I’ve been silently excited about Resident Evil 9: Requiem for a while now. I’ve been a huge RE fan for decades now, and am among the crowd who lamented the hard pivot to action that we saw in RE5, but loved the course correction and soft reboot in RE7.
That being said, I also know how Capcom likes to operate in terms of what their titles bring to the table, specifically with this franchise. Pure horror became stale before the series was soft-rebooted with RE4, which upped the action significantly before reaching Michael Bay territory with RE6. By then, the series wasn’t even recognizable as RE — just change the names of the characters and you’d never know the difference.
RE2 Remake gave us a breath of fresh air again, while action was slowly ramped up and balanced again up through the remake of RE4. Peppered in-between were multiplayer games that weren’t executed well and relied more on action again, so my fear was that the series would embrace that yet again.
I was surprised in RE7 gave us a new character who didn’t rely on a pre-existing one. I was even more surprised when Alyssa Ashcroft, a character from the fondly remembered but ill-fated Outbreak spin-off titles, was also mentioned. Those games have always been considered “loosely canon” at best, because the scenarios contradict each other and who makes it out alive is dependent upon tons of factors…mainly, though, if the character controlling them managed to just not die.
So when Grace Ashcroft, Alyssa’s daughter, was shown as the protagonist for Requiem, I was elated. Another new protagonist. Revisiting Raccoon City proper instead of in a remake or retread. And a character’s daughter — not only a new female protagonist, but an offspring, showing the passage of time that the series tries really, really hard to ignore.
…And then this trailer dropped. Is it all doom and gloom? No. Not by a long shot. But Leon’s back, and as much as I love his character, let the old cast retire already. RE8 and RE9 proved we could grow attached to new lead characters. Leon has aged considerably, for the first time. But moments in his gameplay show me reactions that remind me way too much of RE6 for my liking — that title that, as a diehard fan, absolutely made me stop playing the franchise because I couldn’t find a single redeeming quality about the bloated entry.
Leon can, either as a reaction or a pick-up item, use a chainsaw instead of being on the receiving end. That’s a cool little addition…but between that and his signature Kennedy Kick (please credit me, Capcom), I already feel that I’m going to be hard-pressed to be scared. And while recent entries have all hit the ball out of the park, RE3 Remake showed that it’s still very possible for Capcom to swing and miss.
Perhaps Grace and Leon will have separate campaigns, ala RE1 and RE2. But my fear is that the fresh air of the new character will be sucked out of the room by the introduction of an old, even if 25+ years in the field has finally given him a wrinkle or two. And that Leon’s gameplay will be more action-focused while Grace’s is more horror-focused, which is something they tried (and failed) to do in RE6.
I’m still excited for it. I’m sure I’ll still have fun. But I’m hoping that Capcom doesn’t break their win streak with this one.
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