Resident Evil Village and the Resident Evil 4 remake 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 and Resident Evil Village’s Shadows of Rose epilogue are finished, but it is safe to say that Resident Evil 9 is coming at some point. While the form that this entry will take is unknown, Capcom’s recent track record with the series suggests that Resident Evil 9 is in good hands.
As rumors have it, RE9 is aiming for something more ambitious than any other game in the series. It’s alleged that Resident Evil 9 will be an open world title, utilizing the technology developed for Dragon’s Dogma 2 and Monster Hunter Wilds to 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 of Resident Evil 9 sounds complex, though the game could lighten its load by ignoring some of the lore concerns that have been affecting recent Resident Evil titles.
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Resident Evil May Be Trying Too Hard To Make Sense
There isn’t anything wrong with the attention that Resident Evil pays 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 by Resident Evil 7: Biohazard and Resident Evil Village, the two-game Ethan Winters saga that eschewed the series’ usual focus on zombie viruses in populated areas. Instead, RE7 dealt with mold-infested mutants and corpses across a single, large estate, and that approach worked very well. RE Village did something similar, but with its own spin.
Resident Evil Village Was Stretching What It Could Justify
Although Resident Evil Village returned to an isolated European town, like what appeared in Resident Evil 4, it exchanged zombies, and zombie-like foes, for werewolves, vampires, cyborgs, and even something reminiscent of a ghost. However, it was emphasized that Resident Evil Village‘s enemies, which feel as though they came straight from classic horror movies, were actually just advanced forms of the mold creatures from RE7. This kept Resident 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
While Resident Evil certainly does not need to return RE6’s do-anything C-Virus, Resident Evil 9 does not need to be so concerned with explaining its threats. Whether it opts to include constructed bioweapons, clones, zombies, parasites, or more mold, RE9 can let its imagery speak for itself. This is especially true if the game returns to the mythical creatures that appeared in Resident 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 Village actually 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 meant series protagonist Chris Redfield would succumb to lycanthropy. With that in mind, Resident Evil 9 should feel emboldened to step beyond Resident Evil Village and tackle any genre of monster it wants, science-based or not.
Survival Horror
Survival
Horror
- Released
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May 7, 2021
- ESRB
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M for Mature: Blood and Gore, Intense Violence, Strong Language