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The Horror of Resident Evil 7 and 8 || Resident Evil Month
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After their run ins with the dreaded podcast bots, a new organisation calling themselves the Brolly Corporation have emerged from the shadows seeking to destroy indie podcasts once and for all. It's up to Satsunami and the PodPack Collective to stop them by discussing the iconic gaming franchise Resident Evil! Welcome to Resident Evil Month!
In the penultimate episode of Resident Evil Month, Satsunami is joined by Dan from Casting/Gaming Views to discuss some of the most impactful games of the franchise: Resident Evil 7: Biohazard and Resident Evil 8: Village. But what made the 7th entry so terrifying? Where did Village go wrong? And would YOU play these games in VR?! All of this and more in this episode of Resident Evil Month!
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Transcript
The Downfall of Broly Corporation and Budget Woes
00:00:01
Speaker
Alright Satsu, I'm ready for a bombastic journey across the world to take down the Broly Corporation. About that, turns out they may have destroyed themselves off screen. Let me guess, death by unimaginable eldritch horror, destroyed by their own hubris, drowned by the consequences of their actions on podcasting as a whole. Actually, it was surprisingly boring. They just ran out of money using their AI program. Oh.
00:00:25
Speaker
But now it means I have to reboot the entire Resident Evil month storyline. That and ironically enough, our globetrotting has caused a huge unrecoverable dent in our budget. So where are we going in
Louisiana Bayou Recording Offer
00:00:38
Speaker
this episode? You are gonna love it. Someone actually reached out to me and said we could use the home in the middle of a Louisiana bayou.
00:00:45
Speaker
A home in the middle of nowhere, no strings attached. And the best part is, free catering? Come on, what's the worst that could happen? A few minutes later.
Mold People Encounter in Louisiana
00:00:56
Speaker
Okay, that didn't pan out exactly as I thought. Mold people. I mean, when I read that, I thought they were really into pottery. You know, like a Patrick Swayze ghost type thing. How is that better? You know what, I've had it. This time I'll choose a recording location.
00:01:13
Speaker
Yeah, like you could find a better. Ooh, an Eastern European castle in the middle of nowhere hosted by SuperuserLadyD. You know what? Maybe I was being selfish trying to organise everything. Let's try it out. I mean, what's the worst that could happen? The next day.
00:01:31
Speaker
Don't say it. Vampires. Satsu. Haunted dolls. I said don't. Rubik's Cube babies. Welcome to Resident Evil month.
Final Episode of Resident Evil Month with Guest Appearances
00:01:48
Speaker
Hello everybody and welcome to the final episode of Resident Evil Month. My name's Satinami and joining me today is none other than the one and only expert of mould himself.
00:02:00
Speaker
as For legal reasons that's a joke, trust me it's the magic. It's none other than Dan from Casting Slash Gaming Views. Dan, welcome back. Thank you for having me back. I've obviously not been banned yet, so... No, not yet, but... There's always the next episode. Yes, I needed your expertise on mould knowledge for this episode, episode so ah clearly.
Evolving Tastes in Horror Games
00:02:24
Speaker
But yeah, no, jokes aside, how are you doing tonight? I'm very good, thank you. I'm very good. Kind of interested to talk about these games. Well, mainly because I always say to people I tend not to like horror games. However, I've been on here, haven't I, talking about... There was Dead Space, wasn't it? And I've done the Callista Protocol with the Game Club Boys and playing these two games here with yourself. It turns out I love horror games. Yeah, personally, i feel as if horror is quite a contentious genre. It's not a genre for everyone, I would say, but there is a horror game for everyone, if that makes sense. Yes.
00:03:00
Speaker
You know, I mean, look at kids playing Five Nights at Freddy's now, and let's face it, it was never for adults, was it? No, it's interesting what you say about there being a game for everyone. I think that's absolutely spot on. And I mean, especially for horror games, I am totally with you. When I did more streaming back in the past before I did the podcast, I would play, much to my own torture, games like Outlast, Little Nightmares, Condemned Criminal Origins. Each one gave me a right good jump scare. Phasmophobia, you know, those kind of games that absolutely terrified me. But i thought, you know what? I have to persevere. I've paid for the damn job. I'm gonna do it and overcame my fears of the game and even with Resident Evil 4 I spoke about this a couple of weeks ago with Joey from the Game Club pod Resident Evil 4 remake is the reason that I decided to do this month in the first place
Resident Evil Series Exploration and Remakes
00:03:51
Speaker
because it was such a darn good game and I really wanted to go back and see what I was missing out on with this for
00:03:57
Speaker
franchise some games better than others some less scary than others the only thing about six that was scary was probably the length of it and the fact it kept crashing so i had to keep replaying certain bits that was terrifying but yeah for this one that we're going to be talking about today oh my god it's terrifying ah it's really interesting right so having a quite long gaming background i had never really played the resident evil games i think i'd possibly owned one no maybe two i can't remember but i'd owned it but never played it i wasn't a because i didn't like horror games at the time it's just my gaming journey avoided that console for a bit of those games the other thing i'd always wanted to play resident evil 4 i remember reading the reviews of it when it came out even though i didn't have the gamecube but 4 was the one that really got my interest but when they started remaking the games, so that they remastered one, didn't they? Then two, I played those and really enjoyed those because they really did introduce improvements and quality of life improvements, didn't it? Make them fun. And yeah, it's been interesting playing them. Actually, having said that, I remember I did play five and six because they were on like the 360 at the time, weren't they? I think or the Xbox one. But I really remember so very little about them other than a couple of controversies around them. And I think that probably says it all, doesn't it? Why i don't really remember them. Because the funny thing about the series when I was younger, my parents were very, very strict about the kind of games that I could play, so Resident Evil was a definite no-no, even though my brother had the first game for the PlayStation 1. I've still got it upstairs, mind you, but I've never bought played it myself it sounds weird and it's something i said to joey as well a couple of weeks ago but you just know what a resident evil game is don't you it has a certain aesthetic and everything when you see it pop up you go oh that's resident evil you don't hesitate you don't see a generic zombie game and go oh that's resident evil because it's like there's something not quite right about it whereas when you see resident evil you know that's resident evil even though i hadn't played them Personally, I knew all about Leon going to the Spanish village, getting chased down by the chainsaw guy. i knew all about the controversies from Resident Evil 5 and especially 6, which we spoke about last week. So it wasn't a series I really got into that much, but I think I bought quite a few of them off of a humble bundle. I don't know why I bought it. I just thought, oh, I'd be interested in playing this sometime. So I picked it up. It sat in the backlog. It collected digital dust. I was like, right, okay, I'll leave it. And then, as I was saying earlier in the month, one of my friends bought me Resident Evil 4 Remake and that just sparked my love of this franchise. I played that. I went back and did the Benjamin Button route. I went back to the second remake, the third remake, then I played, think I played six, seven, and eight, or rather seven, eight, and then six, and then I played five with my friends, and then I played one, you know, I did it completely out
Resident Evil's Most Terrifying Games
00:06:55
Speaker
of order. It was all over the place.
00:06:57
Speaker
But you know what? absolutely loved the experience and the journey. There's only two games in this franchise that I was genuinely terrified about starting, and you can probably guess the first one, but can you guess what the other one was? Of the main numbered ones, the main entries, I'd probably say seven and is it two? Bingo. Because my only experience of it was when I was on a call with my very good friend who spoke to last week, Adam, and him and I and our other mutual friend as well, we would be playing different games, but we'd still be chatting to one another. So I'd be playing Call of Duty or something. My other friend would be playing something else. And Adam would be playing Resident Evil 2 Remake. And all we would hear very sporadically was just screaming down the microphone because we kept getting ambushed by Mr. X. And I kept saying, what are you screaming at? And he goes, oh, it's Mr. X. And I was like, who's Mr. X? So when it was my turn, I was like, God, I don't want to play this because hate it. heard about Mr. X, I had seen him, and the promotional stuff, I didn't want to play it, and I was terrified throughout. So between that game, which terrified me with Mr. X, and especially this game, this game gave me the fear for Resident Evil 7. It was horrifying. I'm not gonna lie. See, as soon as I stepped foot into that Louisiana house, oh my god, absolutely terrified.
Development and Gameplay of Resident Evil 7
00:08:19
Speaker
Not so much, I'm going to be honest, bar one particular moment, which we will of course talk about.
00:08:25
Speaker
But yeah, before we get into the meat of this episode, or rather the mouldy meat of this episode, the development of Seven is quite interesting, isn't it? Yeah, yeah, because you sent me a message earlier this week, and I replied with some choice words, didn't I?
00:08:39
Speaker
about the kind of game they wanted it to be initially. Yeah, they wanted a version of it to have microtransactions. How would that work? Is it like Jack would pin you to the wall and be like, oh, if you want to get free? Actually, sorry, I say that as a joke, but was there not a Harry Potter game like that years ago?
00:08:58
Speaker
It was like a mobile game. And... There was like one particular scene you play as a student in Hogwarts or something. And there's one scene where it's like you're practically drowning in this water bubble, but you had to pay the game's equivalent of credits or whatever to get out of it. remember there was something like that. Yeah, absolutely. It was just horrifying.
00:09:17
Speaker
And you think, oh, who would do that? That would be stupid. It's like, well, that game. Yeah, Resident Evil isn't too far a stretch to think that they would do it. But the reason that we've got Resident Evil 7 is, of course, because... Because, let's face it, 2012 was a rather controversial year for games, you know. Around that time we had Mass Effect 3, Dead Space 3, a lot of 3s, a lot of very action-oriented games. But in particular, the one that we had in 2012 specifically was Resident Evil 6, which, suffice to say, it wasn't very well received, was it? no yeah there was a lot of articles on that one yeah because i think it did sell well as far as i remember i think financially it was a success but yeah the reviews weren't great for it were they no i think the issue started in five as well but six eight it just felt like they became more action games didn't it rather than sticking to the roots of what had made them so popular with the fans Because what will say is I went back to replay the first game's remake, and I would say that probably has one of the best atmospheres in the entire series. And obviously it's got some dated elements in it, but overall I thought it captured the atmosphere. atmosphere perfectly, sense of looming dread and whatnot, and don't get me wrong, this game has it, but for completely different reasons. You're right, they definitely moved away when they made 1-3, it was very much, oh, you're being hunted by Umbrella, and then 4 had a very tumultuous period where they eventually just settled from, oh look, there's a guy with a hook
00:10:54
Speaker
climbing out a painting and things to, oh yeah, let's just set it in a Spanish village and you have to rescue the president's daughter and things. And they made it quite campy and over the top and they did the same with five. It's kind of like the Terminator effect where, like in Terminator 1 and 2, where the second one seems to be the peak in a lot of people's minds, but because it's so popular, everybody wants to copy that going forward, so there's elements of it in the third film, the fourth film, but the more they do that, the more diluted it becomes, until eventually you've just got a big bombastic action film with no real substance, or in this case, the game. This is it. I guess it's what does horror mean to you?
00:11:33
Speaker
Now, you know, without sort of already going into the two games, but I found 7 and 8 to be complete opposites for me in terms of how I felt about the horror. But it feels like these days, horror seems to boil down into two main camps. One is, as you kind of said it, that sense of impending dread and fear.
