Despite being an undeniable fan favorite, Resident Evil Village courted some controversy on release from its modding community. Some modders absolutely loved the game, handcrafting cursed but impressive renditions of Lady Dimitrescu as Thomas the Tank Engine. However, the most popular mod for the game since its launch is "Lazy FOV and Vignette Fix" with nearly 30,000 downloads. This is around 20% of the total mod downloads for Village on Nexus Mods, which is an incredibly significant percentage. This mod identifies a problem present in many Capcom games, and the modder in question has some strong words about Capcom's treatment of the issue.
For as long as games have released on PC, there have been mods that fix or remix them. One particularly notable example is the original PC port of Dark Souls, where the comprehensive DSFix mod actually got the mod creator a job in the games industry. Resident Evil Village mod author Maceyaface is in a similar position, as they are fed up with the "nonsense" excuses Capcom provides for its FOV and Vignette choices. Maceyaface remained unconvinced that games become more spooky "if the FOV is so tight you get motion sick." As such, the mod author created this update-agnostic "fix" for these graphics options, making the game more accessible in the process.
The Accessibility Issues With Resident Evil Village
As Maceyaface outlines in their mod description, Capcom has a consistent problem with locked field of view and the excessive use of vignettes in the Resident Evil series. While these visual elements help to build atmosphere and tension, features like these cause accessibility issues for many gamers. As standard, the game has an 81 FOV. For a first-person game, having an adjustable field of view is incredibly important for those with motion sickness. A tight, restrictive FOV can make some gamers feel incredibly sick, which distracts in the worst way from Resident Evil Village's already sickening horror.
One commenter remarked in the discussion section of Nexus Mods that the first thing they did "after playing 15 minutes" of Resident Evil Village "was Google an FOV mod." According to the same Nexus user, "mods like this are the reason I play on PC." It is an unintentional argument in favor of PC gaming; the ability to quickly find fixes to basic accessibility issues is unmatched by consoles. Of course, PlayStation has made great strides with accessibility in AAA spaces, such as The Last of Us: Part 2. Xbox has also committed to accessibility, which is interesting when comments like the above suggest that PC gaming is still much more accessible thanks to mods.
How Do Mods Fix Village's Problems?
The FOV mod in question unlocks the tight restrictions on the game's first person perspective. While the base game's FOV is locked to 81, the Lazy FOV mod releases the field of view up to an angle of 100, and also toggles off the very heavy vignettes without compromising screen effects when taking damage or status effects. The mod is customizable, providing a suite of choices unavailable in the base game. Part of the reason that the Resident Evil modding community found these perspective restrictions in the base game frustrating is that it is apparently an easy fix. Maceyaface's mod, using the demo as a base, was actually up three days before the full game released.
As so many find options like these essential, it is not a surprise that fans want larger developers to consider these changes while in development. One commenter on the mod's Nexus download page discussed how the mod made the game bearable for their wife to watch it with them, saying it "should be called the 'motion-sickness reducing' mod." Another element Maceyaface is considering adding is a fixed reticule option. Fixed reticules reduce motion sickness by giving gamers something concrete to anchor themselves with while watching a moving image.
How Does The Lazy FOV Mod Work?
Maceyaface's Lazy FOV and Vignettes mod gives gamers who want more accessibility in games the central thing they want: options. In fact, the program goes even further than just providing new in-game options; there are two distinct options for how to use the mod. Prospective mod users can either use the mod in a "Trainer" form or as a "HardMod." As the name would imply, trainer mods actively alter the game as you play it, with the ability to dynamically switch up what the mod does as the game runs.
As such, the trainer runs on top of the game, letting players adjust FOV and vignettes on the fly, with a hotkey option to turn off any adjustments during cutscenes if a player so desires. The flexibility that the trainer offers stands in contrast to the HardMod option, which is a tool that alters the game before launch. For the HardMod, the benefits are that nothing else runs alongside the game, but obviously lacks the customizable aspects the trainer provides.
What Other Accessibility Mods Are Available For Resident Evil Village?
While Resident Evil Village mods might currently be more well-known for replacing a baby with Chris Redfield or Countess Thomas Dimitrescu, the most downloaded programs for it on Nexus Mods deal with accessibility issues. The top two mods for Resident Evil Village both allow for FOV customization, alongside a camera mod that is also in the top fifteen most popular mods. The third of these not only provides FOV customization, but also gives users a free camera option, which is great for making cinematics or taking artistically framed screen shots.
Aside from camera changes, other popular mods allow for mapping to a variety of controllers, and re-shading the entire game. Of course, after accessibility is dealt with, there are still Thomas the Tank Engine mods for Resident Evil Village, among other fun mods. As long as there are AAA games, there will always be Thomas the Tank Engine mods.
Resident Evil Village is available on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X and S, Stadia, and PC.
Source: Nexus Mods