Resident Evil: Village Plot holes and other nonsense (spoilers)

[Hardware]

OK, I played through Village enough times to notice some gaping holes in the narrative along with several other things that just don't make sense. Why don't we discuss them?

I'll start with something that itched me even though is not one of the biggest issues of the plot, and that is what Lady Dimitrescu says during her boss fight: "Rose is our only hope!"...for what, exactly? Rose is supposed to be used by Mother Miranda to resurrect her daughter (let's ignore the fact the baby girl was chopped to pieces and then brought back to life again): what "only hope" does she represent for Lady D and the other Lords? That line seems to have been casually thrown in...unless it was written and recorded when the game had a different plot. And it has already been shown that Village was supposed to be rather different, case in point:

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1395841587557588992

 

[UniqTeas]

I do not know why she would say that. But maybe, since she shows gratitude to Mother Miranda through the earlier parts of her story - maybe Rose is her only hope to see Mother Miranda finally bring Eva back.

But now that you are mentioning it. Is there a storyline reason to separate Roses parts among the Four Lords? For protection from Chris or the BSAA? I cannot recall any files or dialogue mentioning it.

 

[Hardware]

No, there's not - unless you want to believe that Mother Miranda did that so Ethan would kill all the Lords one by one. It's all pretty feeble. BTW, the idea is definitely lifted from "Akira" (the anime, not the manga). Also, what's the point of the Duke telling you the baby might be in Lady D's rooms if Rose ha been "split"? Also, why is there a cradle in Lady D's room?

 

[Mr.R]

I think Miranda separated Rose's body either to test her regenerative powers or...in order to "revive" her daughter, she might needed to rewrite or rework Rose's DNA somehow and splitting her is the magical-science way to do it with Mold in the RE World. Neither makes much sense, honestly. It's just a gameplay device to force you into taking the four lords.
As for the cradle in Lady D.'s room, at first I thought that maybe they housed Rose there for a while, but since everything happened in roughly a day, then...who knows? She might had a real children in the past, it could be Lady D's cradle from when she was a baby...or maybe it's just for the player to see the cradle empty and realize she's not there.

 

[PinkHerb]

Well, Duke was technically right that Lady D has Rose, probably just didn't know that she had a piece of her.

Here is plot contrivance, it just so happens that out of all the places in Europe, they placed the Winters right where Miranda is close by. It was explained that the Connection has told her about Mia, but why? Did they know that that the family was hiding away in presumably Romania where Miranda is just so happen to be living her village? I do not think the BSAA would secretly leak the info even if they were corrupt since they would probably want the mold for themselves.

 

[RipvanX]

The Cadou parasites were poorly fleshed out and seem more like C-Virus mutants than anything else. How did Miranda infect the villagers with it? By food source? Fake flu shots? It’s confusing since it seems the old man in the beginning had one in his body already due to him changing, but the game does a poor job showing how and why mutations occur. RE4 did a much better job with the Plaga, and even hinted at T-Virus being used to help strengthen the parasites.

There was also the zombies in the castle and in some outdoor areas, do they also have Cadou in their bodies? Why didn’t they change into Lycans? In RE1 and RE2, the different zombie mutations were explained through V-Act. So having no scientific explanation here makes this feel like a fantasy game. There is also the cybernetic enemies in the Factory that are a whole other realm of how and why.

Last but not least are the mutant soldiers the BSAA sent to the village. What created those? We didn’t even encounter any BSAA in the village at all, so their presence felt like a complete waste of time.

 

[SpaceOwlHoot]

Well, Duke was technically right that Lady D has Rose, probably just didn't know that she had a piece of her.

Here is plot contrivance, it just so happens that out of all the places in Europe, they placed the Winters right where Miranda is close by. It was explained that the Connection has told her about Mia, but why? Did they know that that the family was hiding away in presumably Romania where Miranda is just so happen to be living her village? I do not think the BSAA would secretly leak the info even if they were corrupt since they would probably want the mold for themselves.

