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Bonus! Resident Evil: Village Review
64 Plays4 years ago
In this bonus episode, Phil and Kevin talk about Resident Evil Village! Sure everyone played it months ago but that's also when this episode was recorded, cut me some slack I'm just a text box! Anyway, take a listen to the episode and revel in their takes on the latest (and greatest?) game in the Resident Evil franchise.
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PixelLit is the video game-literary nerd’s dream come true. It’s a podcast where we read and discuss video game novelizations, and the games they’re based on. This is a podcast for the former kid who read their instruction booklets cover to cover. For the gamer who listens to every audio log in Bioshock.
The PixelLit Podcast! Because the only thing better than playing a video game is reading about it.
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Transcript
Beast-like character and meth addiction
00:00:01
Speaker
if beast in beauty and the beast had not succeeded in getting his dream girl and just became a meth addict as a way of coping that's pretty much that's pretty much it he hit the he hit the drugs and the sauce pretty hard and uh he just just just really took on a group of of like-minded beasts and uh pulled up in a cave
00:00:25
Speaker
Yeah, pretty much.
00:00:26
Speaker
And he's got a giant hammer and a bad attitude.
00:00:31
Speaker
And you've got to shoot him in the head with a magnum.
Welcome to Pixel Lit Podcast
00:00:35
Speaker
You're listening to the Pixel Lit Podcast.
00:00:38
Speaker
I am your co-host, Phil the Conquistador.
00:00:41
Speaker
This week, we're doing things a little bit differently.
Playing Resident Evil Village
00:00:44
Speaker
Since we finished up Resident Evil The Umbrella Conspiracy, we thought it might be fun to talk a little bit about our experiences with the new game Resident Evil Village.
00:00:56
Speaker
So sit down, relax, let's get on with the show.
00:01:00
Speaker
So for those who don't know and just heads up, this is going to be spoilers.
00:01:06
Speaker
There's going to we're not going to talk around spoilers in this episode.
00:01:10
Speaker
Yeah, if you haven't played the game or if you've got a problem with spoilers, now's now's your time.
00:01:15
Speaker
Now's the time to jump off the stream of the audio stream that we call podcasts.
00:01:23
Speaker
Yes.
00:01:24
Speaker
Portable on demand, as I believe pod actually stands for.
00:01:28
Speaker
Is that really
What does 'podcast' stand for?
00:01:29
Speaker
what it stands for?
00:01:31
Speaker
I don't know.
00:01:32
Speaker
I saw somebody, you know, somebody said that the other day and I'm like,
00:01:41
Speaker
It's like, that sounds about right.
00:01:43
Speaker
And it's probably- You've got me rapt attention.
00:01:45
Speaker
You're like, that's obviously what it stands for.
00:01:47
Speaker
I'm like, oh my God, really?
00:01:49
Speaker
I didn't know that.
00:01:50
Speaker
I don't know.
00:01:50
Speaker
I don't know.
00:01:51
Speaker
I'm back to be full of shit.
00:01:53
Speaker
I don't know.
00:01:53
Speaker
Somebody- I'm looking it up.
00:01:54
Speaker
Fuck it.
00:01:55
Speaker
Somebody on fucking Twitter said that.
00:01:57
Speaker
And I'm like, you know, that makes sense.
00:01:59
Speaker
And that's my like- What does the podcast mean?
00:02:04
Speaker
Portable on demand.
00:02:07
Speaker
There we go.
00:02:08
Speaker
There it is.
00:02:09
Speaker
There it is.
00:02:10
Speaker
And that's what our listeners come to us for.
00:02:13
Speaker
They come to us for the love of literature, obviously, the love of games, and the fact that every episode, they're going to learn something.
00:02:21
Speaker
Sometimes it's something that leaves them uncomfortable and sad.
00:02:25
Speaker
But today, it was what pod and podcast stands for.
00:02:28
Speaker
So there you go.
00:02:28
Speaker
There it is.
00:02:29
Speaker
You know, we could probably call it early.
00:02:32
Speaker
Yeah.
00:02:33
Speaker
It was kind of an awkward episode, but at least it was short.
00:02:36
Speaker
It was great.
00:02:37
Speaker
Yeah.
Lady Dimitrescu's game impact
00:02:41
Speaker
So Resident Evil Village comes onto the scene.
00:02:45
Speaker
I guess the trailers for it started last year.
00:02:50
Speaker
If I recall correctly, it was actually the initial trailers came out along with the PlayStation 5 trailers.
00:02:57
Speaker
It's clearly not a PlayStation 5 exclusive, but I think that's when they were rolling out.
00:03:02
Speaker
I think you're right.
00:03:04
Speaker
There was some sort of sizzle reel kind of thing that came out at that time.
00:03:09
Speaker
And of course, the thing that caught everybody's attention was the nine foot, six inch tall Lady Dimitrisk, who, um, mommy.
00:03:18
Speaker
Yeah.
00:03:19
Speaker
Became God.
00:03:23
Speaker
Became the, uh, a geek stereotype, but sweet mother of God.
00:03:28
Speaker
Uh,
00:03:30
Speaker
Kevin will tell you guys, for those of you who don't know me, I have a thing for women who are above average height, if you will.
00:03:40
Speaker
Yes, he does like a tall woman.
00:03:44
Speaker
I like a woman who is not a shrimp.
00:03:48
Speaker
Let's put it that way.
00:03:49
Speaker
And she popped up and was like, well, this is going to keep me occupied for a while.
00:03:58
Speaker
Capcom knew what it was doing.
00:03:59
Speaker
Capcom knew what it was doing.
00:04:01
Speaker
Apparently they didn't, though.
00:04:03
Speaker
It feels like the designer.
00:04:05
Speaker
People are like...
00:04:06
Speaker
asking all these questions about her and it kind of feels like he got caught off guard like i don't unless he's just playing coy i don't know he has to be playing coy because because lady lady dimitrisk uh she is nine feet six inches tall which if you reverse those numbers you know lol and with
00:04:29
Speaker
triple Q cup boobs and yeah and she's shapely and buxom and all that stuff and she became pretty much the focal point of the internet for the past year or so and continuing on post release of Resident Evil Village she's still pretty much the focal point of people's infatuation with the game and
00:04:56
Speaker
Yeah, I think what's interesting about this is, for me, I think Lady Dimitrescu brought us to the show, basically, but everything else kept us.
Horror elements as a sampler platter
00:05:10
Speaker
Yeah.
00:05:10
Speaker
Because for those of you who haven't played, she's the first boss, basically.
00:05:17
Speaker
Yeah.
00:05:17
Speaker
So the majority of the game, she is not in.
00:05:20
Speaker
And I found that to be a good thing, honestly.
00:05:24
Speaker
Right.
00:05:25
Speaker
Because the game is so varied.
00:05:27
Speaker
It goes... I think that's... I mean, you told me when you were ahead of me.
00:05:32
Speaker
You started playing this game before I did.
00:05:34
Speaker
And you told me, and I think this is still one of the best explanations of the game that I've heard so far, is basically Capcom kind of threw the zombie thing
00:05:46
Speaker
not out the door, but basically said, we want to do, what did you say?
00:05:51
Speaker
We want to do classic movie monsters.
00:05:54
Speaker
Yeah, it's like universal horror.
00:05:57
Speaker
That's what it was, universal horror.
00:05:58
Speaker
It meets Resident Evil.
00:06:03
Speaker
And I think another metaphor I used is like, it's basically like a, you know, when you get an appetizer platter and it has all the different types of appetizers on it.
00:06:15
Speaker
Right.
00:06:16
Speaker
It's a smorgasbord.
00:06:17
Speaker
That's pretty much what this game is.
00:06:18
Speaker
Yeah, it's a smorgasbord of different types of horror.
00:06:23
Speaker
And yet somehow they all kind of seamlessly flow from one into the other.
00:06:27
Speaker
Yeah.
00:06:29
Speaker
There's no... So much of it goes in one direction and then another and then another.
00:06:35
Speaker
And it's flawless in its execution.
00:06:38
Speaker
It doesn't feel herky-jerky to me.
00:06:41
Speaker
It...
00:06:42
Speaker
it was just smooth.
00:06:44
Speaker
The transitions, it was wonderful.
Ethan and Mia's Romanian life
00:06:46
Speaker
So one of the things that I noticed, so, so if, if you play the game, great.
00:06:52
Speaker
If you have no intention of playing, here's just kind of like a rundown of what happens.
00:06:56
Speaker
It picks up three years after Resident Evil seven and Ethan and Mia have, they've had a daughter and they have moved to the Romanian countryside.
00:07:09
Speaker
They never specifically say Romania, uh,
00:07:11
Speaker
But it's clearly Romania.
00:07:13
Speaker
It's clearly in the Transylvania region because of the mountains and the wooded areas and all that stuff, all that fun stuff.
