Few franchises leave a mark on the history of gaming. Even fewer leave a scar. But perhaps none have carved an everlasting bite mark into the industry quite like the Resident Evil franchise.
Since its blood-chilling debut in 1996, Capcom's survival horror series has evolved, adapted, and in many ways reanimated the very definition of horror in video games. From claustrophobic corridors and limited ammo to cinematic storytelling and psychological dread, Resident Evil didn’t just pioneer a genre—it became the genre.
Landmark entries like Resident Evil 2, Resident Evil 4, and Resident Evil 7: Biohazard redefined gameplay and narrative design, influencing a generation of successors and cementing Capcom as horror’s undisputed torchbearer.
Fast-forward to Summer Game Fest 2025, and the reveal of Resident Evil Requiem—officially recognized as Resident Evil 9—both stunned and electrified the gaming world.
Scheduled for release on February 27, 2026, on PS5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC, Requiem represents the franchise’s most ambitious evolution yet. The game has already amassed over one million wishlists across platforms.
But as the buzz builds, so does the controversy—and not all fans are thrilled.
The reveal trailer of Resident Evil Requiem and early gameplay footage instantly went viral, closing out major showcases and dominating online discourse.
Fans and critics alike praised the game’s chilling atmosphere, stunning visual fidelity (complete with next-gen ray tracing), and its ability to carry forward the deep, interconnected lore of the franchise. The Resident Evil spirit, it seemed, remained alive and universally appealing.
But beneath the praise lies a divisive backstory.
During its early development, Requiem was conceived as an open-world experience. Capcom reportedly experimented with vast, explorable environments that allowed players to set their own pace, take on side objectives, or follow the main storyline with more freedom than ever before.
Worse—or perhaps, bolder—was the consideration of online social mechanics, possibly introducing multiplayer elements and shared-world interactions. Think survival horror meets MMO-lite.
The reaction was swift.
Fans across forums, social media, and fan sites quickly voiced their concerns.
Many expressed frustration and unease, fearing that shifting toward an open-world, online-driven format would dilute the franchise’s essence—the isolation, mounting tension, and carefully crafted pacing that have defined Resident Evil since its inception. For many, true Resident Evil horror simply doesn’t survive when stretched beyond its 'comfort zone.'
Capcom listened—and responded.
Acknowledging the backlash, the developer swiftly reworked its direction, pivoting away from its early open-world ambitions. Multiplayer and shared-world systems were scrapped, and the focus returned to a tighter, single-player survival horror experience.
The result? A game that stays true to Resident Evil’s classic legacy.
One that embraces vulnerability, claustrophobic dread, and immersive storytelling—everything fans feared might be lost.
What Capcom has done right from the very beginning, according to many longtime fans, is introducing a brand-new protagonist in Resident Evil Requiem. Enter Grace Ashcroft.
Set roughly 30 years after the destruction of Raccoon City, Resident Evil Requiem introduces Grace, an FBI agent drawn back to the chilling remnants of her family’s past at the mysterious Wrenwood Hotel.
Tasked with investigating a string of brutal new incidents, Grace soon discovers the hotel was once linked to criminal bio-organic operations—and the site of a long-buried investigation led by her mother, investigative reporter Alyssa Ashcroft, who was tragically murdered there.
This shows that the FBI agent has deep personal ties to the horrors of the past.
By bringing a new face to the mix should offer a fresh emotional lens through which players can experience fear. Her story, rooted in trauma and mystery, should brings a kind of emotional vulnerability that’s often missing in hardened action heroes.
Unlike franchise staples like Leon S. Kennedy, Jill Valentine, Chris Redfield, or Claire Redfield, Grace is not a veteran zombie-slayer. And that’s entirely intentional. Capcom emphasized that those classic characters—while beloved—are simply too experienced, too resilient, and too familiar to elicit genuine terror anymore.
In short, they’re not emotionally fragile enough to sell the kind of fear Requiem is aiming for.
Leon, in particular, was once considered to lead Requiem.
Rumors swirled about his return as a playable or secondary character.
And while he remains a fan favorite, the developers ultimately decided he wouldn’t fit.
"We always thought about making Leon the protagonist, but making a horror game based around him is difficult," said Resident Evil Requiem director Kōshi Nakanishi.
After all, in Resident Evil 4, Leon engaged in hand-to-hand combat with a femme fatale skilled in martial arts, faced off against a former U.S. Special Operations soldier, killed a massive amphibious monster, fended off hordes of zombies with limited ammunition, parried attacks from chainsaw-wielding maniacs using only a knife, slaughtered countless giant humanoids—including some seemingly unkillable—took down the leader of a bio-terror cult with a rocket launcher, and successfully rescued the President’s daughter after being personally entrusted with the mission by the President himself.
Even in his first day as a rookie officer reporting for duty in Resident Evil 2, he fought zombies of various forms, and even defeated a Tyrant, considered one of the strongest zombies in the franchise.
"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."
His evolution into a suave, unshakable action hero makes it difficult for players to believe he'd flinch at even the most terrifying moment.
And in a game focused on raw fear, that’s a problem.
This design philosophy echoes Capcom’s approach in Resident Evil 7: Biohazard, which introduced Ethan Winters, a regular man thrown into extraordinary terror. By removing the power fantasy, Capcom successfully restored the tension that had faded in previous action-heavy titles. In that game, Chris Redfield only appeared briefly at the end—letting the horror unfold through an everyman’s eyes.
With Grace, Requiem follows suit. Capcom hopes players will feel the fear with her, not just through her—a concept the team calls "addictive fear." As the story progresses, Grace will gradually confront and overcome her fears, but the experience will remain grounded in vulnerability, not bravado.
Another key feature earning praise is the game’s ability to switch between first- and third-person perspectives, marking a natural evolution of what began with Resident Evil 7 and Resident Evil Village.
This design choice gives players the option to immerse themselves intimately in Grace’s fear or take a slightly more distanced, cinematic view—without sacrificing the core horror experience.
