Just a few days ago, we were talking about enka. Today, Resident Evil: Village has found a new and strange way to promote its upcoming zombie horror game: kids puppet shows.
When we spoke about Resident Evil’s viral enka promotional campaign, I wouldn’t have thought that would be the start of CAPCOM’s brilliant, bizarre promotional strategy for their latest game in the long-running series. That alone hit all the notes needed for a domestic viral promotional campaign by taking a beloved classic song and bringing the singer back for a new arrangement. Puppetry may be stranger.
Deliberately kiddy-fied in contrast to the in-game footage featured at the start of the video, ‘Let’s Play in the Resi Village’ features cute puppet incarnations of multiple prominent characters from the upcoming release and its own child-friendly theme song. This includes an extra-tall puppet for Lady Dimitrescu.
In this strange episode, Dimitre-onee-chan tries to lead Salvatore, Donna, and Karl into painting a picture using red paint. They realize they may not have enough red paint, and at this point Salvatore falls over and onto Karl’s electric chainsaw, causing sprays of red confetti and string that they use to create more red paint. It’s almost more disturbing for being so silly, especially when they burst into song about it and the blood flips Dimitre-onee-chan’s vampire switch.
Still, strange as it is, I’m in love. We’re even being promised a second episode to go along with the game’s release on 7 May, and I think at this point, I’d happily take an entire series of surreal kiddy-horror Resident Evil: Village puppet shows.
Resident Evil: Village hits store shelves on 7 May worldwide on PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Xbox Series and PC, with a special limited-time demo being released this weekend to encourage those on the fence to pick the game up. You can find out more over on the game’s official website.