We were all expecting some big news concerning Resident Evil Village and other games during Capcom’s E3 2021 conference. Unfortunately, the publisher’s conference was the most disappointing of E3 so far, with new looks only for games that have already released a lot of footage and almost no love for our favorite survival-horror franchise. From the conference, we learned that the PvP add-on Resident Evil RE:Verse got a July release date after being delayed due to matchmaking issues. Also, there’s a Resident Evil Village DLC being developed, however, we didn’t get a trailer, an image, or even a description of what that DLC could look like.
In full honesty, the announcement that Resident Evil Village is getting a DLC shouldn’t count as news. Resident Evil 7: Biohazard also had multiple DLCs that expanded its story, so it was kind of obvious that Capcom would offer more paid content for one of the best-selling games of the Resident Evil franchise. What we needed to know, then, is when we’ll be able to get back to the Village and what can we expect this time, given that the main storyline doesn’t leave a lot of loose threads to explore. Since Capcom won’t tell us, all we can do is wonder. And that’s exactly what we’ll do, by discussing the different ways Resident Evil Village’s DLC can bring more of what we loved so much in the base experience. Beware, though, as we’ll need to delve deep into spoilers.
Spoilers Ahead
Release the DLC Wolves
Resident Evil 7’s longest DLC featured Chris Redfield pursuing escaping bioweapons after the Lousiana’s bayou incident. By controlling Chris, the player has to wipe out the Mold supercolony in the region, in order to make sure new menaces will not arise in the future. Resident Evil Village might not be able to use the same strategy, since the explosion at the ending of the game looks pretty definitive. Chris and his Wolves destroyed the Megamycete and put an end to the Mold hazard at the end of Resident Evil Village, which is why there’s not much they can clean up after Resident Evil Village’s events. But what about before?
While exploring the Village, our hero Ethan Winters crosses paths with the Hound Wolf Squad several times. By searching every nook and cranny, the player can even find secret bases that are not part of the main story. Resident Evil Village’s DLC could give the player control of the full Hound Wolf Squad, showing how they dealt with the Four Lords and the bioweapons at the same time as Ethan. This would be the perfect way to reuse the same levels but still offer a new perspective on the story. This choice would also resonate with the branching paths of the first two Resident Evil games; their full stories were only revealed after playing with two different characters through two different paths. It would sure be nice to see how the Hound Wolf Squad affected Ethan’s mission in ways we don’t even know about.
Ethan Winter’s Training Camp
Resident Evil Village takes place years after the events of Resident Evil 7. From the game’s intro, we learn that Ethan and his wife Mia relocated to Europe, and that this happened after Ethan received some military training from Chris. Since Ethan definitely dies at the ending of Resident Evil Village, the DLC could bring our hero back by focusing on the past. There are three years and eight months of the story to fill between Resident Evil 7 and Resident Evil Village, so it’s not even too hard to bring some new minor bioweapon for Ethan to fight while he was still in training.
Bringing Chris as a coach figure could also show us how the leader of the Hound Wolf Squad lost trust in the Bioterrorism Security Assessment Alliance (BSAA), a minor villain at the ending of Resident Evil Village. Maybe there are some unknown bioweapon incidents that could be revealed to the public, and a flashback DLC is the perfect way to do it.
The Fifth Lord
Mother Miranda had four children. But what if there’s a Fifth Lord of the Village? A failed experiment that not even Miranda wanted to keep close by? It would be easy to explain how a powerful bioweapon escaped the Megamycete destruction if the potential Fifth Lord was shunned by its family long before the events of Resident Evil Village, building his own empire in another part of Europe.
Chris’s Hound Wolf Squad could be called to hunt the missing child of Mother Miranda, and the introduction of a new Lord can also lead to some of the inventive gameplay we’ve seen in the base game. Each of the Lords’ areas is based on a different Resident Evil mechanic, focusing on hiding, fighting, or even fleeing accordingly to each Lord’s personality and powers. Adding a Fifth Lord is the perfect opportunity for Capcom to bring something new to Resident Evil Village’s DLC.
The Season of the Villains
If Capcom really wants to subvert the rules of the game, maybe they could drop the heroes for the DLC. Instead of more shooting, why not develop DLC focused on some of the best villains in the game? By giving the player control of a villain, the DLC can still reuse the Village, while at the same time giving the player new abilities and goals, tailored to each of the villains they decide to feature.
A DLC starring Lady Dimitrescu could have the players hunting escaped prey inside the castle, inverting the cat-and-mouse dynamic we witnessed in the base game. It would be a blast to see more of Our Dear Tall Vampire Lady, and giving her the status of a playable character could lead to an interesting new perspective. Another idea would be to explore Heinserberg’s past, maybe during a failed uprising attempt against Mother Miranda. During the events of Resident Evil Village, Heisenberg is always ready to betray Miranda and be freed from the village. So what if he already tried before and that’s why he knows he can’t do it alone? There are a lot of things to explore in each of the Four Lords’ pasts, so this is yet another path Capcom can take when developing Resident Evil Village’s DLC.
Bonus Round: Merchant Simulator
This one is just wishful thinking, as the possibilities of Capcom doing something like this are really, really thin. But from the Duke’s history, we learned that the glutton is somehow connected with Resident Evil 4’s Merchant. This makes us wonder if there’s actually a network of neutral bioweapons working together in Europe. Just imagine a Resident Evil and Death Stranding crossover where you are the Merchant, or the Duke, navigating a bioweapon-infested world just to deliver some goods and get some coin. Too much to ask? Fair enough! But there are still a lot of interesting directions to take the franchise with Resident Evil Village’s DLC. Be sure to let us know your thoughts and what you want to see!