00:07:23
Speaker
So they move to Romania to get away from everything.
00:07:28
Speaker
And the game starts with seemingly Chris Redfield coming in and killing Mia.
00:07:38
Speaker
And it just kind of starts this whole chain of events that leads to Ethan stumbling into basically like this lost village buried deep in the valley of some countryside that doesn't seem like it's had contact with the outside world for like 100 years.
00:07:56
Speaker
No.
00:07:57
Speaker
Yeah.
00:07:57
Speaker
Carrier pigeons are still popular in this place.
00:08:00
Speaker
Yeah.
00:08:01
Speaker
And he has to find his daughter who has seemingly been kidnapped by some sort of monsters.
00:08:11
Speaker
And yeah, one thing leads to another and he ends up, as you said, the first area of the game is Castle Dimitrisque, which is where Lady Dimitrisque is kind of like
00:08:27
Speaker
She's the boss, so you have to fight through her daughters, her three daughters, who are actually just... Each of them are a swarm of stinging insects that takes human form.
Castle Dimitrescu: Gothic setting
00:08:46
Speaker
Right.
00:08:46
Speaker
That's that's the really fascinating thing about them is that the more you read about them and the more you think about it, it's like they're not actually people.
00:08:54
Speaker
No, they're just they're they're they're literal.
00:08:58
Speaker
They are a hive mind of insects that takes the form of a woman in order to trap people.
00:09:07
Speaker
Right, right.
00:09:09
Speaker
And it's, yeah, it's, I refer to them as the Fly Girls.
00:09:15
Speaker
Yeah.
00:09:16
Speaker
I like, I think that was, yeah, that was for the people who lived through the 80s in a sentient sort of way.
00:09:25
Speaker
But they, yeah, right off the bat, you start out in, yeah, a classic gothic vampire tale, basically.
00:09:38
Speaker
And by the way, while you're on your way to this place, you're in a village filled with great werewolves.
00:09:47
Speaker
Just these werewolves that are just, they're fucking shit up.
00:09:53
Speaker
Here's the thing.
00:09:53
Speaker
I am kind of over the werewolf thing.
00:09:55
Speaker
I'm a huge vampire nerd.
00:09:57
Speaker
I love vampires.
00:09:59
Speaker
I like werewolves too.
00:09:59
Speaker
I like monsters.
00:10:01
Speaker
But werewolves, it's been a while since I've seen a werewolf design that actually scared me.
00:10:08
Speaker
And they did it, man.
00:10:11
Speaker
These werewolves, they're kind of zombie-ish in a way to kind of get you, I guess, acclimated.
00:10:18
Speaker
Okay, we're in a Resident Evil game, you know?
00:10:20
Speaker
Right, right.
00:10:22
Speaker
But they're distinctly wolves, and they've got these alpha wolves who
00:10:27
Speaker
with insane eyes that scare the snot out of me.
00:10:31
Speaker
They were, oh, yeah.
00:10:33
Speaker
They're so much faster than any zombie.
00:10:37
Speaker
They duck, they dodge.
00:10:41
Speaker
They shoot flaming arrows.
00:10:42
Speaker
They shoot flaming arrows.
00:10:43
Speaker
They use weapons.
00:10:45
Speaker
They use weapons.
00:10:47
Speaker
So, yeah, they have a lot going
Classic Resident Evil: Puzzles and monsters
00:10:50
Speaker
on.
00:10:50
Speaker
So that's the first enemy you run into as you're trying to make your way through this village.
00:10:56
Speaker
You end up being, I guess, you're more or less captured by probably one of the greatest characters ever in a Resident Evil game.
00:11:11
Speaker
You don't know his name yet.
00:11:13
Speaker
You're basically captured by the Resident Evil version of Magneto.
00:11:16
Speaker
Yeah.
00:11:19
Speaker
and uh through some trial and tribulations and then you end up in castle uh dimitrisk uh where you fight through her daughters um the castle is pretty much your classic resident evil yeah it's a great introduction to the game because yeah it's the big old mansion basically
00:11:40
Speaker
with a bunch of puzzles and the occasional, Oh God, here comes the gigantic monster that's going to tear me to shred.
00:11:49
Speaker
So I got to run, run, run, run.
00:11:50
Speaker
You know, it's, it'll be very familiar to people who have played resident evil.
00:11:55
Speaker
Exactly.
00:11:56
Speaker
Yeah.
00:11:56
Speaker
Yeah.
00:11:57
Speaker
It's a nice, it's a nice starter.
00:12:01
Speaker
It's a nice appetizer for what's to come.
00:12:03
Speaker
Yeah.
00:12:07
Speaker
Yeah, Lady Dimitrisque is, she's not actually a tall buxom woman.
00:12:14
Speaker
She becomes a grotesque monster that wants to eat your flesh after you stab her with a mythical knife that disappears.
00:12:26
Speaker
You never see the knife again.
00:12:27
Speaker
Never see it again.
00:12:30
Speaker
It falls into the ravine and Ethan basically is like, well, I guess that's it for this knife.
00:12:38
Speaker
But I gotta tell you, though, you know, if I had a nickel for every single time I stabbed an ex and she turned into a nightmare abomination that chased me around a castle and tried to murder me, I'd have like 15, 20 cents.
00:12:52
Speaker
We've all been there.
00:12:56
Speaker
We've all had that.
00:12:58
Speaker
It's been a handful of times for everybody.
00:13:09
Speaker
So, yeah, basically the first quarter of the game, they do a really good job of kind of, you know, acclimating you back into Resident Evil.
00:13:17
Speaker
Here's, you know, the
00:13:20
Speaker
in the castle anyway, in the castle Dimitrescu.
Shocking discovery: Daughter's head in a jar
00:13:24
Speaker
She's got these zombies that serve her, and so they're slow, shambling hordes and that kind of thing.
00:13:30
Speaker
So it's very familiar.
00:13:33
Speaker
And that's where that... And then they just kind of... The next level, if you will... They just kind of say, fuck you.
00:13:43
Speaker
Yeah, Capcom decided that you had too much shit in your body.
00:13:48
Speaker
and decided that they were going to scare it out of you.
00:13:50
Speaker
They were going to make you void all of it.
00:13:54
Speaker
Oh my good lord.
00:13:55
Speaker
I believe that you end up at this old mansion in the next... There are the four lords of this village, and the second one is Beneviento, I believe is the name.
00:14:07
Speaker
Yeah, Beneviento.
00:14:10
Speaker
And this entire area, there is no shooting.
00:14:15
Speaker
They take your weapons away.
00:14:17
Speaker
There's no...
00:14:18
Speaker
It's all puzzles and
00:14:20
Speaker
horror and I believe it was the scariest moment in Resident Evil history I have to believe that I agree oh my god you know so we went from werewolves then we went into vampires and now we've got ghosts basically we've got good old ghost story on our hands by the time we get to House Beneviento right before we get to House Beneviento though we oh god yes how can I forget
00:14:51
Speaker
Quite possibly the greatest mission parameter change of all time.
00:15:00
Speaker
Oh my God.
00:15:02
Speaker
You find this yellow flask after you beat Lady D and you take it and you find the Duke and Ethan, who had been led to believe by the Duke that Rose was in the castle.
00:15:17
Speaker
Rose wasn't in there.
00:15:19
Speaker
I just found this stupid jar.
00:15:21
Speaker
And the Duke goes something like, why, Mr. Winters, you're holding your daughter in your hands.
00:15:35
Speaker
First off, that was a pretty solid impression of the dimmer.
00:15:39
Speaker
And then he points out that in the jar, you kind of like... Clean the jar off?
00:15:47
Speaker
Yeah, you clean it off, and it says rosemary on it, and then it says head.
00:15:52
Speaker
We've got our head in a jar.
00:15:56
Speaker
got your kid's fucking head in a jar.
00:16:00
Speaker
I look over at my fiance.
00:16:01
Speaker
She's not a... She pointed out, she said, I did not know much about horror, period, before we started seeing each other.
00:16:09
Speaker
So, she's not a gamer.
00:16:11
Speaker
She's not a horror person.
00:16:12
Speaker
We find out that our kid's head is in this jar, and I look over at her, and she just jaw on the floor.
00:16:20
Speaker
We had to take a break.
00:16:22
Speaker
laughter
00:16:26
Speaker
And then, as Kevin pointed out, the greatest mission, because now your job is to get the pieces of your daughter.
00:16:35
Speaker
And what does it say, Kevin?
00:16:36
Speaker
Find Rose, one out of four.
00:16:39
Speaker
One out of four.
00:16:44
Speaker
It's just like the most grim black humor.
00:16:49
Speaker
It's just breathtaking.
00:16:50
Speaker
Oh, boy.
00:16:51
Speaker
It's just breathtaking.
