Resident Evil 8: Village - Phelous 

Heisenberg: "Want to be friends?" Ethan: "I dont know I think we should be enemies"

I'm a little surprised he didn't talk about Heisenberg calling Chris a boulder punching ass hole

Poor Barry Phelous. He gets captured by Lady "Beauty" Dimitrescu and "Wabuu" Heisenberg. But instead of Lycans and zombies, he's hunted down by the characters from Dingo Pictures, Goodtimes, and Golden Films.

"Vampire Witch Waifu" lmao. Legit made me laugh.

Ethan is the Griff of Resident Evil. "I'M ETHAN!"

I love how not only does the Healing Juice heal Ethan's severed hand but it also mends his shirt sleeve.

Its extremely annoying that the result of feedback from the last game was to change it up to be more accessible. Player: "That game scared the shit out of me" Capcom: "Oh yeah, sorry, that's our bad. We'll tone it down." Player: "No, no, wait, I mean I love it! don't tone i-" Capcom: "Its just too scary and too tense for people to play, that hurts to hear, we'll do action again. We'll let the player have guns, lots of guns, it'll be great fun for everyone." Like Capcom should've just taken the "Feedback" as a compliment and go all out for the scares, this could have been something unique, even with keeping the four bosses, it could have gone to some great places as a full fledged survival horror. Such a disappointment.

I didn't dislike Ethan (I kinda liked how he progressed from desperate and not knowing what to do to cocky and fearless), but Capcom's insistence in never showing his face was ridiculous to the point of hilarity. At this point you have to believe it's all some kind of in-joke between the developers. Just like every game now needs to have bolt cutters at some point (or a valve handle in the old ones).

Well to be honest the whole ethan has healing powers because of the mold infection was heavily implied throughout documents found in 7

I think Henry from Silent Hill 4 moved out from his old haunted apartment and changed his name to Ethan Winters.

You know, for all the faults this game has, we can all take solace in one thing: No Alice Marysue.

The Heisenberg part should have a branching path, Because most people believe that Ethan should have teamed with him.

I’m actually surprised you didn’t comment on Moreau’s “IM THE BEST” yell during the crank retrieval part. You and Allison saying ‘he’s/she’s/they’re the best’ in your older videos was the first thing I thought of when he yelled that. 😂 I loved the game, but unlocking the art concepts and reading some early ideas kind of bummed me out as a lot of the scrapped ideas sounded more in tune with RE than what they went with. Especially the concepts involving Heisenberg, but I’m a bit bias as he was my favorite character.

“And I suppose a baby chasing you around is pretty scary, just not the horror I want from Resident Evil.” Now this is a sentence XD.

Ethan was also OK with finding out that Mia was working for a BOW producer, apparently. Mia feels like the more fleshed out of the two characters, to be fair.

I'm ashamed to admit that I didn't realize they were going for a "Frankenstein" analogue with Heisenberg until a while after the game came out.

Ethan looks so bland that he could be the male lead in a Hallmark Channel Christmas movie.

I KNEW that Lady D was going to have a boring 'boss transformation', but I was still so disappointed when it happened. It completely takes away all the things that made her design so unique and interesting. When the fight was over, I said 'That sucked' out loud right before the achievement popped - and it was actually called 'That Sucked!', so I guess even the game agrees with me.

RE8 is wonderful homage and play off of the classic Universal monster movies. The variety is what keeps the game fresh all throughout. Also, Heisenberg never once said Ethan would get Rose back. He just talks about "Using Rose" and looking at his experiments, its pretty clear what he had in mind for Rose. Not to mention that Heisenberg is CLEARLY unhinged. Ethan doesn't seem like the brightest RE protag, but he's at least above the, "Trust creepy van to actually have the candy it promises" territory.

Admit it. You are disappointed Moreau didn't grew a set of wings in his final form.

When I see those Dimitrescu daughters and how silly they act, they make me think of those ridiculous vampire brides from Helsing. The ones that go "DO YOU LIKE TO FLY? HAAAAAAA!!"

Resident Evil was always going back and forth between more horror focused/more action focused. Original RE2 is more actionized than RE1, people just don't realize it cause it managed to stay scary.