00:11:52
Speaker
And the other seems to be, I'm just going to throw this grotesque monster at you and there's going to be lots of blood and gore on the screen. To me, the latter isn't horror. yeah it's a horror game but it doesn't feel horror to me whereas the other side of the game you know the dread the fear that to me is a successful horror game because i think after resident evil 6 came out those were exactly the questions that were asking themselves of what is the identity of resident evil why we moved so far away and don't get me wrong we had a lot of spin-offs like The Umbrella Chronicles, Revelations 1 and 2 as well, which roughly came out at the same time.
00:12:29
Speaker
And they were more, don't get me wrong, they had their scary elements, but they were a lot more action focused. Ironically enough, the director of Resident Evil Revelations, and apologies if I butcher this name, Koshi Nakanishi, they wanted to move back to the survival horror roots. And what I didn't realise was that, and obviously it makes sense in hindsight, it was a three year cycle, but production for the seventh game didn't start until 2014, so a good two years after Resident Evil 6 came out, I had time to marinate in the fanbase, and let's face it, everybody was making fun of it from the weird giraffe 6. Yeah, we won't go about that cover. We won't talk about the cover. Yeah. Yeah.
00:13:10
Speaker
So they decided to try a lot of new things for this in terms of the development. And one of the things which I thought was interesting was, apparently there's a build of this, they call it a gray box build, I think. Essentially what that means is they use default assets to kind of see how the game's going to play out. So it was very rudimentary. Don't get me wrong, there's probably a lot more complicated technical things going on in the background, but they basically use stand-in models and things, and they see how it's going to go. One of the scrapped concepts was that you were going to be a private investigator who was trying to look for a young woman, who, of course, would, ironically enough, be your wife and the finished product. So the beginning of the game, instead of driving to the Louisiana Bayou, you you would take a taxi, you would be looking at things from your bag. It was completely different. But the other thing as well is they pioneered the Resident Evil engine. And I think the idea was that Capcom and all the people involved wanted to create an engine that wasn't really made with other people in mind, if that makes sense. They weren't trying to make the next Unity engine or anything like that. They just wanted to make one for Resident Evil. So that was so fascinating. And have you heard about the demo that they showcased in 2015? I'm not sure I do, no. The one called The Kitchen?
00:14:34
Speaker
ah no i saw that when I was researching, but i didn't actually look it up. So no, tell us. It was more focused on VR. And i think it's more focused on, you know, the two guys who go into the house at the very beginning of the game. Yeah, yeah. The ones who are doing the urbexing in a suit. And you're like, why do urbex in a suit? Weird. But anyway, you're basically tied up in this kitchen with your friends. And there's this creature coming towards you. It's basically, the best way I can describe it is Gordon Ramsay's kitchen nightmares meets... the shades of jesus christ it's not a great experience and i don't mean that as in it's a bad one yeah yeah it's more if you were trapped there because there's not really much you can do and it it's basically a friend tries to free you and then mia comes up behind and drags them into the darkness kills them and then kills you at the end and it's not really it's probably just to demo the vr ah element isn't it and by the way you are never getting me to play this game in vr ah no never he took sorry it's not gonna happen
00:15:34
Speaker
One the things that I think this game drew inspiration from, and trust me, we'll get into it, there's a lot of inspiration from certain horror films like the Texas Chainsaw Massacre in particular, with you know the big chainsaws running after you, P.T. as well, the game that every horror game wants to be for some.
00:15:52
Speaker
um reason, the narrow hallways and things. You had Saw, you had body horror, found footage like the Blair Witch Project and Wreck. You had so many influences for this game. But after 2015, eventually they would reveal that, oh, haha, it's Resident Evil 7 that's coming out. And they would shift from the third person perspective to first person, much to the dismay of a lot of people. It seems to still be a sticking point that you can't play this in third person.
00:16:22
Speaker
How did you feel about that? See, when you first played this. it Didn't really bother me. And maybe that's because, you know, as I said, I was never necessarily a huge Resi fan from day one, game one. I think playing it in first person is a better experience for the horror. But if you're a traditionalist, you know, as a fan of the game, I can understand why you'd probably be upset. But I think playing in third person may have taken something away from it. No, I agree with that, because you do feel a lot more detached, I suppose. Whereas if you're playing a game like Outlast, P.T., unfortunately, I don't think Silent Hill, that's all third person, isn't it? Yes, yeah. yeah Although it can be scary in third person. I mean, like when we played Dead Space, of course, that has these terrifying moments.
00:17:07
Speaker
But if it's in first person, it's literally forcing you as the player to step in the shoes of the character. So it's a lot more in your face and visceral. Yeah, and I think that we've mentioned it did the VR ah side of things. So obviously, I think that obviously has to lend itself to the first person. But, you know, we said it came off for the back of five and six, which weren't particularly not necessarily well received but by players, but they weren't hugely great games. And it felt like they reinvented themselves with this. I mean, look, Seven is probably just a new take on One, right? In the mansion, etc. But it felt like they tried to shake things up, at least with Seven. And one of those probably is going to be the viewpoint, right? And gamers and websites, you know, media are always quick to criticise companies when they don't try something new. But when they do, they get shouted down as well, you know? I mean, that is true, because ironically enough, a lot of the Resident Evil fanbase like their cozy familiarity, which is weird considering each game is so drastically different, but still kind of links back to the previous one in some way or another. Whereas this one, other than the very ending, is so detached from the rest of
Technological Innovations in Resident Evil 7
00:18:20
Speaker
the series. Yes! could be its own series to be honest maybe not with eight which again we'll get on to eight but i mean for seven there was so many technological leaps for this game you know as i said they had the re engine they were developing they developed vr support which i'm totally with you again i want to reiterate your honor i'm not playing
00:18:41
Speaker
in pr it is terrifying alone they used a system called photogrammetry which is when they scan real life objects and things and put it into the game because the game as horrifying as it looks absolutely gorgeous at times it's a great game a great looking game that's what saying they really shook it up on the previous iterations and yeah i mean even playing it now i mean what i didn't realize it's eight years old now isn't it oh yeah you know and still looks great it's a great looking game and again credit to them for taking the time I mean in the end five years or so but taking the time to revamp it to try to do some things different like even the enemies aren't really traditional enemies in the game as such really are they Yeah, because you've still got your stalking enemies, which would return in Resident Evil 2 remake. And want to say that was 2019. Yeah, because I think that was 2019 and then 2020 was when the third remake came out. But they definitely ramped it up in terms of, oh, wouldn't it be cool if you had an enemy that stalks you throughout the entire game? And it's like, No, no, I don't like that. You know, just to clarify what I'm in, is initially the first set of enemies you come across the family. The whole thing felt a bit more, going to use the word realistic, do you know what I mean, compared to the previous iterations. And I think one is the upscaling in the graphics helps. The fact where it was set in what looked like house in the middle of the bayou rather than a mansion. And with the enemies being all this faker family, this villainous family have just got you chained up. It just felt that level of fear, I think, from the fact that it felt quite realistic. And again, I'm going to link it back to that's why I think the first person works so well, because it felt different when you started, at least when you started
Resident Evil 8 Development and Comparisons to 7
00:20:23
Speaker
the game. No, it definitely feels a lot more intimate compared to, especially with Resident Evil 8, where it almost turns into a whole, oh, they're going to take over the world if they don't get stopped and things, and you think, oh, this is the problem that we had and six for all the umbrella was evil for the first one and so on at least you know it was contained in the mansion and the second it was the city it kept having to get bigger and bigger until eventually in six although we joked about it the skit that it was all globetrotting and things and It got two out hand, essentially, whereas in this they toned back down to a very intimate and close story, very relatable goals that it was just about a guy who was trying to find his wife in the middle of a Louisiana bayou, and then, yeah, the eighth one definitely stepped it up.
00:21:13
Speaker
have to say, in this and this is my last point of course before we actually jump in and deep dive into these games, but for the follow up game to this, which is of course Resident Evil 8 Village, i have to say I didn't really see too much in terms of development or any major dramas, and I could totally be wrong in this, feel free to Correct me, but yeah, for this they put in everything and they made it more of a survival horror game, whereas the eighth one when they developed it, it seemed to be like the love child of the fourth game meeting the seventh game. Absolutely, yeah. I don't know, i feel as if the campiness of Thor just doesn't marry up well with Seven, and that is something we'll of course get into, but they basically wanted to expand on the ideas that they had in Seven, they wanted to make it more grand, and there is a particular character we will be getting onto later that they used for all the marketing, a particular woman vampire.
00:22:11
Speaker
is it there oh my god they used her and then it was like right okay she's only in it for a quarter of the game if you're lucky that's it she's gone did chuckle at that when i played the game i did chuckle i was so shocked at that because as i said i haven't really played this game i knew some spoilers yeah marketing all about marketing and see for the seventh game and this is what makes me laugh the seventh game is very much a it's a horror oh what's gonna happen blah When was in the eighth, it's like, yeah, so i because some of you complained about the last one, here's a eight foot vampire lady in a big white dress that chases you about. Enjoy everybody. They knew what they were doing. One with that character and two with the advertising. Let's just say that. Even my girlfriend, right? I was telling her that I was doing this episode and she turned around to me and I kid you not, while walking the dog and she said, oh yeah, I know somebody similar her because I was trying to describe Lady Dimitrescu and she went, oh, we've got something similar. It's called the Eight Foot Lady. And I went, what do you mean the Eight Foot Lady? And she typed it into her phone and showed me and I was like, that's Lady know which I know is based on, i think, Japanese folklore, her particular character. But yeah, yeah we'll come on to that. But it's weird how starkly different these games are. Yes.
Ethan Winters' Injuries and Narrative Exploration
00:23:32
Speaker
yeah we went from deliverance to abraham lincoln vampire hunter that's all i'm saying right but see without any further ado while we dive into let's face it it's the ethan winters duology isn't it yeah and all i want to say i want to headline this with saying the poor guy he needs to look at especially his hands he needs to look after himself a lot better
00:23:52
Speaker
The creators had it out for him, didn't they? you know what's weird? And it's something that I hadn't noticed until I was watching another reviewer talk about this. But genuinely, for some reason, the developers hated the left hands in this game. And I'm like, what do you mean by that? And they showed a montage and it was like Ethan getting stabbed and the left hand, he gets his left hand chopped off. Lucas gets his left hand chopped off. And it's like, hold on a second, they're onto to something here. What is it with the left hand?
00:24:20
Speaker
He doesn't escape it in the eighth game either. He gets his right hand as well in that one. I think he gets strung up by his left hand and it's like, jeez, what has he done? he goes through absolute hell. And that is something that we will on to. But see, without any further ado, will we dive into this castle, try to avoid the eight foot vampire ladies, try to avoid the Louisianians, whatever they're called to? And yeah, dive into the great, the bad, and the downright mouldy about this game.
00:24:48
Speaker
We'll be right back after these messages. Welcome to Chatsunami, a Scottish variety podcast that discusses topics from gaming and films to anime and general interests. Join me, your host, Satsunami, as well as the rest of our Chatsunami team for our takes on these very important pop culture topics.
00:25:07
Speaker
Sir, it's clearly a trap. I you accept your That happens three times in the film. Every time that general goes, don't do this one thing, he goes, did do you know what I'm gonna do? It's the exact thing. He as well. She had to pointy teeth. What was that about? She looked like Bilbo when he wants the ring back.
00:25:24
Speaker
she turned and I just want the lightsaber one more time. Parasite says, no, you will get back into your office and work. No, says the man in Zoom. yeah Trousers are for the working man. You're bursting into your hotel room. Honey, we need to go.
00:25:42
Speaker
Leave the kids. We can milk an audition. Oh.
