Bonus! Resident Evil: Village Review

Automated Transcript

Phil 0:00
If If beast in Beauty and the Beast had not succeeded, yeah, getting his dream girl and just became a meth addict. Yes a way of coping.

Kevin Erhard 0:09
That’s pretty much that’s pretty much it. He hit the hit the drugs and the sauce pretty hard and he just just just really took on a group of like minded beasts and holed up in a cave.

Phil 0:25
Yeah, pretty much and he’s got a giant hammer and a bad attitude and you’ve got to shoot him in the head with Imagine you’re listening to the pixel lit podcast I am your co host, Phil, the con casted dork. This week we’re doing things a little bit differently since we finished up Resident Evil The Umbrella Conspiracy we thought it might be fun to talk a little bit about our experiences with the new game Resident Evil village so sit down relax. Let’s get on with the show.

Kevin Erhard 1:00
So for those who don’t know and just heads up this is going to be spoilers there’s going to we’re we’re not going to talk around spoilers in this episode.

Phil 1:10
If you haven’t played the game or if you’ve got a problem with spoilers now’s now’s your time,

Kevin Erhard 1:15
now’s the time to jump off the the the stream of the the audio stream that we call podcasts. Portable on demand, as I believe pod actually stands for is that really what it stands for? I don’t know. I saw somebody I know. Somebody said that the other day. And it’s like it that sounds about right. And

Phil 1:45
you’re like you’re like that’s obviously what it stands for. Oh my god. No, no.

Kevin Erhard 1:52
I don’t know somebody. Somebody on fucking Twitter said that. And I’m like, you know, that makes sense. And that’s my like,

Phil 2:02
what is the mean portable on demand? What, there we go. There it is. There it is. It’s just that’s what and that’s what our listeners come to us for. They come to us for the love of literature, obviously. The love of games and the fact that every episode, they’re gonna learn something. Sometimes it’s something that leaves them uncomfortable and sad. But today it was what pod and podcast stands for. So there you go. There it is. You know, we could probably call it early. Yeah. Awkward episode, but at least it was short.

Kevin Erhard 2:40
So, Resident Evil village comes onto the scene, I guess. I guess the the trailers for it started last year, if I recall correctly, was actually the initial trailers came out, along with the PlayStation five trailers. It’s clearly not a PlayStation five exclusive, but I think that’s when they were rolling out.

Phil 3:02
You’re right. There was it was like there was some sort of like sizzle reel kind of thing that came out. Yeah.

Kevin Erhard 3:08
And of course, the thing that caught everybody’s attention was the nine foot six inch tall lady Dimitri sc. Who, mommy.

Unknown Speaker 3:18
Yeah. be beat. God

Unknown Speaker 3:23
became the

Phil 3:24
geek stereotype but Sweet Mother of God. Kevin, Kevin will tell you guys, for those of you who don’t know me, I have a thing for women who are above average height. If you see he does

Kevin Erhard 3:42
like a tall woman.

Phil 3:43
I like I like I like a woman who is not a shrimp. Let’s put it that way. And she popped up and was like, well, this is this is gonna keep me occupied for a while.

Kevin Erhard 3:57
Capcom knew what it was doing Capcom.

Phil 4:00
We didn’t though. Like, it feels like the designer people are like, asking all these questions about her and he kind of feels like he got caught off guard like unless he’s just playing coy.

Kevin Erhard 4:12
I don’t know the ask to be playing coin because because lady lady damage risk. She is nine feet six inches tall. Which if you reverse those numbers, you know lol and

Phil 4:28
triple q cup boobs and

Kevin Erhard 4:31
yeah, and she’s she’s shapely and buxom and all that stuff. And she became pretty much the focal point of the internet for the past year or so. Oh, continuing on post release of Resident Evil village. She’s still pretty much the focal point of the of people’s infatuation with the game.

Phil 4:56
Yeah, I think what’s interesting about this is you For me, I think lady Demetri has brought us to the show, basically. But everything else kept us. Yeah. Because for those of you who haven’t played, she’s the first boss, basically. Yeah. So the majority of the game she is not in. And I found that to be a good thing, honestly. Right? Because the game is so varied it goes, I think that’s, I mean, you you told me when you when you were you were ahead of me, you start the game before I did. And you told me and I think this is still one of the best explanations of the game I’ve heard so far is basically Capcom. That kind of threw the zombie thing. Not out the door, but basically said, we want to do what you say. We don’t want to do classic movie monsters like one. Yeah.

Kevin Erhard 5:54
It’s like universal har.

Phil 5:57
That’s what it was universal har,

Kevin Erhard 5:58
it’s meats, meats, Resident Evil. And I think another metaphor I use is like, it’s basically like a, you know, when you get an appetizer platter, and it has all the different types of appetizers.

Phil 6:15
Right. It’s a

Kevin Erhard 6:16
smorgasbord. That’s pretty much what this game is. Yeah, it’s a smorgasbord of, of different types of horror. And yet somehow, they all kind of seamlessly flow from one into the other. Yeah,

Phil 6:28
and there’s no it’s it. So much of it goes in one direction, and then another, and then another. And it’s flawless in its execution. They don’t it doesn’t feel Herky jerky, to me it. It was just smooth. The transactions. It was wonderful.

Kevin Erhard 6:46
So one of the things that I noticed, so So if, if you play the game great if you have no intention of playing, here’s just kind of like a rundown of what happens. It picks up three years after Resident Evil seven. And Ethan and Nia have they’ve had a daughter and they have moved to the Romanian countryside. They never specifically say Romania, but it’s clearly Romania. It’s clearly in the Trent. It’s clearly in the Transylvania region because of the the mountains and the wooded areas and all that stuff, all that fun stuff. So they they moved to Romania, to get away from everything. And the game starts with seemingly Chris Redfield coming in and killing Mia. And it just kind of starts this whole chain of events that leads to Ethan stumbling into basically like this last village very deep in the valley of some countryside. That doesn’t seem like it’s had contact with the outside world for like 100 years.