I won't lie, I adored this game...loved the story, loved how the four lords paid homage to various horror tropes, love the Duke, etc.

*old man enters Castle dimitrescu* old man: looks like I was expected eeeeeeeeeeee! dimitrescu: who are you... Old man: oh a delicious vampire *eats her*

This guy is criminally underrated for his content.

Apparently Elena was originally meant to have a bigger role (which makes sense since I kind of thought she would have a larger role and I was surprised she didn't).

I was waiting for the root beer music during the elevator lift and wasn't disappointed

I call this the “winters era” since where going to see this family for quite a while

ETHAN the greatest Resident Evil character! Siro: Aw wha?

The Duke actually seems more interesting to me because of the gripes that you've had about him. The fact that he seems like he shouldn't be able to get around and get to these places, the fact that he makes it to these improbable locations, the fact that he knows so much and says so little, his inhuman size, and the fact that nobody seems to really know about the Duke besides you and someone who wrote a note in Castle Demitrescu, points to the Duke being kind of a secret major player in everything that's happening. Tldr. The Duke is clearly not a regular human, him being able to do all of these things just to sell you basic goods on your journey makes him seem like he's actually really powerful and important. That was my take anyway, to each their own on how things land for sure.

I guess Ethan is so forgettable they forgot to check him over after the incident or even administer him with a cure like Mia and zoe.

I will say that the biggest thing this game has created is the many fan fiction and deviantart pictures of Lady Dimitrescu.

I've been waiting for your take on this game. Your reviews of these games are always great.

Resident Evil 7 felt that it was like as a spin-off in the series without a (playable) returning main character but with a new gameplay style like Resident Evil Survivor, albeit RE7 at least is a good game and has a reminiscent feeling of RE1’s one big isolated location. With Resident Evil 8 Capcom threw together parts from RE7 and RE4 which managed to create an entertaining shooter set in a RE-styled location which is more like a shooter with suspenseful elements than survival horror. I agree that Ethan felt like a blank slate to the point that he could’ve been just a mute protagonist like in many other first-person shooters that play to strengths of other characters such as Half-Life 2. It remains to be seen if Capcom continues with the “isolated view” or will they return to the more familiar over the shoulder style. Meantime they could remake Code: Veronica in the style of RE2/RE3 remakes.

THIS is the review I've been waiting for. Your opinion on RE series is one I hold in high regard. You're porbably themost devout fan, and you know your stuff. Thanks Phelan

We get to see Phelan take on an Ethan Sandwich

Honestly, i wish the game gave all characters more personality. The few villagers you see in the beginning, they could be around and if need be, could die later (you know...like RE Luis or the cop in RE2 Remake) it just happens so quick to care so eh. The four lords as much as people say they have alot, they kinda don't, Heisenburg and Lady Dimitri have the most since their sections last a good while. Moreau has some, wanting to be loved and useful, and Donna has none which is sad cuz like her concept, could have been much cooler. People will give you some crap for not loving "THE BEST VIDEOGAME EVERYONE'S PLAYING! EVER" but I'm happy to see this review, just like how everyone found our their Tall Vampire Mosquito lady is only in the game for hour (i could less about her) its an alright game, not the best of the series.

Ethan’s reactions are natural, not boring. No one is gonna be overdramatic about a lot of things.

So is Mia not made of mold? And are we not gonna talk about how she was working in shady business in 7? Wasn’t she part of a group who was trying to sell the mold?

Strange how everyone wants Lady Dimitrescu, but no one wants her three hot daughters.

I was only thinking earlier today, "I wonder if Phelous will do a review of Resident Evil Village." Day totally made ❤

Kinda hilarious that a game franchise about zombies finally has a zombie as the main protagonist. Seriously in 7 and 8 Ethan is probably the only zombie in the games.

You can't shit on *THE* Ethan Winters. They really broke the mould with him and he is a fun guy.

See, I like the Duke and the fact that he just teleports around. No explanation, no reason, just a supernatural being who goes where there is money to be made. Now...do I think characters like the Duke work better in pure fantasy? I do, but I'm still cool with it here. All of everything being said though, I'm too much of a fantasy nerd not to like this more than 7, although I liked 7 a lot. Honestly, my biggest problem with this game is the factory and the Heisenberg boss fight. You're right, they went on way too long. That being said, I felt the exact same way about 7 and its ship/ mines levels. Both games kinda fall apart and turn into a boring, industrial looking shooter after getting rid of the 3rd family member.

