When I first heard that there would be a new Resident Evil game once again starring the rather-bland leading characters from the previous entry and with a setting partly reminiscent of the fourth title, I wasn’t all that excited.  And the little tidbit that the monsters seemed to be supernatural in nature, such as vampires and werewolves, instead of the genetically-engineered monstrosities the franchise is known for had me on the fence as to whether this new title was even worth playing.

I gradually changed my mind and got downright intrigued about Resident Evil Village with each bit of info I gleaned, even though I tried to minimize the number of spoilers I was exposed to.  I’m not entirely sure of the order in which I learned things about the game, but I will address the aspects I’m most excited about.

1) Alcina Dimitrescu—There are quite a few Resident Evil fans buzzing online about the formidable main vampiress of the new title ever since photos and video clips of her debuted.  Standing at nine feet tall and later revealed to be rocking at least one set of long razor-sharp talons, I’m inclined to think she might be the most terrifying enemy in the game (though I’m sure there is something scarier I don’t know about yet).  Alcina and her brethren do answer to a mysterious figure called Mother Miranda, so odds are the later portion\ending of the game may raise the fear factor exponentially.  In either case, I look forward to the challenge of trying to survive against the seemingly unstoppable Alcina as she’s stalking me\my character Ethan through the halls of her castle.

2) Longstanding hero Chris Redfield is a villain?—I knew early on that the seventh game’s protagonist, Ethan Winters, would journey to this monster-ridden village to rescue his infant daughter.  But the exact details for this story setup, as revealed in the first game preview, presented a mystery that has me eager to witness the overall story.  In short, Chris Redfield, a hero of the Resident Evil series who has been around since the very first game, actually instigates the events seen in Village.  I can only guess at Chris’ motives for assassinating Ethan’s wife Mia and abducting the couple’s daughter to take to the village.  But I am certain as a writer that there has to be some explanation other than Chris having become a straight-up bad guy.

3) Possible origin story for the Umbrella Corporation—It’s widely known amongst fans of the franchise that a corrupt pharmaceutical company and its high-ranking employees were responsible for the science experiments gone wrong that cause one source of conflict after another throughout the series.  With Village, iconography seen in some screenshots suggest that Umbrella has ties to this locale; the company’s logo is seen at the center of an altar depicting icons of the four “houses” (Dimitrescu, Heisenberg, Moreau, and Beneviento) around the village.  The new game’s lore seems to suggest that the village and its various monsters might pre-date the Umbrella Corporation; one human occupant of the village proclaims that, until several days before the start of the story, “Mother Miranda has always protected us.”  Whether Umbrella originated in this locale or had some hand in creating the threats within, I’m eager to find out the story here.

4) Better story/higher stakes than the seventh game—This one is pretty self-explanatory, but I do like that Ethan is much more fleshed out and, from what I’ve seen, actually has a personality.  This is a big improvement over his intro in Resident Evil 7 in which he was a completely dull, unrelatable character trying to survive a Texas Chainsaw Massacre-esque nightmare.  In addition, I feel that any story in which a child is separated from his\her parents and placed in peril carries more emotional connotations and gets the reader more invested in seeing the narrative through to its end.  Granted, I can think of two other games in the Resident Evil series that contained a plot thread involving someone’s child in peril (RE2 & Revelations 2), but this counts as the first time the child is completely helpless and incapable of fighting back.

5) The Duke\Merchant & backstories—One aspect that was present in Resident Evil 4 makes a comeback in this new title in the form of a merchant from whom you can purchase weapons, upgrades, and other items.  In Village, the merchant is a grossly overweight man called The Duke who curiously knows who Ethan is when they first meet.  The Duke, despite his obesity, is seemingly capable of moving around as he is rumored to pop up in various locations throughout the game.  Being a colorful character aside, I am very curious about this merchant’s familiarity with Ethan.  But then, the backgrounds of Ethan and his wife are just plain nonexistent; nothing has been revealed about who they were prior to their adventure in the seventh game.  I am quite intrigued to find out Ethan’s history and exactly how The Duke ties into it.

There are other, smaller details that have me hyped to start playing Resident Evil Village when it releases on May 7, 2021, but the five aspects above are what intrigue me the most.  Based on what I know and/or have seen so far, I have very strong expectations for this game and a good feeling the overall story will not disappoint.  And I really hope that the week following the release date proves me right.

If you enjoyed this article, be sure to tune in next month for my full review of the game.  😊

I feel I started on the path to designing a video game back when I began taking courses in software engineering.  And a contributing factor would be the gaming-related blogs I wrote to post on the website of my writing group.  My critiques of what made a good game drew encouragement from fellow members of the group to design one myself. After many years of deliberation, I finally got around to creating my own PC video game in November 2020.

Initially, I didn’t have a story so much as an idea.  I wanted to have it so the player could loot random items from treasure chests that would either help or hinder them in battle.  This would have included a wide variety of wacky items ranging from food to household items to tools and more.  And I wanted to have it so that certain objects would prove especially useful against a particular monster.  It didn’t take me long to come up with the title, Secret Weapon, for my game.

