100 Things You Never Knew About Resident Evil

When Capcom had to go back to the drawing board following the disastrous response to RE6, their ideas for a protagonist took shape slowly. Originally, Resident Evil 7's lead was going be a stand-in for the player and given a "generic" storyline. Over time however they decided that it would be far more interesting if Ethan was a central player in the plot, rather than just reactive.

So when the design team started sketching him out, Ethan was considerably different. Not only do early concepts show his face - something never officially revealed in-game - but some even put him in a suit. Apparently, at one point, he was set to be a detective. In the final game Ethan's occupation is never mentioned, but a supplemental guide book refers to him as a systems engineer.

You never really think about it purely because it's a gameplay and design device, but Village's inventory - like RE4's before it - implies that Ethan is carrying around a suitcase. In concept stages, the character was originally drawn with a backpack, with different size upgrades that would be made available.

This probably would've made more logical sense than a briefcase, but maybe there's bonus points for style.