The Resident Evil franchise is home to some of the most beloved and well-known monsters and villains in all of gaming. From the dastardly Albert Wesker to the menacing Resident Evil 2's Mr. X to the even tougher Nemesis of Resident Evil 3, this long-running horror franchise has no shortage of evildoers that want nothing more than to see the heroes fall. But while each game in the franchise has on average around one memorable villain, Resident Evil 4 Remake has a whole slew of them.
When fans think back to the original Resident Evil 4, a few key things stick in their minds, namely Resident Evil 4's opening village sequence, the Regenerators, and Ashley's constant cries for help. But above it all, many fans will immediately recall iconic scenes between main man Leon S. Kennedy and Ramon Salazar, or the intense Verdugo chase underneath the castle, or Lord Saddler's horrifying final form. Resident Evil 4's villains create some of the game's most iconic moments, and in some ways, they're even more memorable in the remake.
Resident Evil 4 Remake Fleshes Out its Iconic Villains a Little More
The original 2005 version of Resident Evil 4 has at least three iconic named antagonists. First up is Resident Evil 4's Village Chief, Bitores Mendez, a hulking brute that ambushes Leon throughout the early hours of the game and eventually ends up turning into a mutated skeleton-scorpion-man-thing. Then when players reach the castle, they're introduced to Ramon Salazar, the 20-year-old man with the face of an 80-year-old and the body of an 8-year-old, and potentially the most iconic villain in the game, seen to repeatedly torment Leon with traps and quips. Then towards the end of Resident Evil 4, Lord Saddler, the big bad, is finally revealed.
These original villains may seem pretty goofy, but it's that over-the-top nature that really cemented them in the minds of fans all those years ago. It's Mendez' grunting and intimidating presence, Salazar's constant bickering and wailing, and Saddler's B-movie plot motivations that make each of them so memorable, and though they aren't too imposing or special on their own, they all combine to make for a fierce and fun rogue's gallery.
While Resident Evil 4 Remake's villains don't have quite the same over-the-top flair, these versions of the characters feel a lot more grounded, and Capcom has really spent the time and effort to give each of them their own distinct personalities and backstories. Though Resident Evil 4 Remake still retains a lot its B-movie action-horror inspiration, it's not quite as on-the-nose as the original, and these more grounded interpretations of such iconic villains help to carry a cohesive and clear narrative throughline throughout the entire experience.
As is usually the case in Resident Evil, especially the recent entries, most of the game's characters are only really fleshed out in collectibles hidden across the environment such as journal entries or letters. This is true for Resident Evil 4 Remake, which takes the more informational collectibles found in the original version, and gives them a more personal spin. Fairly early on in the game, players can find a number of hidden journals in the Village Chief's attic.
These journals give the character a much more tragic backstory, documenting his attempts to keep the village together in times of poverty and famine, only to be indoctrinated into the Los Illuminados, and forced to ingest the Las Plagas parasite, leaving him as a mindless husk. A similar heartbreaking backstory is given to the mutated Verdugo, Salazar's right-hand man who was once his butler that remained so loyal that he agreed to experiment with the Las Plagas virus, creating the Novistador.
The final step in his experimentation was to turn himself into Resident Evil 4 Remake's Verdugo monster to better serve his master. It isn't the most compelling form of storytelling, but Resident Evil 4 Remake's collectibles do a decent job of giving these iconic villains more depth.
Resident Evil 4 is out now for PC, PS4, PS5, and Xbox Series X/S.
