Qt3 Games Podcast: Resident Evil: The Village

Title Qt3 Games Podcast: Resident Evil: The Village
Author Tom Chick
Posted in Games podcasts
When May 15, 2021

Between the three of us, we have at least three full playthroughs of the latest Resident Evil. Join us as we dance awkwardly around spoilers trying not to ruin the story for anyone..

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Ukelele?

I don’t even know her!

I know you asked us to work in the word “ukelele”, and I had actually written myself a note on a post-it when we recorded. But I did not figure out a graceful way to include the word without straight-up saying, “@Chappers wants us to say the word ukelele”. :)

-Tom

You could have worked in a Dimitrscukulele when talking about her name’s pronunciation.

I think Ethan’s “condition” is foreshadowed heavily at the start of 7. Like Jason says, having your hand cut off and then reattached is not normal. The father repeatedly says “you’re part of the family now.” The son’s hand is cut off, the same as yours was. The mother says “we gave you a gift” etc etc.

Well, sure, but that doesn’t mean he’s actually dead.

I talked a bit more with @Jason_McMaster about this after we recorded, and I think we both agree that’s there no textual evidence for that in Resident Evil 7. Sure, there’s a bunch of nonsense about his destiny and mold infection and whatnot, but it still seems like Resident Evil: Village is playing it as a reveal. Furthermore, if Resident Evil 7 wanted you to know Ethan was literally dead, wouldn’t it have told you as much?

-Tom

By the way, I’m replaying Resident Evil 5. It totally holds up. As far as I’m concerned, the gunplay and progression has never been better than it is in 5.

-Tom

Well, I agree it doesn’t spell it out, but I do think that it was there

its great with the exception of Games for Windows. I’m hoping they do a re-release when its time comes up and removes that and adds ultrawide support. I still love that game.

Or you guys could play it in your bath on the Switch.

All those artful spoiler tags that even an infected could fill in, ruined for a joke ;D

Indeed, why i stay the hell out of threads discussing games i intend to play!

Well, okay, now I have no idea whether this is a spoiler anymore. So, uh, spoiler warning…?

Okay, now I’m confused again and I feel silly thinking it’s a spoiler for Village when you’re telling me it’s not. Because my assertion is that it’s not actually there in Resident Evil 7, that it was supposed to be a reveal in Resident Evil 8.

But you’re telling me that people who played Resident Evil 7 came away from the game thinking that Ethan was dead? Can you link me something to show me what you mean? Because I don’t remember anything of the sort and I’m not seeing it in any plot synopsis.

-Tom

I don’t know much about Resident Evil 7 or 8, and I don’t know that people thought he was dead per se, but I do think the “being able to stick hacked-off body parts back on without medical intervention” (in a cutscene, right? Not just in gameplay?) is a level of deviation from reality that goes beyond your garden-variety “video game logic.” I think RE7 made it clear that he was definitely other than human.

Well, I don’t know RE, I don’t play RE, but I read their story and reading about the thing, I never thought what Jason think obvious was obvious, only that those games were even stupider than I thought.
Both may still apply though :O

No one disputes that. He was infected with the latest magical goo, which is a recurring thing in pretty much all Resident Evil games. Also, secret destiny blah blah blah. But if you have some evidence that you’re supposed to think he was dead and that it’s not a supposedly meaningful reveal in Village, I’d be curious to see it.

-Tom

Wait, the infected are dead in RE games?
Reading over, isn’t this the same confusion between infected/zombie from the first days of RE?

Ah. I think it was definitely a meaningful reveal (to the audience) in Village – I think this is objectively true because nobody appears to have known he was dead before Village came out – but I’m not so sure the designers didn’t know he was dead during 7.

Just throwing that fantastic quote attributed to the director here:

No matter how supernatural something may appear, there’s always some kind of scientific explanation as to why things are happening. This approach isn’t just specific to Resident Evil Village, but the franchise as a whole, and was something we were sure to address. When we were constructing the narrative and the full scope of the game, it was an aspect that we were very conscious of.

Who knows what their intent was for future games. Unless McMaster or someone ponies up actual evidence, I’m sticking to my claim that they’re retconning.

Really, I’m surprised they kept Ethan as the protagonist. He’s a literally faceless blank slate. It’s absurd when Villlage breaks into third person cinematics during the finale and the camera or Ethan’s head is always conspicuously angled so you don’t see his face. Unless there’s some later twist about his identity, there’s no reason to not show his face. It just drives home the point that the games are so poorly written that the hero is nothing more than his motivation: find missing wife in 7, and find missing daughter in 8. That’s the sum total of Ethan “Whitebread” Winters.

-Tom