The Resident Evil series has often been defined by its villains. Resident Evil 3: Nemesis is named after the monster at the center of its story, whereas Mr. X was the real star of the Resident Evil 2 remake. Likewise, Lady Dimitrescu has been heavily featured in Resident Evil Village promotional material leading up to the game's release, becoming an Internet meme and easily the most talked-about aspect of the new game.

With how much focus Lady Dimitrescu has gotten in Resident Evil Village marketing, one would think that she was a significant part of the game. And considering just how popular the Lady Dimitrescu character has become, one couldn't be faulted for assuming that she would have a major role to play. However, those who have already played through the first few hours of Resident Evil Village can attest that Lady Dimitrescu is hardly featured much at all.

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Please note that the rest of this article will have MAJOR SPOILERS for Resident Evil Village, so proceed with caution.

In Resident Evil Village's story, protagonist Ethan Winters encounters Lady Dimitrescu while exploring the aptly named Castle Dimitrescu. Lady Dimitrescu stalks Ethan while he's trying to explore the castle, and if she finds him, she'll chase him relentlessly until she succeeds in killing him or he gets away. In this way, Lady Dimitrescu is not unlike Mr. X from the Resident Evil 2 remake, though her implementation is far more underwhelming.

Lady Dimitrescu simply does not pose nearly as significant of a threat as Mr. X does when playing Resident Evil Village on the standard difficulty setting. For the most part, Ethan should have no problem outmaneuvering and outrunning Lady Dimitrescu, and even if she does get her hands on him, she's unlikely to actually kill him. Most of the time, Ethan will have the opportunity to heal up and make his escape to the castle's safe room before Lady Dimitrescu can finish the job.

When it becomes apparent that Lady Dimitrescu isn't really that significant of a threat, she loses a lot of her intimidating aura. It's still chilling to turn a corner and see the massive Lady Dimitrescu walking down a hall or ducking under a doorframe, but that has diminishing returns as well. Playing Resident Evil Village on higher difficulty settings gives Lady Dimitrescu a bit more bite, but overall the encounters with her are still a letdown.

Once Ethan succeeds in solving all of Castle Dimitrescu's puzzles and killing Lady Dimitrescu's daughters, he will eventually find himself on the roof. It's here where he has a final showdown with Lady Dimitrescu herself, who transforms into a fleshy, pegasus-like creature with a humanoid figure sticking out of its back. The game falls into the old Resident Evil trope of transforming interesting-looking creatures into monstrous blobs, which is especially disappointing since Lady Dimitrescu's design was so well-received by the community.

The Lady Dimitrescu boss fight in Resident Evil Village is not all that challenging either. At this point in the game, Ethan has access to a significant number of weapons from Resident Evil Village's arsenal, including a pistol, a shotgun, and a sniper rifle. Assuming players haven't wasted their ammo, they should be able to blast away at Lady Dimitrescu with the sniper rifle to make relatively short work of her.

The Lady Dimitrescu boss fight in Resident Evil Village is disappointing because it robs the character of her unique appearance as a huge, Victorian-era vampire and turns her into yet another messy-looking Resident Evil monster. It's also not all that challenging, reducing what was once one of the game's most interesting characters into a fairly generic and underwhelming Resident Evil boss encounter.

This boss fight with Lady Dimitrescu happens within the first few hours of Resident Evil Village. And while Resident Evil Village isn't a long game, this still goes a long way in diminishing her overall impact. Lady Dimitrescu is the first of Mother Miranda's Lords that Ethan fights and defeats, and then he's off to face the next three and Dimitrescu is mostly forgotten from that point on. There are still some references to her later in the game, but it's still disappointing that she was so easily defeated and is seemingly done with the franchise.

Capcom likely made the decision to kill off Lady Dimitrescu in this fashion well before it knew how popular the character would become. While the developers may have had an idea that Lady Dimitrescu would be a fan favorite, it's unlikely that they anticipated just how popular Lady Dimitrescu became with the community leading up to the game's release. Considering this, the company may very well decide to bring her back in some form or another.

Perhaps a Resident Evil prequel game could give Lady Dimitrescu some more time in the spotlight, or maybe Capcom can come up with some convoluted way to bring Lady Dimitrescu back from the dead, like it did with Albert Wesker. Regardless, Lady Dimitrescu's implementation in Resident Evil Village didn't live up to the expectations set by the game's marketing, and so it's understandable why some fans may be coming away underwhelmed by her appearance in the game.

Resident Evil Village is out now for PC, PS4, PS5, Stadia, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X.

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