House Beneviento's baby monster
00:16:55
Speaker
It stays with you.
00:16:57
Speaker
It is.
00:16:58
Speaker
It is so boldly.
00:17:00
Speaker
There's nothing subtle about it.
00:17:03
Speaker
It is.
00:17:04
Speaker
It is a big old fat man telling you that you are holding your daughter's head in a jar.
00:17:12
Speaker
Amazing.
00:17:14
Speaker
Just amazing.
00:17:16
Speaker
And it's just, yeah, go ahead.
00:17:20
Speaker
No, it's like, this is, we've barely gotten through the game.
00:17:26
Speaker
Like it's, it's, you're, you're,
00:17:29
Speaker
Again, we're a quarter in and, and like they've thrown so much shit at you.
00:17:35
Speaker
And then you find out that you're collecting pieces of your kid.
00:17:39
Speaker
So theoretically you'll put her back together.
00:17:42
Speaker
Like she's a broken toy.
00:17:45
Speaker
And it's like, just like, okay, well, what the hell else can they throw at me?
00:17:50
Speaker
And then they show you.
00:17:51
Speaker
Yeah, then they lead you down the path to House Beneviento.
00:17:57
Speaker
So of the four lords, the Duke had basically just introduced, he gave you a whole spiel.
00:18:04
Speaker
Basically, there's four lords.
00:18:06
Speaker
You already killed Lady Dimitrescu.
00:18:10
Speaker
Of the four that are left, there's Donna Beneviento.
00:18:12
Speaker
There's Moreau and then there's there's Heisenberg.
00:18:18
Speaker
And up next is is Donna Beneviento, the doll maker.
00:18:22
Speaker
And we're like, well, this is OK.
00:18:24
Speaker
Dolls, the doll maker.
00:18:26
Speaker
Fantastic.
00:18:27
Speaker
This is going to be great.
00:18:29
Speaker
That's going to be spooky.
00:18:30
Speaker
So as Phil already mentioned, yeah, they take your weapons away.
00:18:37
Speaker
They don't physically take them away at first.
00:18:39
Speaker
It's just that there's nothing to shoot at the very beginning.
00:18:42
Speaker
You're just digging through this house.
00:18:44
Speaker
You're just walking around.
00:18:46
Speaker
It's spooky.
00:18:48
Speaker
Nothing's really happening.
00:18:51
Speaker
It would actually be an amazing short-term rental.
00:18:56
Speaker
It would be... Like, the house is beautiful, and it's overlooking a waterfall.
00:19:04
Speaker
I mean, come on.
00:19:04
Speaker
Oh, yeah, you're right on this beautiful one.
00:19:07
Speaker
Yeah, it's gorgeous.
00:19:09
Speaker
I actually took a screen cap of it, and I was like, well, that's my house.
00:19:12
Speaker
I'm going to move there.
00:19:13
Speaker
And, yeah.
00:19:15
Speaker
Yeah.
00:19:17
Speaker
So you get inside.
00:19:18
Speaker
It seems like there's nothing going on.
00:19:20
Speaker
You're walking around the house and you go downstairs.
00:19:22
Speaker
Doesn't seem like there's still anything going on for a little bit as you walk around the basement until you find you find what appears to be the second flask.
00:19:34
Speaker
Yes.
00:19:35
Speaker
But it's not.
00:19:35
Speaker
It's an illusion.
00:19:37
Speaker
And a doll, a tiny little doll mocks you.
00:19:40
Speaker
Yeah.
00:19:42
Speaker
A little bitty doll, which is horrifying.
00:19:47
Speaker
It's horrifying.
00:19:48
Speaker
She's a horrifying little doll.
00:19:49
Speaker
Oh, God.
00:19:52
Speaker
Oh, God.
00:19:53
Speaker
So it just becomes basically solving a puzzle using a wooden model of Mia's dead body for clues.
00:20:03
Speaker
Oh, yeah.
00:20:04
Speaker
You find this mannequin that's supposed to occur.
00:20:06
Speaker
It's a mannequin, yeah.
00:20:07
Speaker
And you've got to take it apart and look through it.
00:20:11
Speaker
And there are little items to be found in it.
00:20:14
Speaker
And...
00:20:16
Speaker
you know, clues to the puzzles to be solved.
00:20:18
Speaker
It's, it actually, it's really unnerving and unsettling.
00:20:22
Speaker
Yeah.
00:20:23
Speaker
They play with the dark a lot.
00:20:24
Speaker
They, they, they play with what you're seeing, you know, there's something off in the distance walking and then it disappears.
00:20:29
Speaker
And,
00:20:30
Speaker
And it just keeps you on edge.
00:20:32
Speaker
And it's all puzzles at that point.
00:20:34
Speaker
And my God, I was happy for a little while.
00:20:37
Speaker
For a little while, you were happy.
00:20:38
Speaker
For a little while, I was like, this is the best.
00:20:40
Speaker
This is what I love about Resident Evil.
00:20:42
Speaker
It's atmosphere and the puzzles and spookiness.
00:20:45
Speaker
And you don't need to shoot zombies to scare me.
00:20:48
Speaker
This is terrific.
00:20:51
Speaker
And the tree was happy.
00:20:52
Speaker
Meanwhile.
00:20:53
Speaker
Meanwhile.
00:20:57
Speaker
you don't realize it's kind of like the frog on a hot plate.
00:21:02
Speaker
Yeah.
00:21:03
Speaker
Oh, in the boiling water.
00:21:04
Speaker
Yes, the frog in the boiling water.
00:21:07
Speaker
You don't really realize the water has started to boil yet.
00:21:10
Speaker
No, you do not.
00:21:13
Speaker
So you solve all the puzzles, the litany of puzzles.
00:21:16
Speaker
We don't have to necessarily go into them because there's like four or five.
00:21:20
Speaker
We wouldn't want to take the fun away from
Mannequin puzzle-solving
00:21:24
Speaker
you.
00:21:24
Speaker
We're so good.
00:21:24
Speaker
You end up going down into a well because there's... Because why not?
00:21:30
Speaker
Because why not?
00:21:31
Speaker
Why not?
00:21:33
Speaker
There's a lot of very subtle references to a lot of different horror films in these games.
00:21:42
Speaker
And House Beneviento references... Simultaneously, it references P.T., the famous Konami demo for Silent Hill.
00:21:55
Speaker
It's kind of a P.T.
00:21:56
Speaker
reference, but it also...
00:21:58
Speaker
It's like a little bit part shining.
00:22:01
Speaker
The house is very decorated.
00:22:03
Speaker
It's very evocative of like a very old, like mid-century decorations.
00:22:12
Speaker
100%.
00:22:13
Speaker
And then you see an old grainy film and you have to go down into a well, which is very, brings back memories of the ring, of Ringu.
00:22:23
Speaker
Yeah.
00:22:24
Speaker
And the movie you watch has the well in it.
00:22:31
Speaker
It's all like the hairs on the back of your neck are just kind of tingling.
00:22:35
Speaker
But here's the thing, is that nothing has really happened yet.
00:22:40
Speaker
You've been down here for about maybe a half an hour at this point.
00:22:44
Speaker
Your mileage may vary on how long it takes you to solve these puzzles.
00:22:47
Speaker
Right.
00:22:48
Speaker
And there's been no failure state.
00:22:51
Speaker
There's been no failure state.
00:22:52
Speaker
There's no failure state.
00:22:54
Speaker
There's nothing there.
00:22:56
Speaker
And so at this point, right before I go down into the well, I happen to go past a cabinet.
00:23:07
Speaker
And I was like, oh, I didn't open it.
00:23:09
Speaker
So I open it.
00:23:10
Speaker
There's nothing in there.
00:23:11
Speaker
And then I realized I could walk into it.
00:23:14
Speaker
And I turned around and I closed the door behind me.
00:23:16
Speaker
And at that point, I was like, well, why can I hide inside the cabinet?
00:23:22
Speaker
Why am I why is this a mechanic currently?
00:23:26
Speaker
Why is this a mechanic in the game?
00:23:27
Speaker
This has never been a mechanic in Resident Evil games.
00:23:30
Speaker
Nope.
00:23:32
Speaker
Why is this right now a mechanic?
00:23:35
Speaker
For me, it was the bed you could hide under.
00:23:40
Speaker
Yes.
00:23:41
Speaker
My fiance didn't know at first why when I could hide, when I realized that there was a hide option for under the bed that I went, oh, God damn it.
00:23:51
Speaker
I got a chill down the back of my spot.
00:23:57
Speaker
So, you know, you go down into the well, you pick up a key and suddenly there's just this crack of wood.
00:24:04
Speaker
And you hear off in the distance a baby crying.
00:24:08
Speaker
And there is nothing more unsettling than what is clearly a baby crying out in pain, in want.
00:24:18
Speaker
Agony.
