Resident Evil Villageand theResident Evil 4remake have left the franchise in a good spot. It’s difficult to know exactly where the series will go next, now that the most requested remakes andResident Evil Village’sShadows of Roseepilogue are finished, but it is safe to say thatResident Evil 9is coming at some point. While the form that this entry will take is unknown, Capcom’s recent track record with the series suggests thatResident Evil 9is in good hands.
As rumors have it,RE9is aiming for something more ambitious than any other game in the series. It’s alleged thatResident Evil 9will be an open world title, utilizing the technology developed forDragon’s Dogma 2andMonster Hunter Wildsto revolutionize the series' signature survival-horror action. It’s also rumored that older protagonists, like Jill Valentine, Leon S. Kennedy, and Chris Redfield, will be returning. This vision ofResident Evil 9sounds complex, though the game could lighten its load by ignoring some of the lore concerns that have been affecting recentResident Eviltitles.
Resident Evil May Be Trying Too Hard To Make Sense
There isn’t anything wrong with the attention thatResident Evilpays to its story details, even if players often need to pay very close attention to absorb them all.Resident Evil’s universe has proven to be remarkably robust, and it supports a wide range of settings and narratives. This was made very clear byResident Evil 7: BiohazardandResident Evil Village, the two-gameEthan Winters sagathat eschewed the series' usual focus on zombie viruses in populated areas. Instead,RE7dealt with mold-infested mutants and corpses across a single, large estate, and that approach worked very well.RE Villagedid something similar, but with its own spin.
Resident Evil Village Was Stretching What It Could Justify
AlthoughResident Evil Villagereturned to an isolated European town, like what appeared inResident Evil 4, it exchanged zombies, and zombie-like foes, for werewolves, vampires, cyborgs, and even something reminiscent of a ghost. However, it was emphasized thatResident Evil Village’s enemies, which feel as though they came straight from classic horror movies, were actually just advanced forms of the mold creatures fromRE7. This keptResident Evil’s universe internally consistent, but now that an immortal wizard has performed a ritual involving a giant, primordial fungus, the series can afford to relax its storytelling standards a bit.
Future Resident Evil Games Can Let Exotic Monsters Go Unexplained
Resident Evil 9 Doesn’t Need To Be As Lore-Conscious As Village Was
WhileResident Evilcertainly does not need to returnRE6’s do-anything C-Virus,Resident Evil 9does not need to be so concerned with explaining its threats. Whether it opts to include constructed bioweapons, clones, zombies, parasites, or more mold,RE9can let its imagery speak for itself. This is especially true if the game returns to the mythical creatures that appeared inResident Evil Village, as the fanbase is now primed to accept those types of monsters without a great deal of explanation.
Despite having used mold to ground mythical monsters in the series’ mythology,Resident Evil Villageactually presents the strongest argument for why doing so isn’t necessary. Back before it was released, many players were willing to go along with the apparent introduction of werewolves and vampires without much in the way of lore-based explanations, and some even wondered if the game’s cover meantseries protagonist Chris Redfield would succumb to lycanthropy. With that in mind,Resident Evil 9should feel emboldened to step beyondResident Evil Villageand tackle any genre of monster it wants, science-based or not.
