Resident Evil Village's first DLC, Shadows of Rose, is due to release in October, and it and any further DLC that may enter the works in the future will have a chance to elevate the game it's tied to the way that Resident Evil 7's DLC did before it. It already looks like it's on the right track, promising a mysterious new playable story starring a teenage Rosemary Winters and the addition of fan-favorite antagonists Lady Dimitrescu and Karl Heisenberg as controllable Mercenaries Mode characters. But Village DLC could truly bring it home by utilizing what made RE7's DLC such fun and satisfying additions to 7's experience.
Resident Evil 7's DLC is the Banned Footage collection, the Not a Hero campaign, and the End of Zoe campaign. The first of these is a series of minigames and story slices primarily starring the Baker family, 7's antagonists. The last two wrap up the stories of the family's son and daughter, serial killer Lucas and uninfected survivor Zoe, who are left unaccounted for by the end of the main game.
What these scenarios lent to Resident Evil 7 that Resident Evil Village could benefit from is a deeper and more intimate connection with the game's characters, setting, and themes. The Banned Footage series' Nightmare, Bedroom, and 21 see the player controlling cameraman Clancy Jarvis during close encounters with Resident Evil 7's Baker antagonists Jack, Marguerite, and Lucas respectively, each brush containing not only horror but pitch-black comedy. They invite players to familiarize themselves further with their massive and eccentric personalities darkly parodying dysfunctional family dynamics, whether they find themselves daunted or plain entertained by their presences. The Daughters scenario then re-humanizes the Bakers, depicting the last night they spent together as an everyday family through Zoe's eyes and containing hints about their lives together that cast elements of their characters as portrayed in the main game in bittersweet new lights.
How Resident Evil Village DLC Could Equal RE7's In Impact
Shadows of Rose has every opportunity to similarly add a sense of thoughtful intimacy and complex tragedy to Village in a way appropriate to the game's focus on the Winters family's plight. But if Capcom elected to develop one, a plot-centric Resident Evil Village DLC set in the game's titular town before Ethan's unplanned visit might provide the ripest opportunity possible to add a sense of breadth and interconnectedness to Village's theme of both twisted family bonds and familial loyalty. After all, RE7 showcases these through the Winters' and Bakers alike, and while Village aims to reflect them in its antagonists as well, Mother Miranda and the Four Lords are still largely strangers to a player at the end of the day.
Elena Lupu and her father Leonardo, two minor characters who Ethan meets early into his misadventure, would be ripe central figures for such a DLC, as members of a village family struggling under Mother Miranda's cult and the aristocrats' rule. A Lord's servant around the time of Miranda's arrival would also be an intriguing and appropriate character to follow - especially if they worked for the shrouded figure Donna Beneviento who can control dolls, or the amphibious Salvatore Moreau. Not only are they the least developed of the Lords in the main game, but the deaths of Beneviento's biological family are also implied to have shaped her enigmatic behavior, and Moreau exhibits desperation to please Miranda evocative of a long-suffering child with a distant and critical mother.
But it may be too soon to discuss what Resident Evil Village DLC could do. Anticipation is high for Shadows of Rose, and series fans will soon find out if it will raise Village's psychological experience to the level of Resident Evil 7.