My biggest fear is that the huge sales boost from the RE4 remake will hurt our chances of getting more games similar in style to RE2R in the near future. Because let's face it, as great as RE4R is it is undoubtedly a lot more action-oriented. Combined with the popularity of VIIlage, it's safe to assume that we'll be getting more action and less survival horror in the upcoming RE games. Until the next time Capcom realizes what the fans actually want.
I know I've been singing the game's praises but because of the work it's based on, I'm a little more forgiving of the elements I didn't care for in the original because of how survival horror forward the remake is despite it all. But I definitely hope they don't take the wrong lessons from RE4's success and by extension, Village. I mean, they've certainly made moves to abide by specific survival horror conventions when they didn’t have to.
As much as Village is a throwback to RE4, I can't deny it didn’t drastically improve on the formula in an effort to stick closer to its survival horror roots. And while we still had a lot to criticize about the game, I feel like RE4 Remake actually remedies a lot of these criticisms and even goes back on Village's attempt to make the game easier after complaints of RE7's "difficulty."
To Capcom's credit, I've consistently praised just how well they've been able to balance action with survival horror gameplay since RE3 Remake despite other issues I've taken with the games that have been holding the series back from reaching its full potential. But as far as the action and gameplay is concerned, I think there's nothing to worry about. I wouldn't want the series to minimize the action to what we got in RE2 Remake as that was the result of being faithful to the original RE2 experience just like RE4 Remake had to go back on Village's more traditional Metroidvania-like design and adhere to the original RE4's linear structure.
Action has always been a part of the series but could never shine like it does now due to the limitations of the fixed camera perspective which I think is highlighted most in the games' boss fights which have only gotten better with the move to over the shoulder gameplay. So I'm okay with all the newly added mechanics such as crouching, dodging, or parrying because they just weren't possible in the classic games nor executed nearly as well. That is as long as the threat is properly scaled, the action is well paced, and resource management is at the forefront of every encounter.
It's just hard to gauge what direction they'll ultimately take the series given how different the goal of each game has been. It's great that all these games are happening so close to eachother on the same engine and using the same gameplay and foundation, but with no consistent vision in mind, it's impossible to guess what lessons they're taking away from these games when it's just rehashing and celebrating itself without any real evolution. There's no clear identity to the series because the games will sell on name alone which is a double edged sword because on one hand, they can better define what a Resident Evil game is by honing in on the common elements between the games without relying on popular trends for sales, or they can become complacent in their success and lose sight of the importance specific choices and elements had on their games because people will buy it anyway.