00:24:19
Speaker
Agony.
00:24:19
Speaker
You get back upstairs.
00:24:20
Speaker
The sound design is miraculously scary.
00:24:24
Speaker
It is just so well done.
00:24:26
Speaker
It is chef's kiss beautiful in the worst possible way, but also the best.
00:24:33
Speaker
Right.
00:24:33
Speaker
Right, exactly.
Grotesque baby monster encounter
00:24:37
Speaker
Phil, what is it that you end up... You go down the hallway, you make a right, on your way back to the elevator, and what is it... What did you see in your eye?
00:24:51
Speaker
How did you experience this moment?
00:24:55
Speaker
Well, it was nothing less than...
00:24:59
Speaker
the greatest single argument for pro-choice movements around the world.
00:25:08
Speaker
It's this horrible, sliding, crawling fetus beast.
00:25:18
Speaker
with horrible shrieking cries, a gaping ribbed mouth and throat, and it's coming toward you so very slowly.
00:25:32
Speaker
It's coming for you.
00:25:36
Speaker
It is coming for you.
00:25:37
Speaker
And I screamed.
00:25:41
Speaker
I mean, to tell you that I screamed when I saw this thing and my fiance screamed and our cat screamed.
00:25:50
Speaker
Everybody screamed.
00:25:52
Speaker
And it was just, it was absolutely, it's grotesque.
00:25:57
Speaker
If you're not going to play this game, if you're listening because you're like, hey, listen, I'm not a horror fan, but I would like to hear what you guys thought about it and that sort of thing.
00:26:05
Speaker
If you think you've got the stomach for it, just Google Resident Evil Village baby.
00:26:11
Speaker
Just look for the baby.
00:26:15
Speaker
And it's... It is really revolting.
00:26:21
Speaker
I'm a gross man.
00:26:23
Speaker
I've mentioned before, I like monsters.
00:26:25
Speaker
I have always liked monsters.
00:26:26
Speaker
I like the grossness of them.
00:26:29
Speaker
I like putrid, pussy, blistered things that can scare me.
00:26:35
Speaker
I'm into that.
00:26:36
Speaker
I don't know why, but I am.
00:26:38
Speaker
And this thing turned my stomach.
00:26:41
Speaker
It was unfortunate.
00:26:44
Speaker
And I was just like, I'm like, I have like a shiver going down my spine just now thinking, just talking about it in the abstract.
00:26:53
Speaker
Yeah.
00:26:54
Speaker
It was absolutely the scariest thing.
00:26:58
Speaker
And that begins the alien isolation portion of House Beneviento.
00:27:05
Speaker
Yes.
00:27:07
Speaker
Oh my God.
00:27:10
Speaker
And it's just, yeah, and you do, now any of you who've played Alien Isolation, which is my favorite horror game, officially.
00:27:18
Speaker
I love that game.
00:27:20
Speaker
And, yeah, did you go into the closet?
00:27:25
Speaker
Did you hide under the bed?
00:27:26
Speaker
Where'd you hide?
00:27:27
Speaker
So I only hid once, and it was under the bed.
00:27:34
Speaker
Okay.
00:27:34
Speaker
I did the same thing.
00:27:35
Speaker
I did the same thing.
00:27:36
Speaker
And, and me and my fiance thought about it and she, uh, she said, I think you made the right decision.
00:27:45
Speaker
And I said, what do you mean?
00:27:47
Speaker
She goes hiding under the bed.
00:27:48
Speaker
That was the right thing to do.
00:27:50
Speaker
And I said, well, what, what, what, what I don't, I don't understand.
00:27:54
Speaker
She said, because when you were under the bed,
00:27:57
Speaker
It crawled around the bed and we had to see its underbelly and its horrible legs and stuff.
00:28:03
Speaker
Yeah.
00:28:04
Speaker
But if you had hidden in the closet, we would have had to stare that thing in the face.
00:28:09
Speaker
Yes.
00:28:10
Speaker
While it lost the scent and left you alone.
00:28:15
Speaker
And I hadn't even thought about that.
00:28:18
Speaker
And what's funny is I so what ended up happening when I when I got to that point, I hid under the bed.
00:28:24
Speaker
And as soon as it was past the bed, I got out from under the bed and I just booked it.
00:28:31
Speaker
Yeah.
00:28:32
Speaker
Booked it back to the elevator.
00:28:34
Speaker
And here's the thing is like the second half of House Beneviento is is like.
00:28:39
Speaker
After that, it's just like, it was almost like a letdown.
00:28:43
Speaker
It was still like fine.
00:28:44
Speaker
It was like, okay, the second half is basically becomes a glorified game of hide and seek, except with killer dolls.
00:28:50
Speaker
But after that first half, you're just like, I don't, I don't care about like, as long as it's not that I'm fine.
00:28:57
Speaker
And that was kind of like the rest of the game.
00:29:00
Speaker
That was kind of like the rest of the game for me is like, yeah,
00:29:05
Speaker
I became Arnold from Predator because everything after that was, if it bleeds, I can kill it.
00:29:13
Speaker
Right, right, exactly.
00:29:15
Speaker
No, we literally, because we've been playing this game in chapters, basically.
00:29:21
Speaker
When we got past Lady Dimitrescu, she and I beat it in like four more bites, so to speak.
00:29:30
Speaker
We sat down, we play until we beat a boss.
00:29:32
Speaker
move on, you know, and take a break.
00:29:34
Speaker
And after Beneviento, we both, it was, I'm not exaggerating, not fucking with you.
00:29:40
Speaker
We, we got out of my office and we went out and sat on the porch and it was still light outside.
00:29:46
Speaker
And we stroked the cat and kind of stared into the middle distance.
00:29:50
Speaker
We were so upset.
00:29:52
Speaker
And I said, well, I said, the good news, I think, is that because we got far enough that we got our weapons back and I knew we were.
00:30:01
Speaker
I said, I don't think that this game can scare us any more than that.
00:30:06
Speaker
I think that's about as scared as we can get in this game.
00:30:10
Speaker
And I was correct, but it didn't.
00:30:12
Speaker
It didn't, but it's still made for a, it was still fun, but my God, that was the part where they were just like, we are going to scare the shit out of you.
00:30:20
Speaker
Yeah, they really loaded up the fear, the fear in House Beneviento.
00:30:25
Speaker
Everything else, like there was tension in other parts and the tension was more about- And surprises and jumps.
00:30:32
Speaker
And surprises and stuff.
00:30:34
Speaker
Yeah, yeah.
00:30:35
Speaker
But nothing, nothing would ever remotely approach it.
00:30:39
Speaker
And I think they probably knew that.
00:30:50
Speaker
They follow up House Beneviento with Moreau, who's basically the sad sack of the four lords.
00:30:56
Speaker
Oh, he's so sad.
00:30:58
Speaker
And what's hilarious about that is in the beginning of the game, you see all of the lords together.
00:31:04
Speaker
With Mother Miranda, by the way, who we haven't mentioned yet.
00:31:06
Speaker
Right.
00:31:07
Speaker
Who's like the lord of the lords.
00:31:09
Speaker
She's clearly the one in charge.
00:31:12
Speaker
Villagers you meet talk about, like...
00:31:15
Speaker
you know, kind of treating her as like this God within the area.
Moreau: Lovecraftian inspiration
00:31:20
Speaker
But Moreau is this horrible, shrunken, lumpen thing.
00:31:25
Speaker
And that was the one that scared me the most.
00:31:28
Speaker
Just looking at the rogues gallery.
00:31:31
Speaker
But he, yeah, you're right.
00:31:32
Speaker
He's just a kind of sad, sad guy.
00:31:36
Speaker
He's very lonely.
00:31:37
Speaker
You always feel bad for him.
00:31:39
Speaker
Yeah.
00:31:40
Speaker
Yeah, he's lonely and just...
00:31:44
Speaker
you know, clearly not happy with what he looks like.
00:31:50
Speaker
Of the four Lords, Moreau is the only one where you basically, if you had, if Ethan hadn't stopped to make fun of him, he could have just walked in, gotten the flask and walked out.
00:32:03
Speaker
Right.
00:32:03
Speaker
Probably, probably.
00:32:04
Speaker
If Ethan would have just kept his goddamn mouth shut.
00:32:08
Speaker
You walk in there, Moreau's sitting there watching TV, throwing up.
00:32:12
Speaker
I'm not joking.
00:32:13
Speaker
That's what he's doing.
00:32:14
Speaker
He's just sitting there vomiting and watching TV.
00:32:16
Speaker
And there's another flask with your baby's ears or some damn thing.
00:32:22
Speaker
And you're like, okay, great.
00:32:23
Speaker
I'll grab her ears.
00:32:24
Speaker
And you get the flask.
00:32:27
Speaker
And he's begging you, please, don't take that away.
00:32:30
Speaker
They're going to punish me.