00:25:49
Speaker
That's the worst thing you've ever said on any of the episodes. If that sounds like your cup of tea, then you can check us out at our website, chattsunami.com, as well as all good podcast apps. As always, stay safe, stay awesome, and most importantly, stay hydrated.
00:26:05
Speaker
Stay classy and have banana. This has been chattsunami. I'm sorry.
00:26:22
Speaker
Welcome to the trailer for Gaming Views. Think of it as the demo level before the real action kicks off. We're Dan and Dan and every week we're bringing hot takes, breaking news, deep dives and everything gaming related.
00:26:36
Speaker
From the biggest headlines to retro classics, hardware breakdowns and inside scoops on developers, we cover it all. So level up your gaming knowledge, subscribe to Gaming Views wherever you get your podcasts and don't miss out.
Return to Horror Roots in Resident Evil 7 and Baker Family
00:26:53
Speaker
I'm going to start off by saying love 7. I played it late. I didn't play it when it was released. So I probably only played it a couple of years ago or maybe three years ago first time. But I love the look of it as in both the graphics and the setting. i said earlier that it felt real and it kind of lost or for me it shook off the like you said a bit of the cartoony or the campy vibe of some of the earlier ones. I loved the video tape mechanic, you know, where they put in a tape and then you played there a little section, you know, that you were seeing on there. I thought the Baker family were great as villains. There's a couple of things I didn't like about it, but ultimately, yeah, I thought it was just a great game and it it felt like a real return to form for me anyway. You know what? I am totally with you there. So for anyone who doesn't know what this game's about and are wondering why are we praising a bunch of maniacs inside this Louisiana hell house, as it were. So the story basically is that you play as, in both games, Ethan Winters, who is just a mild-mannered, I want to see IT consultant or IT software developer, or something like that. He is just an everyday man and his wife says, oh yeah, I'm just going on the job, I'll be back. And then three years later, after she disappears, she sends you a note to say, in Louisiana, come pick me up. Which obviously, and I think your friends as well, would say that that if your wife went missing for three years and then sent you letter saying, come pick me up in Louisiana, you'd be like, why Louisiana?
00:28:21
Speaker
To which, of course, he very much hops, skips and jumps into into his car. And this is something that I was saying to you, that the horror was basically ruined for me at the very beginning of this game, because I played this game on the Steam Deck, and I didn't realise that the Steam Deck for some games, I mean, some listeners out there might know, what I'm all about here but there's some compatibility issues so you have to run it in certain compatibility modes to make it work properly otherwise the cutscenes and things won't work and at the very beginning the cutscenes weren't working but thought okay it's fine but at the very beginning you get put into the perspective of Ethan Winters as you're driving down the road and all of a sudden this isn't exaggeration by the way this isn't me being funny these strips of colour came down basically representing the pansexual flag I could not see anything out the window. I was looking going, why are all these colours here? did Did I make a wrong turn? It turns out, which I actually think is really, really clever, I don't realise this until I've fixed the compatibility issues, is that when you're driving, you're not actually driving with a fully formed 3D area around you. It's just like a kind of bubble around you. that moves and it's not until you get out of the car that all the models are there. I thought that was really clever the way they did that. Obviously the only reason I found that out was because of, yeah, the colours just slapping me in the face and you look on social media I will be posting that picture. It was like, what is going on? it was horrifying. But yeah, you basically go to the house, you try to find your wife, and as you were saying before, you meet the Baker family who have just been driven insane by something that you don't quite know yet, and trust me, but we'll get onto that. basically, yeah, much like The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, PT, any slasher film, any monster film, you have to go in, survive and rescue your wife. And you get beaten to hell and back, to be quite honest, don't you? It is just quite... Brutal. Oh, it's horrific, isn't it? Yeah, but again, it's very, compared to at least six anyway, it's very, and I keep using this word intimate, but I really mean it. Because when you get kidnapped by the Baker family, you get dragged into, of all places, you would think that he would throw you into the basement, he would chain you up or something. But no, he straps you a chair in the dining room and forcibly makes you part of their family. It's an absolutely terrifying scene because you've got Jack and Marguerite Baker who are trying to feed him and you know what Marguerite's like when she tries to feed you moldy food and he spits it out. He's not needed it, Jack!
00:31:00
Speaker
He's not needed it! And you know, they're going mad. And the only quote-unquote normal, and I'm using that very loosely, is their son Lucas who, and I pointed this out to you, I can't remember if you remember what said here, but he reminds me of the guy from Baby Reindeer. Yeah, yeah, see that yeah. I genuinely cannot unsee it. He pops up on the screen all the time like, who have you seen my stand-up show? Oh, by the way, this is a homage to Saw, and you're like, what the hell is going on?
00:31:28
Speaker
Yeah, he is absolutely terrifying. But that's the thing, though. The dynamic is so tight-knit, and you have to take out each family member individually. You know, like a Resident Evil game. You have to do these mini-boss fights and everything. Isn't Granny there, though? Isn't Granny at the dinner table as well? She is Special mention for Granny there. Yeah.
00:31:49
Speaker
Huge shout out to a Granny Mandalorian out there. But no, you're completely right. Yeah, she sits catatonic really throughout the entire game. It appears in different places and that also caught me off guard a lot, let's just say that. That led to a change of several tro trousers on my
Gore, Decision-making, and Backstory in Resident Evil 7
00:32:04
Speaker
part.
00:32:04
Speaker
Coming into the room being like, okay, I'm safe, not checking my corners. Seeing Granny rocking back and forth. I was like, oh, okay. It's like Rezzy's version of Alma, wasn't it? Oh, don't get me started on Alma. I'll take us back to our collector's edition episode. Check out casting views for that episode. Yeah, please do. Horrifying, but well worth a listen. Please don't let my research be in vain for that one. It's very much you're going through all of these areas in the house. And what i love about it as well, other than the fact that they kept to banging it on about, oh, it's like PT. I don't think they themselves said that. It's very apparent going up and down these hallways and there's all these horrors that... It's quite PT-esque, you know, and I hate saying that. It's to say, oh, it's not its own thing as something else because it does deserve the recognition. One thing that I thought was quite interesting, I don't know if you saw this, was that there is a scene, and I don't know if they just censored it for the promotional material or for the game itself, but there's a particular scene where you think you have been saved, where a policeman comes in and he does that stupid horror trope of, hey, maybe you're the crazy one. And it's like, I am literally bleeding. My hand is hanging off. For the love of God, get me the hell out of here. And then Jack comes in and basically separates his brain from his body with a shovel. And apparently that was censored more in the Japanese version, which is really weird. Yeah, it's really weird because was the opposite when it came to America. And there was a lot of things that they censored for Resident Evil 1 in particular. So just weird why they did that. But it is very gory. Yeah, that's a good point you say as well, because to go in with what you're saying, you said a couple of times, use the word intimate. I get what you're saying about that, because like I said, it's not set in a massive mansion where you're going across a massive hallway with a wider open space. It's claustrophobic, I think, especially the disgusting kitchen. When you do get to wander around, you know you're in a small house, yet you also, you know, because it's a horror game, you're not getting out of it, at least not easily. So what does this small house hold for me? But like you said, it is also really brutal.
00:34:06
Speaker
And the graphics, I think, really up the ante her impact quite considerably. I mean, yeah like you said, in the first five minutes, the wife that you go rescue stabbed your hands with a screwdriver to a wall, has chopped your hand off. And like you said, that scene with the poor policeman,
00:34:21
Speaker
You know, it really does. It's shocking because the gore, and whereas I often say gore isn't scary on its own, sorry, mix it with the quite thick, scary atmosphere that this game builds, you're getting almost the best of both worlds in that sense. Oh, absolutely. It's something that myself and my friend Adam have talked about before about how effective, in particular for horror games, that gore can be. in terms of eliciting fear. And one of the examples we used was Outlast versus Outlast 2. And spawned one of my favourite quotes from him all time where he said, after the fifth time of getting a crucifix to the groin and getting absolutely crushed, What more can this game do to me? It completely desensitises you to the horrors of it. And have to say, whenever I die over and over in a game, you're like, oh, right, okay, here we go. Here's that particular animation. Oh, it's repeating itself. Obviously, you don't want that to happen to you, but it's quite interesting the way they do it in this, because obviously the gore is there and it's very visceral. It's very in your face. But for the most part, I would say it has a purpose, except maybe towards the end when it goes to the more... Again, what a lot of Resident Evil games do, and it's like, oh, we're in the laboratory, only this time, although there is a laboratory, this time it's more they're on a ship, and you're like, oh, great, I can't wait. That's probably the weakest part of the game. Yeah, definitely. Spoilers, of course, in case you hadn't noticed, but eventually you escape the house with your wife, if you choose your wife, but that's a whole other thing. Actually, that reminds me, there is a character who helps you throughout the game called Zoe, and she is one of the few Baker children that hasn't been infected, and by children I mean she's a grown woman, but she helps you escape, and at Nearly the end, you have to decide whether you're going to inject her with the serum to stop the mold from taking over her, or you inject your wife, and obviously you're going to go for your wife. But trust me, I was sorely tempted because I thought, yeah, Mia's not been very helpful so far. She's kind of lied, she's gaslit. I'm going to be honest, I'm not a huge fan of you, Mia. The report card is not looking good.
00:36:30
Speaker
ah Do you not think, I mean, you've brought it up now. I've actually put that in one of my criticisms of the game because I think that decision is really, thought it was silly giving that choice because I get it right. So this character has helped you in the game. But the whole point of it is that your wife's gone missing for three years. She's been subjected to whatever she's had to go through in that house.
00:36:52
Speaker
And then you get a choice of who to save in the end. Do you know what I mean? Ethan's whole ethos is he's got get his wife is whatever she's done to him in the previous sort of eight hours. it didn't do enough to give a real reason as to why you you shouldn't choose your life if you know what I mean you know what it reminds me of and I know we're fresh off the heels of Bioshock month a couple of months ago but it does remind me of see the little sister choice where it's like I mean even that is less impactful because the only thing it really affects is the ending you get and even then it's like you know the canon ending is you save Mia exactly and in the DLC you know you save her as her uncle who punches everything in sight oh we'll touch on that briefly later but yeah that's the canon ending so you're like ah not good great it doesn't feel as if it's very impactful no i was quite disappointed in that as well because up to that and as you said the last uh you know in the ship i think that was probably the weaker part of it but yeah it kind of disappointed me because it had been such an interesting game up to that point you'd only choose zoe to either see what the other option is or just out spite right that And even then, unless you're doing that for the achievement, you could just YouTube it and go, oh no, I can't remember if you die or Mia. think Mia dies at the end if you choose zo Yeah, it's just a weird narrative thing that didn't need to be there. And I personally, I don't know how you feel about this, but I personally feel as if, say when it gets to the Saw essay, type part of the game where you have to fight against Lucas and his creatures and whatnot, which of course we haven't really touched on, but they're called the Moldeds, which are just hulking humanoids with melted faces and big teeth. I wouldn't say that the most creative looking, because you've got the regular one you've got the fast one that crawls in all fours like a licker you've got the big fat ones that explode like boomers from left for dead 2 that kind of thing you've got bugs as well which irritated the hell out of me i have to say oh yeah i've got that on my list here how you doing six i've got yeah
00:38:58
Speaker
Yep. I mean, I hated Marguerite even more. She was terrifying. She was disgusting. And I don't mean, I'm sure she was a lovely lady before the mould, but that, having an egg sack and everything in that particular part, that was horrifying. That was the whole, ooh, let's add the fly into this mix. It's like, please don't.
