WARNING: This article contains spoilers for Capcom's major new release, Resident Evil Village
Resident Evil has been a staple of the video game industry for 25 years now. First released on the Playstation as Biohazard in 1995, the game came to Europe and the United States as Resident Evil on March 22nd, 1996. As of 2020, the franchise is now the most popular in Capcom's arsenal, with sales figures that easily eclipse even household names like Street Fighter and Megaman.
The latest release, Resident Evil Village, was released on May 7th, 2021. The game has received almost universal acclaim so far for its intense gameplay and genuinely unnerving setting. The most significant criticism of the game so far has been directed at its puzzles. Many players have indicated they have found those to be too easy, although that seems to be a problem with modern video games in general.
Despite not being named "Resident Evil 8", Village is a direct sequel to 2017's Resident Evil 7: Biohazard. The story begins featuring protagonist Ethan Winters right where we left him after Biohazard, which is a satisfying start for long-time fans of Resident Evil. Don't worry if you are entirely new to the franchise, however, and if anything, the opening of Village will leave you fascinated to play the previous game and learn how Ethan has ended up where he is.
Reach the end of the game, and Capcom has been sure to leave plenty of open plot threads and cliffhangers that will leave you hungry for more and desperate to find out where the story will go next. While waiting for Resident Evil IV, fans of the franchise may want to check out Skywind's Resident Evil slot machine, being part of the Unibet Casino slot collection. Unibet has many other gaming-inspired slots too, and who knows, maybe the slot has an easter egg or two yet to be discovered that will give fans extra clues about Resident Evil IV?
The End of Ethan Winters
We all know how Capcom loves to keep fans guessing, so don't be sure that Ethan is gone for good despite his death at the end of Resident Evil Village. His story seemingly comes to a decisive end when he sacrifices himself to save his family and stop the spread of the mutamycete mold.
The character is well-known for his regenerative powers, though, and considering Resident Evil's tendency to bring characters back from the dead, fans would not be shocked if Ethan was to reappear at a later date. On the other hand, Resident Evil Village does expressly state that "The father's story is done," so perhaps this is one occasion when things will turn out just as they seem. Another character does seem like an obvious choice for the opening of Resident Evil IV….
Chris Redfield & The Biohazard Security Assessment Alliance
As Ethan took out the source of the mutamycete mold during the ending of Village, we saw Chris Redfield rescue his wife Mia and daughter, Rose. Chris is a former member of the Biohazard Security Assessment Alliance (BSAA), which has traditionally fought back against bioweapons in the Resident Evil universe.
Some members of Chris's team were lucky enough to escape the village alongside himself, Rose, and Mia on a helicopter at the end of Resident Evil Village. As we now know, the village had been completely taken over by unlucky victims of the mutamycete mold. The game's antagonist, Mother Miranda, formed a terrifying cult after becoming possessed by the mold. This group then went on to conduct hideous experiments on their fellow villagers over the following decades.
It appears that the BSAA knew more about the threat posed by Mother Miranda than they had told Chris before sending him to investigate the village. One of the game's closing scenes shows us Chris during his escape, slowly realizing that his fellow team members were not regular humans, but biologically engineered weapons themselves.
Why would the BSAA, an organization intended to stop the use and spread of dangerous biological weapons, be using such technology themselves? This is just one question to which Chris is now demanding answers as he instructs his pilot to redirect towards the headquarters of the BSAA. Might Resident Evil 9 begin with Chris arriving at the BSAA?
Rosemary Winters
Finally, where will Ethan's daughter feature in the series moving forward? We know she has been exposed to the mold, so she could now be aging much faster than regular human beings. A post-credits scene shows Rose now seemingly in her teenage years, but that exposure could mean that what we see occurs just a short time after she escapes from the village.
We know she is working with Chris now, as she is picked up by a handler who tells her that he is about to send her on a new mission. That leaves another possible starting point for the next game – could Rose be the series next protagonist?