00:32:31
Speaker
Like this really sad Quasimodo kind of thing.
00:32:35
Speaker
Yeah.
00:32:36
Speaker
Which is clearly part of the inspiration for him.
00:32:40
Speaker
Right.
00:32:41
Speaker
The old, you know, Hunchback of Notre Dame kind of things back when they treated that as a horror thing.
00:32:45
Speaker
Right.
00:32:46
Speaker
And I don't remember what he says, but Ethan just just tosses some shade his way.
00:32:51
Speaker
Just like just makes fun of him.
00:32:53
Speaker
And that pisses Moreau enough off that he's like, OK, I wasn't going to be a boss, but now I'm going to be a boss.
00:32:59
Speaker
Right.
00:33:01
Speaker
Moreau is just like, oh, man.
00:33:03
Speaker
And Ethan's like, you suck.
00:33:05
Speaker
Yeah.
00:33:06
Speaker
Fuck you.
00:33:07
Speaker
Ugly.
00:33:07
Speaker
He's like.
00:33:07
Speaker
Yeah.
00:33:10
Speaker
I'm gonna do something about it.
00:33:13
Speaker
So if- And then, well, what's funny is like, he's, I'm gonna do something about it.
00:33:17
Speaker
And then he like makes some like slime stuff grow.
00:33:20
Speaker
And then when you're leaving, you hear Moreau in the back room, like, no, no, wait, don't come back.
00:33:25
Speaker
Right, right.
00:33:26
Speaker
Oh yeah.
00:33:26
Speaker
Even then he's like, oh, come on.
00:33:28
Speaker
Like,
00:33:29
Speaker
we could have talked this over, right?
00:33:32
Speaker
I didn't know that.
00:33:33
Speaker
I didn't mean it.
00:33:34
Speaker
You know, it's just so pitiful.
00:33:36
Speaker
And so if Lady Dimitrescu is vampires, if Beneviento is...
00:33:42
Speaker
is ghosts and haunted houses and stuff like that.
00:33:48
Speaker
Moreau is like quasi-HP Lovecraftian, fishy, hunchback of Notre Dame kind of- He's the shadow over Innsmouth meets hunchback of Notre Dame.
00:34:02
Speaker
Right, right.
00:34:03
Speaker
He's just, and with a little less of the existential dread, let's face facts.
00:34:09
Speaker
But, yeah.
00:34:11
Speaker
Well, really the only one facing the existential dread in it is Murrow himself.
00:34:16
Speaker
Yeah, that's true.
00:34:17
Speaker
He does have the existential dread, but he's keeping it all to himself.
00:34:22
Speaker
Poor guy.
00:34:23
Speaker
Yeah.
00:34:25
Speaker
Yeah, and so you make your way.
00:34:27
Speaker
He's in the mines and out on this dock area.
00:34:30
Speaker
Now, this was fun.
00:34:31
Speaker
I gotta tell you, as far as a level following up, the tense, pants-shittingly horrifying baby monster...
00:34:44
Speaker
haunted house.
00:34:45
Speaker
If you were going to follow that up with any of these, it would have, they, they did it beautifully because it was, this level is fun.
00:34:53
Speaker
It's scary.
00:34:54
Speaker
It still makes you jump, but man, is it fun?
00:34:57
Speaker
Yeah.
00:34:58
Speaker
It, you know, it's like, uh, you have, you have to deal with, with the lycanthropes a little bit.
00:35:03
Speaker
Um, as you're, you're fighting your way through, um, you get a, you get a nice little lore dump in the middle of it.
00:35:09
Speaker
Um, yeah.
00:35:10
Speaker
Uh, via Chris, Chris and his team.
00:35:14
Speaker
They kind of give you a little bit, a smidgen more information.
00:35:17
Speaker
You still don't understand why Chris killed Mia, but that gets interrupted by Moreau.
00:35:24
Speaker
They're really drip feeding it.
00:35:26
Speaker
And then you have basically like a puzzle platformer.
00:35:30
Speaker
level to deal with.
00:35:31
Speaker
It's like, while this giant, giant mutated fish that is Moreau is swimming around, you just have a puzzle.
00:35:39
Speaker
It's like a platform puzzle that you have to fight to get your way through.
00:35:42
Speaker
You're in this flooded area and you've got to shove boxes here and shoot down boxes there and just basically make your way across this lake from one side to another.
00:35:57
Speaker
to turn on these mills to get this puzzle going.
00:36:00
Speaker
And then you have a boss fight.
00:36:02
Speaker
But it's just, I tell you, we were cheering.
00:36:04
Speaker
Like, you'll come to the edge, knock these boxes into the water.
00:36:08
Speaker
Okay, now I can cross over.
00:36:10
Speaker
And as soon as you start to cross over, here comes the giant billion-eyed fish monster who'll swallow you up if you don't jump back.
00:36:18
Speaker
And we're laughing and cheering and screaming and hooting and hollering.
00:36:23
Speaker
It was perfect.
00:36:24
Speaker
That was the other thing that I was kind of Lovecraftian about.
00:36:26
Speaker
It was like he was covered in eyes, which is... Yes.
00:36:29
Speaker
I mean, that's classic.
00:36:32
Speaker
I mean... That's classic.
00:36:35
Speaker
Yeah.
00:36:35
Speaker
So, yeah, and then you have a little fight with him.
00:36:38
Speaker
It's not the most...
Heisenberg's campy factory
00:36:42
Speaker
In the canon of Resident Evil fights, it's nothing special.
00:36:45
Speaker
No, but, you know, it's... Taking cover.
00:36:48
Speaker
It's...
00:36:49
Speaker
Right.
00:36:49
Speaker
It's not a nail biter, but it's it's one of those things that's like, I think we needed this at this point.
00:36:55
Speaker
You know, you needed a little bit of a break that you can all take a breath and cheer and scream and have a lot of fun.
00:37:03
Speaker
And then we can get back into a little more grim, dark sense of rights.
00:37:08
Speaker
Yes.
00:37:09
Speaker
Which is provided plenty by by Heisenberg.
00:37:24
Speaker
I mean, he really blends the grim dark, but also the really, really dark humor aspects of horror together.
00:37:34
Speaker
Oh, yes.
00:37:35
Speaker
Yeah.
00:37:35
Speaker
So Heisenberg, like before you get to Heisenberg's level, there's kind of like a mini boss level that is squeezed in there.
00:37:43
Speaker
Basically, it's...
00:37:44
Speaker
Yeah, like you've seen these lycanthropes all over the place and it's like Heisenberg's like, yeah, well, I'm not even going to let you into my factory until you go deal with the fucking lycanthropes.
00:37:55
Speaker
So he tells you to go to the stronghold and you have to fight your way through all.
00:38:00
Speaker
It is a massive, massive fight.
00:38:02
Speaker
There are just dozens and dozens of these werewolves that you have to.
00:38:06
Speaker
Crazy.
00:38:08
Speaker
It is crazy.
00:38:09
Speaker
It is the most intense action sequence outside of something that comes right after Heisenberg.
00:38:16
Speaker
It is the second most intense action sequence in the game.
00:38:19
Speaker
And it pretty much uses up all of your ammunition.
00:38:22
Speaker
Oh, God, yeah.
00:38:24
Speaker
Oh, my gosh.
00:38:25
Speaker
Because there's no getting around it.
00:38:27
Speaker
You know, it's like in Resident Evil's gone by, the advice that anybody who has never played a Resident Evil...
00:38:35
Speaker
that that you're going to start with is don't feel the need to shoot everything you know not at least in the old ones in resident evil 2 3 you know those those are the ones that i was the most familiar with coming up and and there's just no need to shoot everything you ammo is scarce you gotta get by that is not the case in this you have got to shoot yes you've got to shoot you got to kill and the the level you know it builds up uh up into a showdown with the
00:39:03
Speaker
big bad alpha dude um alpha werewolf um that was introduced at the very beginning of the game and he he just takes a lot of a lot of uh a lot of bullets if you've had the chance to and i can't remember is did you did you have the magnum at this point
00:39:22
Speaker
I did.
00:39:23
Speaker
And thank goodness for that.
00:39:25
Speaker
Uh, that was a, you know, first off, that's a sexy gun.
00:39:28
Speaker
That's, I don't, that's a sexy damn gun.
00:39:30
Speaker
It's like black and gold and it's called the Wolfsbane.
00:39:33
Speaker
Yeah.
00:39:34
Speaker
Gorgeous.
00:39:34
Speaker
Absolutely gorgeous.
00:39:36
Speaker
And, and, and, uh,
00:39:37
Speaker
You can upgrade it to a longer barrel.
00:39:39
Speaker
And when you do that in Latin off on the side of it says, I will be done.
00:39:44
Speaker
I had to look that up.
00:39:45
Speaker
It's like, oh God.
