I mean, divisive to internet nerds, I guess, but RE7 was very well received and I think is like the third or fourth best selling game in the franchise now right. I mean, I guess it'll be divisive to the people who already don't like 7, but I mean, that's just obvious.
A game that is best selling definitely doesn't preclude it from being controversial or divisive, or even generally reviewing well. RE6 sold better than 7 (and is the second best selling game in the series) and is obviously extremely divisive. MGS2 is the second best selling game in that series, (second only to MGS5 IIRC), and reviewed spectacularly, but there's no doubt about that game's controversy and footprint on its franchise.
Resident Evil of course has history with stalker enemies, but those characters have lots of fans and detractors (so much so that RE7 was compared to Outlast and Amnesia for months). RE has also only dabbled in occult subject matter and imagery very superficially; mostly in RE4 but with virtually no depth except for it informing the enemy designs, and occasionally in other games to provide some spooky locales (the Marguerite section of RE7, some of the Alex stuff in Rev2, Lisa's lair in REmake), so if RE8 is really putting a greater focus on occult themes then that would also be a pretty big departure. If the report of "werewolves" is accurate then that's also quite unique for RE, but comparatively reasonable to meat transformers Simmons in 6.
Last edited: