While most of the recent talk regarding Resident Evil Village has involved a certain giant vampire lady, there is a feeling of genuine excitement for the game itself and how it will build upon the stunning Resident Evil 7.
So far as that goes, it’s kind of incredible that Capcom has been able to generate so much hype for the game despite the fact that they haven’t revealed many crucial details about the project. We still don’t really know what’s up with Chris, we don’t know exactly how Mia and Ethan ended up where they are, and we certainly don’t know why there appear to be so many supernatural forces in this corner of the Resident Evil universe.
Yet, one of the most popular unanswered questions about Resident Evil Village‘s plot is also seemingly one of the simplest: “Where is the village itself located?”
It’s a fascinating question that every official piece of information we’ve seen thus far only really hints at. We obviously know it’s located somewhere cold, the village appears to be quite old, and the game’s official description notes that it’s clearly in a new location relative to the previous game. Beyond that, the actual location of the village remains a mystery.
At this point, you may be saying that the location of the village doesn’t necessarily matter as the Resident Evil series has typically taken place in fictional cities and towns. While that’s true, many Resident Evil games actually use a combination of real and fictional locations to effectively build their environments. Resident Evil 7 took place in a fictional town in Louisiana, Resident Evil 5 was primarily set in a fictional country in Africa, and the events of Resident Evil 4 occurred in an unnamed village in Spain. All of those real places played a major role in the games even if the specific locations were made up.
Actually, while we don’t know the specific village that Resident Evil Village is referencing (if it even shares a name with a real village, which seems unlikely) all current clues strongly suggest that it located in Romania.
The biggest piece of evidence that points to Romania so far is a developer diary of the game which briefly showcases the sequel’s inventory system. In that shot, we see that the in-game currency is referred to as “Lei.” It so happens that is the plural of Leu: the current currency of Romania.
That alone is arguably enough to suggest that Resident Evil 8‘s village is located somewhere in Romania, but additional circumstantial evidence supports that conclusion. The most notable piece of said evidence is the surname of the aforementioned large vampire lady, Alcina Dimitrescu. The name Dimitrescu (and the similar-sounding name Dumitrescu) are both historically common in Romania. For that matter, the pop-culture idea of vampires and other classic monsters is historically associated with Romania’s largest region, Transylvania.
While everything we’ve seen so far leads us to believe the village is located in Romania, it’s important to understand that may not be Resident Evil 8‘s only location. It’s strongly suggested that Ethan travels to the village after something happens to Mia and their child, so it’s possible that the couple moved somewhere else after the events of the previous game. For that matter, it wouldn’t exactly be unheard of for a Resident Evil game to feature multiple locations.