00:39:48
Speaker
It's like on one hand, I'm kind of ashamed.
00:39:50
Speaker
And on the other hand, I'm like, oh, this is hot.
00:39:52
Speaker
This is a cool weapon.
00:39:53
Speaker
Oh,
00:39:53
Speaker
Alright, I'm living my fantasy.
00:39:56
Speaker
This is like, it's like something that you would put into a vampire masquerade campaign.
00:40:03
Speaker
Right.
00:40:04
Speaker
Super, just super dark.
00:40:07
Speaker
Oh, it's beautiful.
00:40:08
Speaker
But yeah, so you gotta take him out.
00:40:10
Speaker
And I gotta, the only way I could describe this alpha wolf, werewolf guy is if...
00:40:17
Speaker
if beast in beauty and the beast had not succeeded in getting his dream girl and just became a meth addict as a way of coping.
00:40:25
Speaker
That's pretty much, that's pretty much it.
00:40:27
Speaker
He hit the, he hit the drugs and the sauce pretty hard and he just, just, just really took on a group of, of like-minded beasts and a hold up in a cave.
00:40:40
Speaker
Yeah, pretty much.
00:40:42
Speaker
And he's got a giant hammer and a bad attitude.
00:40:46
Speaker
And you've got to shoot him in the head with a magnum.
00:40:50
Speaker
Repeatedly.
00:40:51
Speaker
Repeatedly.
00:40:52
Speaker
As often as you possibly can.
00:40:54
Speaker
And it works out.
00:40:56
Speaker
It works out.
00:40:58
Speaker
But yeah, it's unreal.
00:41:00
Speaker
It is a wild fight.
00:41:03
Speaker
So what did you think of Heisenberg's factory when you got there?
00:41:07
Speaker
I didn't.
00:41:10
Speaker
I gotta tell you, Heisenberg was the only one that confused me at first.
00:41:15
Speaker
Sure.
00:41:15
Speaker
Because I'm a writer, you know, and as you are, and you know what we do, we look for themes.
00:41:24
Speaker
You know, you're looking for, your brain is kind of tuned into it.
00:41:27
Speaker
And so I'm like, okay, Kevin was right, we're going through.
00:41:31
Speaker
the universal monsters here.
00:41:33
Speaker
And the only one that didn't fit at first was Heisenberg because your only experience with him, he's, he's this wisecracking, um, he's got a voice like a radio announcer and he can, you know, and he can control metal like magneto.
00:41:49
Speaker
Right.
00:41:49
Speaker
And, uh, and that's his thing.
00:41:52
Speaker
And I'm like, what the fuck?
00:41:53
Speaker
fuck is this?
00:41:53
Speaker
How does that fit into the whole equation?
00:41:56
Speaker
And so I get, you know, you get to the factory and he's talking to you over the loudspeaker, you know, being a real smart ass and all that stuff.
00:42:05
Speaker
And and I'm like, he's like a smart ass superhero.
00:42:09
Speaker
I don't I don't know how this fits into the horror theater.
00:42:12
Speaker
And then you start to see that in the factory, he hates Mother Miranda.
00:42:16
Speaker
They've all been all the Lords have been given their powers by Mother Miranda.
00:42:19
Speaker
Right.
00:42:19
Speaker
And he hates her because he's not a man anymore, like in the sense that he doesn't have any freedom.
00:42:26
Speaker
She's basically controlling his life.
00:42:28
Speaker
And so he is literally building an army of robot zombies
00:42:35
Speaker
to fight Mother Miranda and kill her.
00:42:39
Speaker
And it's not far into the factory that you go, holy shit, this is Frankenstein.
00:42:43
Speaker
It is Frankenstein.
00:42:45
Speaker
He's the mad scientist.
00:42:47
Speaker
And it all clicked into place.
00:42:51
Speaker
It was just...
00:42:52
Speaker
Again, just he is Frankenstein.
00:42:55
Speaker
He's Frankenstein.
00:42:56
Speaker
If, if, if Dr. Frankenstein was a shock jock radio, radio DJ, if, if, if Frankenstein sold brain pills or something like that for info or worse, then yeah, yeah.
00:43:10
Speaker
That's my favorite.
00:43:13
Speaker
He has my, like some of my favorite line reads of the entire game.
00:43:18
Speaker
Where, like, there's the monster down in the hole when he's just talking to Ethan.
00:43:23
Speaker
And the monster keeps making noise.
00:43:26
Speaker
And Heisenberg just goes over the hole.
00:43:30
Speaker
And he's like, shut your fucking hole.
00:43:32
Speaker
Yeah.
00:43:32
Speaker
Exactly.
00:43:34
Speaker
Oh yeah, and he's got these wonderful notes.
00:43:36
Speaker
He's got these, you find all these notes of his where he talks, where he's explaining what he's doing and his experiments and stuff.
00:43:45
Speaker
And this is just, it's an unforgettable enemy.
00:43:50
Speaker
He's built this zombie thing that he basically took a prop engine from a plane and
00:43:59
Speaker
and adhered it to this thing's upper torso.
00:44:03
Speaker
It has no head.
00:44:05
Speaker
And he points out that it has no arms because it cut its own arms off because it's an idiot.
00:44:12
Speaker
And and and he he deems the whole thing a massive failure, just an absolute failure.
00:44:20
Speaker
And but he still keeps him around.
00:44:23
Speaker
Still keeps him around.
00:44:25
Speaker
And that's just... And you have to deal with him later.
00:44:28
Speaker
That's your problem.
00:44:29
Speaker
That becomes your problem.
00:44:31
Speaker
Yeah, because he couldn't take care of his stupid science project.
00:44:35
Speaker
It's now your issue.
00:44:37
Speaker
And I mean, it's... Yeah, it is the most eccentric, campy, and over-the-top moment in the whole game.
00:44:49
Speaker
It's like...
00:44:50
Speaker
It's the Resident Evil that I think a lot of people fondly remember.
00:44:57
Speaker
Yeah.
00:44:58
Speaker
You know, with like Resident Evil 4 and the camp and the silliness of it all.
00:45:04
Speaker
And he's got that in space.
00:45:06
Speaker
I think one of the best things about the character too is how stunningly self-aware he is.
00:45:13
Speaker
Right.
00:45:16
Speaker
There's something... A lot of campy Resident Evil villains are like... They're not really self-aware of the fact that they're monsters or whatever.
00:45:24
Speaker
Like...
00:45:25
Speaker
Heisenberg is like, he's as self-aware as the audience.
00:45:30
Speaker
He is like, he is basically, he is a part of it.
00:45:35
Speaker
He's like, listen, man, we're going to take you, we're going to get your daughter back and we're going to blow this mother Miranda up.
00:45:44
Speaker
And you know, he's well-written when, when me, the player is like, you know, he's making some decent points.
00:45:52
Speaker
I was I was it's a good thing that this isn't one of those games that lets you make choices because he was talking.
00:46:00
Speaker
He was like, dude, we're going to take out Mother Miranda, your kid.
00:46:02
Speaker
I'm going to your kids going to help us because she's powerful.
00:46:06
Speaker
They keep implying how powerful your daughter is.
00:46:08
Speaker
You know, that's the whole reason they stole her.
00:46:09
Speaker
And he's like, but we're going to work together on this and get rid of Mother Miranda and we can do it.
00:46:13
Speaker
And he says it in a far more snarky, insane way.
00:46:17
Speaker
Right.
00:46:17
Speaker
But yeah, when you think about it, I'm like,
00:46:20
Speaker
oh all right who who could say no to help from a guy who controls electromagnetic magnetic waves like yeah i was someone you want on your side it was like if this is a choose your own adventure novel i'm turning to the yes page at this point but ethan ethan being the smart ass that he is um always ethan is always talking himself into more fights he never he never successfully talks himself out of a fight
00:46:47
Speaker
No, he really does.
00:46:48
Speaker
Ethan basically responds, Ethan responds, go fuck yourself.
00:46:52
Speaker
Right.
00:46:53
Speaker
And I got to tell you, I know this is coming from me, but Ethan's got a big damn mouth.
00:46:58
Speaker
He does.
00:46:59
Speaker
And he's just going to go, shut up.
00:47:01
Speaker
We could be home.
00:47:03
Speaker
We could be done with this.
00:47:06
Speaker
What's wrong with you?
00:47:06
Speaker
We could have had this all wrapped up by dinnertime, Ethan.
00:47:09
Speaker
Absolutely.
00:47:11
Speaker
You could have your kids stitched together in no time.
00:47:14
Speaker
Everything's going to be fine.
00:47:15
Speaker
Just shut your mouth for five seconds, Ethan.
00:47:19
Speaker
That's kind of his only characteristic.
00:47:21
Speaker
Ethan doesn't have much in the way of character.
00:47:23
Speaker
He doesn't have much else going on.
