It's always interesting whenever a video game's antagonist is more famous than its protagonist. Far Cry 3's Vaas Montenegro is a far more interesting character than Jason Brody. Borderlands 2's Handsome Jack outshines all the Vault Hunters as well as any other villain that came before or after him. But quite possibly the most surprising of all is how Resident Evil: Village' s Lady Dimitrescu took the world by storm.
Alcina Dimitrescu is an aristocrat and one of the Four Lords that preside over the European village that serves as Resident Evil: Village's setting. A noble with a hereditary blood disease, Dimitrescu was transformed by Mother Miranda using a Cadou parasite. The resulting process turned her into a mutant capable of talents such as creating retractable claws from her nails, regeneration, and turning into a dragon-like monster at will. While the final power isn't available to players, most of Lady Dimitrescu's abilities are useable in Resident Evil: Village's Winters' Expansion DLC.
The Perks of Not Cutting Your Nails
To unlock Lady Dimitrescu, players must first obtain an S rank in the final Mercenaries: Additional Orders map, The Bloody River. This is best done with either Christ Redfield or Karl Heisenberg, as Ethan Winters is more of an everyman than an overpowered specialist. Players who want to get their claws on Dimitrescu faster should go with Chris, as he is immediately unlocked once the Winters' Expansion DLC is installed.
Lady Dimitrescu's main weapons are her retractable nail claws called the Lady's Nails. With them, she can perform a variety of moves. Her default attacks allow her to swipe with her left or right claws but alternating between the two with the proper timing makes for some fast slashing combos. Players can also press both primary attack buttons at the same time to execute a wide simultaneous swipe that damages and knocks back weaker enemies in front of Dimitrescu.
Holding down one of the primary buttons results in different moves. Holding down the left attack button, for instance, allows Dimitrescu to pick up an enemy in front of her and choke slam them to the ground. The ground slam is a small area of effect (AoE) attack that hits enemies in her surrounding vicinity. Holding down the right attack button makes Dimitrescu perform a running uppercut slash that lets her quickly close a small distance between her and her enemies. While her Lady's Nails attacks aren't as flashy as her other moves, they do a good amount of damage and are reliable at close range.
Creative Ranged Options
Lady Dimitrescu has a couple of tricks that help her deal with those that are out of her Lady's Nails' range. Her most available ranged option is her Insect Swarm which stuns enemies and does a small amount of damage. While Insect Swarm's damage can be upgraded via the Duke at the start of each Mercenaries stage (as can the rest of her powers), it is more for creating openings rather than dealing direct harm.
By far the most unique ranged attack in Dimitrescu's arsenal is Vanity which allows her to hurl a large mirror at groups of foes. Vanity does a large amount of splash damage where it lands but is offset by a long cooldown. It is also a nice throwback to the scene in the main game where she throws her vanity in anger after a heated argument with Mother Miranda.
The last and most powerful of Lady Dimitrescu's abilities lets her summon one of her daughters to fight for her. The daughter acts independently of Dimitrescu and takes aggro off of the players as well as damages enemies. Players need to have a full Thrill Gauge to deploy one of Dimitrescu daughters, but the payoff is definitely worth it.
The Thrill of Battle
All of Lady Dimitrescu's abilities feed into her unique Thrill Gauge. Performing attacks that damage enemies fills the Thrill Gauge and when it is full, Lady Dimitrescu's abilities are at her highest. Her Lady's Nails receive a significant damage boost and her movement speed increases, making her faster and deadlier. All of Dimitrescu's moves can be upgraded to increase their Power and Thrill value build-up as well as decrease their overall cooldowns (this lets players use her powerful abilities more frequently).
There are other cool features that players will find when they take control of Lady Dimitrescu. The game explicitly tells them to crouch when going through doorways as the mutated aristocrat is far too tall to fit through them. Players will also have to adjust their view when dealing with enemies as they must look down and sometimes even crouch to get them within attacking range of Lady Dimitrescu's claws. While special maps and a dedicated campaign for Alcina Dimitrescu would have been nice to have, Capcom more than delivered on its promise to put players in her oversized shoes.
Resident Evil Village: Winters' Expansion is available for PC, PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.