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<\/p>\nIt\u2019s time to dust off our trusty pistols and break out the leather jacket because we\u2019re finally headed to bingo. OK, not exactly bingo, but instead the iconic locale of Raccoon City. Not seen since 1999\u2019s Resident Evil 3: Nemesis (or technically Resident Evil 3\u2019s 2020 remake), the latest game in the Resident Evil franchise, Resident Evil Requiem, is returning to its beloved roots.<\/p>\n
Taking place about 30 years after the missile strike on Raccoon City, Resident Evil Requiem centers on FBI analyst Grace Ashcroft, the daughter of Resident Evil Outbreak protagonist Alyssa Ashcroft, who is still haunted by the mysterious death of her mother some eight years prior. When she is thrown into an investigation of ritualistic murders connected to her mother\u2019s past in Raccoon City, she catches the decrepit eye of a former Umbrella scientist named Dr. Victor Gideon, who claims she holds the key to unlocking a secret project that is probably super darksided. Since there\u2019s still a month to go until the game\u2019s release, we don\u2019t know all the details just yet, but somewhere along the way of Grace\u2019s investigation, she crosses paths with fan favorite and resident badass, RPD\u2019s Leon Kennedy.<\/p>\n
More from Deadline<\/p>\n
After checking out a preview, Deadline spoke to director K\u014dshi Nakanishi and producer Masato Kumazawa about what fans can expect from what is sure to be Capcom\u2019s next horror smash-hit.<\/p>\n
DEADLINE: It\u2019s been three decades. How does the team keep current on what\u2019s scary? What inspirations are you pulling from when making a Resident Evil game?\u00a0<\/p>\n
K\u014cSHI NAKANISHI: That is a challenge that the developers have when they are doing an entry in the series. The easiest way to find out [if we succeeded] is to have people play it. How did you find the preview?<\/p>\n
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DEADLINE: I was overwhelmed with scares. There was a scene where I had three different paths to go down: one led to a kitchen with a big, scary chef, the other led to a dining room full of zombies eating people, and another, which I thought would be safe, contained a maid in the bathroom ready to attack me. I didn\u2019t want to go anywhere.<\/p>\n
NAKANISHI: [Laughs.] That\u2019s exactly what we aimed for. I\u2019m very happy to hear that. What you felt, that fear, even to the point where you are kind of scared to go forward or proceed, that\u2019s key to providing fear. It\u2019s about not knowing what\u2019s going to happen or what\u2019s around each corner. Is your death waiting around the corner? You don\u2019t know until you find out. Fear is a seed in your own imagination. So, the key to providing a scary experience in any of these titles is to give the player enough to let their imagination go and basically create fear.<\/p>\n
DEADLINE: Resident Evil Requiem has a split-narrative style like Resident Evil: Revelations. What have you learned between making the two games?\u00a0<\/p>\n
NAKANISHI: There is some similarity between the two games, but I want to be clear that I did not purposefully set out to make Requiem a split story just because Revelations was a split story. But yes, there\u2019s similarities in terms of differences in gameplay, surroundings, characters [you interact with], circumstances and so on. When you played the preview, you started out as Leon, and he\u2019s got a lot of firearms, choices and combat options. He\u2019s a very strong character. Once you go from him to Grace, it\u2019s a very big shift. You go from playing a powerful character to Grace, who is more modest in her options, which should give you this feeling of, \u201cOh my goodness, how am I going to be going through all of this [horror], will I be OK?\u201d This is like my previous answer about the key to fear really being all about players\u2019 imaginations. And this [storytelling device] is just another way that we feel stoked that.<\/p>\n
DEADLINE: Was it ever just going to be Grace alone? When did Leon come into the picture?\u00a0<\/p>\n
NAKANISHI: During early prototyping, there were times when we thought about Leon as the single main character or just having Grace as the single character. It was just a lot of trial and error that let us do both.<\/p>\n
![\"Resident](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/5f568c40fb84b29aa90c1c5d49f0ea5c.jpeg\"\/)
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Resident Evil 9 Interview<\/p>\n
DEADLINE: How would you describe Leon and Grace to the audience?\u00a0<\/p>\n