I've been waiting so long for this video! :D

Oh Boi, time to binge the whole Resident Evil Review Series again! EDIT: Come to think of it, glad they didnt call her ALICE.

Barry: what? What is this? Ethan: what... Why? Also elevator ride Person A: So anyone seen any movies lately? Person B:I saw army of the dead A: oh was it any good? B: no Still riding the elevator

Welcome back Resident Phelous. Can't wait for your reviews of the new live action Resident Evil films coming out later this year.

I'd almost of liked a return of Zoe than Chris 'punch boulders' Redfield.

I think the logic behind not siding with Heisenberg was that there’s no guarantee he’d give Rose back either, and since he knows a lot more about this stuff than Ethan, he could just be as bad as Miranda except not being AS crazy. I think he’d just continue his human experimentation after Miranda died and experiment with ppl (including Ethan) too. He just didn’t want to have to answer to anyone. I mean Ethan is still bland, but that’s how I interpreted not teaming up with Heisenberg. His power was pretty broken though. He could have just magnet fielded the bullets away so they never hit him like Fortune from MGS2. Then you would have needed bullets made out of stuff he couldn’t manipulate.

27:45 I’m also sad Ethan didn’t form a temporary alliance with Heisenberg the guy seem to know a lot. He even knows that Chris punched a boulder in Re 5, which that in of itself raises so many questions to how and why does Heisenberg know that.

I felt Ethan's first reaction to his daughter was fine. I also feel that - given what everyone has done to use other people as weapons - it was more sensible to deny the team up with Heisenberg. What if in order to "use" Rose Heisenberg permanently fucked her up?

The review we've all been waiting for.

Imagine if Lady Dimitrescu was Beauty's mum

Mia Gumbo just isn't as satisfying as a Jill Sandwich, I tell you what

It's almost like Capcom just do Action game since the fourth game, and their only idea to change their habbits for 7 was just to copy paste the cancelled Silent Hills game, and when the game have success and they have to do a sequel of that... they have nothing else, so just make a action game again.

It's strange, a producer on the game openly said in an interview that "Some of the feedback we received regarding [RE7 was] that it was too scary to play". So they watered down the horror elements to "create something that anybody can feel comfortable playing” and it just resulted in a mostly unscary environment. I personally felt that narratively not enough of this game adds up to be satisfying. Too many elements felt haphazardly handled. - Ethan doesn’t know he died let alone became mold? This idea is interesting that he is mold but the execution is weak. How did he not know? Furthermore, this felt like how fans joked about the amount of abuse he sustains so they felt the need to narratively explain it in (again) a haphazard way. What's a drag is I liked Ethan the dad saving his kid angle I dig, very Taken, but he feels like we went from a normal average civi in this situation that needed to become an action hero to just some mutant that is void of personality. Like it felt we were going somewhere then the rug got pulled out from under us and then we took a swan dive down a stairwell. - Mia knew so she fornicated with a mold corpse to have a baby? That's creepy right? Also, why is there so much love for Mia when she worked for the Connection (the villains behind Eveline's creation) and Mia actively part took in the research, experimentation, and distribution of children as BioWeapons. Where is exactly the sympathy of her character? Is it because she wants a family? Even though she'd make bioweapons that'd lead to the death of more people (including families). - Mother Miranda waited a century. Also what happens if Ethan and Mia were never relocated to Europe for protection? Would she just...wait? Miranda comes off like an idiot and lacks personality compared to Lady D who has the whole aristocrat vibe and Karl who is like a sort of Nick Cage Cowboy. Even Moreau has the sympathy of being a tragic mutation that goes unloved. It's a bit basic but still. Miranda and Donna really are rivals to see who are the most uninteresting characters along with Ethan. If Miranda needed a clone didn’t Spencer master cloning in one of the other titles? Coulda swore that was a plot in one of them. This goes to show the series might be saddled with too much canon that even the people telling stories in this universe don't know it. Hence why a reboot like 7 was a benefit to the franchise to make it much more easily penetrable. - Tying everything in 7 and 8 back to Spencer felt like a coward's move. Like the writers got feedback that folks didn't like the new direction so they folded like laundry to include the stuff that fans were familiar with to appease them. Biohazard felt like a soft reboot which I felt was need to be more accessible for new folk like me (who tried to understand this universe lore but it's just so thick) but now it just feels like a jumbled mess again. The village really does feel like a "You can't have your cake and eat it" where the producers wanted to go new but also wanted to satiate the fan backlash and instead we get to just middle of the road rehashing. I've seen a remarkable amount of reviews where folks say some variant of "...honestly if you were going to do this just remake Resident Evil 4. I at least like Leon." Now I see folks just dislike all the new IPs made for the franchise and just demand the old stuff and that's a bummer. - Rose is special but the game never explains WHY she is special. This bothered me quite a bit only because at the start I was enjoying the story (before revelations occurred later on) and I speculated playing as Rose could be interesting at being a heroic version of a bioweapon could be an interesting change for the series. But after this storytelling, I lost interest entirely. - The best thing about this game for me is the marketing with the puppets. My gosh, those were delightful.