00:39:14
Speaker
Please don't have Jeff Goldblum voice Marguerite. I don't want to say that. Actually, speaking of voice actors, can we just give a huge shout out to the voice actors? Because, my God, they are absolutely fantastic. We've got Todd Soley who does Ethan Winters and I will get onto it later but him in the 8th game especially. Oh he's just fantastic. We've got Katie O'Hagan who does Mia. Jack Brand who does Jack Baker. Sarah Coates who does Marguerite Baker. Jesse Pimentel who does the Baby Reindeer guy. Sorry I mean Lucas Baker. Giselle Gilbert who does Zoe Baker. Yeah I could go on and on really but they are absolutely fantastic. I agree I do think so whilst he was a good actor though I do think Ethan's reaction to some of the events that happened to him feel a bit funny in how underwhelmed he is to having his hand chopped off and things at times if you know what I mean but generally and in terms of the performances though I don't think that's a him issue I think that's the kind of almost like the scripting and how over the top the games are but yeah I mean like said I think the bakers were done really well what would say going back to your point ah
00:40:20
Speaker
about the enemy like them not being overly buried i think that's what you're saying wasn't it yeah i did have that on my list but then thinking about it what i've said is that how great i think the game is because they've done something different and it's contained in that one house so i guess you're not necessarily going to have a massive array of enemies if you know what mean like it's not in the umbrella laboratories or anything like that it's in a house so i think whilst i've put it on the negative side of my list i guess i've got to cut it a bit of slack on that basis yeah no do see a point there because i hated the bugs i'm gonna be honest no quarter for the bugs absolutely not the only good bugs a dead bug in the words of johnny rico but anyway that's enough And starship troopers aside, of course, the moulded, I totally see that, although they weren't as varied, it does kind of add to that idea that these moulded are most likely real people. These are people that have come to the house... etc
00:41:17
Speaker
perish because there's articles everywhere you find throughout the house in Resident an Evil fashion that you see, oh, they've been kidnapped, they've disappeared, oh, where have they gone? And that's what happens at the very beginning when you find the tape, and that's something I love as well, just touching on what you said earlier, that you get to place these characters in the tapes and you get to do that found footage thing it is just so well done because you play as mia you play as the urbex group i think they're named sewer gators or something for their channel because you see their van at the very beginning and you go oh what's that really cool idea but god imagine if they survived how insufferable would they be in the podcast yeah oh did you see that moldy kitchen well well Well, that's what i was going to say. The thing about that opening bit, and like I said, love the videotape mechanic bit because it does crop up in the saw element as well, doesn't it? Yeah. think But that opening bit with those people going in, so you've already got quite an atmospheric game. And then you're seeing an element, at least the first part of that, through a VHS cassette tape and the effect of that. It just feels like there's really then layered on that tension through that little section. And that was probably one of my favorite bits. There is just something quite less nostalgic about that type of horror. I don't know if analogue horror's the right term for it, but you know, with the VHSs and everything and that kind of idea, it feels very, and this is a word I used in the very first episode about RE1, but it feels quite voyeuristic. doesn't it? That when you're watching this and you're in their shoes, you know that Ethan's of course watching this to see what happened and you're being constantly watched of course by Lucas and the Baker family as a whole. Even Zoe who is trying to help you, she's still watching you so there's that tension that's always lingering in there and I think the part in the house is absolutely incredible but and this is where we get into probably the most complex controversial side of it because yeah as soon as you escape the house you end up in a big ship and it turns out that your wife all this time was working for a particular shady group which is called not Umbrella and her and her male colleague are transporting a little girl which you see flashes over sometimes but you're like what the heck was that? Is that just the game trying to be spooky? And then you find out that she was created as a bioweapon that was supposed to be transported and a Very nice ferry across, you know, no questions asked.
00:43:40
Speaker
Anyway, long story short, she throws a wobbly and kills everybody in the ship and turns them to Molded. It's actually quite tragic, I have to say, and it's something that's expanded upon in the Daughters DLC where you play a Zoe in the house.
Critiques and Reflections on Resident Evil 7's Ending
00:43:55
Speaker
Basically for that one, for anyone who doesn't know, it's set just as the boat crashes into the bayou. So Jack goes out, he rescues Mia and Evelyn, who is the wee Molded guy. everywhere. You go up to tuck her in and make sure she's okay and she does the creepy child thing of, your family's mine now! And then all of a sudden she disappears, your family go from such nice, nice people to just absolutely psychotic with bugs coming out of everywhere and spewing this black liquid everywhere. It is horrifying to see these people who only wanted to do something good suddenly start hunting you down. And that's a that one in and particular, see if you want terrifying, play that one. That is horrifying, that one. But that's the reason why Mia was there in the first place, because she crashes with Evelyn. She's of course knocked unconscious, so she's unable to warn them. She's a wee girl with all these powers, but she wants a family to depend on.
00:44:50
Speaker
That's what I think the end of the game does really well in Turnaround. So i know you said it expands in the DLC, but there is a scene towards the end of Seven, isn't there, where Jack is talking to you, isn't it? I can't remember now. Is it like a dream or is it? Kind of. It's like a dream and it's part of the modes. That's right, yeah. Because you find out in 8 that mind for everyone who's been infected. While all you're stuck in the mould on the ship, Mia's fighting her way Call of Duty style through it, killing all the moulded. And you're right, you get that scene. It's a beautiful scene where Jack's talking to you. You kind of jump out your seat and then he's like, no, no, no, no I'm all right.
00:45:28
Speaker
I'm all right, trust me. And you can see it in his eyes. And that is something I found absolutely outstanding, that you can tell the subtle differences. Yes. and his facial expressions you know they're not harsh they're not furrowed and everything he is very gentle with you he begs you to save his family and everything zoe kind of sits there like a spare lemon mind you but i don't know where margarita is either but it's a strange one but yeah sorry yeah you're right yeah and again that's what i've got i love the twist at the end with the jack reveal it's just surprisingly i want to say moving i'm not sure if it is moving but it well i guess it really turns the game on its head that moment it gives them a lot more depth as well because if you look at the past Resident Evil games, it's essentially, oh, let me inject myself with the virus alphabet, okay?
00:46:13
Speaker
And then, oh, I turn into a big monster with a big eye. And you'll get me wrong, that does happen in this game and I rolled my eyes when I saw Jack turn into one of them and you're like, oh... great. Shoot the eyeball. who ha Because you get one of those at the end of the Not a Hero DLC where that's more Call of Duty-esque. When you play as Chris Redfield, you go down to hunt down Lucas. He is working for someone called, again, Not Umbrella. I think they're called The Connections or something. Why they don't just use Umbrella? Because Chris arrives later at the very end of the game. Spoilers, but he arrives in a helicopter belonging to a group called Bloom. um
00:46:50
Speaker
Umbrella, who are a paramilitary group, and they want to right the wrongs of what Umbrella did, and I just sat there scratching my head going, yeah guys, that symbol's tainted, you should really choose something else. Don't choose try-sell, that's even worse.
00:47:05
Speaker
Try something else, guys. Come on, it is tainted. Definitely turns very action-oriented once you get in the ship and everything. In the pro and con of the very end, I wish, personally, the game ended when you injected Evelyn with the antidote or whatever it is, because you find out, speaking of granny, as you said, the twist is, oh, she was the granny all along, spying on you and things. Very much if Coco was a horror film. LAUGHTER But yeah, it turns out, oh yeah, she was spying on you, but then she turns into a big grubbly monster that you have to shoot the eye and face out of, and you're like, oh, okay. And then it turns into stereotypical Resident Evil, and I'm not a big fan of that personally, but I don't know how you feel about that.
00:47:52
Speaker
No, I agree with you. I've got my notes here that I didn't like the end. Not that didn't like the end. The first half of the game in the house, the Bakers, it built up such a great tension. It felt different. It felt claustrophobic. It did feel like you were trying to survive. And yeah, the bit at the end of the game just fell flat to me. It didn't have the same, what's word? Not excitement, but it didn't have the same desire to kind of get through it like I did for the first half of the game or two thirds. Yeah, the end is a bit of a slog because it looks different and you're like, oh, that's great. I've got a different environment. And then you're like, oh, another ship. Oh, another part of the ship. I don't want to go. Yeah, exactly. Oh, the fuse is broken. Oh. walk up the stairs it was just such a slog and obviously by the time you get back to the house I couldn't believe was saying that I was like oh thank god I'm back but as before I was like Jesus how long have I got to go in this it is a slog but that is probably the worst part of the game I would say yeah yeah the only other part is the identity of it as a resident evil game i just wanted to say my notes here because i tried to keep brief so it's just made me laugh as i'm looking at because i've got killing jack first time car fire gun second time killing jack chainsaw and then i've just got marguerite and then i've got just as horrific and annoying to kill then granny attack exclamation mark and my final note what is it with ethan's hand yeah
00:49:19
Speaker
but That was my high level summary of the notes but no just to say that yeah I really enjoyed this game having said there was a number of criticisms every game's gonna have that right but yeah I really enjoyed 7. Because as i said there was a lot of DLC that eventually came out for this some of it added to the horror and others was just baffling there was a bad footage DLC which had a lot of different stories to it like you played as Clancy for one of them, where you were trapped in a room and it was like an escape room where
Resident Evil 7's Impact on the Series and Village's Promotion
00:49:50
Speaker
Marguerite would check on you every so often, but had to do different puzzles and if you made too much noise or whatever, or she noticed that things were out of place, she would punish you and you would die, so you'd have to go back to checkpoint. It was quite tense, and I have to say I wasn't as brave to do that one. There was a daughter's one where you and Zoe get to see what happened before. Evelyn basically corrupted the entire house and it's so damn tragic. It sounds psychotic to say I love it, but it was. It was such a good addition. End of Zoe. I've got Mick. opinions on it because you basically play as the uncle of the baker family and you punch your way through the entire thing and you throw spears it just feels tonally very weird but at the same time if you're punching molded in the face i don't know i don't want them to beat me up that's the thing
00:50:41
Speaker
It so damn cool. It's like the rule of cool where you eventually get a power glove at the end and you just beat the ever-loving you-know-what out of Jack Baker, who turns out is still alive, would you believe, but as a creepy, moulded-type figure. And of course, Chris whoops in at the end and he hands over a walkie-talkie to Zoe and is like, oh, there's someone on the phone and it's Ethan. And Ethan's like, yeah, I knew I'd send someone back for you. And she's like, Ethan, what the hell? But she gets rescued, of course, which is a very nice end. you've got the Lucas storyline wrapped up where and not a hero where you have to rescue some of the blue umbrella soldiers as Chris you have to go down the only way downside of that is there's a new type of molded I think it's the white molded or something like that and he can only be taken out with a special bullet which is a pain in the backside but it does feel more Call of Duty-esque but it's good that they kept it to that DLC if that makes sense I was going to say, if it's in DLC, you can almost see it as non-canon almost. so I don't mind that sort of thing in DLC. Because you've got story DLC like that, and then you've got DLC where it's like, oh, you have to feed Jack in a set amount of time, which is quite funny, I have to say. It's like Jack's birthday.
