Resident Evil Village Is Bringing Back Typewriters (But Not Ink Ribbons)

A Resident Evil series staple is returning, as the franchise’s iconic typewriter save points are coming back in Resident Evil Village, but they won’t be joined by the annoying ink ribbons. The first Resident Evil game was set in the stately Spencer Mansion, which was filled with old typewriters and ink ribbons that players needed to save their progress.

Typewriter-like save points quickly became a staple of contemporary survival horror, as forcing players to use a limited number of saves and travel to specific locations to save progress added to difficulty and tension. The typewriters returned in Resident Evil 2 and Resident Evil 3: Nemesis, but their inclusion didn’t make much sense, as the game were set in the urban environment of Raccoon City. Later, typewriters returned in Resident Evil 4, but the ink ribbons did not. Resident Evil 5 and Resident Evil 6 removed the typewriters from the series entirely, as they were co-op multiplayer titles, but they returned in the remakes of Resident Evil 2 and Resident Evil 3. Typewriters were recently replaced with tape recorders in Resident Evil 7, matching the game’s thematic focus on memory and tapes.

Capcom has revealed new information, such as the fact that Lady Dimitrescu chases Ethan around, about the upcoming Resident Evil Village via Sony’s PlayStation Blog. According to the post, typewriters will be returning as save points in Resident Evil Village, after being absent from the mainline entries (not counting remakes) since Resident Evil 4.

It has also been confirmed that ink ribbons won’t be returning in Resident Evil Village, so players are free to save whenever they want. The reason why the ink ribbons were dropped from Resident Evil 4 was due to a shift in gameplay, as the series had become more action-focused. It was always very limiting to carry ink ribbons around and have them take up precious inventory space, while using and storing them generally felt overly convoluted. Ink ribbons’ omission is a good choice for the latest entry, as it hopefully means that the player’s inventory in Resident Evil Village won’t be filled with clutter.

Resident Evil 7 returned to the series’ survival horror roots, and even that game didn’t see fit to bring back ink ribbons. The only time the consumable save items did return was as part of the hardcore difficulty in the remake of Resident Evil 2. It’s great to see the typewriter make its comeback to the mainline entries in the series, and even better to learn that the ink ribbons are stuck in the storage chest, where they belong.

Resident Evil Village will be released for Google Stadia, PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X|S on May 7, 2021.

Source: PlayStation Blog

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Scott Baird
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Scott has been writing for Screen Rant since 2016 and regularly contributes to The Gamer. He has previously written articles and video scripts for websites like Cracked, Dorkly, Topless Robot, and TopTenz.
A graduate of Edge Hill University in the UK, Scott started out as a film student before moving into journalism. It turned out that wasting a childhood playing video games, reading comic books, and watching movies could be used for finding employment, regardless of what any career advisor might tell you. Scott specializes in gaming and has loved the medium since the early ‘90s when his first console was a ZX Spectrum that used to take 40 minutes to load a game from a tape cassette player to a black and white TV set. Scott now writes game reviews for Screen Rant and The Gamer, as well as news reports, opinion pieces, and game guides. He can be contacted on LinkedIn.

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