Resident Evil Village is an upcoming survival horror game developed and published by Capcom. It is a major installment in the Resident Evil series and a narrative sequel to Resident Evil 7: Biohazard (2017). It also includes an online multiplayer mode, Resident Evil RE:Verse. It was announced at the PlayStation 5 reveal event in June 2020 and is scheduled for release on May 7, 2021, for Windows, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S and Stadia.
Resident Evil Village is set a few years after Resident Evil 7. Ethan Winters returns as the protagonist. Ethan has been living with his wife Mia and daughter Rosemary when Chris Redfield suddenly appears and kidnaps him to a mysterious European village. Ethan has to traverse the village to rescue Rosemary. The village is governed by four different mutant lords, each controlling their own forces from strongholds within the village. Alcina Dimitrescu, an overly tall vampiric being, leads her three daughters and others from her castle. Karl Heisenberg leads a group of werewolf-like creatures from a contemporary factory. Salvatore Moreau commands a number of mermen from a lake adjacent to the village. Donna Beneviento rules from her mansion, House Beneviento, and controls a puppet named Angie. All houses respond to the deity-like figure Mother Miranda, the ruler of the village who is a “presence worshipped by the villagers.”
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.
The team took inspiration from Resident Evil 4 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”. Sato also stated that the setting’s snowy weather was inspired by the team’s trip to Europe for research for the game, where they were met by an “unseasonable cold snap,” saying, “The scenery was covered in snow…This inspired us to implement snowscapes into our game. We use snow not just for visual presentation, but as gameplay elements as well.”
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