Phil 7:57
carrier pigeons are still popular in this place.

Kevin Erhard 8:01
And he find he’s, he has to find his daughter who has seemingly been kidnapped by some some sort of monsters. And yeah, one thing leads to another and he ends up as you said, the first area of the game is his castle damage risk. Which is where lady damage risk is kind of like, you know, she’s the she’s the boss, so you have to fight through her daughter’s her three, her three daughters who are actually just like,

Phil 8:36
they are they are there. Each of them are swarm of stinging insects, that takes human form. Right. That’s,

Kevin Erhard 8:46
that’s the really fascinating thing about them is that the more you read about them, and the more you think about him, he’s like, they’re not actually people. No, they’re just they’re, they’re, they’re literal. It they are a hive mind of insects that takes the form of a woman in order to trap people.

Phil 9:07
Right. Right. And it’s, yeah, it’s a I refer to them as the fly girls. Yeah. I like I think nice. That was Yeah, that was that was for that was for the people who lived through the 80s in Ascension sort of way. But that, would they they Yeah, right off the bat. You start out in? Yeah, a classic Gothic vampire tale, basically. Yeah. And it’s, and by the way, what, but while you’re on your way to this place, you’re in a village filled with great werewolves.

Kevin Erhard 9:47
Just like just these werewolves that are just, they’re fucking shit up.

Phil 9:51
They just here’s the thing. I am kind of over the werewolf thing. I’m a huge vampire nerd. Sure love vampires. I like werewolves, too. Oh, Monsters, but werewolves. It’s been a while since I’ve seen a werewolf design that actually scared me.

Kevin Erhard 10:07
Yeah, and

Phil 10:08
they did, man these these these werewolves, they’re kind of they’re zombie ish in a way to kind of get you, I guess acclimated okay. We’re in a Resident Evil game, you know? Right, right but, but they are distinctly wolves and they’ve got these alpha wolves with insane eyes that scare the snot out of me. They were Oh, yeah, so

Kevin Erhard 10:32
there’s so much faster than any zombie. They duck, they dodge

Phil 10:41
flaming arrows,

Kevin Erhard 10:42
they shoot flaming arrows, they use weapons, they use weapons. So yeah, they they have a lot going on. So that’s, that’s the first enemy you run into as you’re trying to make your way through this village. You end up being you end up being I guess, you’re more or less captured by your captured by probably one of the greatest characters ever in a Resident Evil game. You don’t know is your baby, your baby basically captured by the Resident Evil version of Magneto. And through some trials and tribulations and then you end up in Castle dosimetrist where you fight through her daughter’s the castle is pretty much your classic Resident Evil

Phil 11:32
is a great introduction to the game because yeah, it’s the big old mansion, basically, with a bunch of puzzles and the occasional Oh God, here comes the gigantic monster that’s going to tear me to shreds so we got to run, run, run, run, run. You know, it’s it’ll be very familiar to people who have played Resident Evil. Exactly.

Kevin Erhard 11:56
Yeah. Yeah. It’s a nice it’s a nice starter. It’s a nice appetizer for what’s to come.

Phil 12:04
So

Kevin Erhard 12:06
yeah, Lady damage risk is, she’s she’s not actually a tall buxom woman she’s, she becomes a grotesque monster that wants to eat your flesh after you stab her with a mythical knife that disappears. You never see the knife again, never see it again fall it falls into the it falls into the ravine. And Ethan basically is like, well, I guess that’s it for this knife.

Phil 12:38
And I gotta tell you, though, you know, if, if I had a nickel for every single time I stab in an axe, and she turned into a nightmare abomination that chased me around a castle and tried to murder me? I’d have like 1520 cents in there.

Kevin Erhard 12:56
We’ve all had that. It’s been a handful of times for everybody.

Phil 13:08
So yeah, basically the first quarter of the game. They do a really good job of kind of, you know, acclimating you back into Resident Evil here’s, you know, the the in the castle anyway in the castle gaming tourists it. They’ve got she’s got these zombies that serve her and so they’re slow shambling hordes and that kind of thing. So it’s very familiar and, and that’s and that’s where that and then they just kind of, well, the next level,

Kevin Erhard 13:39
if you will, they just kind of say fuck you.

Phil 13:42
Yeah, yeah, Capcom decided that you had too much shit in your body and decided that they were going to scare it out of you.

Kevin Erhard 13:50
They were going to make you void all of it.

Phil 13:53
Oh, my good Lord, I believe you end up at this old mansion. And the next there are the four lords of this village and the second one is Benny viendo I believe

Kevin Erhard 14:07
is the name Benevento

Phil 14:09
and and this this this entire area there is no shooting you they take your weapons away there’s no it’s all puzzles and horror. And I believe it was the scariest moment in Resident Evil history. Now I agree to believe that I agree. Oh my god. You know because so we went from werewolves then we went into vampires and now we’ve got

Kevin Erhard 14:38
ghosts basically we’ve got good old ghost story on our hands by ghosts has been of Anto right before we get to has been at the end to the we

Phil 14:48
oh god yes. How can I forget?

Kevin Erhard 14:50
Quit possibly the greatest mission parameter change of all time.

Phil 14:58
Oh my god.

Kevin Erhard 15:00
You find you find this, you find this this yellow flask after you beat lady, and you take it and you find the Duke. And Ethan, who had been led to believe, by the Duke that Rose was in the castle says Bruce wasn’t in there. I just found this. I just found this stupid jar and john, because the Duke goes something like, why Mr. Winters, you’re holding your daughter in your hands.

Phil 15:35
First off, that was a pretty solid and then he points out that you’re that in the jar, you go get you you kind of like,

Kevin Erhard 15:45
clean the jar off.

