Future Resident Evil Games Will Reportedly Focus On Self-Contained Stories

Capcom is reportedly planning to move even further away from tradition with future Resident Evil installments, it would seem.

According to prolific insider AestheticGamer – who has accurately leaked information pertaining to the survival horror franchise on numerous occasions in the past – the developer intends to shift focus from telling an ongoing narrative spread across multiple titles to a model allowing it to create more self-contained stories. As far as immediate plans go, however, AestheticGamer is keen to point out that Resident Evil Village is and always has been designed as a direct sequel to 2017’s RE7, with producer of the former, Peter Fabiano, even stating in previous interviews that staff involved with the project felt a certain affinity to protagonist Ethan Winters and desired an opportunity to continue his story.

This arc will supposedly conclude with Resident Evil 9 (yet to be confirmed) at a later date, ultimately resulting in a trilogy with interconnecting plot elements and characters.

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It’s following the culmination of those plans, then, that the leaker suggests an anthological approach will be adopted in favor of the current philosophy, likely meaning that only core themes and ideas will carry over between releases. While this would prove to be a drastic change of pace for Capcom, the idea itself is hardly a novel one and has even proven to be successful for contemporary series’ such as Square Enix’s Final Fantasy. Would this mean that the likes of Chris and Claire Redfield, Leon Kennedy and others would be officially retired in favor of more newcomers such as Ethan? Only time will tell.

For now, all eyes are on Resident Evil Village, which is scheduled to land next month, May 7th. Stay tuned for fresh gameplay on that front later this week!