I have some very mixed feelings about the trailer for Resident Evil 9. Don't get me wrong, I'm incredibly happy to see it in the flesh, and the idea of returning to some iconic places fills me with nervous joy, but I'm also left wondering if we'll ever see some of my favourite characters again.
In the trailer shown at Summer Game Fest, we were introduced to Grace Ashcroft, a technical analyst who is seemingly researching the aftermath of catastrophic events which have taken place in the rest of the universe alongside the disappearance of a few people. The key location being The Wrenwood Hotel, where Alyssa Ashcroft, Grace's mother, was murdered eight years ago.
Alyssa was an investigative reporter and former resident of Raccoon City who was working to expose Umbrella for harbouring bioweapons in the city. This isn't the only reference to Racoon City seen in the trailer: we not only get to see where the bomb that destroyed it landed, but also an ash-covered and destroyed Raccoon Police Department. And repeat after me, when I say Raccoon City you say Leon Kennedy.
We didn't all miss a Leon cameo hidden within the trailer, but some signs are pointing towards the return of everyone's favourite backflipping hero, including a theory posted by well-known Resi leaker, Dusk Golem: "Resident Evil 9 will only have one campaign. Leon Kennedy is not the only playable character, but he is the main character."
Dusk Golem also explains how Resident Evil 9 will act sort of like the end of the trilogy for Leon, with Resident Evil 2, Resident Evil 4, and now the latest game all tying together neatly—we're all just agreeing to ignore Resident Evil 6, yeah?
"Resident Evil 9 is going to be a 'conclusion' game, but also a game of 'new beginnings'," Dusk Golem says. "We'll see major status quo changes within the universe, it's being treated as the 'end' of the story that started with Resident Evil 1 (or Resident Evil 0, timeline-wise), opening the series up for different kinds of horror stories."
The idea of Requiem being a conclusion game fills me with dread, as that probably means some of our favourite characters won't be making it out of this one alive. But you know what makes me even angrier than that? Knowing that this could be a conclusion game aimed at tying up stories from around the Resi-verse, and Capcom settled on the name Requiem instead of Appendix.
I've been chewing everyone's ear off about this one, but do me a favour and hear me out for a second. Appendix is a gross part of the human body that is often stripped away: very gross, very Resi. It's also a section found at the end of a book or document AND you could add in the Roman Numerals IX, appendIX. Come on man, it was right there!
Anyway, I'll get over it. It's not even officially confirmed that Leon Kennedy will make an appearance in Requiem, although I don't think he could physically keep himself away from anything mutated and deadly, so I wouldn't be surprised at all if we stumbled across him while exploring The Wrenwood Hotel, here's hoping anyways.
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