00:51:51
Speaker
or something he's wearing a hat you have to run out fight the molded with party hats on and then shoot them but then you have to combine all this food and bring it back you've got one that's essentially blackjack where you play as clancy again it's very interesting this game you've got the ethan must die one which is just basically madhouse mode but for cycles and if anybody knows how bad madhouse mode is on this trust me it's ah So yeah, overall, it's a terrifying experience. It's something that I feel as if the franchise needed at the time, as controversial as that sounds, to bring it back to its horror roots. But then three years later, after they brought out the remake of 2 and they brought out the third remake, they started development of Resident Evil Village in 2018.
00:52:34
Speaker
two thousand And as we were half joking, half talking about earlier, the promotion for this one was really, really weird, because you had Lady Dimitrescu, who was very tall lady, let's just say, as a vampire. You this village in the middle of Eastern Europe.
00:52:53
Speaker
I can't but if they confirm It's Romania or not. i seem they have a fully combat yeah yeah yeah but yeah you had the villagers going about their daily business which drew parallels of course to resident evil four which were two years off of first from the resident evil four rema coming out about Yeah, it was a weird, weird experience for me personally. See, before we get into the game itself, how did you feel about all the advertising for this game? Because I know you probably didn't play it when it came out, but yeah, what were your thoughts about it? I'm kind of like you. So they heavily... focused on lady dimitrescu so clever misdirect i guess but i had assumed that she was going to be the big overarching villain was going to be there tormenting you through the game was potentially going to be the mr x of this game so yeah i just simply looked at it and just thought yeah it's obvious she's clearly the main villain and that was it more for me for falling for it
00:53:54
Speaker
I mean, can't blame you, though. She's in everything. Do you know what's really embedded in my mind? It's, you know, that scene where you get captured and chained up in the castle. Yeah. And it's that scene where can't remember if she looks at you with this very kind of, I don't want to say seductive smile, but you know what I mean? Very much.
00:54:14
Speaker
I think you could say that. Look, they definitely played on her body and her look. You know, so that's what saying at the start. They knew what they were doing. Yeah, because I'm just looking up some of the pictures here for the promotion and yet it's essentially a low angle looking up at Lady Dimitrescu.
00:54:31
Speaker
Yes, yeah, and it worked because you've got a lot of cosplayers cosplaying the characters. So yeah, it was great marketing from that perspective. Oh, 100%. I have to say some of my friends have dressed up as Lady Dimitrescu and it's like you look at how much effort they put into these cosplays. Some of them are so impressive. And the good thing is as well, they don't need stilts.
00:54:52
Speaker
but And I guess, look, she was a very different style of villain, I guess, to what we'd seen before. If we're looking at it and saying we both thought that she was going to be the main villain, she wasn't Jack Baker. yeah She's not Nemesis, not Mr. X. Do you know what I mean? It was a very strikingly different model of character, I guess. Also huge shout out to the voice actress who quite honestly I think she does a lot of promotion for the series now because I've seen a few videos of her and i think it was her and Mia's voice actress so the voice actress for Lady Dimitrescu is Maggie Robertson absolutely knocks out the park.
00:55:33
Speaker
Katie O'Hagan who does Mia they did a video where they were reacting to things from Resident Evil Village it was really funny but think Claire Redfield's a remember her name now but claire redfield's voice actress she does cosplay as claire and does the reaction videos and plays through through it which is again it's so good to see the voice actors being a part of i don't want to sound parasocial and say the community but you know the community in terms of the promotional side of it actually enjoying the franchise what's interesting is so yeah the voice actress was also the motion capture
00:56:08
Speaker
but the body and the looks were based on model and just what was saying I was just looking her up and yeah it kind of is a double obviously I know that sounds silly thing to say but it's funny isn't it how you get a model for the visual look of it but then you've got somebody else who does the voice and the motion capture is quite odd why they didn't get the model to do the motion capture almost if you know mean it's funny I would wholeheartedly recommend for anyone who hasn't seen it to watch the video, the motion capture stuff that they do. is so impressive what they put into because I know people make fun of it saying, oh look, they're in a skin tight suit and they've got those dots all over them. And obviously it does look silly. We've had the same things for Off the Top My Head because I watched it the other day with The Hobbit and Benedict Cumberbatch's Smaug and obviously wasn't going to wear a dragon. But he wore the motion capture for that and he's making all the weird faces going, oh, I'm fire, blah, blah, blah.
00:57:02
Speaker
And for this, although, yeah, might look silly in the outset, it is just amazing how much effort and attention to detail that they've put into this game. This is one thing i've got a lot of criticisms about this game, but before we dive in, I genuinely think that this game looks absolutely gorgeous.
Resident Evil Village's Opening and Genre Blending
00:57:19
Speaker
yeah and it's funny today i was just refreshing the memory and was having a look at a video and i did i sat back there and thought it's a great looking game again you know i thought seven was good but eight yeah really does look nice because i mean each resident evil game ever since seven it just looks and better and better because when you look at the resident evil two and three remake for all the good and bad they did they look fantastic resident evil four make oh my god that looks gorgeous as well but for this one they honestly hit the ball at the park with this one they nailed the aesthetic of it and apparently the reason that they've got so much snow in that is because i think they went to visit somewhere an eastern european village and then they got hit by a cold snap so it was like minus something degrees and they were like yeah our village doesn't reflect that it's been snowing but that is probably where i'm going to draw the line here as i said i do have
00:58:14
Speaker
some minor and major gripes with this game but before I dive into that the plot takes place I want to say a couple of years after the events of Resident Evil 7 and of course Ethan and Mia have a bit of a strenuous marriage but they have a daughter now called Rose which is honestly such a nice family dynamic all the way up until Mia gets Robocopped let's just say and of course none other than the one and only chris redfield pops through the door as i said in seven he appears at the end he looks very weird but that's another thing but in eight i'm gonna be honest here and gonna put my cards on the table before we go any further i hate his haircut in this game i don't know this is the most minor nitpick ever i do not know i was gonna say now we're getting to the controversial takes here now i can't
00:59:04
Speaker
I do not know what went wrong when he went to the barber and he said, just cut it all off. I don't care if you go on Jack Baker on it, just chop it off with the chainsaw, come on. It's like he got the tiniest bowl in the world. Put it on his head and said, yeah, that'll do for the fringe. Like, there's something that just innately irks me about it, but...
00:59:23
Speaker
Anyway, maybe if he had the same here from the other games, I wouldn't have minded as much. But anyway, anyway that very minor nitpick. It says a lot that I'm nitpicking that and not the fact he's just burst through the door and shot me a winter's death. But that's how the game starts. It's very, again, I use this word visceral, but... It's shocking. It is shocking. I really love the opening because you've also got the fairy tale, the storybook. Oh, I was blown away by how good that looks. I know that's probably going to be the catchphrase of the episode, that was very Tim Burton-esque, wasn't it? Absolutely spot on, spot on. So Mia is reading a story, which at the time you don't know, but cleverly foretells what's going to happen, or like the villains in the game, I think, doesn't it?
01:00:06
Speaker
And yeah, you've then got that lovely family scene. And look, right, it's got Resident Evil on the cover, right? So this lovely family thing, you know... It's either a facade or it's not going to last long. But having said that, I wasn't expecting Chris to burst in and kill the character that you went through literally hell to save in the previous game. It was a really, really effective opening. I have to say you do want to know more. But yeah, unfortunately, the reveal's not as strong as they maybe would have hoped. because once you get kidnapped by chris and your baby's taken away your convoy gets attacked and you wake up upside down and you're like oh this isn't normal and then you crawl out and you have to go through this dark forest that really builds it up doesn't it you're trudging through the snow and there's all these atmospheric noises it's just absolutely masterfully done and then you get to the village and It's all but abandoned. And I think that was one of the criticisms that people had that a lot of people thought, oh, this is a bit rubbish, because when the trailers came out, this was a village that was full of people, you know, they thought, oh, maybe they'll get to interact with them or see the slow descent into madness. this but no they're all huddled already it's like the aftermath has already happened by the time you get here and one of the things that annoyed me a wee bit as well and again this is a slight nitpick but see the voices of these villagers are you telling me they're all american and absolutely spot on yes Oh, that arks me. Usually I can wave it away and be like, oh yeah, it's just people from all over coming here and it's just a coincidence they're all Americans. But for this in particular, it's not a well populated area. It's a rural village in the middle of Eastern Europe. I have never heard of like a commune of America. Maybe there is. Maybe there's a commune in Romania.
01:01:56
Speaker
I don't know. The thing is, they do such an effect effective job at portraying this East European village that it's jarring. And that's all. You know, if it didn't feel as well drawn, as well crafted, you'd almost be okay with it. All the names are European and even the characters. name It just felt wrong. You do get to explore the village later on in a wee bit the beginning and then see, to be honest, you know what killed my hype for this game?
01:02:23
Speaker
And I have to say, going into this, I knew some minor spoilers, some major spoilers, but do you want to know the one thing that killed it for me? Come on. Werewolves. I think you've got my notes in front of you. Yes, yeah.
01:02:36
Speaker
It's interesting, right? Again, whether I'm a hypocrite or not, don't know if I'm a hypocrite or not. People listening will have to decide. But, you know, I guess I've said that Seven was good, that it wasn't almost like your traditional enemies as such. I guess the Baker family in Seven and then the Moulded still felt creepy. It felt tense.
01:02:53
Speaker
Werewolves, yeah, it's just, it felt B-movie. Yeah, they've been done and it's literally an American Werewolf in London almost. I've strolled into this village and there's werewolves everywhere. Is that what they all are? It just felt disappointing, I think. And I don't know why, because they're great horror movie fair, as in fodder, but I don't know, in a Resident Evil game, it just felt wrong. i think my major gripe about this game is the fact that they don't know what lane they want to be in. Do they want to be a fantasy game? Do they want to be a supernatural game? Do they want to be a horror game? Do they want to be an action horror game? It is all over the place. Some bits that are done excellently and you think, well, why didn't they go with that? Obviously, you can tell this is the love child of four and seven as a half joke earlier. Absolutely. Because you've got the crafting, you've got the organisation, you've got the invisible briefcase, let's just say, and you've got this camp. campiness but you've got the campiness against the character as you said before Ethan Winters who in the seventh game he's quite a serious character because all of the films that the seventh game is based on they are all very well relatively serious horror films you wouldn't put on Saw for a laugh or if you did then I would question you and then walk away no so I would run away but That's another thing. For these ones, you're right. It is that Kingdom B movie feeling. And later on in the game, they try to justify, and I think I texted you at the time when i was playing this, they bend over backwards trying to justify, oh, but they're bioweapons. And it's like, where do you draw the line? Because they try to say Lady Dimitrescu a bioweapon that, oh, she needs blood, like a
Castle Dimitrescu and Healing Mechanics in Village
01:04:35
Speaker
vampire. Wink, wink. And then she turns into a dragon, and you're like, what a hell. Yeah, mean, that was bizarre, wasn't it? Yeah, I was a bit disappointed, I'm not gonna lie.
01:04:43
Speaker
i was like, no, bring her back! Damn these modern beauty conventions! You are fine the way you... But it's just that classic, now I reveal my final form, you know, that kind of thing. Yeah, and it's like, oh, you're a dragon. And then you get to Moreau and it's like, oh, you're a fish person. and And then you get to House Beneviento, which we will get onto. And oh, she controls dolls. And you get frickin' Magneto at the end. And you're like, oh, that's just Magneto with the name Heisenberg. What's going on here? But if we're talking about Lady Dimitrescu, that bit though, ah sorry, about the enemies in general as well. What i did like also about Lady Dimitrescu is the daughters. They felt well done. Did you notice the naming convention for them? I'm going to say I can't remember, so no. So Lady Dimitrescu's first name is Elcina. Her other daughters are called Bella, Cassandra and Daniela. So ABCD. Okay. That doesn't play into the story or anything. I just wanted to point that out.