Phil 15:47
Yeah, you clean it off, and it says Rosemary on it. And then it says head, hand in a jar. Daughter, your kids fucking head in a jar. I look over my fiance she is not a she was that she pointed out she said I did not know much about horror period before we started seeing each other. So she’s not a gamer. She’s not a horn person. Right? Find out that our kid’s head is in this jar. And I look over at her and she just just jaw on the floor. We had to take a break. And then as Kevin pointed out, the greatest mission because now Your job is to get your the pieces of your daughter

Kevin Erhard 16:35
and find rose one out of four.

Phil 16:44
It’s just like, the most grim black shoe it’s just

Kevin Erhard 16:52
breathtaking boy.

Phil 16:55
It stays with you.

Kevin Erhard 16:57
It is it is so boldly there is nothing subtle about it. It is it is a big old fat man telling you that you are holding your daughter’s head in a jar.

Phil 17:12
Amazing. Amazing, man. And it’s

Kevin Erhard 17:17
it’s just Yeah, go ahead.

Phil 17:19
No. It’s like this is we’ve barely gotten through the game. Like it’s, it’s you’re you’re again we’re quarter in and and like they’ve thrown so much shit at you. And then you find out that you’re collecting pieces of your kid. So theoretically, you’ll put her back together like she’s a broken toy. And it’s like you’re just like okay, well what the hell else can they throw at me? And then they show you

Kevin Erhard 17:51
get then they they lead you down the path to house Benevento. So of the four lords. The Duke had the Duke had basically just introduced he gave you a whole spiel. Basically there’s four lords. You already killed lady denna Trask. Of the four that are left. There’s Donna Benevento. There’s Morrow. And then there’s there’s Heisenberg. And up next is danobat. Benevento the dollmaker me like well, this is okay. Dolls. The doll maker. Fantastic. This is gonna be great. It’s gonna be spooky. So as Phil Phil already mentioned, yeah, they take your your weapon, your weapons away. They don’t physically take them away. At first. It’s just that there’s nothing to shoot at the very beginning.

Phil 18:42
You’re just digging through this house is walking around. It’s smoky. Sounds really, really happening.

Kevin Erhard 18:51
It would actually be an amazing, short term rental. It would be like a house. The house is beautiful. And it’s overlooking a waterfall. I mean, come on. That’s

Phil 19:05
yeah. Oh, yeah. You’re right on this beautiful. Yeah, it’s gorgeous. It’s the cut. I actually took a screencap of it. And I was like, well, that’s my house. I’m going to move there. And yeah.

Kevin Erhard 19:17
So you get inside. It seems like there’s nothing going on. You walk around the house and you go downstairs doesn’t seem like there’s still anything going on for a little bit as you walk around the basement. until you find you find what appears to be the second flask. But it’s not it’s an illusion. And a doll tiny little doll mocks you?

Phil 19:41
Yeah. Baby Doll, which is horrifying.

Kevin Erhard 19:47
It’s horrifying. She’s a horrifying little ball. Dog God. So so it just becomes basically solving a puzzle using a wooden model of Mia’s dead body for clues.

Phil 20:02
Oh yeah, you find you find this this mannequin that’s a mannequin and you’ve got to take it apart and look through it and there are there little items to be found in it and, you know, clues to the puzzles to be solved. It’s actually it’s really unnerving and unsettling. Yeah, they play with a dark a lot they they they play with what you’re seeing, you know, there’s something off in the distance walking and then it disappears and, and it just keeps you on edge. And it’s all puzzles at that point. And my God, I was happy for a little while for a little while you were happy. While I was like, this is the best This is what I love about Resident Evil, its atmosphere and the puzzles and spookiness and you don’t need to shoot zombies to scare me. This is this is terrific. And I and and the tree we mean while me

Kevin Erhard 20:57
you don’t realize it’s it’s kind of like the frog on a hot plate.

Phil 21:02
Yeah, yeah. In the in the boiling water.

Kevin Erhard 21:04
Yes. The frog in the boiling water. Yeah. You don’t really realize the water has started to boil yet?

Phil 21:10
No, you do not.

Kevin Erhard 21:13
So you solve all the puzzles, the litany of puzzles, we don’t have to necessarily go into them because there’s like four, four or five. You would want to take the fun away from now. So you end up going down going down into a well because there’s Why not? Because why not? Why? It’s it there. There’s a lot of very subtle references to a lot of hard different horror films in these games and house Benevento references simultaneously references PT, the famous kept famous Konami demo for Silent Hill it’s kind of a it’s kind of a PT reference. But it also it’s like a little bit part shining. The house is very decorated. It’s very evocative of, of like a very old night like mid century decorations. 100 and then you you see an old grainy film, and you have to go down into a well, which is very, brings back memories of the ring of Ringo.

Phil 22:25
So in the movie you watch has the whale in it and just

Kevin Erhard 22:28
yeah, it has the whale in it. It’s all like, it’s all like the hairs on the back of your neck are just kind of tingling. But here’s the thing is that nothing, nothing has really happened yet. No, you’re you’ve been down here for about maybe a half an hour. At this point. Your mileage may vary on how long it takes you to solve these puzzles.

Phil 22:47
And then there’s been no you’ve been down here for half an hour. There’s been no failure state, there’s no nothing, there’s no failure state.

Kevin Erhard 22:54
There’s nothing there. And so at this point, right before I go down into the well, I happen to go past a cabinet. And I was like, Oh, I didn’t open it. So I opened it. There’s nothing in there and then I realized I could walk into it. And I turned around and I closed the door behind me. And at that point I was like why can I hide inside the cabinet? Why am I Why is this a mechanic? Currently Why is this a mechanic in the game? This has never been a mechanic in Resident Evil games Why is this right now a mechanic for me it was the

Phil 23:37
bed you can hide under yes I my fiance didn’t know at first why when I could hide when I realized that there was a hide option for under the bed that I went oh god dammit I gotta chill down the back of my spa.