This is one thing I was wondering about...In the Baker Incident Report, they mentioned that The Connection is highly active in Eastern Europe so the BSAA send the Winterses to Eastern Europe to protect them from The Connections...? what?

Wonder if the BSAA used the Winterses as bait

 

[PinkHerb]

This is one thing I was wondering about...In the Baker Incident Report, they mentioned that The Connection is highly active in Eastern Europe so the BSAA send the Winterses to Eastern Europe to protect them from The Connections...? what?

Wonder if the BSAA used the Winterses as bait

Is that right? Then that is dumb planning on their part. Make you wonder if they have a mole on the inside, which is how Miranda knows what is going on. I am not so sure. Mia and Ethan would be too valuable to be left as bait, I don't think they would risk them being killed since they are promising subjects, especially their daughter.

 

[UniqTeas]

If you read through the reports in Village, there are a bunch of mentions of how different experimentation lead to different results. The zombie-like creatures were given Cadou without any enhancements and were not viable applicants to evolve. The lycans were given Cadou with a mixture of wolf blood/wolf DNA in order to try and yield better results, but most would just turn to Lycans. Those with strong enough DNA would eventually become stronger (or just different) as Miranda was looking for a body that she could transform in to her daughter again (Eva?).

Those who has special DNA or strong enough DNA eventually became the Four Lords. The only one they actually describe how she got special powers was Lady Demetriscu who was born with a rare blood disorder that somehow effected the Cadou to giver her enhanced regeneration properties (and extra height and strength) as long as she continuously fed on human flesh and blood.

They also give a little information about Donna who apparently was well equipped to become enhanced through the Cadou, but she was mentally unwell (after an accident) and had always relied on her Angie doll to communicate with the outside world. Well, luckily for her, she was compatible with the Cadou and was able to divide her Cadou among her dolls so she could bring them to life and communicate with them. Of course, Angie was just another personality she owned, but I imagine she was happiest being able to communicate with her best friend.

Moreau and Heisenberg just... got powers from being compatible?

 

[Hardware]

If you read through the reports in Village, there are a bunch of mentions of how different experimentation lead to different results. The zombie-like creatures were given Cadou without any enhancements and were not viable applicants to evolve. The lycans were given Cadou with a mixture of wolf blood/wolf DNA in order to try and yield better results, but most would just turn to Lycans. Those with strong enough DNA would eventually become stronger (or just different) as Miranda was looking for a body that she could transform in to her daughter again (Eva?).

Actually, they never explain why there are zombies in the game (I am talking about the ones crawling out of the ground and graves after the Beneviento segment). The lycans are failed attempts at infecting humans with the Cadou (even though the plot is very feeble about how that is supposed to happen). The ones with wolf blood injected in their spines are the huge wolf-like creatures and were created by Moreau.

So having no scientific explanation here makes this feel like a fantasy game.

That's my main issue with Village: IT IS a fantasy game. It's Bloodborne set in modern times with the Resident Evil brand slapped on it. The Cadou parasite is a terrible explanation...also I am having troubles understanding the difference between it and the Megamycete. One is obtained from the other, but the idea of having two biological agents at the same time is confusing. I just discovered via Project Umbrella (I am one of their patreons) that in the Japanese version Lady D's height is explained by the accelerated metabolism the Cadou endowed her with...which is better than nothing, but it's still a very weak justification for having a Hachishakusama-like character in-game. Also, poison can "alter her balance" (or something like that) and the super-poisonous dagger you stab her with was created by the old lord of the castle who suffered from delusions and wanted to kill monsters - again, a feeble explanations for a very fantasy-inspired item (heroes slaying dragons with mystical blades is a trope of the genre and are the stuff of legends) but still better than what's written in the Western edition.

 

[RipvanX]

Actually, they never explain why there are zombies in the game (I am talking about the ones crawling out of the ground and graves after the Beneviento segment). The lycans are failed attempts at infecting humans with the Cadou (even though the plot is very feeble about how that is supposed to happen). The ones with wolf blood injected in their spines are the huge wolf-like creatures and were created by Moreau.



