Resident Evil 8's latest trailer is one of the strangest in the series

A new Resident Evil 8 trailer dropped during today's PlayStation 5 event, and while it doesn't show off much of the game in action, we do get a closer look at the titular village and its strange denizens.

We open on Chris Redfield kidnapping Resident Evil 7's Ethan before Mia (also from RE7) reads out an old fairytale. The story is accompanied by some surreal animations that look right out of Tim Burton's Nightmare Before Christmas or Corpse Bride stop motion films. Even the music is a novelty—it's a quaint, whimsical piano ditty that'd fit just as well with the earlier Hogwarts Legacy trailer. I'm pretty jazzed to see the series take some big stylistic leaps here.

We also get some quick glimpses of the werewolf-esque monsters and locals from the older trailer, too, though they're largely the same shots with a little extra detail. Game looks sharp.

The trailer closes with a nice nod to Resident Evil 4's merchant, showing us the chubby chin and hooked nose of what might be RE8's merchant character. "If it's just looking, window shop away," he says.

He's on point, because I'll be eyeballing this trailer voraciously. Every new scrap about RE8 has me more excited than any recent game in the series yet. It feels about time the series moved on from doing the zombie thing and embraced the whole of horror. The game is currently listed as due out in 2021, but that's obviously a pretty big target to point at.

James is stuck in an endless loop, playing the Dark Souls games on repeat until Elden Ring and Silksong set him free. He's a truffle pig for indie horror and weird FPS games too, seeking out games that actively hurt to play. Otherwise he's wandering Austin, identifying mushrooms and doodling grackles.