There’s documentation that Ethan had a good chance of being under Mother Miranda’s influence, that’s why Chris didn’t tell him. He couldn’t risk the mission being compromised. I’m sure the initial plan was to take Ethan to a facility and _then_ explain everything to him.

YES, Replay the I GOT A SHOTGUN!

Gotta say this is the best most level headed review of village I've seen so far. Seen too many people praising this game to high heaven while just overlooking its many flaws and others shitting on it while not giving it credit for what it gets right. Great job as always Phelous

I beat the game 14 times already, but I'm excited about this review.

Honestly, I hope they stick with characterized monster villains going forward. That’s some good stuff. Definitely felt like they were having more fun with this entry than any before, and I can’t wait to see where the series goes from here.

My daughter is not a weapon. She is a overly complicated puzzle key.

I think it would be cool to have an alternate ending where you team up with Heisenberg and possibly fight a new final boss. It would probably lead to a bad ending though but it would be interesting to see.

Rose: Dad did you ever drop me as a baby? Ethan: Yes, but actually no.

Next thing you know, Super Baby becomes ALICE.

It seemed like a lot of thought and detail went into the designs and story of Duke and Miranda's family, which i thought was a neat touch. And while yeah, it doesn't make sense that Duke can move around everywhere like that, I thought it was an intentional bit of mystery about the character. Don't think any of your criticism is necesarily wrong, but while I agree that the horror moments were more effective, I thought the tonal differences in the levels made the game as a whole quite interesting.

19:48 you have no idea how happy I am to hear the return of this music.

No mention of the line about Chris' boulder punching?

Phelan, constantly saying baby and super baby is giving me some Metroid Other M flashbacks of Samus saying "The Baby" over and over again.

16:45 No Shang Tsung joke about Miranda, Phelous? I can't believe...

THANK YOU for mentioning how he could have handled the potential team up better. Like I get that he didn’t want his daughter to be considered a weapon and he didn’t want to trust him. BUT he could have talked with him and discussed it more! Just seems like it was a lack of communication that got them fighting... yeah the dude is evil too but they could have given a better reason for Ethan’s refusal.

Plus the doll house stuff actually reminded me of silent hill and hey capcom since Konami won’t give us another silent hill game can you give us another silent hill game instead

theres another thing that makes heisenberg less evil than the other members of the family, his the only one that used dead coprses for his eperiments while Dimitrescu used living maids for blood draining and moreau used villagers according to his report note

I actually liked The Duke He has a cool voice and I like that he shows up wherever you are instead of you having to go find him a lot.

Capcom’s hope? “Haha tall big tittied vampire lady goes brrrrr.”

I love Phelous's reaction to Ethan's dumbass refusal of Heisenberg's offer, cause it's EXACTLY what I thought. LOL

The best part of RE: Village is definitely the Duke.

I personally love your resident evil reviews they are tons of fun

I think the baby boss is pretty effective and scary. Great sound design with it's voice. Bit of a weird, unspecific critique in this review.