Kevin Erhard 23:56
So you know you go down to the into the well you pick up a key and suddenly there’s just this crack of wood and you hear off in the distance a baby crying and there is nothing more unsettling than what is clearly a baby crying out in in pain in like in want agony agony you get back

Phil 24:20
to the sound design is miraculously scary. It is just so well done.

Kevin Erhard 24:26
It is it is chef’s kiss beautiful in the in the worst possible way but also the right

Phil 24:32
right exactly.

Kevin Erhard 24:36
Phil what what is it that you end up you go down the hallway you to make a right on your way back to the elevator and when What is it? What did you see? And you’re in your I had it how did how did you experience this moment? Well,

Phil 24:55
it was nothing less than the greatest single argument for pro choice movements around it’s it’s this horrible, sliding crawling fetus beast with the horrible shrieking cries, a gaping ribbed mouth and throat, and it’s coming towards you. So very slow. It is coming for you. It is coming for you and I screamed, me did tell me that I screamed when I saw this thing. And my fiance screamed at our cat screamed, everybody screamed, and it was just, it was absolute. It’s grotesque. If you’re not going to play this game if you’re listening because you’re like, Hey, listen, I’m not a horror fan. But I would like to hear what you guys thought about it and that sort of thing. If you think you’ve got the stomach for it, just google Resident Evil village, baby, just look for the baby. And and it’s i i It is really revolting. But gross man. I’ve mentioned before I like monsters. I I’ve always liked monsters. I like the gross pneus of them. I like putrid pissy blister things that can scare me. I’m into that. I don’t know why. But I am and this thing turned to ice.

Kevin Erhard 26:41
It was unfortunate. And I was just like, I’m like I have like a shiver going down my spine just now thinking just talking about it in the abstract.

Phil 26:53
Yeah, I absolutely the scariest

Kevin Erhard 26:57
and that begins the the Alien Isolation portion of house Benevento. Yes.

Phil 27:08
God it’s just yeah, and you do it now any of you who’ve played Alien Isolation, which, which is my favorite horror game, officially I love that game. And, and yeah, yeah, you you did you go into the closet? did you hide under the bed? Where do you hide?

Kevin Erhard 27:27
So I I only hid once and it was in the under the bed.

Phil 27:34
Okay, I did the same thing. I did the same thing. And me and my fiance thought about it. And she said, I think you made the right decision. And I said what do you mean she goes hiding under the bed that was the right thing to do. And I said what would what would I don’t? I don’t understand she said because when you’re under the bed he crawled around the bed and we had to see its underbelly and it’s horrible legs and stuff. Yeah. But if you would hidden in the closet, we would have had to stare that thing in the face. Yeah, while it while it lost the scent and left you alone and I hadn’t even thought about

Kevin Erhard 28:18
and what’s funny is I so what ended up happening when I when I got to that point I hid under the bed. And as soon as it was past the bed I got out from under the bed and I just booked it Yeah. booked it back to the elevator and and here’s the thing is like the second half of house Benevento is is like after that. It’s just like it was almost like a letdown. It was still like fine. It was like, okay, the second half is basically becomes a glorified game of hide and seek except with killer dolls. But after that first half, you’re just like, I don’t, I don’t care about like, as long as it’s not that I’m fine. That was kind of like the rest of the game. That was kind of like the rest of the game for me is like if I became Arnold from predator, right, because everything after that was if it bleeds, I can kill it.

Phil 29:13
Right? Right. Exactly. We literally it’s we’ve been we’ve been playing this game in chapters basically when when we got past Lady dumitrescu we she and I beat it in like four more bites so to speak. We sat down we play until we beat a boss move on, you know and take a break. And after a bit of ento we both ate was I’m not exaggerating, not fucking with you. We got out of my office. And we went out and sat on the porch and it was still light outside. And we stroke the cat and kind of stared into the middle distance. It was so we were so upset. And and I said well, I said the good news, I think is that because we got far enough that we got Weapons back and I knew we were I said, I don’t think that this game can scare us any more than that. Oh, I think that’s about as scared as we can get in this game. And I was correct, but it didn’t. It didn’t but it still made for it was still fun but my god that was the part where they were just like we are going to scare the shit out of you.

Kevin Erhard 30:20
Yeah, they really loaded up the the fear the fear in house Benevento, everything else, like there’s tension in other parts. And the tension was more about rises and jump and surprises and stuff. Yeah, yeah. But nothing nothing would would ever remotely approach it. I think they probably knew that.

They follow up house Benevento with with Moreau hoops basically the sad sack? Oh, it’s

Phil 30:56
so sad. And what’s hilarious about that is in the beginning of the game, you see all of the Lord’s together with mother Miranda by the way who we haven’t mentioned yet right? Who’s like the the the Lord of the Lord. She’s clearly the one in charge. Villagers you meet talk about like, you know, kind of treating her as like this God within the area. But maryrose is this horrible, shrunken lumping thing and that was the one that scared me the most just looking at the Rogues Gallery. Is it isn’t it but he Yeah, you’re ready. So just to kind of sad, sad guy. Yeah, yeah, he’s he’s, he’s lonely and just just, you know, clearly not happy with what he looks like.

Kevin Erhard 31:49
Of the four Lords Moreau is the only one where you basically if you had if Ethan hadn’t stopped to make fun of him. He could have just walked in gotten the flask and walked

Phil 32:02
right probably probably. Step his goddamn mouth shut. You walk in there and morose sitting there watching TV throwing up. I’m not joking. That’s what he’s doing. He’s just sitting there vomiting and watching TV. And there and there’s there’s another flask with your babies, you know, yours or some damn thing and you’re like, Okay, great. I’ll grab yours and you get the flask. And and he’s begging you please No, you don’t don’t don’t take that away. They’re gonna punish me. You know? Like this really sad quazi moto kind of thing. Yeah. Which is clearly part of the inspiration forum. Right? The old you know, Hunchback of Notre Dame kind of things back when they treated that as a horror thing right in in I don’t remember what he says but even just just toss us some shade his way just like just makes fun of and in that pieces Moreau enough off that he’s like okay, I wasn’t going to be a boss but now I’m going to be a boss right?

