While Ethan Winters may be the new face of the Resident Evil series, we haven’t seen his real face yet. And it doesn’t look like that will change when Resident Evil Village launches on May 7th.
2017 Resident Evil 7 Biohazard marked a dramatic change for Capcom’s long-running survival horror franchise. Instead of controlling the main character from a third-person perspective, players jumped directly into Ethan’s skin using a first-person game. Resident Evil Village it seems to be recovering where its predecessor left it in more ways than one: Capcom is still hiding Ethan’s face from us.
It makes sense at some level that we wouldn’t see much of Ethan in the game trailers. Supposedly yes to be Ethan, after all. This is the whole point of the first-person perspective. That said, I couldn’t help but laugh when I noticed that Capcom has even kept it hidden in promotional resources. It’s almost as if Ethan himself is struggling to keep his face a secret.
Take this artwork from last year, for example. Why does Ethan have his weapon like that? Does it smell?
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And this one, which is part of a new batch launched after the Capcom showcase earlier this week. You’ll have to see the tall vampire lady who will beat her in a knife fight, Ethan.
This third and final image was not given to the press in the United States, but I have seen it proliferate through Japanese outlets such as 4Gamer. It’s more understandable than the others: Ethan’s face would naturally be darkened while using a rifle with scope, but in context, it’s just one more example of the lengths Capcom will ensure we’ll never see our protagonist well.
I vaguely remember the fans who presented theories when Resident Evil 7 It was still new that Ethan’s face was never shown because he would end up being an important character we already knew. Some people even thought it could be a Chris Redfield clone or something so ridiculous. Today, I’m happy just to assume it’s a gag among developers. No silly lines of argument are needed.