00:47:25
Speaker
No, not until the very end do you get much about Ethan.
00:47:29
Speaker
So, um, but yeah, you, you, you fight, you eventually fight Heisenberg.
00:47:35
Speaker
He turns into a big ass fucking monster.
00:47:39
Speaker
Um, yeah, it's like a metal kaiju.
00:47:42
Speaker
It becomes, yeah, it becomes a metal kaiju.
00:47:44
Speaker
Uh, right before that, you finally get Chris explaining everything.
00:47:48
Speaker
Um, Chris basically tells you,
00:47:52
Speaker
He kind of breaks it down for you and gives you a tank to fight Heisenberg with basically a non-magnetic alloy.
00:48:02
Speaker
I don't know where Chris got it from.
00:48:05
Speaker
With a chainsaw on one end and a fucking machine gun on the other and a missile launcher.
00:48:12
Speaker
And you're like, okay, this is the...
00:48:15
Speaker
This is the Resident Evil I was ready for.
00:48:19
Speaker
The best thing about Chris is like, you never actually stop and wonder like, how the fuck long has Chris been sitting down in the basement of Heisenberg's factory?
00:48:29
Speaker
Nope.
00:48:30
Speaker
It's just, here he is.
00:48:31
Speaker
This is what happens next.
00:48:34
Speaker
They're like clearly long enough to build a tank.
00:48:37
Speaker
Right.
00:48:38
Speaker
Right.
00:48:39
Speaker
Like, oh, he's, he's a, you know, I get, he's a, he's a resourceful one, that Chris.
00:48:44
Speaker
He's, he's, he's a, so you, yeah, he figured it out.
00:48:49
Speaker
You fight, you fight and kill Heisenberg.
00:48:51
Speaker
He's, he's got some really fun, funny one-liners.
00:48:54
Speaker
I forget, is it, is Heisenberg or Mother Miranda?
00:48:58
Speaker
I'm just gonna say, cause I think it's an amazing one-liner.
Mocking Chris Redfield
00:49:02
Speaker
It might've been Mother Miranda where they call Chris that boulder punching idiot.
00:49:11
Speaker
Oh, crud.
00:49:13
Speaker
What?
00:49:14
Speaker
I forgot all about that.
00:49:16
Speaker
I think that was Heisenberg actually.
00:49:18
Speaker
It's towards the end of the game.
00:49:21
Speaker
It's amazing.
00:49:23
Speaker
Chris Redfield, that boulder punching idiot.
00:49:26
Speaker
That's right.
00:49:28
Speaker
Oh my God.
00:49:30
Speaker
Yeah.
00:49:31
Speaker
Again, to your point, they're very self-aware of this game.
00:49:38
Speaker
For those who don't know, it's making fun of the ending of Resident Evil 5, in which Chris basically punches a boulder over a cliff.
00:49:50
Speaker
Just the most over-the-top moment.
00:50:01
Speaker
But yeah, you take out the Kaiju metal thing and Chris gives you your background and basically tells you that he didn't kill your wife, Mia.
00:50:13
Speaker
He killed.
00:50:14
Speaker
Oh, he didn't kill.
00:50:15
Speaker
He shot Mother Miranda, who is so infected with the mold, basically, that she can transform herself into any one, anything.
00:50:25
Speaker
Right.
00:50:27
Speaker
So she's been posing.
00:50:29
Speaker
She was posing as Mia.
00:50:30
Speaker
Yeah.
00:50:32
Speaker
Because she wanted to steal your kid.
00:50:34
Speaker
Yep.
00:50:36
Speaker
Who has untold power.
00:50:39
Speaker
Untold power.
00:50:40
Speaker
And we're never actually told what the power is.
00:50:43
Speaker
No, we really aren't.
00:50:45
Speaker
It's never revealed.
00:50:47
Speaker
So then we get a segment with Chris because Ethan is basically left for dead.
00:50:53
Speaker
Ethan is killed by mother Miranda after defeating Heisenberg.
00:50:58
Speaker
She rips his heart out, literally.
00:51:01
Speaker
She Temple of Dooms in the game.
00:51:04
Speaker
The game.
00:51:04
Speaker
Yeah, literally.
00:51:05
Speaker
Yeah.
00:51:07
Speaker
Basically we jump right over.
00:51:12
Speaker
We jump right over to Chris and you get the superhero action sequence.
00:51:17
Speaker
And this is also a great sequence demonstrating why Chris and probably any of the older protagonists can't really be main characters anymore.
00:51:26
Speaker
Right.
00:51:27
Speaker
Like, they are too good and too familiar with this shit, you know?
00:51:32
Speaker
He's too much of a badass, too well-armed.
00:51:34
Speaker
He's too much... He's too well-armed, too much of a badass.
00:51:38
Speaker
He basically takes down...
00:51:39
Speaker
during this sequence you kill wave after wave after wave of lichen i mean and i gotta tell you it's good therapy it's really good therapy for everything you've been dealing with it is it is just it's just oh chris chris has this machine chris has this machine gun with like a three round controlled burst just pops the head of
00:52:00
Speaker
of basically any liking.
00:52:02
Speaker
It's like as powerful as the magnum that Ethan has.
00:52:08
Speaker
And he's just like these tight little controlled bursts and you're just taking them down.
00:52:12
Speaker
You're just mowing them down.
00:52:14
Speaker
It feels really cathartic.
00:52:17
Speaker
It feels so good.
00:52:18
Speaker
It really does.
00:52:19
Speaker
It feels great.
00:52:23
Speaker
It's not quite like Alien Isolation where you're completely helpless or anything like that.
00:52:28
Speaker
But you are not
00:52:29
Speaker
You are not a member of Starz.
00:52:32
Speaker
You are just a guy who happens to be able to fit his hand back on after it's cut off.
00:52:38
Speaker
Yeah, yeah.
00:52:40
Speaker
Also, one of the greatest moments in Resident Evil history.
00:52:44
Speaker
Just to jump back, Ethan gets his right hand cut off this time.
00:52:50
Speaker
um and it's like it's like basically like a an anime cut where it like it happens and then there's a delay and his the hand just like falls off his arm yeah and there's another delay and then ethan grabs the stump and says ah shit yeah oh man another hand oh geez
00:53:15
Speaker
And then with some green herb juice, he glues it back on and everything's fine.
00:53:23
Speaker
None the worse for wear.
00:53:24
Speaker
The shirt still looks like shit, but the rest of it's okay.
00:53:28
Speaker
So the game comes to it...
00:53:30
Speaker
Game comes to an end with the revelation that Ethan has, and the big twist, basically, is that Ethan has been dead the entire time.
00:53:43
Speaker
He's been dead since the Resident Evil 7.
00:53:46
Speaker
He's been dead since the beginning of Resident Evil 7 when Jack Baker basically punches him out.
00:53:52
Speaker
He killed him.
00:53:53
Speaker
Yeah.
00:53:54
Speaker
yeah he hits him with a shovel or something yeah it's like and it's it's it becomes it makes it super clear like they they're basically talking to the player at this point like you didn't think it was weird that he that you were able to like take all of these hits and survive yeah that you could put your put your uh hand back on and da da da
00:54:22
Speaker
It's kind of a kind of a playful sort of, you know, would you kindly kind of moment in a way.
00:54:30
Speaker
Yeah.
00:54:32
Speaker
So Ethan is is actually a being made completely of the mold that had been introduced in seven and is, again, basically the main cause of everything in eight.
00:54:44
Speaker
You kind of find out that Mother Miranda has been is this being that can control the mold.
00:54:49
Speaker
and that the center of the mold is located underneath this village.
Mother Miranda and Umbrella origins
00:54:56
Speaker
And that Miranda had found it and kind of like figured out how to control it, you know, 100 years ago or something like that.
00:55:03
Speaker
And she actually inspired, they actually mentioned that she was the inspiration for, I believe, Oswald Spencer to found Umbrella.
00:55:16
Speaker
They knew each other and she had shared her work with the mold with him and he's like, oh, this is fascinating.
00:55:23
Speaker
And that's when he went off to find the progenitor virus, which eventually, you know, is what kicks everything off for Umbrella.
00:55:29
Speaker
Which I think was a really nice touch.
00:55:33
Speaker
Yeah, it really dovetails everything back together.
00:55:37
Speaker
Like, oh yes, this mold thing is not a one-off.
00:55:40
Speaker
It actually is related.
00:55:41
Speaker
It's related, but it's not the same, but it is.
00:55:46
Speaker
Yeah, yeah.
00:55:47
Speaker
It's connected.
00:55:51
Speaker
So yeah, basically the rest of the game kind of happens pretty quickly.
00:55:57
Speaker
Chris finds out that Mia is still alive and being kept in a prison underneath in the, like basically where the mold center is.
00:56:09
Speaker
Can't wait for that DLC.