Kevin Erhard 33:01
We’re always just like, Man and Ethan’s like, you suck.

Phil 33:05
Yeah bros like you I believe he’s like I’m gonna do something about

Kevin Erhard 33:11
it. So and then what’s funny is like he’s I’m gonna do something about it. And then he like make some slight slime stuff grow. And then when you’re leaving you hear Moreau in the background like no, no, wait, don’t come back.

Phil 33:27
Oh, come on. Like, we could talk to this over I didn’t mean it. You know, just it’s just so beautiful. And so if if if Lady dumitrescu is vampires if if Benevento is he’s ghosts, and haunted houses and stuff like that. Moreau is like quazi HP Lovecraft in fishy. Yeah. Hunchback of Notre Dame.

Kevin Erhard 33:57
He’s the shadow over ins mouth. me Yes. Hunchback of Notre Dame.

Phil 34:02
Right, right. He’s just and with a little less of the existential dread. Yeah, let’s face facts, but

Kevin Erhard 34:11
really the only one facing the existential dread and it is Moreau himself.

Phil 34:16
Yeah, that’s true. He does have the existential trip but he’s keeping it all to himself. For guy and yeah, so you make your way he’s in the minds and out on this dock area. Not this was fun. I gotta tell you as far as a level following up the tents. Pants shitting Li horrifying baby monster haunted house. If you were gonna follow that up with any of these it would. They did it beautifully because it was Yeah, level is fun. It’s scary. It still makes you jump. But man is it?

Kevin Erhard 34:57
Yeah, it you know, it’s like Have you had to deal with with the lycanthropes? A little bit? As you’re you’re fighting your way through, you get a you get a nice little board dump in the middle of it. Yeah. Via chris chris and his team. They kind of give you a little bit this smidgen more information, you still don’t understand why Chris killed Mia. But that gets interrupted by Moreau. They’re really drip feeding it. And then you have basically like a puzzle platformer level to deal with. That’s it’s like, while this giant, giant mutated fish that is Moreau is swimming around. You just have a puzzle. It’s like a platform puzzle that you have to fight to get your way you’re in this flooded

Phil 35:43
area, and you’ve got to shove boxes here and shoot down boxes there and just make basically make your way across this lake from one side to another. To turn on these Mills to get this puzzle going. And then you have a boss fight. But it’s just I tell you, we were cheering like you, you’ll come to the edge of knock these boxes in the water. Okay, now I can cross over. And as soon as you start to cross over here comes the giant billion eyed fish monster who swallow you up if you don’t if you if you don’t jump back, there’s no we’re laughing and cheering and this screaming and hootin hollerin it was perfect.

Kevin Erhard 36:24
That was the other thing that was kind of lovecraftian about it was like he was covered in eyes. Which is yes. It’s

Phil 36:31
I mean, that’s classic. I mean, that’s classic. Yeah, so yeah, then

Kevin Erhard 36:36
you have a little fight with him. It’s It’s It’s not a it’s not the most in in the canon of Resident Evil fights. It’s nothing special.

Phil 36:45
You know, you know, now, you know it’s taking. It’s right. It’s not a nail biter, but it’s it’s one of those things that’s like, I think we needed this at this. Yeah, you know, yeah, I needed a little bit of a break that you can all take a breath, right and cheer and scream and have a lot of fun. And then we can get back into a little more grim dark sense of rights.

Kevin Erhard 37:07
Yes. Which is provided flinty by by Heisenberg.

I mean, he really he really blends the grim dark, but also the really, really dark humor aspects of our together. So sweet. They Heisenberg like before you get to Heisenberg’s level, there’s kind of like a mini boss level that is squeezed in there. Basically, it’s like you’ve seen these lycanthropes all over the place. And it’s like, Heisenberg’s like, Yeah, well, I’m not even gonna let you into my factory until you go deal with the fucking lycanthropes. So he tells you to go to the stronghold and you have to fight your way through. It is a massive, massive fight. There are just dozens and dozens of these werewolves that you have to see. It is crazy. It is the it is the most like intense action sequence outside of something that comes right after Heisenberg. It is like the second most intense action sequence in the game. And it pretty much uses up all of your ammunition.

Phil 38:22
Oh god yeah. Gosh, there’s no getting around it You got it. You know, it’s like in Resident Evil is gone by the advice that anybody who has never played or isn’t an evil that you’re going to start with is don’t feel the need to shoot everything you know, not at least in the old ones and Resident Evil two three you know those those are the ones that I was the most familiar with coming up and there’s just no need to shoot everything you ammo is scarce you got to get by that is not the case in this you’ve got to shoot

Kevin Erhard 38:56
Yes, you got to shoot you got to kill and the the level you know, it builds up up into a showdown with the big bad alpha dude. Alpha werewolf that was introduced at the very beginning of the game and he he just takes a lot a lot a lot of bullets if you’ve had the chance to and I can’t remember is did you did you have the Magnum at this point?

Phil 39:22
I did. And thank goodness for that. That was a first off that’s a sexy gun. That’s that’s a sexy Damn it’s like black and gold and it’s called the Spain. Yeah, gorgeous, absolutely gorgeous. And and you can upgrade it to a longer barrel. And when you do that, in Latin off on the side of it says, I will be done. I had to look that up. It’s like, Oh, God. It’s like, on one hand, I’m kind of ashamed. And on the other hand, I’m like, Oh, this is hot. This is a cool weapon. Living my living my fantasy. This is like

Kevin Erhard 39:56
it’s like something that you would put into a Vampire the Masquerade.