01:05:41
Speaker
It's a fun little fact though, yeah. And again, they are absolutely fantastic as well as characters. Although for some reason, one of them keeps reminding to me of Amanda Siegfried, and I don't know why. But every, you know the one I mean, every time I see her face, I'm like, huh. Or that scene out of Les Mis. I've seen your face before. Like, I know you. Honestly, see that whole sequence. And I'm going to just admit it now, that whole sequence at the beginning when, or not beginning, but kind of at the start of the game where you eventually go into Lady Dimitrescu's house and you have to fight off her daughters and everything. And I thought that was genuinely tense because i jumped out my skin. See, when you're running and then all of a sudden they appear as bugs and they're like, boo, ha ha. And you have to expose them to the elements before shattering them.
01:06:29
Speaker
I thought that was really cool. yeah Although i have to say, maybe this is just me as a player, but I didn't find Lady Dimitrescu as imposing as Mr X. No, no. I think the only reason for that is maybe because of the promotion, because I've seen her so many times, whereas as Mr. X, I've just heard the screams of people who have seen them. But the other thing as well was, I remember there's a particular scene, you might remember it, where you have to get an item, and then she climbs up the stairs, and there's literally nowhere for you to go. You can't squeeze past. So I did the whole stand and deliver thing and ran at her with the shotgun, and you know, I shot her, and she just dusted it off very sassily, and she's like, well, that's rude something. like that and i was like oh okay but i managed to get by her the only time i thought she was scary was seeing when you were down in the dungeon area oh yes yeah yeah that but was terrified that because she's just chasing you in this very claustrophobic area you're weaving it's well done isn't it because i think you're pulling a lever at the time yeah and i think it's focusing on your hand and then you see something and then the arm just falls away doesn't it you know from the hand Yeah, because not only do you have to get your hand back, but you also have to pull the lever. And you've got this eight foot woman running at you and you're like, oh, this is not going to end well.
01:07:43
Speaker
but But the thing we did is say about Seven, you've got to love the health tonic in these games that can just stick the hand back on. It's literally just, yeah, you put the hand there, you pour over some water, and oh, it's magic juice. I've seen people make fun of it on social media, but it is hilarious the way they do it. They're just like, oh, here's a bottle of water, and they just pour it over. You're completely right, yeah. Again, this is probably the strongest, or rather one of the strongest parts of the game, because you've got that somewhat familiarity with the Spencer Mansion, another mansion similar in the series that you have to solve puzzles to get through, you're constantly being stalked by Lady Dimitrescu, you have to run through and defeat our daughters one by one and get upgrades to certain things.
01:08:29
Speaker
It's so well done, it was so sad when she turned into a dragon And I was like, sorry, it's not going to work out. You had to nice and manner when you were outside because it was just a bizarre turn of events because you fight gargoyles for God's sake at one point. Yes, yes. And was like, what the hell is going on here? You've got gargoyles, you've got X-Men, you've got vampires. And again, know they wanted to go for the fantasy element, but feel as if they kind I went a little bit too overboard with that. Yeah, it's jarring. It's almost like didn't know what kind of game we wanted to be. Because like I said, the Daughters, the element with the Daughters, I thought was really well done. There's a bit, I know you'll come on to later, brilliantly done. The rest of it just felt like it was any other action kind of game. Especially by the end of it. Before go on to the next quote-unquote lord of unnamed village, Resident Evil Village it's called, obviously, you meet your wandering merchant character who is a very portly gentleman. Scariest singer to game.
01:09:34
Speaker
This is you without your vegetables. This is what happens if he doesn't eat that stew from the beginning. He's that in! Yeah, you meet the Duke, who is very similar to the merchant in the fourth game, and you might think, oh, right, that's just a weird coincidence, but they do have an Easter egg where the Duke turns around and says exactly what the merchant from the fourth one says, be, what are lying line and then he goes oh it's just something one of my friends used to say haha so again he knows the merchant from four how the hell he got to spain in that car i don't know but you meet him and he is your only ally to be honest mean chris is there but he tells you to bugger off at every single turn and that is another annoying part of the story but you find a square glass vial to don't you? And then you tell the Duke you're looking for your daughter and he's like, why you have someone? I know why he's a Southern prospector all of a sudden. He's like, why you have her in your hands? And you wipe away the dust and everything. but don't get why it's dusty though, because, well, I'll get on to that in a minute, but yeah, you find out that it's the head of your daughter and they have basically chopped up your child and put her into different vials. Which is horrific, right? In any world it is, but I wasn't expecting that. He Yeah, same. That really threw me because I didn't want that twist either. I was like, holy hell, that is terrifying. And it made you angry as well.
01:10:58
Speaker
I know it sounds weird to say, but this game feels very much more like a dad's core game. You know, like your God of War, your What It Was, that kind of thing where you're protecting your child, as it were, or trying to look for them.
01:11:11
Speaker
But yeah, I got really angry. I was like, oh, hell no, I'm getting my child back. And then, of course, you have to explore the village if you want more weapons, and you get those bloody lichens that come out, and it's like, I don't want to fight you! You're so annoying! But then, of course, you get to the scariest part of the game, which, again, is done so well that it baffles
House Beneviento Scene and Emotional Impacts
01:11:32
Speaker
me. And that, of course, is House Beneviento, which the horror survival part of this game, isn't it? Yeah, and shout out here to Joey of the Game Club pod, because when I was telling him at the time I was playing this, he didn't want to give any spoilers. He said, have you got to the good bit yet? I said, what do you mean? He goes, no, you'd know if you got to the good bit. And then he kept asking, he didn't spoil it. Then when I got to this bit, I messaged him and said, yeah, I've got to the good bit now. It was really well done. I mean, babies have never been as scary. It's just a really well done piece.
01:12:03
Speaker
It's probably my favourite bit of the whole game because it's kind of got the vibes almost of Seven a little bit and what I think for me true horror games are made of. It definitely blends that sense of psychological horror with what has come before because you know as we were saying you've got oh scary werewolves, oh scary vampires. This is true horror. This is something I messaged you about where I had to drop off my partner somewhere and I was waiting in the car for a couple of hours. So i was like, right, okay, I'm going to play some more of Resident Evil Village. So I took my Steam Deck out, got to that part. I turned my Steam Deck off.
01:12:41
Speaker
It was dark outside and I was genuinely terrified. I had to actually play this with a walkthrough in the background of a very nice I want to say Canadian chap just talking through saying okay you go to this but you go to that but yep that's fine the baby's there that's fine you go there you go here and that really helped me through it because if I did this on my own I wouldn't have been able to cope but the thing about it as well is it's just such a thematic point as well and this is going into some slightly sensitive territory here they delve into again as we say the relationship between mia and ethan and i think that this game does wonders for expanding ethan's character as a whole because in the first one for seven he was very much a blank slate he was the stereotypical horror protagonist he was like oh what's this oh that's crazy but as in this he's a lot more emotive he's angry he's you know you can see this range of emotions and again shout out to todd solely who does a fantastic job in this i know maybe he's not showcased as much in the seventh game but this one he shines but in this one you basically get your weapons taken off of you and you have to go into this room where mia is represented as a doll and they play through different memories that they had together and they're basically portraying me as a figure of objectification you know that it's really interesting interesting the way they do it because it's obviously unsettling seeing your well not your wife but a doll version of your wife you know just lying there lifeless you have to twist off each part of her body to see what is in there for the clues for the puzzles and whatnot and then you find out that they severely considered terminating their pregnancy with a Rose because of the infection with the mould and whatnot. It's a very deep topic for a game where, at the very beginning, obviously we saw our wife die and that's very tragic, but then you got attacked by werewolves, vampires and bears. Oh my!
01:14:43
Speaker
You know, it just seems like a bit of a disconnect. But as you said, you go through this tunnel to a cellar that looks very birth canal-like, let's just say, and then you see pretty much, I know you said it's a baby, but I think it's more of just like this malformed fetus that will eat you if you're not going. Yes, yeah. And it horrified me because they play the baby laughter and they distort it. Yes, I see it. It's calling out for its mum and its dad. Oh, the... And this is it. And I think this is what it does so well because it preys on the, like you said, the whole emotional element of it. So I think things affect us more when it's almost relatable. I'm not saying like grotesque body horror slash fantasy things relatable, but quickly jumping back to seven, we said about the beginning bit with the camera crew going in i think the reason why that feels probably a lot scarier than a lot of the rest of the game is we've all been in those moments where you're in the house in the dark or you're hearing noise and you're going into a room without the light on or you know in a power car and you can relate to that and because this was like you said you've gone from leaping action style werewolves to something that plays on the primal fear of like a baby either crying or laughing but then there is hunting you right Yeah, because there's a point where you have to run to the fuse box and you feel as if you're getting chased and I didn't even want to look around because I was just slapping the fuse into the wall. It's like, go, go, go, hurry. And once you escape that, that is genuinely the worst part of the game. And I mean worst as in the most horrific part.
01:16:13
Speaker
um I don't mean that as in it's a bad part it is so effective and that's what irritates me about this because it's done so well that you think why couldn't the rest of the game be like this I mean obviously don't get me wrong I'm not calling for it to be as terrifying but you look at it and you think, why couldn't they have made it more survival horror? Once you get up to the top and escape, you find the doll called Angie, who your dog's been tormenting you all this time, and you have to run around find her in a very vicious game of hide-and-seek, stab her, and it turns out you've stabbed Lady Bediviento and you find out, and it's quite sad actually because from what I read in the documents that you find lying around she finds a lot of comfort in her dolls and things, she's not very talkative and then they plant these flowers that are quite hallucinogenic which is a very much an understatement but that's the reason why you hallucinate everything and then someone actually brought that up in the review they said, you wonder if there was even a basement to begin with
01:17:13
Speaker
because you can't go back to the basement and then you're like, what's the one? Or what's going on? And it is, it's so terrifying and it's so well done. And then you get to Moreau, which is a bit of a middling one, I have to say, where, as I said, he's just a fish guy with self-confidence issues. There's not really much more I can say other than, oh you run around the water, you explode things.
01:17:37
Speaker
That's really it, isn't it? Yeah, I was going to say, my notes here, basically from House Beneviento, that was, I think, where I then felt the game just went downhill. look I'm not saying it's a terrible game, but I think my highlights were all really from that first half. I actually didn't like the reservoir bit. Yeah, because I felt the puzzles were a bit... What's the right word here? I felt as if the puzzles outstayed their welcome.
01:17:59
Speaker
Absolutely, yeah. You just kind of sat there and thought, all right, okay, here's another puzzle. You have to jump across before he jumps. All right. Oh, look, he's out he' tank can he stumble towards his towards you saying he's ugly. Oh, great. Okay, bam, bam. There you go. He's dead. Right, where's Rose? Fish monster. We've got a fish monster now, basically. Yeah.
01:18:18
Speaker
Anyone who's been to a fish and chip shop after three in the morning, and you'll know this experience. Mind us the guns, obviously. But again, i wouldn't say it's bad, but after Castle Dimitrescu and House Beneviento, it just kind of flopped like a wet fish. It's not memorable. It could be in any game.
