Ever since Resident Evil 9 Requiem was teased at Summer Game Fest players, myself included, have been huffing copium in hopes that, despite everything we've seen, Capcom will bring Leon Kennedy back for this iconic return to Raccoon City.
Koshi Nakanishi, director of Requiem, has stated multiple times that Grace Ashcroft will be the protagonist, as shown in the first trailer, but I'm still not convinced that she'll be the only one to make an appearance. However, Nakanishi has expanded on why Ashcroft is the best fit for Requiem, and is much better than Leon, and to stop asking about Leon, please.
"Our concept for this game was 'addictive fear'," Nakanishi says during a Capcom Spotlight. "There's something about the catharsis you get from overcoming your fears. It creates an addiction that makes you want to do more, to play more.
"The protagonist this time is an intelligence analyst for the FBI, Grace Ashcroft. She's introverted and easily scared, which is a new type of character for the Resident Evil series. We wanted someone that experiences horror from the same perspective as the player."
I wouldn't say this kind of character is completely new ground for the series. Resident Evil 7, which was also directed by Nakanishi, introduced Ethan Winters into the protagonist pool.
Now Ethan may be brave enough to travel to a remote house in Louisiana, but he also spent the entirety of Biohazard having an existential crisis and getting very scared. He toughened up for Resident Evil 8 though, casually glueing his hand back on and slowly assembling his deconstructed daughter.
Characters like this may not seem anywhere as cool as some of the og Resi stock, like Kennedy, Valentine, or the rock-puncher himself Redfield, but there is actually a pretty valid reason why scaredy cats work so well in Resi.
"We always thought about making Leon the protagonist, but making a horror game based around him is difficult," Nakanishi says. "He wouldn't jump at something like a bucket falling. No one wants to see Leon scared by everything. So he's actually quite a bad match for horror."
This is sadly true. Resident Evil 4 is the least scary game in the series by far, and something that I don't think can be classed as a horror game at all. What's to be scared of when you can just suplex grandmas and beat up eldritch gods, all while still being pissed you have to work overtime?
This game is a requiem, a eulogy to those who came before.
Koshi Nakanishi, director of Requiem
This is where Ashcroft comes in. Having a character that reflects a reality that the player would experience makes for much better horror. But it's not as if she'll be completely helpless. "She learns to overcome her fears throughout the course of the story," Nakanishi continues. "She's also an analyst for the FBI who's trained in guns and is able to act with calm and deductive reasoning."
Am I convinced that we won't see Leon at all during Requiem? No. Towards the end of the Resident Evil section Nakanishi and art director Tomonori Takano stated just how big a deal going back to Raccoon City is.
"This series became really popular with stories set during the original zombie outbreak, and since then we've seen a lot of characters face hardships due to Raccoon City, who have faced hardships and grown," Takano says.
"There were a lot of characters who were involved in the original outbreak, who lost their lives or were drastically changed as a result of it," Nakanishi continues. "Resident Evil is a series that was born from Umbrella and the Raccoon City zombie outbreak, and we chose the title 'Requiem' to mark a milestone in the series. This game is a requiem, a eulogy to those who came before."
By those standards just about anyone could show up, the Redfield siblings, Ada Wong, Jill Valentine, and yes, even Leon Kennedy. I'm not going to give up on a cameo until I've rolled credits on Requiem, that's for sure.
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