For those interested in the upcoming game, the new Maiden graphics visual showcase for Resident Evil Village gives players lots of details to mull over for the next few months. While Village isn't due out until May 2021, gamers can at least finally get a peep into the new world of Lady Dimitrescu and her vampire daughters.
But there was one item that players could pick up in the demo that seemed to have a lot of mystery surrounding it: the Necklace.
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In Maiden, players can interact with a pretty limited number of rooms and items. As a visual showcase, the demo does display the graphics and quality of the game with little in the way of gameplay or scares. It brings back the new playstyle of Resident Evil 7's duck-and-block kind of play instead of reverting back to the action-packed style of the older, post-RE3 games. It feels incredibly different from RE7 while still maintaining the same quality, spooky visuals, and gory, first-person views.
Another thing that this demo has in common with the last game is the unusable demo item. In the Resident Evil 7 demo, there was a finger that players could interact with, but could not use. The finger was the number one mystery of the Resident Evil 7 demo, as it couldn't be used until the full game. There, it was a piece of a puzzle. Here, in this visual showcase for Resident Evil Village, players get a bone necklace that is a creepy reminder of the finger puzzle from RE7.
The necklace in its description text makes it clear that the necklace belonged to the narrator through the demo. They somehow became a prisoner in the Castle Dimitrescu as a future meal for the giant, eight-foot tall vampire matron Lady of the house. This person works to solve the puzzles that will get them out of this place, picking up every item, looking through every drawer, and using every item they find, except the necklace. The necklace is made of animal bone and corded with what looks like perhaps a natural string, like leather or rope. It also features several dark-green beads that bare some resemblance to simple, heishi-type Native American beads. Since the necklace is meant to be a charm against evil, it could have ancient religious or cultural significance to the narrator. Outside of this, there's really not much to go on.
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During the Maiden demo, there are several hints that maids are not well-treated in the Castle Dimitrescu. One is slashed in the face, for example, while the writer of the journal entries made a mistake when opening a window and fears she'll be the next maid that's thrown into the basement. And considering that the number one delicacy created by this house of empowered all-female RE8 wine makers is called "Maiden's Blood Wine," and comes in an "ornate bottle decorated with silver flowers," the maid might be have been afraid that it was be her blood that next ferments into this ghoulish wine.
There is one more grisly hint that points to the playable Maiden being in their next batch of Sanguis Virginis: the list of candidates on the front room table. It seems clear that this is for the new batch of Maiden Wine, which would most likely make the narrator one of the top three names. This hints that the selection process for choosing the right blood for making wine is a big deal at the Castle Dimitrescu.
The biggest mystery that may tie into the necklace, its wearer, and the wine-making horror that is happening in the castle is a detail dropped in Lady Dimitrescu's greeting to the main character of the demo. As she walks into the doorway from the courtyard, which the narrator was hoping to escape from, she says "So we finally meet." If this massive vampire matron has not met the main character yet, and was looking forward to it, there's a possibility that her name was moved to the top of the candidate list for bleeding out into Sanguis Virginis casks. This would mean that not only has Lady Dimitrescu not been in the Castle during the entirety of the mystery main character's stay, but it's also another hint that the maid who wrote the journal entries and the main character are not the same person. The writer of the journal makes it clear that she has met the Mistress of the house, and the eight-foot-tall vampire matron promised to not bite her.
Before Resident Evil Village is released in May 2021, players will get a second viewing of the terrifying Castle Dimitrescu. On Capcom's official Resident Evil 8 page, there is a message near the bottom of the main image that states: "This demo is only available on PlayStation 5. Another demo will be released on all platforms in Spring 2021." That means that this graphical showcase was just the beginning of Resident Evil's next-gen survival-horror playable teasers. Players have yet another demo to look forward to, where we may learn more about the Maiden who was presumably sacrificed by Lady Dimitrescu for her next cask of Maiden's Blood wine.
Hopefully in the upcoming demo, players get a better idea of what the Ceremony is that Ethan is slated to be part of as per the new RE8 teaser trailer, or perhaps players will get a glimpse at who Mother Miranda is. But more than likely, the story of this poor woman's death and her strange bone talisman won't be fully resolved until the game releases.
Resident Evil 8 Village is currently in development.
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