That's my main issue with Village: IT IS a fantasy game. It's Bloodborne set in modern times with the Resident Evil brand slapped on it. The Cadou parasite is a terrible explanation...also I am having troubles understanding the difference between it and the Megamycete. One is obtained from the other, but the idea of having two biological agents at the same time is confusing. I just discovered via Project Umbrella (I am one of their patreons) that in the Japanese version Lady D's height is explained by the accelerated metabolism the Cadou endowed her with...which is better than nothing, but it's still a very weak justification for having a Hachishakusama-like character in-game. Also, poison can "alter her balance" (or something like that) and the super-poisonous dagger you stab her with was created by the old lord of the castle who suffered from delusions and wanted to kill monsters - again, a feeble explanations for a very fantasy-inspired item (heroes slaying dragons with mystical blades is a trope of the genre and are the stuff of legends) but still better than what's written in the Western edition.

They could straight up have ghosts in the next game and I feel people would be fine with that. It’s getting harder to resonate with this series after Revelations 2 in the timeline for me. All the new villains they introduced have had weak motives and no real charisma like Albert and Alex did. The obsession with Lady D is also annoying, it’s like people never seen a giant pair of breasts in a game before. This is the most cluster**** of a lore dump I have ever seen from an RE game. It doesn’t paint a coherent picture, nor serve as a good successor for the rest of the biological weapons in the series. Can mold be added to any parasite and virus to make it stronger now?

Capcom: “Just go fight wolf men and collect decapitated baby parts. Oh and here’s a tank to fight off a metal gear boss! Stop asking questions!”

 

[Hardware]

They could have straight up ghosts in the next game and I feel people would be fine with that. It’s getting harder to resonate with this series for me after Revelations 2 in the storyline. The villains have weak motives and no real charisma like Albert or Alex did. The obsession with Lady D is also annoying, it’s like people never seen a giant pair of breasts in a game before. This is the most cluster**** of a lore dump I have ever seen from an RE game that doesn’t paint a coherent picture or for the rest of the biological weapons of the series. Can mold be added to any parasite and virus to make it stronger now?

Capcom: “Just go fight wolf men and collect decapitated baby parts. Oh and here’s a tank to fight off a metal gear boss! Stop asking questions!”

I agree on all your points, but you and I are among the very few who are annoyed by the latest "evolutions" of the lore...I actually have issues with everything that came after C:V, save for some bits of RE5.

I reckon most of the people who got the hots for "Lady Double-D" (not my joke) are teenagers with little-to-no actual experience of real women and who were not alive when the original Tomb Raider games got released.

Yeah, it's utter incoherence...I think it's a rare case of an entry of any franchise that manages to not stay coherent with both the past installments as well as with itself. The mold is even worse than the nanomachines in MGS4 - and that is already something.

Heisenberg's boss fight is when I was really thinking about quitting the game: it wasn't just the tank, but the monster being a Tetsuo-ish mesh of flesh and metal really pushed it too far for me. And then we got to Mother Miranda, which is one of the worst (if not THE worst) boss-fights in the franchise: not only she's totally out of place (she belongs to a Silent Hill game...especially since she's Dhalia from SH1), but the actual fight is not engaging at all. It's just a bunch of pretty graphics - kudos to the artists and programmers, but that's it.

"Stop asking questions!" - that's more or less what I have been getting from other fans for the past decade or so. Apparently, the majority of the user-base was never into the narrative side of the games and are fine with everything that is thrown at them. Even Jared from Avalanche Review (who is supposed to be a crusty old nerd like me) said that he had fun with the plot. I just don't get it.

 

[UniqTeas]

I understand that they made a game with these gothic horror creatures and then added a bunch of faux-science to explain it all, but I am at least glad that they did that. I found the characters to be interesting (even if Dimitrescu and Moreau have very similar final forms).

In the English version of Village we all played, they explain that Lady D had an extreme metabolism which made her grow due to the Cadou. I feel like those books in Mirandas lab explained a little bit about each of the four lords... except what was the driving factor between each of their mutations. Like, why did Lady D grow from the Cadou, but Moreau became a fish monster? And why did Heisenberg get the ability to manipulate electrical fields? The reading explains that each of the Four Lords had some sort of ability to evolve with the Cadou, but they all ended up with different abilities.

