Resident Evil Village’s The Mercenaries director on how Lady D plays

When Resident Evil Village‘S Winter expansion Released on October 28, fans of the survival horror genre will have the chance to revisit the creepy village of Eastern Europe to experience the story of Ethan Winters as his daughter Rose. Capcom also plans to release a big update for CountryReplayable mercenary mode, which allows players to take control of villains like Lady Alcina Dimitrescu and Karl Heisenberg, as well as veteran Resident Evil hero Chris Redfield. That’s much more varied than the current version of The Mercenaries, allowing players to battle village hordes like ol ‘whatshisface Ethan.

Polygon recently talked to Resident Evil Country Winter expansion Game director Kento Kinoshita, who answered some of our most pressing questions about updates to The Mercenaries and what players can expect when they step into Lady D’s heels later this month . Read on to our full email Q&A with Kinoshita.

Polygon: Can you discuss the adaptation of characters like Lady Dimitrescu and Karl Heisenberg for The Mercenaries? Both seem quite different from the type of character the player has controlled in previous versions of the mode.

Kento Kinoshita: First of all, we think the new additions have to be popular characters that fans want to play. We ran into some issues along the way, but the enthusiasm and problem-solving abilities of the development team made it possible for us to add three hugely popular characters. When adapting them for The Mercenaries, we made a conscious effort to give each one a unique feel. Chris is a hybrid character that combines ranged attack (gun) with melee (fist). Meanwhile, Heisenberg uses magnetic force to launch close-range attacks. Finally, Lady Dimitrescu utilizes her massive stature to perform devastating attacks of immense power.

Does the player really have the 9-foot-tall vantage point playing Lady D? Or is she “scaling down” to roughly match the other characters’ heights?

Lady Dimitrescu’s height presented a lot of challenges during development, but in the end we were able to execute her to a gigantic stature, taller than any other character. For The Mercenaries, it was essential that players be able to control their characters easily, and to do that, we adjusted her height to be a little under 9 feet tall. At that height, the player just needs to avoid hitting the ceiling hard.

How did the idea of ​​throwing things to attack Lady D?

When considering what actions we could take for Lady Dimitrescu, we first went back and looked at everything she did in the story campaign. Most of Dimitrescu’s behavior in human form is pretty straightforward or wouldn’t feel great performing those actions as a player, but there’s one scene where she throws a whole bunch of gear such a lasting impression. That moment really stood out and it looked like it would be fun if it could. In the design proposal, just the words “you can throw a refrigerator” drew a lot of laughter and enthusiasm in the development team, so instead of sweating over details like “furniture Where did the loss come from?” We just focus on making it a fun and exciting attack.

Image: Capcom

What elements from the fan reaction to Lady D would you like to incorporate into her looks and abilities in The Mercenaries?

I mentioned this before in one of the previous questions, but although we knew it would be difficult to achieve such a great stature, we decided it was too important. important. In addition, we were able to show her two sides – the calm, dignified side and the excitable, deranged side – with the Thrill Gauge system. Her three daughters were also very well received by fans, so we decided to include them as one of Lady Dimitrescu’s acts.

In the trailer for The Mercenaries: Extra Order, Chris punches SIX enemies at once. Does Chris Redfield have superpowers? Can he secretly Hadouken?

Initially, Chris Redfield’s punch had an attack radius that better suited its image, but we got a lot of feedback that the punch frequently missed enemies because of it. So for comfort and for you to land every punch you know you should, we’ve changed it to hit a large area in front of you! Chris is human, so he doesn’t have special powers, but this is the Chris Who Punched a Boulder we’re talking about. His fists are definitely capable. In addition, we have given each character their own unique ability. We’ve included a wide range of abilities, including abilities that strengthen Chris’ fists, enhance his gun attacks, and more. We hope you enjoy the variety in every run it has to offer.

Image: Capcom

Resident Evil VillageThe Mercenaries’ new playable characters all look very powerful. How did you balance them for how challenging the mode is?

A big part of The Mercenaries is the feeling of excitement, so to bond with that the new playable characters are all incredibly powerful. However, in order to get a high score, it is necessary to link combos and take down enemies quickly. We expect players to try to tackle the different challenges that arise in doing so with each character.

Will players be able to purchase items from The Duke while playing as Lady D, Heisenberg, and Chris? If so, what types of items will they have access to?

New characters can also purchase items and weapon upgrades from The Duke. Unlike Ethan, they can’t buy weapons, but they can get abilities, which makes playing even the same character feel new depending on what you get.

What is your favorite new addition? Resident Evil VillageThe mercenary mode that people may not know yet?

We’ve added about 20 distinct unlockables, including new levels and abilities, and adjusted the difficulty and frequency of these so you don’t lose motivation as you keep playing. The LZ Answerer can be quite difficult to unlock in the original game, but with The Mercenaries Extra Order you can get it while using the newly added characters. If you couldn’t unlock it before, why not try again?