While Ethan Winters may be the new face of the Resident Evil series, we still haven’t seen his actual face. And it doesn’t look like that will change when Resident Evil Village launches on May 7.
2017’s Resident Evil 7 Biohazard marked a dramatic change for Capcom’s long-running survival horror franchise. Rather than controlling the main character from a third-person perspective, players jumped straight into Ethan’s shoes via first-person gameplay. Resident Evil Village seems to pick up where its predecessor left off in more ways than one: Capcom is still hiding Ethan’s face from us.
On some level, it makes sense that we wouldn’t see Ethan much in the gameplay trailers. We should do it to become After all, Ethan. That’s the whole point of the first person perspective. That said, I couldn’t help but laugh when I noticed that Capcom has even concealed him in promotional materials. It’s almost as if Ethan is doing his very best to keep his face a secret.
Take this artwork from last year for example. Why is Ethan holding his gun like this? Does he smell it?
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And this one, which is part of a new batch released after Capcom’s showcase earlier this week. You will have to see the tall vampire woman to defeat her in a knife fight, Ethan.
This third and final image was not given to the press in the United States, but I’ve seen it increase in Japanese stores, such as 4 Room. It’s more understandable than the others – Ethan’s face would of course be obscured using a rifle with a rifle scope – but in context it’s just another example of Capcom’s effort to make sure we never get a good look at our protagonist.
I vaguely remember fans coming up with theories when Resident Evil 7 was still new that Ethan’s face was never shown because he would eventually become an important character we already knew. Some people even thought he was a Chris Redfield clone or something ridiculous. These days, I am happy to assume that it is a running gag among developers. No crazy storylines necessary.