Phil 40:02
Right? Super just super dark. Oh, it’s beautiful. But yeah, so you got to take him out and I got it. The only way I could describe this alpha wolf werewolf guy is if if beast in beauty in the beast had not succeeded in Yeah, getting his dream girl and just became a meth addict. Yes a way of coping.

Kevin Erhard 40:25
That’s pretty much that’s pretty much it. He hit the hit the drugs in the sauce pretty hard. And really, he just just just really took on a group of like minded beasts and holed up in a cave.

Phil 40:40
Yeah, pretty much. And he’s got a giant hammer and a bad attitude. And you’ve got to shoot him in the head with a magnum repeatedly, repeatedly as often as you possibly can. And it works out. It works out. But yeah, it’s It’s surreal. It was a wild fight.

Kevin Erhard 41:03
So what did you think of Heisenberg’s factory when you got there?

Phil 41:10
I gotta tell you Heisenberg was the only one that confused me at first Sure. Because I’m a writer you know and as you are and and you know, what we do we look for themes. You know, you’re looking for your brain is kind of tuned into it. And so I’m like, okay, we’re Kevin was right, we’re going through the universal monsters here. And the only one that didn’t fit at first was Heisenberg. Because you’re only experienced with it he’s he’s this wisecracking. He’s got voice like a radio announcer you know, anything control metal like Magneto. Right? And, and that’s his thing. And I’m like, What the fuck is that? How does that fit into the whole equation? And so I get, you know, you get to the factory. And he’s talking to you over the loudspeaker, you know, being a real smart ass and all that stuff. And I’m like, he’s like a smart ass superhero. I don’t, I don’t know how this fits into the horror fear. And then you start to see that in the factory, he hates mother Miranda, they’ve all been all the Lords have been given their powers by mother Miranda, right? And he hates her. Because he’s not a man anymore. Like in the sense that he doesn’t have any freedom. She’s basically controlling his life. And so he is literally building an army of robot zombies to fight mother Miranda and kill her. And it’s not far into the factory that you go, holy shit, this is Frankenstein is Frankenstein. He’s the mad scientist. And he again, it all clicked into place. It was just not

Kevin Erhard 42:52
again. Just he is to Frankenstein. He’s Frankenstein. if if if Dr. Frankenstein was a shock jock, right. Radio DJ

Phil 43:04
Frankenstein sold brain pills or something like that for Infowars then yeah, yeah. Might be that’s my favorite. It is.

Kevin Erhard 43:12
He has my like, some of my favorite line reads of the entire game. where like, there’s the monster down in the hole when he’s just talking to Ethan. And the monster keeps making noise. Or just goes through the hole. There’s like shattered shattered fucking hole.

Phil 43:32
Yeah. Oh, yeah. These wonderful notes. He’s got these, you find all these notes of his, where he talks where he like he’s explaining, you know what he’s doing and like his his experiments and stuff. And this is just, it’s an unforgettable enemy. He’s he’s built this zombie thing, that he basically took a prop from a prop engine from a plane and adhered it to this thing’s upper torso in your head. And he points out that it has no arms because it cut its own arms off because it’s an idiot. And and he he deems the whole thing a massive failure, just an absolute failure. And, and but he still keeps him around. still keeps him around. And that’s just and you have to deal with him later. That’s your problem.

Kevin Erhard 44:29
That becomes your problem.

Phil 44:30
Yeah, because he couldn’t take care of his stupid science project. It’s now your issue. And I mean, it’s a it’s it’s, yeah, it is the most eccentric can’t be an over the top moment. In the whole game. It’s it’s like it’s the Resident Evil that that I think a lot of people fondly remember. Yeah. You know, like Resident Evil for And the camp and the shirt, the silliness of it all. And he’s got that in spades.

Kevin Erhard 45:05
I think one of the best things about the character too is how stunningly self aware he is, like, right there. There’s something there’s a lot of can’t be Resident Evil villains are like, they’re not really self aware of the fact that they’re monsters or whatever. Like, Heisenberg is like, he’s as self aware as the audience. He is like,

Phil 45:31
he he’s a heartbeat. Basically.

Kevin Erhard 45:33
He is a part of it. He’s like, Listen, man, we’re gonna take you we’re gonna get your daughter back. And we’re gonna blow this mother Miranda up. And, you know, he’s well written when, when me the players like, you know, he’s making some decent points.

Phil 45:51
Right now. It’s a good thing that this isn’t one of those games that lets you make choices. Because he was talking he was like, dude, we’re gonna take out mother Miranda your kid, I’m gonna, your kid’s gonna help us. cuz she’s powerful. They keep implying how powerful your daughter is, you know, that’s the whole reason they still there. And he’s like, but we’re gonna work together on this and get rid of mother Miranda and we can do it. And he says far more snarky, insane way, right. But yeah, when you think about it, I’m like, Alright, who? Who could say no to help from a guy who controls electromagnetic magnetic waves? Yeah, I was someone you want on your side.

Kevin Erhard 46:30
It was like if this is a Choose Your Own Adventure novel. I’m turning to the yes page at this point. But Ethan, Ethan being the smartass that he is always Ethan is always talking himself into more fights. He never he never successfully talked himself out of it. No, he really, Ethan basically responds. Ethan responds, go fuck you.

Phil 46:52
Right. And I gotta tell you, I know this is coming from me. But even it’s got a big damn mouth. Yeah. Just wanna go Shut up. We could be alone.

Kevin Erhard 47:06
We could have had this all wrapped up by dinnertime even

Phil 47:09
Absolutely. We could have your kids stitched together and no time. Everything’s gonna be fine. Just everything will be fine for five seconds. Ethan that’s that’s kind of his only characteristic. Ethan doesn’t have much in the way of

Kevin Erhard 47:23
he doesn’t have much else going on.

Phil 47:25
No, not until the very end. Do you do you get much about Ethan?

