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Why Resident Evil 8 Is Technically Resident Evil 27

Resident Evil, like a great many long-running entertainment franchises, has a noticeable problem with naming conventions. From spinoffs and side stories to remakes and reboots, Capcom's acclaimed survival horror series is burdened by incredible bloat, and that's putting it mildly. So vast is the universe's canon, in fact, that even longtime fans have struggled to assemble the jigsaw puzzle of events in the correct order, leaving newcomers interested in experiencing the overarching story first kickstarted way back in 1996 with little hope of ever untangling its secrets.

resident evil village

Resident Evil, like a great many long-running entertainment franchises, has a noticeable problem with naming conventions.

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From spinoffs and side stories to remakes and reboots, Capcom’s acclaimed survival horror series is burdened by incredible bloat, and that’s putting it mildly. So vast is the universe’s canon, in fact, that even longtime fans have struggled to assemble the jigsaw puzzle of events in the correct order, leaving newcomers interested in experiencing the overarching story first kickstarted way back in 1996 with little hope of ever untangling its secrets.

As ScreenRant rightly points out, “Resident Evil 8 is actually the 27th Resident Evil game,” which accounts for “remakes and strange aberrations.” It’s all very confusing, too, as the original Resident Evil, for example, while taking place in the same universe as that of later games, has little to no connection with 2017’s Resident Evil 7. Likewise, Resident Evil 4, while starring recurring fan favourite Leon S. Kennedy, is largely its own self-contained story.

Resident Evil Village, then, while considered the eighth main installment and a direct sequel to its predecessor, is the first mainline entry to drop a numerical designation, with the Roman numeral VIII being the only official reference to such. It’s worth noting, of course, that while Capcom hasn’t explicitly stated that this is the case, post-reveal interviews have hinted as such and, assuming it intends to go ahead with further remakes as recent leaks suggest, the decision is a smart one to make, in order to clear up any potential confusion among the wider community.

Resident Evil Village is scheduled to release in 2021 for PC, Xbox Series X and PlayStation 5, with the latter version expected to feature full compatibility either with existing PlayStation VR headsets or a yet to be announced successor. See here for more details.