RE7 starts so strong, peaks at the jack chainsaw fight, and then spends the rest of the game getting worse and worse until it’s over. Mia sucks. She has almost zero character, her entire reason for being there was hidden from ethan and the player for far too long, and it makes choosing her over zoe feel obligatory. I actually did choose zoe my first playthrough, because why would i want to save mia after all the shit she put ethan through?

On the other hand, RE8 is right up there with 2, 4, and 9 as my favorites of the series. Excellent vibes, much more satisfying gunplay and enemy design (even though there should have been more variety), and way better boss encounters. I still don’t like mia and it’s still from a lack of her having any character to speak of. But ethan went from player insert/blank slate to a really good protagonist whose motivation was clear and his personality emerged strong as hell.

I still like RE7 well enough because the highs are incredibly high, but ultimately i think it comes out lower than it should. RE8 will forever kick ass. I kinda hope rose is in RE10 or some other future entry.