And speaking of the zombies - they were purposely manufactured by Lady D in order to serve her and protect her. They were ritualistically created if they were female servants. All of the men were drained of their blood.

And interestingly enough, if you read the excerpts from the Concept Art, it explains that Urias was the village chief or elder before becoming the leader of the Lycans. The stronger Urias was his elder brother. No mention of why they were specifically bigger and stronger, but they are mentioned as having some position before being changed.

 

[Hardware]

It's not faux-science, it's just a weak explanation: faux-science is the T-Virus. The Four Lords are essentially like the X-Men. The fact they drop everything on your head in the last bit makes it look like it was all rushed.

The zombies I am referring to are not the ones in the castle (the so-called "mororaica"). I am talking about the ones that come out of their graves after you defeat Donna Beneviento, which all have a pretty rotten appearance.

 

[UniqTeas]

It is still faux-science. They have biological explanations as to why each of the enemies exist as is.

And about the grave-ridden Moroaica that come out of the dirt? They do not specifically say, but I assume that the mold takes some times activate in them - so I guess a reasonable response would be that they were thought to be failed corpses and buried, but when the Metamucyte grew stronger, they were also activated. OR they bury all of the Moroaic before their rising akin to the way Anne Rice vampires are buried and have to escape their grave before being able to reenter society. Not sure. Probably just an oversight in order to be continually creepy.

 

[RipvanX]

A bit of a rant and I know this is all science fiction but that’s what made the classic RE’s special to me. Viruses have made many enlarged mutants in the series but howcome the G-virus didn’t make Sherry a giant over the years like the Cadou did to Dimitrescu?

Dimitrecu’s daughters’ creation makes no sense. How do bugs completely devour a corpse and perfectly mimic an entire organism without any sort of visual deformities? The leeches in RE0 tried this but were still unable to mimic someone perfectly except for the Queen leech reviving Marcus. (Which also jumped the shark a bit).

Why do the Cadou make zombie like creatures in the first place? Are they like the Plaga from Damnation?

Why did Miranda use only wolf DNA on the villagers and not other animals? Or did she also use crow DNA to make those flying bird mutants?

Why does the mold enter a crystallized state and what is its significance while like that? Does it have a life cycle and if so what is it?

How did Miranda stumble upon one of the most powerful organisms on the planet (Megamycete) without any sort of assistance or knowledge of its existence? Imagine just walking into a cave somewhere and finding eternal life while researchers have dedicated their lives to finding new species and habitats. It feels far-fetched.

How can Miranda not suspect Heisenberg’s betrayal despite all of them being “linked” to the Megamycete? Jack Baker could telepathically communicate with Ethan so how different was Eveline’s mold from Miranda’s if this was the reason why they didn’t have this ability?

If Miranda didn’t want to take over the world like Spenser, than why did she give Heisenberg the resources to build a mutant cyborg army?

Mia knew who Miranda was as evident from the photo in the lab, so why did they move to an area in Romania where she knew where she resided? Why would she keep Ethan’s mutation secret to begin with?

The fact Ethan made it out of Louisiana without being suspected of being a molded is ridiculous. He would of been put in a quarantine zone forever if they tested him for mold infection.

Also Enhanced C and the Cadou seem like the most overpowered BOW’s in the series to date and have no real rules holding them back from creating anything and everything. This is why RE6 and RE8 will remain my least favorites simply from a science fiction standpoint and ruin what was established. Making all other research feel pointless in hindsight, except for maybe the Plaga and Uroboros.

 

[UniqTeas]

Well, there are a ton of questions left over from the every game in the series (ESPECIALLY 4-6), but I think we can assume some of the answers.

In some of the files, it mentions that wolf blood/DNA was added to the Cadou because the initial Cadou experiments were just killing the hosts (or maybe turning them in to the mindless zombies). And my assumption is that Miranda was testing every individual person she could so she could find the right host for the memories of Eva. Since the wolf blood was creating the lycan strain of enemies (I do think the wolf blood-cadou combo made the lycans AND the giant werewolves), she experimented with some other blood types. The crow blood idea is actually referenced by some of the drawings and photos on Mirandas lab wall.

