Resident Evil Village is a direct sequel to RE7, even featuring the same protagonist, but the games appear to be quite different aside from that. Resident Evil Village will bring back the first-person perspective pioneered in the series by RE7, but overall the game will be much larger, feature an upgrade and barter system, and have more of a connection to previous entries based on the prominent presence of Chris Redfield. Resident Evil Village also has a unique setting – a Romanian castle and its surrounding town – where a new virus, or new virus variant, has cropped up.
Most Resident Evil games feature viruses bioengineered by the Umbrella Corporation or affiliated groups, but RE7's enemies were hosts of a fungal organism known as Mold. These slimy, black, and resilient creatures stalked the halls of the Baker estate, entirely consuming the bodies of those who were not compatible. Like many T-Virus zombies from RE games past, the Molded rarely did anything aside from amble straight toward the player until they took one too many bullets to the head. The primary enemies in Resident Evil Village, however, appear to not only be more intelligent, but something entirely unique to the Resident Evil series.
RE7 breathed new life into the franchise after the disappointment that was RE6, and its new, creepily undulating enemies were a major part of that. Resident Evil Village appears to be doing something similar, but with werewolf-like infected. The zombies in Resident Evil Village appear fast, capable of using weapons, and are supposedly prone to stalking the player.
Resident Evil 8 Has Lycans in a Village Run by Vampires
Resident Evil Village appears to be leaning heavily into classic monster movie villain archetypes, but with a refreshing and modern spin tailored to the series. Although the general enemies within the village appear to be lycanthropic, it's more likely that this is some new virus from Umbrella, considering the evil pharmaceutical company's logo was featured prominently in Resident Evil Village's new story trailer. It doesn't come as much of a surprise that Umbrella would be showing up again after it was almost completely missing from RE7, even though the original Umbrella Corporation is defunct. Chris Redfield was seen sporting a blue Umbrella logo at the end of RE7; the company has seemingly turned a new leaf and is attempting to rectify its crimes.
Perhaps this is why Chris has brought protagonist Ethan Winters to Eastern Europe and dropped him in the middle of a village full of werewolf zombies. Based on hints from Resident Evil Village's promotional art, Chris has a secret mission of his own that involves this new virus. Although Lady Dimitrescu, the blood-drinking matriarch of the castle, is the most prominently featured villain in Resident Evil Village's advertising campaign, a woman named Mother Miranda seems to be the one who is really in charge. Mother Miranda might be the key to this strange village's connection with the defunct Umbrella Corporation. Resident Evil Village has had a plentiful amount of pre-release content, but Capcom has done well to keep the game's story a mystery.