How to install Resident Evil Village on old iPhone?
In short, you can’t. Or can you?
After a few days of testing, it turns out that the older A15 processors run the game just well, hence all iPhones from 12 Pro Max included and beyond, should support the game.
Well, Apple disapproves, and disallows all devices older than iPhone 15 from downloading the game, but we’re here to help you.
To install Resident Evil Village on old iPhone, you can either borrow an iPhone 15 from a friend and download the game through your Apple ID. Then, the grayed-out “Get” button will turn into a Cloud button, which you can press and download the game on iPhone 12 Pro Max and beyond.
Alternatively, you can download Resident Evil Village on old iPhone, by manually transferring the game from your Mac or Windows PC by using a few tools and utilities.
We’re about to unwrap every method, but first…
Disclaimer: Some of the methods below involve device manipulation, so by implementing the steps, you carry full responsibility for possible consequences.
Can You Install Resident Evil Village on Old iPhone?
If you play by the book, the answer is No. Resident Evil Village is not supported on iPhones older than iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Pro Max. You can’t hit the “Get” button in the App Store since it’s grayed out.
This limitation is primarily incorporated due to “technical limitations”, but after a few days of testing, we’ve managed to run Resident Evil Village on iPhone 12 Pro Max smoothly. Well, this generally means that any iPhone beyond iPhone 12 Pro Max, running iOS 17.1 or later, should run the game even better/smoother. However, we cannot guarantee that the game will run or even open on older iPhones than 12 Pro Max.
The only problem we’ve caught is that the battery drains a bit faster than expected. We’ve lost around 8-9% of battery for just 15 minutes of gameplay. This happened on an iPhone with an original battery at 99% capacity.
Also, the back of our iPhone 12 Pro Max got a little hot, (nothing concerning), but yet, a bit abnormal.
Warning: Playing Resident Evil Village for a prolonged period of time, on an unsupported iPhone may result in faster battery degradation and overheating.
How to Install Resident Evil Village on Old iPhone?
Note: Feel free to try the easier methods first, but method #2 is guaranteed to work if done properly!
1. Borrow a A17 Chip Apple Device
Method 1/3
If you’re a long-time iPhone user, you know that when you download an app or a game through the App Store, the “Get” button permanently changes into a Cloud button. Well, this is exactly what you need to do, to download Resident Evil Village on old iPhone.
For this purpose, you simply need an iOS device that can actually download the game. The easiest way to acquire such a device is by borrowing it from a friend or family member.
In short, you need an iOS device with the A17 chip or later, which includes:
- iPhone 15 Max
- iPhone 15 Pro Max
- iPad Pro 2021 (5th generation)
- iPad Pro 2021 (3rd generation)
- iPad Air 2022 (5th generation)
So, if you can get your hands on one of these devices, you must sign-into your iCloud, and download Resident Evil Village from the App Store. This will change the “Get” button to an Cloud button on your Apple ID permanently, which means you can then download the game even on an older device, bypassing the download limitation.
Note: If you’ve borrowed an iPhone 15/Pro Max from a friend, don’t forget to sign-out from your iCloud when you’re ready.
2. Manually Install Village on iPhone (Mac)
Method 2/3
A tested and proven method to install Resident Evil Village on old iPhone is via manually transferring the game’s installation file through your Mac to your iPhone. Yes, you’re going to need a Macbook or iMac to get this done, but if you follow the steps in this method precisely as shown, you cannot fail.
Note: If you only have a Windows PC at your disposal, jump to method #3.
There are a few steps that you need to perform chronologically!
3.1 Download & Install Homebrew
The first step is to install the Homebrew utility on your Mac or iMac. To do so, you’re going to need to use the Terminal as you can’t get this one from the App Store.
- First, click on the Launchpad icon from the Dock.
- Then, type “Terminal” and click on the Terminal.
In your terminal, copy and insert this command:
- /bin/bash -c “$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/HEAD/install.sh)”
You will be asked for your Mac password. Insert the password, which you will not be seeing that it’s being typed in, and press Enter. When the Homebrew utility is installed you should see the following response.
Next you must run the following commands to include Homebrew to your PATH:
Important: You must replace “YOUR_USER_NAME” with your mac’s admin username, which you can find by going to System Preferences → Users & Groups.
3.2 Download & Install the IPATool
The next step is to install the IPATool, which will allow you to download the installation file for Resident Evil Village. The installation of this tool requires a successful Homebrew setup, hence if you see an error, carry out the steps from point 3.1 again.
This is very simple and all you need to do is run the following commands:
- brew tap majd/repo
- brew install ipatool
3.3 Sign Into IPATool via your iCloud
Then you must sign into the same Apple ID, as the iPhone you wish to install Resident Evil Village on!
You need to see the Terminal response “success=true”, which means that everything so far is done!
Note: Replace “iCloud” and “Password” with your account values and if your ID is protected by two-factor authentication, on your iPhone, click “Allow” and then enter the on-screen code.
3.4 Download the Resident Evil Village
You’re almost ready!
There are two more commands needed to download the Resident Evil Village file.
You will be asked to provide your Keychain Access to download the file. When done, locate the IPA file in the finder and use AirDrop to transfer the game to an iOS 17 iPhone.
When the process is done, you will notice Resident Evil Village installed on your iPhone and you will be able to launch and play the game.
Tip: If you can’t Airdrop the file, upload it to Google Drive or other cloud service and download it through your iPhone.
3. Manually Install Village on iPhone (Windows)
Method 3/3
If you don’t have a Mac, you can also get the API file of the Resident Evil Village through a Windows PC. You only need to download the APITool from Github, then unzip it and put the file into a folder on the desktop. The next step is to open the folder and copy the URL where you’ve unzipped the folder.
Then you must open the CMD via Administrator, and insert the following command to open the downloaded IPATool. In our case, the command looks like this:
- cd C:\Users\USER\OneDrive\Desktop\New folder (2)\bin
- Ipatool-2.1.4-windows-amd64
Note: When on Windows, through the CMD, instead of starting with “ipatool” each command starts with the entire files’ name “ipatool-2.1.4-windows-amd64”.
We’ve made it easier for you as you only need to copy and paste these commands:
- ipatool-2.1.4-windows-amd64 auth login -e iCloud -p Password
- ipatool-2.1.4-windows-amd64 purchase -b jp.co.capcom.VillageUSios
- ipatool-2.1.4-windows-amd64 download -b jp.co.capcom.VillageUSios
Quick Recap:
That was how to install Resident Evil Village on old iPhone!
To wrap things up, we can conclude that these are the only known ways of installing Resident Evil Village on an unsupported iPhone. The good thing is that those methods should also work with other games that are not supported for your iPhone, so feel free to attempt and hopefully get the games you want to play.
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