I started work on it shortly after I took a leave of absence from my job out of fear of the worsening pandemic.  Using a program called RPG Maker MV, I started building some basic maps to use in the game and created some preliminary items to use in battle.

I can’t entirely say what turned me away from my initial concept.  Maybe it was the areas that were teeming with treasure chests to loot that felt meaningless.  Or maybe I felt that the game would benefit from the inclusion of an actual story.  In either case, I started to brainstorm what kind of narrative Secret Weapon could have.

I eventually decided there existed an opportunity to adapt several story ideas I’d had for years that never made it past the planning stages.  One was called Whisper of Destiny, a medieval fantasy story that entailed a female college graduate (Sahara Flowers) being whisked from her modern world into this fantasy realm to become one of its champions.  The other untitled story revolved around a vampiress named Alicia who declared war against a royal family for unexplained reasons.

I also threw in another character of mine, a shapeshifter named Gisselle, with no relation to either of the above stories.  She would be one of two characters who players could choose as their avatar.  The other would be Jason, a modern day thirty-something businessman who took the place of Sahara.  Building up intros for both Jason and Gisselle helped me flesh out their characters to some degree.  Over the course of designing their introductions, I felt that the name Gisselle didn’t fit the character and it got changed to Morrigan.

When it came to Jason, I wanted to create a scenario where he was working late at the office when he’s compelled, via a mysterious disembodied voice, to jump from the roof into a portal that transports him to the medieval realm.  For Morrigan, I decided she should be an enslaved arena fighter (rendered incapable of shapeshifting) saved from a fatal match by a magic academy instructor who sees promise in her.

Designing the opening cutscenes for my two playable characters presented more than a few challenges.  I ran multiple tests for each to weed out problems.  For Jason, I had to tweak his movements quite a bit; if I had him move too far in one direction, he would get stuck against a wall or railing and the scene would fail to progress.  Even more challenging was the bit where I had to simulate him falling from the side of a building.  I don’t know how to accurately describe what I had to do to get the effect to play out the way I wanted.  But it ended up looking really good to me.

I finished up Jason’s cutscene by having him interact a bit with a female character in this medieval world.  That’s currently as far as I’ve gotten with him.  My focus has since been primarily on building up Morrigan’s story, which will be entirely separate from his.

When it came to designing Morrigan’s intro, I decided I wanted to have a scripted battle in which the player had no control over how the fight went.  This presented its own set of challenges.  I have it set up so that Morrigan and the orc she’s fighting deal random amounts of damage to each other, but neither was intended to die before the scene played itself out.  During a handful of my many playtests, either the orc or Morrigan would get killed unintentionally.  I’ve had to tweak the settings to avoid these outcomes, but I’m still not sure I have it entirely accurate.

As I’ve continued to develop Morrigan’s narrative, I’ve deleted some of the prior map layouts I’ve made, particularly the various rooms of the castle and almost all of the first dungeon.  I’ve come to realize it may be better to build up the environments as they’re needed for the narrative.  I’ve gone from having at least twenty-five rooms for the castle to just six that are necessary for the start of Morrigan’s story.

In addition to the story and world building, I’ve also been designing in-game items to utilize and set up a system where the player can obtain random potions, weapons, or armor from treasure chests or other characters.  I can see there’s a lot of work to be done before I have a complete game – map/world building, character creation, monster creation, sound & music design, and item/weapon/armor design.  I even aim to create my own artwork, particularly when it comes to designing creatures to combat.  But I am hoping to have a demo put together soon from which I can derive helpful feedback from some online acquaintances of mine.

All in all, I am loving all the progress I’ve made so far.  And I imagine I’ll continue to take joy in putting together my newest creative endeavor.

I have been writing for a very long time. Though I have yet to get anything published, creating stories has always been something I’ve been very passionate about. I never believed there’d be anything that would ever diminish that.

This past year has proved me wrong. I’d been writing a fan fiction story since 2014 set in the world of Resident Evil, a series of survival horror video games revolving around mutagenic viruses created by a corrupt pharmaceutical company. My particular story had the character of Claire Redfield unknowingly infected with a virus that imbued her with rapid healing, which resulted in her being abducted and held in an underground facility by uber-villain Albert Wesker.

I never expected real life to mirror the story I was writing, but it has. I find myself, like Claire, living in a world where I have little contact with friends or acquaintances; the freedom to partake in things I used to love is a thing of the past thanks to a devastating virus. Even worse, I feel the year of feeling like a prisoner and being at the mercy of a madman has gradually chipped away at me.

I stopped writing at some point during this past year. I have blamed it on the inability to go to my usual haunts that inspired me. But I think I’ve recently come to believe there’s more to it than that–it’s because I lost sight of who I was.

I very recently realized that I haven’t changed just because the world has. My fire, my passion for writing, is still there; I just needed to rediscover it. I am still that person with a very vivid imagination who loves creating works of fiction or writing video game blogs. And it is something I need to wholeheartedly dive back into.

And if I ever lose sight of that again or falter, then at least I have this article as a reminder.