This post contains heavy spoilers about the story and ending of Resident Evil Village!
I just finished up the story of Resident Evil Village yesterday and what else can I say than: WOW! What an amazing game that was from start to finish. This was a roller coaster of a game that just kept on giving all the way to the end. The game does a really good job of keeping you interested all the time. There's not a lot of dull moments or time to breathe anywhere. It's so awesome.
It's all bioweapons
In my last post on the game I talked mainly about the mystery of the game. What exactly is going on? How did it all tie together with the overarching plot of Resident Evil? How could this fairytale place have any connection to bioweapons like the other Resident Evil games do?
Well turned it it was all bioweapons. One of the first things that happened after writing that post was finding a note that spoiled the news that pretty much everyone in the entire village is a bioweapon. So much for the mystery. I guess they did a really good job of selling the atmosphere in this game. It didn't feel like the typical Resident Evil game but neither did RE7.
Let's talk about the ending
Now it's impossible to write a post like this without dedicating time to the ending. I consider the ending to be everything that happens after getting in the tank at the bottom of the factory. There'a lot going on from this point and we get a lot of answers and we're left off with a lot of new questions by the time it's over.
The first thing that happens is we fight Heisenberg with the help of the tank. This is pretty much just tying up the loose end and defeating the last lord. We already got his little baby flask long ago.
Once we defeat him Miranda appears. She first appears in the body of Mia, our wife, but at this point we know Miranda is a mimic. She can make herself look like anything or anyone else. In a long cutscene we see Miranda walking around in the body of Mia, the old woman from the village and her own body. We even see her flying away as a raven. This reveals that she's been keeping tabs on us throughout the whole game. The old woman is one of the first characters we meet when arriving at the village. I wonder if Miranda impersonated any of the other villagers we met?
And then Miranda kills us. She rips out our heart, we fall to the ground and the screen goes black.
Brutal.
For the next part we play as the legendary Chris Redfield. Now that Miranda, the source of all this nonsense, is out in the open it's time to finish her off. We rush through the village as it's burning to the ground and we get to test out some new weapons. The lycans pretty much die from one shot to the head from this assault rifle which is pretty cool.
After fighting our way through the hordes and a mini boss we arrive at what looks to be Mirandas lab or secret hideout. Here we start to get some real answers as to why all this is happening.
Turns out Miranda lost a child to the Spanish flu in the early 1900s. Stricken with grief she walked into a cave to end her life but instead she discovered the mutamycete which is basically the mold that took over the Baker house in RE7 and what is controlling all the bioweapons in RE: Village. With her newfound powers she became obsessed with rebirthing her lost child.
She tried countless subjects to find a host for her child to no avail. Every infected bioweapon we meet are basically potential hosts for here baby. She's using them all. Turns out Eveline from RE7 is made out of the same stuff but by another group she had contact with. Miranda despised Eveline because she was all she wanted her child not to be.
We also find the real Mia locked up in Mirandas lab. As she's told about Ethan's death she reveals that Ethan is so much more than what we think he is. Turns out he was actually killed at the Bakers house in RE7 and infected with the mold back then. WHAT!? It all makes sense, sure, but it's just such a big reveal.
There's no doubt about this seeing as Ethan is now waking up without even having a heart. Duke, the big fat merchant, has picked us up and is driving us towards the ritual site where we will face Miranda in the big showdown.
As we get there Miranda has just finished her ritual and rebirthed her baby which is basically just Rose, our baby we've been looking for all this time. We then take down Miranda in what has to be one of the coolest boss fights I've seen in recent years. Way better than the last boss of RE7.
Now that Miranda is dead and is no longer in control of the mutamycete Ethan starts to wither away as well. He crystallizes and smolders just like all the enemies we kill do. He tries to escape but he's to weak. He sacrifices himself to blow up the mutamycete and save his beloved ones and the rest of the world I guess. It's rough.
The Prologue
We also get to see an interesting prologue. Rose has grown up and is visiting her fathers grave. As she's there she's contacted by some kind of agent, probably tied to Ethan Winters. We get hinted at some kind of powers that she has and the agent even says that she's very like her father. This is very interesting.
I sort of feel like the whole mutamycete/Miranda storyline isn't quite over yet. Yes, Rose is the daughter of Ethan and he birthed her while being infected with the mold. But, Miranda basically dismantled Rose to put her together again in her own image. There has to be something there.
The Verdict
Well it's quite obvious that I'm loving this game so I don't need to go into the details as to why its good once again. One thing I know is that I don't feel like I'm done with the game yet. I want to play through it on the hardest difficulty as well and there's also a speed running achievement I want to go for. To unlock that you need to beat the game in less than three hours. Shouldn't be to bad with all the bonus guns and infinite ammo mods you can activate after beating the game. I'll probably be juggling this and Half Life Alyx for a little while.
All images in this post are screenshots taken by me.