Resident Evil Village DLC Should Let Us Play as Lady Dimitrescu

This article contains Resident Evil Village spoilers that largely focus on tall vampire ladies.

The highlight of Capcom’s brief E3 2021 presentation was a black screen with white text that informed the world that “By popular demand, development has just started on additional DLC for Resident Evil Village. More info later.”

It’s not much to go on, but for millions of RE: Village fans (and I mean millions), it’s enough to be excited about. After all, Village featured a compelling cast of characters (with some exceptions) as well as a number of storylines that weren’t entirely resolved. There’s no shortage of potential Village DLC ideas that Capcom could explore.

Yet, in the minds of many, there’s only really one. Capcom, please let us play as Lady Dimitrescu in the Resident Evil Village DLC.

To be very honest with you, I was nearing the point of Dimitrescu burnout before I even played Resident Evil Village. After months of memes about Lady Dimitrescu that quickly suffered from diminishing returns, it was starting to feel like the character had been overhyped.

Yet, the actual Lady Dimitrescu is even more interesting than all of the jokes. Her creepy castle offered a gothic horror environment that felt like a throwback to not just the architecture of Resident Evil‘s Spencer Mansion but a style of horror we surprisingly don’t see often enough in video games. We talked about some of the ways that Village struggled to retain its horror elements throughout the game’s campaign, but Lady Dimitrescu’s castle perfectly captured that blend of genre love and genuine terror the game sometimes needed more of.

Dimitrescu herself also proved to be so much more than just a tall vampire lady. While our initial encounters with the noble portrayed suggested that she would simply be another entry into a proud line of Resident Evil stalkers, we eventually learn that Dimitrescu’s story is a surprisingly tragic one.

Lady Dimiterscu was once a noble who clearly desired to spread her wings. Her adventures even included a brief stint as the lead in a jazz band known as “Miss D and the Pallboys.” She eventually returned home, but she soon found her home had effectively been taken over by Mother Miranda and her cult. It wasn’t long before Miranda herself chose Dimitrescu as a test subject for her experiments with the Cadou parasite.

Unlike so many other subjects, Dimitrescu survived the experiments and even exhibited a measure of control over the abilities it granted her. Unfortunately, the parasite also heightened the effects of Dimitrescu’s hereditary blood disease. Not only did that side effect ensure that Dimitrescu now needed a nearly constant supply of fresh blood to stay alive, but it eventually led to Mother Miranda viewing her as something of a failure.

This is when Dimitrescu really started to lose it. She started to carry herself as the tyrant noble she once seemingly avoided being. The villagers and servants she didn’t verbally abuse were eaten instead. Things only got worse when she was gifted three daughters, as their presence strengthened her growing belief that she was the head of a noble family once more. Through it all, she craved the love and approval that Mother Miranda often denied her.

Despite being such a fascinating character, too much of Miranda’s backstory is tucked away into some of Village‘s most obscure corners. It’s hardly a surprise that some fans walked away from Resident Evil Village feeling that they barely got to spend time with what had become the game’s breakout star.

That’s why Lady Dimitrescu deserves her own DLC. I may have gotten meme fatigue in the weeks leading up to Village‘s release, but there was something wonderful about seeing so many people unite over this new video game character in a year where major new video game releases could be few and far between. While I understand that Capcom had no way of knowing that Dimitrescu would become quite this popular so early on, they’re certainly aware of her popularity now that they’re working on Village‘s first DLC. This is Capcom’s last chance to give Lady Dimitrescu the moments they may have given her had they known she would become the most recognizable part of one of 2021’s best games.

Besides, outside of some multiplayer modes and similar distractions, when do we ever get the chance to play as the villain in a Resident Evil game? After years of running from Capcom’s greatest creations, maybe it’s time the studio makes the most of the ever-changing nature of the Resident Evil series by letting us terrorize a few of the locals for a change.