Kevin Erhard 47:29
So but yeah, you you fight you eventually fight Heisenberg? He turns into a big ass fucking monster.

Phil 47:39
Yeah, like a metal kaiju

Kevin Erhard 47:42
it becomes Yeah, it becomes a metal cage you right before that you finally get Chris explaining everything. Chris basically tells you he kind of breaks it down for you and gives you a tank to fight Heisenberg with basically a non magnetic alloy. He built I don’t know where he got it from.

Phil 48:05
With a with a chainsaw on one end and fucking a machine gun on the other and a missile launcher and you’re like, Okay, this is this is the use the Resident Evil I was ready for.

Kevin Erhard 48:19
The best thing about Chris is like, you never actually stop and wonder like how the fuck long has Crispin sitting down in the basement of Heisenberg’s factory.

Phil 48:29
You know? Just theories. That’s what this is what happens

Kevin Erhard 48:34
like, clearly long enough to build a tank.

Phil 48:38
Right? Like, oh, he’s He’s, uh, you know, I get he’s a he’s a resourceful one. That Chris he’s. He’s a so you play. He figured it out.

Kevin Erhard 48:49
You fight you fight and kill Heisenberg. He’s he’s got some really fun funny one liners I forget is it is Eisenberg or mother Miranda. I’m just gonna say cuz because I think it’s an amazing one liner. It might have been mother Miranda. Where the the they call Chris that boulder punching idiot.

Phil 49:11
Oh, crud was I forgot all about that. I think it was Heisenberg. Actually. It’s It’s Chris Redfield? boulder punching You idiot. That’s right. Oh my god. Yeah, it again to your point that you’re very self aware this game.

Kevin Erhard 49:38
For those who don’t know, it’s making fun of the ending of Resident Evil five in which Chris basically punches a boulder over a cliff

Phil 49:50
just over the top moment.

But yeah, you take out the kaiju metal thing. And Chris gives you your background and basically tells you that he didn’t kill your wife Mia, he killed. We didn’t kill he shot mother Miranda, who is so infected with the mold basically, that she can transform herself into any one anything. Right? So she’s been posing because she wanted to get using as Mia

Kevin Erhard 50:31
because she wanted to steal your clothes.

Phil 50:33
Yep. Who is aware of old power?

Kevin Erhard 50:39
untold power, and we’re never actually told what the power is never know that we really aren’t. It’s never revealed. So then we get a segment with Chris, because Ethan is basically left for dead. Ethan is killed by mother Miranda after defeating Heisenberg. She rips his heart out literally. And

Phil 51:02
Temple of Doom is a game. The game yeah, literally. No,

Kevin Erhard 51:07
I’m not Shiva. Based on regional right over. We jump right over to Chris and you get the superhero action sequence. And this is also a great sequence demonstrating like Chris, and probably any of the older protagonists can’t really be main characters anymore. Like they are too good and too familiar with this shit. You know,

Phil 51:32
he’s too much of a badass too well,

Kevin Erhard 51:34
he’s too much he’s too well arm too much of badass up basically takes down during this sequence, you kill wave after wave after wave of like, and

Phil 51:44
I gotta tell you, it’s good therapy. It’s therapy for everything you’ve been dealing with.

Kevin Erhard 51:51
It is it is just it’s just Chris. Chris has this Mitch. Chris has this machine gun with like a three round controlled burst just pops the head of basically any like, it’s like as powerful as the as the Magnum that yeah, that Ethan has. And he’s just like these these tight, little controlled bursts and you just you’re just taking them down and just mowed them down.

Phil 52:13
Take him down. It feels really feels really cathartic. It feels so good. It really feels great. Not because you know it’s not quite like Alien Isolation where you’re completely helpless or anything like that. But you are not. You are not a member of stars. Like you are just a guy who happens to be your fit his hand back on after it’s cut off.

Kevin Erhard 52:38
Yeah, yeah. Also one of the greatest moments in Resident Evil history. Just to go just to jump back. Ethan gets his right hand cut off this time. And it’s like, it’s like basically like a an animate cut. Where it like it happens. And then there’s a delay and his hand just like falls off is our Yeah. And there’s another delay. And then Ethan grabs the stump and says,

Phil 53:08
Ah, shit, yeah. Oh, man. Another

Unknown Speaker 53:14
Sham and then with with some some green herbs with some some green or juicy glues it back on and everything’s back on none the worse for wear the shirt still looks like shit. But the rest of its okay.

Kevin Erhard 53:28
comes to it a game comes to an end with the revelation that Ethan has. And the big twist, basically, is that Ethan has been dead the entire time. He’s, he has actually been dead. Sea has been dead since the beginning of Resident Evil seven when jack jack Baker basically punches him out. He killed him. Open but yeah, he hits him with a shovel or something. Yeah, it’s like, and it’s it’s, it becomes it makes it super clear. Like they they’re basically talking to the player at this point. Like, you didn’t think it was weird that he that you were able to like, take all of these hits and survive.

Phil 54:16
Yeah. That you put your Put your hand back on and done it. It’s kind of a kind of a playful, sort of, you know, would you kindly kind of moment in a way?

Kevin Erhard 54:30
Yeah. So Ethan is is actually being made completely of the mold that had been introduced in seven and is again, basically the main cause of everything and eight. You kind of find out that mother Miranda has been is this being that can control the mold and that they’re the center of the mold is located underneath this village and that Miranda had found it and kind of like figured out how How to control it, you know, 100 years ago or something like that. And she, she actually inspired they actually mentioned that she was the inspiration for I believe Oswald Spencer, you found umbrella. They knew each other and she had shared the her work with the mold with him. And he’s like, Oh, this is fascinating. And that’s when he went off to find the progenitor virus, which eventually, you know, is what kicks everything off for umbrella. Which,

Phil 55:29
kind of like Delhi nice touch, like,

Kevin Erhard 55:32
Yeah, it really dovetails everything back together. Like, Oh, yes, this small thing is not a one off it actually is related. It’s like it’s it’s, it’s

Phil 55:43
not the same but it is.