YESSS I was looking forward to this just as much as the game xD This is the best humor 😄

My favourite part of the game was the "Four Lords" characters, so it really sucks that they don't actually get to show up a lot or expand their personalities much. Hell, we only see them interact with each other once at the beginning. I want to compare them to villains in Far Cry 3 and later, but even those games tend to give you a sort of "arc" rather than a singular "level" each...

An obvious but fun thing to notice is how the lords represent different classic monsters. Lady D is obviously the vampire, Heisenberg gives off Frankenstein vibes, Donna is the classic ghost/spirit, Moreau is a mix of the Gillman and Deep Ones from Lovecraft, and the lycans are obviously werewolves

Finally someone who doesn't just spew nothing but positives about this game. Great review, super informative, good job Phelous!

I'm surprised people are even surprised Ethan is a mutant. I mean I just assumed he was infected in RE7 back when the game was new when Mia cut his hand off and Zoe staple's his hand back on, or Jack can cut your leg off and then gives you medicine to speed up the healing/reattachment.

I think those lifts actually loads something while you ride them. I don't remember such long times on PC with NVME ssd.

Ethan is similar to Alex Mercer. Also some Castlevania 2 in there; you're going around getting body parts to resurrect someone, there's a creepy but helpful guy who later takes you to the final battle, the hero has some kind of curse inflicted on him from the previous game which causes his life to slowly drain, the bosses are like a weird varied family of monsters who live in fortresses surrounded by scared villagers, and the game ends with a shot of the hero's grave implying that he removed some evil from inside the Earth and that he will have a great descendant.

19:40 Knowing you, Phelous, I knew you were going to use that track.

Regarding the question of why it took so long for Mother Miranda to complete her work, I think this could have helped explain it. They could have added a file or two, clarifying that the Megamycete’s abilities were initially less potent. For example, the naturally-occurring Mold’s abilities could be limited to cataloguing people’s memories, extending one’s lifespan, and controlling creatures of lower intelligence. But when Ozwell E. Spencer acquired the Progenitor Virus and his Umbrella scientists took the research further, Mother Miranda was able to use both the G-Virus and Veronica Virus as templates for a more advanced Mold strain. That way, it more explicitly paints Miranda and Spencer as two mad scientists who helped each other’s endeavors, and explains why Miranda’s Mold only became so advanced in recent decades.

"Let's work together, Ethan! Together, we can kill Mirander!" "...ehhh... Sorry, I'm incapable of performing a complex betrayal, and I don't trust you, so I think I'll just tell you Im not going to cooperate while you have me by the balls and hope you present me a situation that fleeing and shooting can solve..."

Phelous saying 'Waifu' isnt something I knew I needed in my life until now.

Best part of this game was remembering Chris is a smoker, if only he was playing the Japanese RE song along with 'I GOT A SHOTGUN' in the jeep It'd be perfect

7 made me very scared! 8 was a test run for the 4make...but the experiments over,Cupcam....make us a REAL RE9!

I liked Moreau as a character, but IMO his area should've been larger and had him working like a "stalker" character instead of just following a predetermined path because as-is it felt like there was a substantial part of his level that was trying to be tense, but wasn't because you could pretty easily determine the safe spots.

I assumed Mother Miranda didn't go with the Evie plan because she was highly deranged and suffered from severely short lifespan seeing as how she is already at a like 80-90 year old body after only a few years. From playing 8 Miranda actually seemed not to have world domination plans for her daughter and just wanted her kid back and for it not to be a crazy person, which is why the 4 lords where all rejected.

RIP in peace, Ethan Winters. You'll probably not be missed.

Ethan Winters and the Crouch Jump of DOOM

Not only was Ethan pig-headed in refusing Heisenberg's help, he was also very dumb when approaching Moreau and his flask. He stole Moreau's flask without being seen and felt the need to gloat, which got him into way more trouble and having to face Moreau to escape.

Thank you Resident Evil Village, it's a Ethan sandwich.

The donna benavinito section is a reference to the re4 beta where Leon got attack by dolls. It seems that the 4 lords sections are trying to make every re fan happy like what re6 tried to do. lady dimitrescu is survival horror, donna benavinito is puzzle solving, moreau is running away and puzzle solving and karl is all action. I was really hoping that the entire game would be like the alcina dimitrescu section. The raccoon charm made this game a bit better without it this game would of been sooooo stupid