01:18:36
Speaker
and It's not necessarily, you wouldn't say that that section was a Resident Evil section. Or for me, anyway. But then the worst part, and again, I don't mean this as a compliment, but the worst part is once you defeat him, and i think you've got three out of four, and the reason you're getting these is i think you need them to get a key to get to Mother Miranda, who, we'll get on to her, but Mother Miranda is the one who is pulling the strings and ruling over the quote-unquote four lords who are trying to kill you. So, of course, you dispatch a lady to Matresk, which must have been a loud bang, I'm going be honest. It's a big castle on the hill. You take out House Beneviento, you take out Barrow, and then you get to Heisenberg, and Heisenberg just annoys me, I'm going to be honest. He keeps going on about how he's going to defeat Mother Miranda and he needs your help. And I don't know because he's got a factory full of robots. Yeah. Why is he waiting on Ethan specifically for his help?
01:19:31
Speaker
It makes absolutely no sense. And again, i hate his power because, yeah, sure, you could believe that, oh, she's a bioweapon that needs lots of blood. Oh, he's as stupid as it is with the fish. At least we've seen them transform into big fantastical creatures. I can even believe the hallucinogenic flowers. I can.
01:19:49
Speaker
believe in someone with magnet powers that's where my line of disbelief was drawn i was like no no okay that's a step too far and again the game slogs so much it's a bit like you know in seven with the ship yeah i had to know i related it to that yeah it's like that tenfold it's just you fight against these zombie basically you know what they remind me of they remind me of borg cosplayers you know like the borg from star trek yeah yeah yeah They just remind me of that. They just wander about.
01:20:19
Speaker
And i think someone actually did bring that comparison up that they do look similar to some of the tyrants from the earlier games, which I thought, oh, that's cool. It's a shame that I have to gun down the about 100 of them before I realise that, but that's cool. It was just a slog. Yeah, and it then kind of just degenerated into an action game then, wasn't it? Now look, you're going to have these moments, but I think it probably felt more of a slog because the rest of the game, like I just said for me, the preceding section was a slog.
01:20:50
Speaker
And you had a couple of standout bits in amongst it. An okay game, like i said, I'm not, you know, somehow up at the end, but I'm not saying this is a bad game. It just only had a couple of real highs. And so to have two sections in a row where it just didn't feel compelling. Yeah, it was just disappointing. And I mean, you go feel Pacific Rim by the end of it. Yes, yeah. It's very baffling coming. the lie where chris eventually reveals that the reason he shot your wife was because and i quote that's not your wife ethan what the frick and again this isn't a hot take this is something that everybody pulls up they say why didn't you say this at the very beginning and it's like in fairness he tries to wave it away and he says oh because you would have wanted to come with me and no this and that i wanted you to stay out and it's like why did you think he would do that after you shot his wife It seems like a bit of an odd choice, but yeah, then you learn that he's built this custom make with a chainsaw arm and a Gatling gun. And don't get me wrong, in my heart, I think, god damn, that is so cool. But in my mind, logically, i think, god damn, that's so stupid. Yeah. And
Ethan's Narrative Arc and Emotional Storytelling
01:21:55
Speaker
yeah, you have to fight Heisenberg who's turned himself into a big Gundam slash mech monster. Bizarre. Correct me if I'm wrong, but it's not a scene where it's like he lifts you in the air and you have to chainsaw his face as you're falling down. It's like something at a 40K. I wouldn't even remember. I just remember in the fact that you just said like a battle tank or whatever. It's just what's going on. They definitely should have reined that back in. I mean, I could understand the horror aspects of the factory, but where was he hiding that factory? Yes. He had the manpower already. He didn't need Ethan. Whether he was going with him or without him, even if Ethan was like, no, I'm going to stop you, his plan would have been the motion enemy anyway. What was he waiting for? don't get it. Exactly. But then, of course, you defeat him and then you come face to face with Mother Miranda, who, yeah, our design's cool. I'll give her that.
01:22:43
Speaker
But yeah yeah, what did you think before I go into the quote unquote twist? I think you summed it up perfectly. think you summed up perfectly. I think I was just trying to finish a game at that point. When I was trying to think back of what I knew before I went into this game, I thought Lady Dimitris, she is the standout. No pun intended, but she is the standout. Even Heisenberg stands out to a degree, and Angie as well, the doll that runs up and down. Well, Miro's there in the background, but that's part of his character, so I can excuse that.
01:23:11
Speaker
Yeah, when Mother Miranda comes in, she's like, am Mother Miranda, and you're like, oh, okay. It's the game nearly over. And then, of course, we get the best line read by Ethan, where he tells her to F herself, that crazy B word. He shoots her, but that doesn't work. And then she does a Calima on him and takes out his heart. Yes, yeah. And then he collapses and he dies. And have to say, i knew about that, but what I didn't expect was what was going to come next.
01:23:39
Speaker
Because that had been spoiled for me that, ooh, Ethan died, and I was like, oh great, that's the scene. So then you play as Chris Redfield, you go through your standard Call of Duty segment, and then you get to that bit. And then at the end of the Chris section, after you fight another massive werewolf...
01:23:56
Speaker
That's all I can say. just You go to a laboratory, and I don't know if you remember this, but they try to tie in, like, seven and eight with the rest of the series, and I'm gonna be honest, this is where it lost me a wee bit, where are basically they revealed that, and again, I wish they explored this more, but Mother Miranda was someone who was born in the, I want to say 19th century. And she lost her child. It was very tragic. She lost her daughter. And she went into this cave where she found something called the Megamycete, which would eventually become the mold that we all know and don't love today. And yeah, the reason she wanted Rose was because she wanted to basically revive her dead daughter. And it's such a tragic story, and I wish they focused a bit more on that angle. And I know there'll be some Resident Evil fans out there are saying, well, the whole point of her kidnapping Rose is she wants her daughter back. But yeah, again, just that, yeah. It's especially, see, when they link her with Oswald Spencer, who you might know as the founder of Umbrella, and you're just like, we didn't need that. We didn't need this Marvel cinematic universe linking anything
01:25:06
Speaker
I don't get as well is if this is someone from the 19th century and Oswald Spencer's whole thing was that he wanted immortality and I think the excuse they give is he found the progenitor virus in Africa so he's gonna go explore that and the megamycete symbol that they found in the cave oh that inspires the umbrella logo and you're like can you not contrive this?
01:25:29
Speaker
I'm like The last game was so good, guys, come on. And then, of course, the other big reveal is you find out that not only is Mia alive, for some reason locked up.
01:25:40
Speaker
I don't know why Miranda didn't just kill her off. Not that mad about that, I'm just very confused. But yeah, then you find out that Ethan, and I want to know how you feel about this personally, but you find out that Ethan actually was killed in the seventh game. See the scene where he goes, welcome to the family, son, and he punches him in the face. And... Yeah, it turns out that killed him, but then because he was infected by the mould that he has these regenerative abilities, yet somehow he doesn't have regenerative abilities to restore his fingers, but that's another thing. it's a good that But yeah, how did you feel about that reveal? I kind of liked that in a way. For me, it was the first almost emotional punch in the game for a while or anything that made me really take notice of it. I think, as you said, the whole thing, the whole reveal of it trying to link in, I didn't mind it trying to do that, but it just felt underwhelming and it came at an underwhelming point of a game. But I like that reveal because it's almost like, you know, in a film where right the end something gets revealed and then you have the flashbacks to all the moments. You kind of have that feeling, don't you? And you say, right, okay, so now I get why you can have his hand chopped off and...
01:26:50
Speaker
You know, he's able to heal quite easily or get stabbed or get this or that. But it also makes it quite, you know, puts that poignant bit to it that he didn't make it out there. And basically his whole family have been damned for, well, if you even take the three years she went missing in seven, about six or seven years now, they've just been damned for seven years. Yeah, he's an unlucky chap.
01:27:10
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah, I feel sorry for him. That of course culminates at the very end when you fight Mother Miranda, who feels more like a Final Fantasy villain. She's flying all over the place. You're like, oh great, this is the Megamycete. And once you shoot her dead, then you manage to get Rose.
01:27:27
Speaker
But because you've essentially cut out the heart of the Megamycete shooting Mother Miranda, that you yourself start to break down. And speaking of breaking down, and I don't know how you felt about the ending, but the reason I'm so confused conflicted about this game is because the scenes with Ethan and Rose really got to me and I genuinely teared up at the ending of this because I don't know why it was just so emotionally gut-wrenching. The fact that he has gone through hell and this is why and this is the controversial point I was saying to you before we started recording I said I've got a controversial point and it's not about Chris Redfield's hair. I'm But I absolutely love Ethan Winters as a character.
01:28:10
Speaker
And I know in Seven he's a bit of a tabula rasa, he's a bit of a blank slate because he's supposed to be almost an avatar. But in this one, this is where we get to see what kind of person Ethan is. And I mean, Ethan is the person, for better or worse. His wife goes missing ten Three years. And then as soon as he gets a letter from her saying, oh, hey, babe, I'm in Louisiana, he books it. He just goes straight there to get his wife. And even, although it is the canonical ending, but he goes through hell just to make sure she is all right. Even in House Benefiential, when they've got the arguments and everything about keeping the baby, he is adamant. He is just such a good father figure in this game and a good husband. Honestly, if I could be half as good as that.
01:28:53
Speaker
Because he is just such a dedicated figure to his family. And I love that. I love that about his character, which makes it all the more heartbreaking when, you know, he takes off his jacket and everything and he wraps Rose in it and he gives her to Chris. And then he does a sleight hand thing where he's like, look, I've taken the detonator. And it's just that heartbreak and line delivery. where you know he says goodbye rosemary and take care of her and blah blah blah honestly i was a sobbing wreck on the floor when you see him slowly walk towards the mega my seat that's just evolving and you know that the bsa have planted bombs underneath so they're ready just to blow the whole place sky high but his final act as a father and a husband he just wants to make sure that his wife and daughter get out safe he doesn't care about himself all he cares about is the safety of his loved ones and i think that is such a great character and i think he definitely belongs in the pantheon of resident evil main characters but yeah sorry that was a long-winded way to no no no again the thing is i can't disagree with what you said it ends really well and even the scene right at the end of the game you know the cut scene with rose being a teenager i think she is at that point isn't she that whole section there makes up almost for the preceding six or seven hours or whatever you know yeah kind of had more emotional content had more intriguing and grab your attention ability that's not a word but i've just said it and yeah because like i said like we said with the house benevento bit it plays on that human emotion that human psyche about sort of love relationship and loss right and they really tap into that because i mean that is the whole thing theme of this game where as you said at the very beginning you have the storybook and it is so heartbreaking when you realize that and i know that sounds stupid to be like oh satsu how did you not know that's what it was about but it's just so heartbreaking to see unfold and see a father battle for his children these kind of games genuinely get me i've said this a million times on twitter with things like gears of war with dom and oh i know that's a bit i think that haunts you
01:31:00
Speaker
he haunts you Two bits in Gears of War that always haunt me are when he finds his wife and he just breaks down that, that never fails to make me cry. And the other one when he sacrifices himself for them. And you know, he's yelling in the air, never thought it would end like this, Maria. Bloody hell. It brings a tear to your eye. But especially for this, even when I watch the ending, it's just so emotional. And even you get the rest of the story from the storybook where you see at the very end of the credits, I think it is, where you see the father go into the forest because you see the doctor go in and she gets attacked by all these fantastical creatures. And it's a dad that goes in and protects her. And it always gets me when there's something like that, when there's a noble sacrifice or... fighting for your loved ones is such a human thing and it's a departure as well from the previous games that are again there were more oh look these have gone from real relatable characters to action heroes and i didn't like the evolution of certain people for example with leon kennedy he's got a lot of great characterization but always remembered for this the time me round is a roundhouse kicked someone in spain you're like well okay And I think it's great though, speaking of legacy characters, how that links in with Chris Redfield too. My heart went out to him as well because this is someone who, ever since the first game, he has been fighting the clutch of Umbrella, Tri-Cell, Oblivion. All of these different tendrils, as it were, of these organisations. And it feels as if every time he either loses someone or he just can't cope. If you look at the sixth game, where he loses not only his team members, which leads him into a deep depression, but he also loses his colleague...