Kevin Erhard 55:46
Yeah, yeah. It’s, it’s connected. So yeah, you basically the the rest of the game kind of like happens pretty quickly, Chris finds out that Mia is still alive and being kept in a prison underneath. In the like, basically word the word that molds center. Is

Phil 56:10
that DLC. Yeah, you know, let’s

Kevin Erhard 56:13
back up. Ethan wakes up sans heart.

Phil 56:17
Yeah, yeah. Let’s wait until this guy wakes up there. Boom, there he is. He’s fine.

Kevin Erhard 56:22
There he is. And then there’s the big bad. There’s the big bad evil boss showdown with mother Miranda. It was it was fine. It wasn’t like the most no intriguing fight. Like I felt the least of all the villains. I felt the least about mother Miranda. Like I didn’t really care that much about her.

Phil 56:44
Oh, by the time in fact, I was really intrigued by her at first because she’s got this classic six, six winged Angel kind of thing going shared. I think that’s really neat. And I was looking forward to that. And but yeah, you’re they didn’t really give you much about her beyond that until the very, very end. And by that time, I was just kind of like, okay, let’s let’s take this bitch out. We’re done.

Kevin Erhard 57:10
Let’s wrap it up. Right. Right. And and you do so with aplomb? I think it took me two times to beat her.

Phil 57:17
She was the only one that she’s the only boss it took me multiple times to kill.

Kevin Erhard 57:21
Yeah, yeah, it was it was something about I think I kind of figured out my ammo pattern for her. It was like alright, what am I going to use my shotgun? What am I going to use the mag to polish her off, you know, stuff like that. It was it was it was basic. It was the throwback to basic Resident Evil like ammo conservation. Kind of pause fight. So and that’s it. That’s that’s the end of the game. Like there’s not much else but a cutscene. After that,

Phil 57:51
yeah, you get a you get a little button that tells you a little bit about gives you more ideas of where the next game is gonna go. Which I thought was pretty cool. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, I’m, I mean, I would would it do you think Kevin? I don’t know if it’s not obvious by now. But overall, what do you what do you think Resident Evil village,

Kevin Erhard 58:13
I really, really liked it. It was, it’s one of those games where it’s it, it ran the risk of being really disjointed. But it wasn’t like the way it was put together. They had a they, they they there was a really big risk where it would just feel completely disjointed. And I think it was it’s a miracle. Well, not a miracle, just a lot of talent and planning that they managed to pull it off. It may have managed to work out and everything felt in its own Resident Evil way everything felt earned. It wasn’t like, it wasn’t like it’s not like a you know, it’s not the best writing in the world. But it is very competent writing. And it everything dovetailed together in a way that I would be like, yeah, that’s fine.

Phil 59:09
Yeah, it all it all made sense. It worked. Yeah. Yeah. No, I couldn’t agree more. I thought it was really strong. I thought it was more of it was like more of the stuff that you wanted in your Resident Evil game, with enough surprises and shifts, like for example, the fact that clearly the designers are sick of zombies. Clearly, you know, and, and the villains were great. The bosses were great. It was just, it was a fun damn time and I’m definitely gonna play it again. And try to get Yeah, I’ve got to find all the goats got a break. Oh,

Kevin Erhard 59:47
yeah, I’m, I’m halfway through my second playthrough I actually just beat Moreau again this afternoon. Oh, nice. No, I’m

Phil 59:56
desperately trying to I have such a backlog. I’ve been doing this thing lately where I have, I have a ton of Warhammer miniatures that I need to paint. I’ve got a bunch of books I need to read. And I’ve got a bunch of computer games that I need to play and I’m just doing this thing where I’m not I’m not getting a new book until I’ve read like 10 books. I’m not buying a new model until I’ve painted like 10 models. And I’m trying to do that with video games too. Yeah, that makes sense. So I I don’t remember if I shared this on an episode or not, but I when it was coming out, I was like the Thursday before the Friday that this game was coming out and I went to Emily, my fiance and I said I’m just so frustrated because I haven’t I haven’t played or beaten enough games to justify buying this yet. And Emily just looks at me He goes, just find the fucking game. It’s all you’ve been talking about buying. Okay, that bought the game and so I’ve beaten it now. I’m like, okay, Baca trick. Let’s, let’s play Middle Earth. Finish that one off, you know,

Kevin Erhard 1:01:01
yeah, finish off some other things. Yeah, that’s, that’s a good, it’s good. It’s a good rule of thumb.

Phil 1:01:07
I’m trying you know, we were planning a wedding and trying to get and she’s she recently started a new career. She’s she just became a, she is a baker. She is for a local bakery. And that’s amazing. It’s awesome. She’s an amazing Baker. This something she’s wanted for a long time. I’m really proud of her. But like, you know, we’re she’s she’s starting a new career path. We’re planning a wedding. You know, we don’t i don’t i don’t want to spend money that I don’t got. Yeah, so Totally. Totally got it. Yeah. So that’s, that’s what I’m aiming for it. And you know what, I’ll be honest. It’s working. So far. So good. So that’s awesome. That’s awesome. Yeah, life is good. As long as there are video games, as long as based on them, then we’ll be happy.

Kevin Erhard 1:01:50
Yeah. And well, we’ll be happy and we’ll be here on pixel lit talking about them.

Phil 1:01:56
That was good. Smells really good. I’m really proud of you, Kevin.

Kevin Erhard 1:02:01
Thank you. Thank you. Take care everyone.

Phil 1:02:04
Bye guys. Thank you for listening to the pixel Live podcast. If you want to follow us or let us know about what our next book should be. Please make sure you check us out on Instagram and Twitter at pixel lit pod or check out our website at pixel it dot info

Transcribed by https://otter.ai