Wow apparently Resident Evil Village was made much less of a horror game because people complained about Resident Evil VII being scary.
People complained about being scared after they deliberately purchased, installed, and then played a horror game.
People complained about a game having scary monsters and creatures in a horror franchise famous for having monsters and creatures
People complained about a horror game being scary
And then, I cannot emphasize enough, that after people complained then the game devs ACTUALLY MADE THE NEXT GAME IN THEIR **HORROR** SERIES LESS SCARY
@nytpu yeah okay if you've never played 4 and don't like 5 lol
@noiob @Loosf
Yeah I'm a big fan of Silent Hill 1 & 2 and Resident Evil 1 & 2. After those Silent Hill started going downhill then Konami lost interest in anything but Silent Hill slot machines so now I just follow Resident Evil lol. But I was excited that RE7 shifted more towards my personal preference for horror games.
And to clarify, Village wasn't *bad*, and I wouldn't be complaining at all until I read an interview with one of the developers where they said that they deliberately made it less scary and it just struck me as weird when making a game leaning more towards horror instead of action. (https://www.videogameschronicle.com/news/resident-evils-producer-says-village-was-balanced-based-on-feedback-that-re7-was-too-scary/)
but yeah that tracks. Less CONSTANT fear, but the actually scary parts are *very* intense.
Yeah this tracks
"“Something we also always have to pay attention to is the tension curve. We also find that people grow immune to fear if they’re consistently pitted up against a tense situation or environment."
though the last part was basically pure action lol
@Loosf
Yeah, that's fair. To clarify, I don't think it's *not* scary, just less consistently scary than RE7, which as you mention is by design. Although admittedly RE7 started getting a bit action-y in the second half, and particularly the ending was definitely a classic Resident Evil action ending.
Semi-related, from the article: “Those moments of solace act as a buffer to make sure that people aren’t completely desensitized to the horror.” Related to that quote, IMO in Village they upped the body horror to the point where the shock value was gone. In RE7 when you get your hand cut off it's visceral; but by the 20th hand mutilation in Village you sorta stop caring lol
@nytpu
i mean by that point it was comical
The body horror that happens to Ethan was already ridiculous in 7
"wait why and how do I get to reattach body parts"
though it is not really a mystery, the swamp thinging of Ethan in 8 was extremely, extremely telegraphed.
And I feel the game does not even really try to make it shocking, just "yeah, you should have figured this out hours ago but we are still gonna say it"
THAT BEING SAID, some of the enemies do have some intense and horrifying body horror. The factory area is intense, even if the encounters get samey.
@noiob
They were never “pure” horror games, but RE 1, 2, & 3 (and the RE2 remake, the only of the remakes I've played) were good action-horror games. Never played 4. RE 5 was bad and from the small amount of 6 gameplay I've seen it looks awful.
But then RE7 is both an actually decent game and a transition to more standard survival horror (with the shift to first person and such). And then RE Village, the follow-up to RE7, was just worse and less scary while keeping the same standard first-person survival horror gameplay