01:32:43
Speaker
Pierce who again that hits him really hard but he's still with soldiers on no pun intended it's just such a character that has seen so much loss and I can't believe that the ending feels the most human if that makes sense compared to the rest of the game Absolutely. I think that's probably my main or another gripe with this. So is Ethan is a great character, but it felt really rushed at the end, putting in that emotional beat right at the end. You know, I just have to agree with what what you're saying. It feels like we've got very similar thoughts on this double set of games. Yeah. No, absolutely. It's a weird entry into the series, I have to say, because I wouldn't say this is a bad game overall. I wouldn't say, oh, it's the worst game ever, because gameplay-wise, it plays really well, it plays relatively similar. Albeit, I
Game Mechanics, DLC, and Music in Resident Evil Series
01:33:31
Speaker
would say, resource-wise, you get a lot more pockets. for your reasons, for your guns, for your herbs and things, but with the seventh game it's definitely more scarce than survival horror. You have to manage what you're going to carry and what you're not, which I think that's so interesting to see that they kept it quite limited for seven and that added to the horror, but then you get to eight and it's like, oh, right, okay, we've got hundreds of slots for a rocket launcher and a Gatling gun. Yay, I love action. One thing before we wrap up that i want to touch on is, of course, the Village of Shadows DLC. And also, did you know this game can be played in third person as well? Yeah. Yeah, that was released as DLC, which I find quite interesting. But I see what you mean. I don't think this game would have been effective, or rather as effective in third person on the outset. But the one thing I hate about Ethan Winters is the fact that they never show his face.
01:34:28
Speaker
I don't know why. We've seen his face in promotional material. So I don't even in the cover of this game. Google the cover. I'm sure it's Chris Redfield that's on the cover. Well, the interesting thing I learned when watched a video today is so, you know, at the end of the game where you see Rose as a grown up, she's like a teenager, isn't it she? And they're driving off.
01:34:49
Speaker
there's a character on the road in a distance and they found it out that they've used his model now not to say that he's alive or anything they probably just wanted to put a mysterious character on the road but people have gone in and seen it's ethan's character model but i did get the impression that it felt like well i thought because i've not played the dlc which you just said it felt like there was going to be another game in this series but it doesn't seem like that is now right I don't know where they're gonna go with that particular storyline in the future because they've kind of wrapped it up and they've spoiled it essentially in the DLC where he find out Chris looks after Rose as she grows up. So he's still fighting. bioweapons and B.O.W.' 's all the way through to his old age. So you're like, right, okay, he's not going to die in the next game like Requiem or anything like that. Also, fun fact, you know how Resident Evil Requiem is based on one of the spin-off characters' daughters? Yes. yeah So her name's Grace Ashcroft, but her mum is Alicia Ashcroft, who is the reporter in, want to say Resident Evil Outbreak. But if you look at some of the news articles, I know there's one in eight, but I can't remember if there's one in seven. i think it's the reporter who reports on the events from seven, but that's Alicia Ashcroft.
01:36:05
Speaker
Yeah, I remember digging into that at the time because I remember getting it wrong after seeing the reveal because I love seeing how games inadvertently link to other ones. I think we said 8 did it clumsily. I'm hoping, yeah, 9, they can do something a little bit more structured. Well, I mean, it's that old. Good, bad, good, bad.
01:36:24
Speaker
yeah oh yeah we're on the good game here so come on resident evil 9 don't disappoint us i think for me to sum up said i love seven for the horror vibe having said i love seven i don't like always feeling too tense during a game with too stressed and i felt a lot less stressed playing eight and i kind of you said it i think the gunplay that it felt like it played well it's just seven felt far more engaging than eight did bar two points and the ending whereas it almost feels like the opposite for this, doesn't it? Where it's like the ending is the most compelling part of this game. And that leads me before, of course, we wrap up, and I did say that before, apologies, but before we wrap up, there is the Village of Shadows DLC, which is absolutely horrifying, i have to say, because that is all in third person, and you play as Rose who gets duped into entering this almost mind palace of the Megamycete because growing up she gets these mold powers so she's under close observation. Mia is nowhere to be seen for some reason. They keep them separated. I don't know why but hey ho we might find that out later. But yeah you play as her and you go into twisted versions of the main game. So you go into Lady Dimitrescu
01:37:40
Speaker
castle but instead of lady dimitresc it is all of these zombie type creatures that just want to eat you and there's some horrific deaths in this i have to say which of was a bit uncomfortable i was like oh this isn't great but it's the duke who he was your only friend and apparently there was some cut content there where he was supposed to be the fifth twist lord or something but they cut that out the game so in this one he gets to be full on evil he's trying to harness your power along the way you get helped by this mysterious magical text which spoilers it turns out to be your father in the end which i don't think anyone was surprised at that but you go through other places like house benevolent which is twofold because in the first part there's a scene where you see you know the doll from mia and where you had to inspect it only that moves when you're not looking at it and it moves in the most creepy way possible i kept getting caught by it observ it was absolutely terrifying it was probably just as terrifying as the baby i'm gonna be honest it was just as terrifying but then you go through almost alice in wonderland situation where you get shrunk down but you have to avoid all with these dolls and everything coming at you there's even a mini boss fight where you have to fight evelyn of all people and she's like they don't live
01:38:57
Speaker
love you and you fight against her but then there's a beautiful scene and i think this part really hit a lot of people in the fields as it were where you get to revisit the house from the beginning of the game and it's all set up for the baby and i mean maybe it's a bit cheesy in some bits but I still thought it was done really effectively where you get to see Rose basically see what her dad's hopes and dreams were for her you know like saying oh Rose likes this kind of music I wonder if she's going to be a musician I wonder if she's going to be an artist she's going to be this or that oh i love her so much and oh I'm so proud of you Rose and things and I think For a lot of people especially who have gone through that loss of a parental figure or a parent, i've heard a lots of people really get emotional over it and I can see why it is just, oh god, it hits you in the feels because you see her not break down but she just sobs and you're sobbing with her. This is a girl who, she was born out of mould, let's face it, and there's a particular scene in the House Beneviento sequence where have to find dolls that recreate moments of her life when she was younger and she was getting bullied and sprayed at with bleach and things because she had all this mould coming out her hands and she's very nonchalant about it saying, yeah, yeah, I get it, I get it. And, you it's a horrific upbringing that she's not had a father figure in her life and her mum's been kept away. Well, the BSA, keep a close eye on her. it just It's just so, so damn sad.
01:40:23
Speaker
But then eventually at the very end she gets to the heart of it and it turns out, spoilers, that Mother Miranda orchestrated the whole thing and she wants to take over her body but she doesn't have her powers and then lo and behold Ethan, manifests himself and again it sounds like bad fan fiction and things where it's like oh and Ethan came with a shotgun and he does by the way but there's a heartbreaking moment where he tries to stop Mother Miranda and he keeps yelling at Rose saying get out of here live a normal life and everything don't worry about me and the screams of pain they're just oh they're But then she decides, nope, I'm gonna stay my ground. She smashes the gem that would have got rid of her powers and she fights Mother Miranda in a very anime-esque scene, not gonna lie. But eventually she finally gets to say goodbye to her father. And is, it's just, it's such a heartbreaking moment. But at the same time, it's like a bittersweet ending, which then of course links on to the graveyard scene. at the very end i don't know i think that that is the annoying thing about the main game as a whole that it had a chance to be very emotionally hard-hitting which it does when it does oh god it does the job well when it does the horror in villager shadows or even then house benedict or even lady that matrice's castle excellent but in the bits that flop and sag they really really sag i think that there has to be a better way there has to be a better way that they do that the other thing as well this is going to sound really weird but do you think the music in seven was more iconic than eight and by that i mean the aunt roadie song they play yeah i think you're right yeah hadn't thought of it but yeah the only reason i bring that up and trust me it's the last point but It's just that bit at the beginning where they take a Southern American folk song about a group trying to say, go tell Aunt Rode that her, I think it's a Grey Goose, has died and it's all about the family coming together and having to deal with this sudden loss and death and so on. Whereas they remix it in this one and it's a very uncanny feeling because it's supposed to be a folk song but it's been twisted and corrupted like the mold usually does and it's like, oh, go tell out Rhodey that everybody's dead, not just the goose, but the men and women and children. Yeah, it's quite hard-hitting, but yeah, I can only echo what you said there, that I feel as if out of the two of them, Seven is the stronger one, in terms of survival horror, in terms of atmosphere, it's just a shame about the ending, whereas Eight, I love the characters, I love the payoff, but I just wish it didn't say. overall i think these two games although they're completely different from one another i do think that they are worth playing together i don't think you can get the full ethan winters experience as stupid as that sounds without playing them ethan winters doesn't have the complete ethan winters experience with all the bits chopped off yeah he doesn't even get his full trilogy does he but yeah on that note dan thank you so much for putting up with the horror of these games because they are terrifying and i am so glad that you got to do them with me well thank you thank you for putting me through more horror yeah and that's playing the games not this of course it's just oh of course of course yeah
01:43:37
Speaker
No, always a pleasure. Always a pleasure. And of course, before we wrap up, and my producer is tapping me in the shoulder right now saying, please finish up. We need a walk. Where can these amazing Pandalorians find your content? Well, firstly, thanks again. i always love coming on here and yeah, love our conversations. You always choose really good games and have fantastic conversations with you. So thank you for that. you can find me a couple of places so podcast called casting views it's on a bit of a break at the moment for a number of reasons but one of the main ones was i started another well say started it's been going since may now i think gaming views with my wonderful friend and co-host dan h well we just talk about we've been gaming for so long between the two of us that we kind of just talk of random subjects so i think we've done at time recording we did an episode on video game cliches we've discussed physical v digital super nintendo e etc it's random stuff but all in the video game world so yeah you can find that on all your podcast platforms and youtube and social media at gaming views And if you would like to check out more episodes from Resident Evil Month, as well as some amazing collaborations between ourselves, then you can check us out on our website, chatsanami.com, as well as all good podcast apps. I also want to thank our amazing Pandalorian patrons for supporting the show, Robotic Battletoaster, Go Stay Encryptic, 1991 thank you so so much and if you would like access to exclusive episodes bonus content even early access as well as dan's full playthrough over resident evil 7 and the baby house for legal reasons that last one's a joke you can check us out at patreon.com forward slash chat tsunami. This podcast is of course a proud member of the Podpack Collective. For more information, check us out at our Twitter slash X page, Podpack Collect.
01:45:30
Speaker
But as always, thank you all so, so much for joining us on this Resident Evil journey. As always, stay safe, stay awesome, and most importantly, stay hydrated.