The last few years have been bountiful for Resident Evil fans; at least on the game front, not so much for television and movies. Between the remakes, Resident Evil 7, Village, and now the new Shadows of Rose DLC addition to the story, there has been a ton of enjoyable content coming out in a steady stream. It surprised some people that Rose here wasn’t getting her own full game, headlining Resident Evil 9 or an offshoot of sorts, but according to the development team, this chunk of post-launch play is likely the last hoorah for the Winters family. Maybe that’s not such a bad thing. This extra story beat was quite fantastic — I just needed a little of Mia, honestly — and put a tight little bow on the excellent adventures we had in the past two adventures. Video game fans are often bad at moving on, but the time seems right to retire a few characters and let them fly a helicopter off into the sunset.
If this recent saga has taught us anything it’s that we need to be more open to new characters. Ethan, Mia, and Rose did right by us, and the best way to honor them would be to understand that their story is probably done. We can let them rest because lord knows that family has been through enough. Players could also not react poorly if the next game isn’t starring Chris, Jill, or Leon, hell, it doesn’t even need Claire or Barry, as much as people love them. Much like Ethan became the new everyman, the kickable dummy and sacrificial pound of flesh for our story, we can stand to meet someone else. Resident Evil is a bit like Tinder in that way, sometimes they just aren’t that into us and we have to stop asking them to come fight our bio-weapons — move on.
Fans don’t like to mention Resident Evil 6 much, for fear that someone will try fruitlessly to defend it, but that disaster is a solid example of Capcom mistakenly trying to bring all of their best toys together and going a little too hard when trying to up the ante for characters who had seen so much already. Hell, even several of the new protagonists they introduced had to be tied to pre-existing cast members. It was a sign of how convoluted and exhausting things had become when they tried to please the fan base too hard. Resident Evil 7 had to take things back to basics and reinvent their own homegrown survival horror genre wheel a bit while keeping the past in the background. References are fun, Umbrella is still cool, Wesker is dead, and sometimes we need to move up the hill instead of trying to crawl back down into the mud.
Okay, not everyone is like that, but I know how some of you are about your fixed cameras so I can only imagine the comments about putting beloved characters back in the toy box. Chris Redfield’s role in Village was perfect. The former boulder puncher was involved but never overtook the story. He was in the background, and when we took control of him it felt like that appropriate time to play someone who was a complete badass. The former S.T.A.R.S. member wasn’t the star, just a key player in the story, and that’s probably how Chris should stay if he’s going to keep participating in the never-ending fight against bioterrorism.
The same goes for most of these legacy characters. We need to know what happened to Jill after the events of Resident Evil 5, and she should absolutely come back, but we may not need to play her to find out the end of Ms. Valentine’s story. If we do see her as the main character again, give Jill one final adventure and send the fans home happy, but let that be the conclusion of her journey. Leon is right there, too. We’ve seen him as a young rookie, in his prime, and even on the Game Boy for those brave enough to play Gaiden, but he should be hanging up the attache case soon as well. There are a couple of other characters who aren’t quite there, like Claire, Rebecca, and Carlos, but we don’t need to keep anyone around forever, especially if their potential has already been fully explored. (If we’re putting things out into the megamycete here, I’d be down to play Sheva Alomar again.)
Ideally, the advantage behind letting some of the older institutions go is that the developers might not feel so cornered when coming up with new games. Resident Evil 7 narrowed its scope and wanted players to control someone who wasn’t a hardened zombie slayer yet, and it worked. Ethan rescued his wife, then he saved his kid, the man found out what made him capable of these things, then he died for them. What more could he ask for (he’d be boring if he was still alive)? Ethan’s daughter had her moment and finished what he hadn’t in Shadows of Rose and everyone seems better off for it. It’s a nice tight story where the few remaining questions — like what’s up with Umbrella and the BSAA — can be answered in someone else’s story. We’ll remember our time with the Winters family as a pleasant one, where they didn’t overstay their welcome.
I’m in no way saying our previous heroes were bad or aren’t deserving of more time in the spotlight, but they wouldn’t want to be the reason more good games weren’t made. I’m looking forward to the future, meeting new people who have to deal with a world where all of this exists, exploring new places and fresh ideas, and letting those who came before rest in a cushy little Raccoon City retirement home.