NAKANISHI: Grace is a young woman who, eight years earlier, lost her mother. And that\u2019s still traumatic for her, and she hasn\u2019t fully processed that trauma, so it still affects her to the [game\u2019s] present day. She\u2019s much more on the inexperienced side of things, whereas, of course, Leon has been fighting biohazards for close to 30 years at this point. Obviously, he has a lot of mental and physical strength and resilience. But at the same time, since he has been doing this for so long, he\u2019s seen a lot of tragedy, and that weighs on him, which is something that is expressed in Requiem. They\u2019re very contrasting characters. However, through Requiem, Leon\u2019s journey leads him back to Raccoon City, and Grace is also there. So, with that combination, we\u2019ve got some legacy and newer characters both being tied back to Raccoon City, and that\u2019s one of the overall themes and concepts that is expressed throughout Requiem.<\/p>\n
DEADLINE: In the preview, it was mentioned that Leon has something called the Umbrella curse. What more can you say about that?\u00a0<\/p>\n
NAKANISHI: This game\u2019s setting takes place 30 years after the Raccoon City incident, which was connected to Umbrella. So, this phrase about the \u201cUmbrella curse\u201d refers to something that has affected people who were either enveloped by the incident or present when that situation happened. But that\u2019s about all I can say for now. [Laughs.]<\/p>\n
DEADLINE: Producer Kumazawa, what were some non-negotiables that you had to have in this game to get the themes across?\u00a0<\/p>\n
NAKANISHI: I\u2019ll add that it was vital to [show the effects] of the Raccoon City incident and how it\u2019s affected many people over and over again for close to 30 years in the game. Presenting that in the game is one of the key aspects of communicating the concept and themes of Requiem across the series.<\/p>\n
MASATO KUMAZAWA: This was touched on a bit earlier, but it was depicting the contrast [that was important for us]. You have such different characters at different points in their lives between Grace and Leon, which allows the player to experience varied gameplay. And, of course, with storytelling, this is about two different people finding a common journey that leads them both to Raccoon City. Tying all of that together is the core of the themes in Requiem.<\/p>\n
![\"Resident](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/d842bd5e014f8ed0abe44c51f8297671.jpeg\"\/)
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Resident Evil 9<\/p>\n
DEADLINE: What are you most excited for people to experience with this game?\u00a0<\/p>\n
NAKANISHI: There are two styles that are presented here between Grace and Leon. They are both styles that have been in Resident Evil games in the past. However, this is the first time we\u2019ve combined our gameplay styles in a way that provides tension and release when switching narratives. So, it\u2019s very unique to Requiem. So, I\u2019m most excited to see how users experience that when they play the game.<\/p>\n
DEADLINE: I must ask. In the preview, Leon is talking to someone on a headset. And I need to know. Is it Claire or Ada? Where are they?\u00a0<\/p>\n
NAKANISHI: [Laughs.] So, I know a lot of fans are interested in similar things. We all want to know. I am also very interested in the private relationship between Leon and Ada. However, I can\u2019t comment on either one of these things. But I will say that we have put a lot of work into Requiem, implementing stories and things that fans will love and enjoy. So, I hope the fans are looking forward to the game.<\/p>\n
Resident Evil Requiem will release February, 27 on PlayStation 5, Nintendo Switch 2, Windows and Xbox Series X\/S<\/p>\n
[This interview, conducted through an interpreter, has been edited for length and clarity]<\/p>\n
Best of Deadline<\/p>\n
Sign up for Deadline’s Newsletter<\/a>. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook<\/a>, Twitter<\/a>, and Instagram<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It\u2019s time to dust off our trusty pistols and break out the leather jacket because we\u2019re finally headed…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":434737,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[180710,49,48,180708,180709,180707,107944,180711,61],"class_list":{"0":"post-434736","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-technology","8":"tag-alyssa-ashcroft","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-canada","11":"tag-grace-ashcroft","12":"tag-leon-kennedy","13":"tag-raccoon-city","14":"tag-resident-evil-requiem","15":"tag-somewhere-along-the-way-of-grace","16":"tag-technology"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/434736","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=434736"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/434736\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/434737"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=434736"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=434736"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=434736"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}