Resident Evil is full of big personalities. The franchise has brought fans countless memorable characters, from Chris Redfield to Resident Evil 4iconic merchant. All of these characters sit in the towering shadow of the show’s new star, Lady Dimitrescu.
The 9-foot-tall vampire became an instant phenomenon when she first appeared in the trailer for Resident Evil village in January. Capcom immediately put her front and center in the game’s marketing efforts, elevating her to meme status. WITH Resident Evil village now, players finally have the chance to meet the character they’ve been obsessed with for so long.
Now that her full story has been released, Digital Trends spoke with Resident Evil director Morimasa Sato about fan reaction, how she fits into the new game’s “theme park” vision, and whether we’ll be seeing her again anytime soon.
Great personality
Lady Dimitrescu had a grand entrance on January 15th when Capcom released a teaser for the first of its Resident Evil showcase events. Despite only appearing for a few seconds, the character’s popularity spread like wildfire. Some fans were spinning the fan art at record speed, while others just wanted her to stomp on them.
It was music to the team’s ears. Sato says the reaction was exactly what the Resident Evil team always hopes to achieve with their characters.
“We were pleasantly surprised by the positive reaction to Lady Dimitrescu from all over the world, young and old, men and women,” Sato tells Digital Trends. “It’s always our intention to create memorable and impactful characters, and it’s very rewarding when characters leave such a strong positive impression on so many players.”
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For a while it seemed that Lady Dimitrescu was going to be the main villain Resident Evil village. Her role is not that big in the final version. She is the first real boss of the game, and her castle takes up the first quarter of the game. In total, players get about two hours of paradise with Lady Dimitrescu. Sato says that until the reaction to her hit, it was too late for her to increase her screen time.
“By the time we debuted Lady Dimitrescu in January, her character and role in the game were already very well developed,” says Sato. “As such, we didn’t deviate from the course we were on even after seeing everyone’s reaction to her. In fact, the positive feedback we received encouraged us that we were on the way to something very special with this character, and the team felt very good about that.”
Despite not having development time to expand her role, Sato says the team wouldn’t do anything differently. What we enter Resident Evil village it will always be the whole package.
Horror theme park
Lady Dimitrescu is particularly interesting in the full context of the final match. At first it was a bit surprising to see an extravagant vampire noble in the same breath as the fearsome werewolves. Now everything makes a lot more sense in a game that is an anthology of sending horror movies.
“Resident Evil Village is designed to be like a diverse ‘theme park’ of horror, with very different styles of horror where fans can experience the thrill of one type of horror and then move on to the next,” says Sato. “This includes Heisenberg’s huge underground factory, Moreau’s reservoir, Benevient’s mansion and, of course, Dimitrescu Castle. Lady Dimitrescu, her daughters, and their castle stronghold are very different from the other enemies Ethan encounters.”
Capcom
Sato describes the entire Dimitrescu family within the framework of gothic horror tropes, emphasizing that delicate balance of elegance and danger. For Lady Dimitrescu herself, the inspiration was a little more eclectic.
“When the team started developing the character of Lady Dimitrescu, our guiding concept was an ‘enchanted’ character who is both beautiful and dangerous,” says Sato. “Our art director, Tomonori Takano, said he drew inspiration from many places, including Anjelica Huston’s portrait of Morticia Addams from The Addams Familyand from non-fictional sources such as Elizabeth Báthory, a European noblewoman believed to have killed hundreds of people.”
Both of these inspirations certainly come to the fore in the final product. Despite being a cold-blooded assassin with Wolverine claws, Lady Dimitrescu is a threat that players don’t want to look away from. If Nemesis was making us run for our lives, Lady Dimitrescu was making us fight for a vantage point where we could watch her walk around the castle from a safe distance.
Will Lady Dimitrescu return?
Judging by how the story ends Resident Evil village, there seems to be no room for Lady Dimitrescu in the sequel. Potential Resident Evil 9 it will likely move away from the creepy European city to focus more on the intriguing lore presented in the game’s finale. Even the most iconic Resident Evil monsters tend to be a one-and-done thing.
Still, Sato says there’s hope for Lady Dimitrescu fans who yearn for more.
“Ms. Dimitrescu certainly played her part in Ethan’s journey Resident Evil village and has already become one of the most popular characters in the title,” says Sato. “Feedback to Lady Dimitrescu has been overwhelmingly positive, and we take community feedback to heart.
“We never rule anything out in the world of Resident Evil!”
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Source: newstars.edu.vn