00:56:10
Speaker
Yeah.
00:56:12
Speaker
Yeah.
00:56:13
Speaker
Ethan wakes back up.
00:56:15
Speaker
Ethan wakes up Sans Heart.
00:56:18
Speaker
Yeah, yeah.
00:56:19
Speaker
Let's wait until this guy wakes up.
00:56:20
Speaker
Boom, there he is.
00:56:21
Speaker
He's fine.
00:56:22
Speaker
There he is.
00:56:23
Speaker
And then there's the big bad evil boss showdown with Mother Miranda.
00:56:32
Speaker
It was fine.
00:56:34
Speaker
It wasn't like the most...
00:56:36
Speaker
No.
00:56:36
Speaker
Intriguing fight.
00:56:37
Speaker
Like I felt the least of all the villains, I felt the least about Mother Miranda.
00:56:42
Speaker
Like I didn't really care that much about her.
00:56:44
Speaker
Well, by the time it got, I was really intrigued by her at first because she's got this classic six, six winged angel kind of thing going on.
00:56:53
Speaker
I think that's really neat.
00:56:55
Speaker
And I was looking forward to that.
00:56:56
Speaker
And, um, but yeah, you're, they, they didn't really give you much about her beyond that until the very, very end.
00:57:05
Speaker
And by that time I was just kind of like, okay, let's, let's take this bitch out.
00:57:08
Speaker
We're done.
00:57:10
Speaker
Let's wrap it up.
00:57:11
Speaker
Right.
00:57:12
Speaker
Right.
00:57:13
Speaker
And, and you do so with aplomb.
00:57:15
Speaker
I think it took me two times to beat her.
00:57:17
Speaker
She was the only one that she's the only boss.
00:57:19
Speaker
It took me multiple times to kill.
00:57:21
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, it was it was something about I think I I kind of figured out my ammo pattern for her.
00:57:30
Speaker
It was like, all right, when am I going to use my shotgun?
00:57:33
Speaker
When am I going to use the magnum to polish her off?
00:57:36
Speaker
You know, stuff like that.
00:57:36
Speaker
It was it was it was basic.
00:57:38
Speaker
It was the throwback to basic Resident Evil like ammo conservation kind of boss fight.
00:57:44
Speaker
Yeah.
00:57:46
Speaker
So, and that's it.
00:57:48
Speaker
That's the end of the game.
00:57:49
Speaker
Like, there's not much else but a cutscene after that.
00:57:51
Speaker
Yeah, you get a little button that tells you a little bit about, gives you more ideas of where the next game's gonna go, which I thought was pretty cool.
00:58:00
Speaker
Yeah.
00:58:02
Speaker
Yeah.
00:58:03
Speaker
So, yeah.
00:58:04
Speaker
I mean, what did you think, Kevin?
00:58:08
Speaker
I don't know if it's not obvious by now, but overall, what did you think of Resident Evil Village?
00:58:13
Speaker
I really, really liked it.
00:58:16
Speaker
It was... It's one of those games where it's... It ran the risk of being really disjointed, but it wasn't.
Cohesive game narrative despite risks
00:58:29
Speaker
Like, the way it was put together, they had a... There was a really big risk where it would just feel completely disjointed, and I think that it was... It's a miracle...
00:58:42
Speaker
Well, not a miracle, just a lot of talent and planning that they managed to pull it off.
00:58:46
Speaker
It managed to work out and everything felt in its own Resident Evil way.
00:58:51
Speaker
Everything felt earned.
00:58:53
Speaker
It wasn't like it wasn't like it's not like a, you know, it's not the the the best writing in the world, but it is very competent writing.
00:59:03
Speaker
And it everything dovetailed together in a way that I would be like, yeah, that's fine.
00:59:09
Speaker
Yeah, it all it all made sense.
00:59:12
Speaker
It worked.
00:59:13
Speaker
Yeah.
00:59:14
Speaker
Yeah.
00:59:14
Speaker
No, I couldn't agree more.
00:59:17
Speaker
I thought it was really strong.
00:59:18
Speaker
I thought it was more of it was like more of the stuff that you wanted in your Resident Evil game.
00:59:26
Speaker
with enough surprises and shifts.
00:59:29
Speaker
Like, for example, the fact that clearly the designers are sick of zombies.
00:59:34
Speaker
Clearly.
00:59:35
Speaker
You know?
00:59:37
Speaker
And the villains were great.
00:59:38
Speaker
The bosses were great.
00:59:39
Speaker
It was just... It was a fun damn time.
00:59:42
Speaker
And I'm definitely going to play it again.
00:59:45
Speaker
Yeah.
00:59:45
Speaker
I've got to find all the goats.
00:59:46
Speaker
I've got to break all the goats.
00:59:47
Speaker
Yeah, I'm halfway through my second playthrough.
00:59:50
Speaker
Nice.
00:59:51
Speaker
I actually just beat Moreau again this afternoon.
00:59:55
Speaker
Oh, nice.
00:59:56
Speaker
No, I'm desperately trying to.
00:59:58
Speaker
I have such a backlog.
01:00:00
Speaker
I've been doing this thing lately where I have I have a ton of Warhammer miniatures that I need to paint.
01:00:05
Speaker
I've got a bunch of books I need to read.
01:00:07
Speaker
And I've got a bunch of computer games that I need to play.
01:00:11
Speaker
And I'm just doing this thing where I'm not, I'm not getting a new book until I've read like 10 books.
01:00:16
Speaker
I'm not buying a new model until I've painted like 10 models.
01:00:19
Speaker
And I'm trying to do that with video games too.
01:00:23
Speaker
Uh, yeah, that makes sense.
01:00:24
Speaker
So I, I, I, I don't remember if I shared this on, on an episode or not, but I, I,
01:00:31
Speaker
when it was coming out, I it was like the Thursday before the Friday that this game was coming out.
01:00:36
Speaker
And I went to Emily, my fiance, and they said, I'm just so frustrated because I haven't I haven't played or beaten enough games to justify buying this yet.
01:00:46
Speaker
And Emily just looks at me.
01:00:47
Speaker
She goes, just buy the fucking game.
01:00:49
Speaker
It's all you've been talking about.
01:00:51
Speaker
Buy the game.
01:00:52
Speaker
I went, okay, and I bought the game.
01:00:54
Speaker
And so I've beaten it now.
01:00:56
Speaker
I'm like, okay, back on track.
01:00:58
Speaker
Let's play Middle Earth.
01:00:59
Speaker
Let's finish that one off, you know?
01:01:01
Speaker
Yeah, yeah.
01:01:02
Speaker
Finish off some other things.
01:01:03
Speaker
Yeah, that's a good rule of thumb.
01:01:08
Speaker
I'm trying, you know, we're planning a wedding and trying to get, and she's, she recently started a new career.
01:01:14
Speaker
She's, she just became a, she is a baker.
01:01:17
Speaker
She is, she's working for a local bakery.
01:01:20
Speaker
That's amazing.
01:01:21
Speaker
It's awesome.
01:01:21
Speaker
She's an amazing baker.
01:01:22
Speaker
This is something she's wanted for a long time.
01:01:24
Speaker
I'm really proud of her.
01:01:26
Speaker
But like, you know, we're, she's, she's starting a new career path.
01:01:29
Speaker
We're planning a wedding.
01:01:30
Speaker
You know, we don't, I don't, I don't want to spend money that I don't got.
01:01:33
Speaker
Yeah.
01:01:33
Speaker
So totally, totally get it.
01:01:36
Speaker
Yeah.
01:01:36
Speaker
And so that's, that's what I'm aiming for it.
01:01:38
Speaker
And you know what?
01:01:39
Speaker
I'll be honest.
01:01:39
Speaker
It's working so far.
01:01:41
Speaker
So good.
01:01:41
Speaker
So that's awesome.
01:01:42
Speaker
That's awesome.
01:01:43
Speaker
Yeah.
01:01:44
Speaker
Life is good.
01:01:45
Speaker
As long as there are video games and books based on them, then we'll be happy.
01:01:50
Speaker
Yeah.
01:01:50
Speaker
And we'll, we'll be happy and we'll be here on Pixel Lit talking about them.
01:01:56
Speaker
That was good.
01:01:57
Speaker
That was really good.
01:01:59
Speaker
I'm really proud of you, Kevin.
01:02:01
Speaker
That was good.
01:02:01
Speaker
Thank you.
01:02:02
Speaker
Thank you.
01:02:03
Speaker
Take care, everyone.
01:02:04
Speaker
Bye, guys.
01:02:10
Speaker
Thank you for listening to the Pixel Lit Podcast.
01:02:12
Speaker
If you want to follow us or let us know about what our next book should be, please make sure you check us out at Instagram and Twitter at Pixel Lit Pod or check out our website at Pixelit.info.