Compared to Village, I think 7 is more effective has a horror game. It's a legitimately scary game especially in the earlier sections whereas Village is just tense.

Where RE7 is more narrow in scope, village is far more action packed with more environment and enemy variety as well as having a greater emphasis on upgradeability. This isn't necessarily a bad thing for RE7 as they are just two different approaches, however enemy variety could have been better as it's really just the mold creatures and they all look and behave somewhat similar.

Overall I think I found RE7 the more enjoyable cohesive experience however both games are excellent in their own right.