Resident Evil is arguably at its greatest when it has players balance a fine line between being able to confidently defend themselves while also being susceptible to tense encounters. This balance is struck when ammunition is low enough that the player needs to micromanage it accordingly and decide when a bullet needs to be fired, as well as when a bullet should be preserved if an enemy can be circumvented. Not every Resident Evil game needs to be scary to be enjoyable, and in fact many are not scary, but Resident Evil’s protagonists are largely at fault for why Resident Evil entries may or may not be that horrific.
That’s not to say that the franchise isn’t gruesome and gory at times regardless of which protagonist is at its helm at that moment. However, someone as capable as Chris Redfield hardly ever has an air of fear about him. Many Resident Evil protagonists are defined by their combat expertise and how stylishly they are able to cut down bioweapon monstrosities, which inherently makes enemies less frightening if the protagonist fails to be scared by them. There are many reasons why Resident Evil’s Ethan Winters is preferable as a new protagonist, but his innate fear makes him the most unique by far.
Ethan Winters is the Antithesis of Most Resident Evil Protagonists
Ethan definitely demonstrates bold brashness, especially in Resident Evil Village when it's his daughter he is pursuing, but the primary difference between him and characters like Chris is the fact that he is an ordinary civilian. Leon Kennedy was a green combatant in Resident Evil 2 as a brand-new Raccoon City police officer, but even he possessed a stalwart determination to help people.
The remake did a great job of showcasing emotive responses from him, but he was still well-equipped to handle what he needed to deal with. Ethan, on the other hand, was a truly nondescript individual who could be portrayed as fearful and repulsed by what he encountered. Mia was a compelling reason for him to continue onward and not simply abandon her to the Baker estate, but he also only really needed to stick around in order for the narrative to actually continue.
Otherwise, Ethan does not seem like the kind of person to have been strutting through the Baker’s Louisiana home with a shotgun cocked and mowing down Molded enemies. Ethan clearly possesses more firearms experience than most ordinary people might since he shows no issue with handguns, shotguns, and a grenade launcher, for example, but that seems like a necessary oversight to ask players to make for combat to be as varied as it is.
Resident Evil probably could have gotten away with even fewer weapons than it supplied Ethan with, considering how few actual enemy types there were in Resident Evil 7. Ethan could have been trained by Chris between Resident Evil 7 and Resident Evil Village for him to use more weapons in the sequel, but he is still no soldier or war-torn individual.
Still, Ethan’s anonymity makes him unique apart from the roster of legacy characters Resident Evil has clung to, and making him an ordinary citizen was the smartest choice Capcom could have made in its head-long to grisly horror. Having a new protagonist in Resident Evil 9 be an ordinary citizen will no longer make it as unique of a premise as a result, but it would still make it more dynamic compared to entries where STARS members could easily carve their way through hordes of bioweapons.