Resident Evil Village

=== Setting and characters ===
Resident Evil Village is set four years after the events of Resident Evil 7, largely on February 9, 2021. Ethan Winters returns as the protagonist, having defeated bioweapon Eveline in Resident Evil 7. Ethan has been living with his wife Mia and six-month-old daughter Rose when Chris Redfield—the protagonist of many previous Resident Evil entries—and his men suddenly appear, murder his wife in cold blood, and kidnap him and his baby daughter. While Ethan and Rose are being transported in a van, a mysterious entity crashes it just outside the village. Ethan has to traverse the village to rescue Rose. The village is invaded by werewolf-like mutants called Lycans and governed by four different mutant lords, each controlling their own forces from strongholds within the village. Lady Dimitrescu, a tall aristocrat vampire, resides at Castle Dimitrescu with her three daughters Bela, Cassandra, and Daniela, and mutated female attendants. The hallucination-inducing and ghostly Donna Beneviento rules from her mansion, House Beneviento, and acts through her puppet Angie. The grotesque "merman" Salvatore Moreau operates from a reservoir near the village. Karl Heisenberg, who can manipulate electromagnetic fields, leads an army of Soldat simulacra from a contemporary factory. All houses respond to a supreme leader figure called Mother Miranda, the witch-like ruler of the village who is a "presence worshipped by the villagers."



Plot

Three years after the events of Resident Evil 7, Ethan and his wife Mia have been relocated to Europe by Chris Redfield to start a new life with their newborn daughter Rose. One night, Chris and his Hound Wolf Squad raid the house, assassinate Mia, and abduct Ethan and Rose. The next morning, an unconscious Ethan awakens beside the crashed transport truck and discovers that Rose is missing. Making his way through a dark forest, he finds a mysterious village being terrorized by werewolf-like creatures called Lycans. Ethan finds surviving villagers holed-up in a house but fails to save them during an attack and is captured by Karl Heisenberg and brought before the village priestess Mother Miranda and her lords: Alcina Dimitrescu, Donna Beneviento, Salvatore Moreau and Heisenberg himself. Ethan evades a death trap set by Heisenberg and ventures into Dimitrescu's castle in hopes of finding Rose, with help from a mysterious merchant known as the Duke. Ethan eliminates Dimitrescu and her daughters, finding a flask containing Rose's head. The Duke explains that Miranda placed Rose's body parts in four different flasks for a special ritual, and that she can be restored if Ethan recovers the other flasks, held by the remaining lords.
While killing Beneviento and Moreau for their flasks, Ethan learns that the Hound Wolf Squad and Chris are also present in the village. Ethan passes a test from Heisenberg for the fourth flask and is invited to the lord's factory, where Heisenberg proposes they defeat Miranda together, revealing that Miranda was deliberately killing the lords through Ethan. Ethan refuses once he learns Heisenberg intends to weaponize Rose, and escapes. Venturing through the factory, Ethan encounters and confronts Chris over Mia's death, and Chris reveals that "Mia" was actually Miranda in disguise. Chris reveals that Miranda possesses the power of mimicry and was attempting to abduct Rose, succeeding when she crashed the transport truck. Chris destroys Heisenberg's factory while Ethan uses a makeshift armored tank to kill a mutated Heisenberg. After the battle, Miranda reveals herself and mocks Ethan, revealing her plans to take Rose as her own. She then rips his heart out, killing him.
Witnessing Ethan's death, Chris leads his Hound Wolf Unit to extract Rose while a Bioterrorism Security Assessment Alliance (BSAA) assault force distracts Miranda. Chris enters a cave beneath the village and discovers the Megamycete, the source of the mold. He plants a bomb on the Megamycete lair and finds Miranda's lab, learning that she has lived a century since coming into contact with the fungus, and was a mentor to the Umbrella Corporation's founder Ozwell E. Spencer; Ozwell used her knowledge to develop the T-Virus. Miranda experimented with the fungus in an attempt to revive her deceased daughter, Eva, who had succumbed to the Spanish flu a century ago; the four lords, Lycans, and Eveline were all failed experiments. Rose, however, is a suitable host, due to her special abilities inherited from Ethan and Mia. Chris rescues the imprisoned Mia, who reveals that Ethan should still be alive, due to his "special" nature.
Ethan revives after encountering Eveline in limbo, who reveals that he had died in his first encounter with Jack Baker in Dulvey three years ago but was revived by her mold, which gave him regenerative powers. The Duke brings Ethan to the ritual site where Miranda attempts to revive Eva, but ends up reviving Rose instead. Enraged, she battles Ethan, who kills her, before the Megamycete emerges from the ground. Ethan, with his regenerative powers finally having reached their limit, sacrifices himself to detonate the bomb planted on the Megamycete, while Chris transports Mia and Rose to safety. As Mia mourns Ethan's death, Chris learns that the BSAA soldiers sent to investigate the village were organic bioweapons and orders his squad to head for the BSAA's European headquarters to find those responsible.



Shadows of Rose

Rose, now sixteen years old, has been separated from Mia while under Chris's protection. She has become a social outcast due to her abilities gained from the Megamycete, and resents her powers. Canine, a member of the Hound Wolf Squad, informs her that, according to Miranda's research, there is a Purifying Crystal within the realm of the Megamycete that can remove Rose's abilities. He proposes that Rose finds the rest of Miranda's research within the sea of consciousnesses stored within the Megamycete fragment that the team has salvaged. Rose uses her powers for her consciousness to enter the Megamycete, where she discovers herself in a realm similar to Dimitrescu's castle. She finds it covered in spewing mold, with monsters led by a masked version of the Duke hunting and killing clones of herself. She encounters a guiding spirit whom she names Michael. Despite Michael's advice to leave the Megamycete, Rose persists, wanting to rid herself of her powers. With Michael's help, Rose escapes the castle but falls into a deeper stratum within the Megamycete.
Rose finds herself in a replica of Beneviento's house, where she relives her traumatic childhood of constant bullying by her schoolmates, and the realm's leader tells her it is her father's fault she received her undesired powers. To comfort Rose, Michael shows her a realm similar to her house as a baby, where she finds a letter for her written by her father, saying that he loves her and will always be by her side. She is immediately pulled out of the realm and brought back to the previous one by the realm's perpetrator who reveals herself to be Eveline, seeking to kill Rose out of jealousy over being a failed and unloved experiment. Michael once again helps Rose escape.
Rose finds herself in yet another deeper stratum that resembles the village where she was kidnapped. There, she discovers and uses the Purifying Crystal, which absorbs her powers. Miranda's consciousness appears, who reveals that the man "Canine" Rose spoke with was an illusion to lure her into the Megamycete. Still determined to revive her daughter Eva, Miranda intends to use Rose's consciousness as a vessel now that she is powerless. Michael immediately manifests, revealing himself to be Ethan's consciousness within the Megamycete, and helps Rose escape, but Miranda catches up to them. Ethan encourages Rose to leave and battles Miranda himself. Seeing her father in danger, Rose is reluctant to leave, but when she hears his cries, she breaks the crystal and regains her powers before defeating Miranda. She embraces her father, who apologizes for not being there during her upbringing, but says that he is proud of her. Rose's consciousness then leaves the Megamycete. Rose later visits Ethan's grave before being called away on a mission for the BSAA. As she and her escort drive off into the distance, an unknown figure approaches the vehicle.