As was strongly rumoured for some time, Resident Evil Requiem will feature two protagonists, then.
Previously announced heroine Grace Ashcroft will be joined by seasoned veteran Leon S. Kennedy, as their two stories overlap and intertwine.
It’s worth noting that structurally the game will be similar to, say, Resident Evil Revelations; the campaign will transition between the two characters, but crucially their stories will combine to create one singular campaign.
And reading interviews with director Akifumi Nakanishi, it sounds like the goal of this setup is to create a sense of contrast, with Grace’s sections offering full-on survival horror while Leon leans into all-action.
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“Grace is ‘the biggest scaredy-cat in Resident Evil history’, while Leon is a seasoned veteran, so seeing how those personalities interact is part of the fun,” Nakanishi told Automaton.
Nakanishi likened the contrast to “taking a cold shower after a hot sauna”.
He said:
“If the whole game were Grace, it would be extremely scary. In this sense, Leon’s sections work to release the tension. You feel safe during Leon’s chapters, and then scared again during Grace’s. It’s a consciously designed horror structure. As a result, while Requiem is certainly scary, I think players will also feel a kind of exhilaration and satisfaction that past Resident Evil titles didn’t offer.”
Leon will have access to a whole slew of combat abilities to counter the tension, including melee attacks like roundhouse kicks and even a chainsaw, as glimpsed at one point during the trailer.
But there’ll also be narrative intrigue in seeing the character return to Raccoon City for the first time in many years.
“We want players to focus on how he confronts things now that he’s older, and how he chooses to deal with the events around him,” he added.