciousness of Miranda appears, who reveals that Canine was an illusion to lure Rose into the Megamycete. Still determined to revive her daughter Eva, Miranda intends to use Rose's consciousness as a vessel now that she is powerless. Michael immediately manifests, reveals himself to be Ethan's consciousness within the Megamycete, and helps Rose escape, but Miranda catches up to them. Ethan encourages Rose to leave and battles Miranda himself. Seeing her father in danger, Rose is reluctant to leave, but when she hears his agonizing cries, she breaks the crystal and embraces her powers, along with gaining some new ones, and defeats Miranda, finally destroying her existence once and for all. Rose embraces her father, who apologizes for not being there for her upbringing but says that he is proud of her. Rose's consciousness then leaves the Megamycete. Afterwards, the ending from the base game plays out.

Characters

Major

• Ethan Winters
• Mia Winters
• Rosemary "Rose" Winters
• Chris Redfield

Enemies

• Lycans
• Vârcolac
• Moroaică
• Samcă
• Hauler
• Mutated Baby
• Soldat
• Urias
• Uriaș Drac
• Uriaș Străjer

Bosses

• Alcina Dimitrescu
  • Bela, Cassandra and Daniela
• Donna Beneviento & Angie
• Vârcolac Alfa
• Salvadore Moreau
• Karl Heisenberg & Sturm
• Miranda

NPCs

• The Duke
• Elena Lupu
• Leonardo Lupu
• Luiza
• Night Howl
• Tundra
• Umber Eyes
• Lobo
• Canine

Development

This section is currently incomplete.
You can help Capcom Database by expanding it. Resident Evil Village had been in development for approximately three and a half years prior to its announcement in June 2020. Like Resident Evil 7 (2017), it was developed with the RE Engine. While it is recognized by Capcom as the eighth main game in the series, and its logo stylized to include the Roman numeral "VIII" for 8, the producers stylized the title to emphasise on the "village" aspect rather than the "8". In a Famitsu interview, producers Tsuyoshi Kanda and Peter Fabiano said that they considered the village a character, and wanted to reflect that in the stylization of the title so that players would remember it.

Much of the inspiration of the game was based on Resident Evil 4, according to Fabiano, as to create "a balance of combat, exploration, and puzzle solving". The team early on had decided they wanted to continue Ethan's story from Resident Evil VII as they had become attached to his character, and worked to devise a story for him with the other Resident Evil teams within Capcom. While they continued on from Resident Evil VII, game director Morimasa Sato said they wanted to give players more freedom toward solving problems, and make it "a horror movie that you can play".

The game had been planned around the idea of castles and vampires, according to art director Tomonori Takano, but they wanted to avoid the stereotypical representation of vampires in popular culture. To develop a "bewitching vampire", they took references from the real-life 16th century Hungarian female murderer Elizabeth Báthory, the Japanese urban legend of Hasshaku-sama, and actress Anjelica Huston's portrayal of Morticia Addams from The Addams Family in creating one of the central figures of the game, Lady Dimitrescu. Further, Takano wanted to move away from the typical gothic horror associated with past Resident Evil games, and gave her an appearance from the Great Depression era. Takano said this was part of the same trend that started with Resident Evil 7 in that they wanted to move away from simply using elements like zombies to scare players but created unique situations and characters that would create fear in new ways. One of the first pieces of concept art Takano drew of Lady Dimitrescu involved her imposing visage leaning down to step through a doorway and demonstrating her over nine-foot height, which he recognized needed to be a scene in the final game, as well as being present in the game's first trailer.

Release

This section is currently incomplete.
You can help Capcom Database by expanding it. To promote the game, Capcom announced that a special lottery event would be held to give away a free Resident Evil Village acrylic jigsaw puzzle if Twitter users use the hashtag #VILLAGE予約. In Hong Kong, life-size standees of Lady Dimitrescu were revealed in video game stores, as well as posters featuring the character in trams around the city.

Maiden, the first of two demos, was released exclusively for the PlayStation 5 on January 21, 2021. For PS4 and PS5 users, an early access demo "Village" was released on April 15, 2021. It allowed players 30 minutes to explore the village and was playable only once and live for 8 hours. The "Castle" demo was released for PlayStation early access users on April 24, 2021. It allowed players to explore the castle for 30 minutes, it was also playable once and live for 8 hours. A multi-platform demo released on May 1, 2021 for all platforms. It allowed players to explore both the Village and Castle for 60 minutes and was live for a 7-day period.

AMD reported that the PC version will feature ray tracing and AMD FidelityFX.

In Japan, the game was released in two versions to comply with local regulations, a CERO Z version that is legally restricted to ages 18 and up, and a CERO D version with less violence that is available to ages 17 and up with no legal restrictions. Both versions contain less violence than the international releases.

During Capcom's E3 2021 presentation, they confirmed that development on additional DLC for Resident Evil Village "has just begun". In June 2022, Capcom announced the "Winters' Expansion", a large content update coming to Village, including a new story expansion, "Shadows of Rose", starring Rosemary Winters as the playable protagonist; a third-person camera mode for the main story; and additional playable characters for the Mercenaries mode (Chris Redfield, Lady Dimitrescu, and Karl Heisenberg). The expansion was released on October 28, 2022.

Reception

This section is currently incomplete.
You can help Capcom Database by expanding it. Resident Evil Village received "generally favorable reviews" on all platforms from critics, according to review aggregator Metacritic.

Sales

Resident Evil Village shipped over three million units in its first four days of release, becoming the third-fastest-selling title in the Resident Evil series, tied with 2019's Resident Evil 2. At the same time, Capcom announced the series had sold a total of 100 million units since its debut in 1996. From May 3 to May 9, 2021, Famitsu rated the PlayStation 4 version at first place in the Japanese gaming charts, selling 111,171 units in a week. The PlayStation 5 version sold 38,713 units, reaching fourth place in the charts. Resident Evil Village was also the best-selling game across the US and the UK during the month of May 2021. It went on to become the eighth-best-selling game of 2021 in the US. The game sold 6.1 million units worldwide by May 2022, and reached 6.4 million units by June 2022. By January 2023, it had sold 7.4 million units. By May 2023, it had sold 8 million units. By June 2023, it had sold 8.3 million units.

Gallery

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You can help Capcom Database by expanding it.

External links

• Wikipedia article

• Resident Evil wikia article