Then, during the final battle with Miranda, she thanks Ethan for killing off the Four Lords - and here is a bit of an explanation taken from this Mother Miranda RE Wikia page: “She would then have Rosemary's body separated into four flasks, and gave the four lords each one to guard it. Her true goal with having her four lords guarding it was to have all of them eliminated by Winters to give more power to the fungal root, which Heisenberg had guessed years prior. In addition, Miranda saw no more use for the inhabitants of the village, and ordered Heisenberg to have the Lycans slaughter them to feed the Megamycete.“

This does seem like a macguffin, but at least there is some sort of reason in there.

 

[RipvanX]

I’m not even sure what Capcoms ultimate goal is with this story anymore. It’s like how Disney handled Star Wars, there is no “trilogy” plan. They are just going day by day to see how fans and the general masses react to their flagship IP and go from there. It’s literally the death of visionary creativity. RE has not influenced the gaming industry since RE4 and simply piggybacks off what is popular at the time now. Nothing in RE8 makes me sit back and go “wow, so that is what this series was missing.”

I really wanted to like this game but I feel this won’t be winning me over like RE5 did. I feel like Wesker coming back with superpowers in CVX was the true shift towards this direction we are in now.

At this rate I will be surprised if RE can make it to its 40th anniversary without becoming a full blown superhero game. Jun Takeuchi needs to drop the bong and dial it back by several notches.

 

[PinkHerb]

The story has many holes and there is a few more~

Chris' actions in the game is just downright ridiculous. First of all, he decided to have the brilliant idea of him and his team of trying to kill Mia(Miranda) during dinner where Ethan and his baby were present, putting them in extreme danger. He did this i am presuming in a suburban area where everyone can see, even if the Winters home was isolated, it was still very risky! There had to have been other options than busting a cap into her while a stray bullet could've struck Ethan. I am not sure how Chris knew of Miranda's existence, or how he knew of the Mia switcharoo, but he could've found a way to isolate him and told him what is going on so he would've come up with a plan. Then they decided to kidnap father and daughter along with the 'corpse' to a secret location, of course things go wrong and it just so happen they crashed near the village. Chris is there as well, but he treats poor Ethan like garbage for now reason, even have the nerve to say "don't get involved, stay out of this!" MF, you're the one responsible for putting him in this situation!! What do you mean, 'don't get involved'?! You left this man in the dark, made him believe that you murdered his wife, kidnapping his kid, putting the family in a dangerous situation, and being a butthole when he wanted answers? Get TF out of here.

 

[UniqTeas]

I listened to a deep lore podcast (half of it actually) and some of the items make a little more sense after you read the supplemental bonus materials in the game along with every file. Here are some items I was still confused about.

1. Chris moves Ethan and Mia close to Romania despite knowing about the threat of Miranda - There is apparently some information in the game describing how Chris moved Ethan and Mia closer to Romania in order to draw out Miranda so his team could make a move. Miranda was under surveillance for a while, but due to her shapeshifting abilities, they could never quite pin her down. Ethan and his family were bait.

2. Miranda wants Ethan to kill the Four Lords - Of course, there is some lore and some additional speculation with this one, but the working theory is now that in order to fully access the power of Megamycete, the Four Lords had to be killed so they would draw less from the main Megamycete and make the ritual a success. Miranda was either worried about facing them herself or because she was bonded to the Megamycete, it would not allow her to willingly harm the other creatures.

3. Cadou Info - This is something I just overlooked. Apparently, in the past, Miranda used just mold from the Megamycete to experiment on the townsfolk, but it proved to be slow moving and wasted a lot of her precious time as she searched for the proper vessel for Eva. The Cadou was developed because it could infect individuals with the mold much faster and incidentally, she began creating a small lycan army.

There is still a lot to look through and some of this is speculative, but I think it is good to hear different opinions and facts.