Lady Dimitrescu is losing some height in Resident Evil Village’s Mercenaries DLC
Honey, I shrunk the giant vampire goddess
Capcom are making literal big bad Lady Dimitrescu a wee bit shorter for Resident Evil Village’s The Mercenaries Additional Orders DLC, out later this month. Game director Kento Kinoshita told Polygon that although playable Lady D is still taller than any other character in Mercenaries, she’s been shortened to “a little under nine feet tall” from her canon height of around nine feet six inches. Kinoshita also went into some detail about Additional Orders’ other characters, including punch-maestro Chris Redfield.
Whereas Village’s original Mercenaries mode limited players to Ethan Winters, The Mercenaries Additional Orders lets you step into the varying height shoes of Dimitrescu, Chris, and magnetic Nicholas Cage impersonator Karl Heisenberg. Kinoshita said these three each have their own flavour, with Chris merging ranged gun combat with close-quarters fisticuffs, for example. Heisenberg obviously relies on his Magneto shtick, while Dimistrescu is tall. That’s it, she’s tall. It makes her really good at throwing furniture.
“In the design proposal, just the words “you can throw a vanity” garnered a lot of laughter and enthusiasm among the development team,” Kinoshita said, “so rather than sweat the details like “where does the furniture come from?” we just concentrated on making it a fun and interesting attack.” Dimitrescu’s growing rage from Village’s campaign is represented by her Thrill Gauge, which builds the more she attacks. Kinoshita’s team also brought her trio of vampiric daughters in as one of Dimitrescu's actions.
Ed enjoyed the base game’s earlier and spookier moments in his Resident Evil Village review, but felt it was spoiled by the shift to action as the game progressed. “I just couldn't understand why Resident Evil Village was leaning on shoot-outs with enemies, when it clearly knew it wasn't really a shooter,” he said. “What was once a thrill had flatlined. But then Resident Evil 7 unravelled in the same way, so maybe I shouldn't have been so surprised after all.” If you enjoyed those parts though, you’ll likely dig more Mercenaries.
Resident Evil Village Gold Edition is out on October 28th for PC and consoles, and includes The Mercenaries Additional Orders. If you own the base game then you can nab the Winters’ Expansion on Steam for £16/$20/€20