Resident Evil 7: 9 Past Mistakes Capcom Have Already Fixed
4. Let The World Tell The Story
Exactly what it says on the tin. Besides the hammy dialogue sequences in, well, every series entry to date, narrative advancement in Resi has always worked best when Capcom lets the story tell itself through visual and environmental cues.
Everyone remembers finding those diaries scattered throughout the classics that detail the gradual decay of an unfortunate victim's mind as they slowly succumb to the T-Virus - only to be assaulted by their reanimated corpse moments later - and that's exactly the type of motif that Resident Evil 7 appears to be learning towards once more, albeit in a modernized form.
The VHS tape in the Beginning Hour demo that provides a snapshot of events unfolding in the same place but in the past allows Capcom to tell 7's fictional history without removing you from the immersion. Good stuff.