Capcom has gone into quite a bit of detail about the two styles of gameplay in Resident Evil Requiem—horror and action—presented through its two protagonists—Grace Ashcroft and Leon S. Kennedy. In a new interview with DenNicoFamiGamer (via GamesRadar), director Koshi Nakanishi has spoken about how much more brutal Leon will be here when compared to his appearances in Resident Evil 2, 4 and 6. Describing Leon as having a “ruthless anger”, Nakanishi said that Requiem will tap into his “world-weary attitude”.
“Leon is making a reappearance in this game, and this is the result of us digging deep into the idea of ‘what type of person would Leon grow into? What would he be thinking?’,” he said. “This Leon has been fighting for a long time; he has a world-weary attitude, and exudes a ruthless anger.”
This “ruthless anger” was visualized in Resident Evil Requiem through Leon’s new melee weapon of choice—an ax. His use of this brutal weapon, according to Nakanishi, might even make some players ask what’s wrong with Leon. He went on to say that this was an intentional choice.
“A symbol of this [change in attitude] is that in this game Leon uses an ax as his main mode of fighting,” Nakanishi explained. “This game’s Leon fights by swinging his bloody ax in a way where you might start thinking ‘What’s wrong with you Leon?’ while playing. That is what we’re aiming for.”
Interestingly, earlier concepts for Resident Evil Requiem apparently featured Leon’s gameplay sections being scarier. Earlier this month, Nakanishi had said that the studio eventually decided against the “genuine horror” angle with Leon because fans of the series wouldn’t want to see the character being timid.
“We actually tried to make a genuine horror game with Leon,” Nakanishi explained, “but sure enough we thought that people wouldn’t want to see a timid Leon. That was the overwhelming opinion, at least.”
The differences between the gameplay styles of Grace and Leon, according to Nakanishi, will tap into older games from the series. The former will be closer to the tense horror offered by Resident Evil 7 and the 2 remake, while the latter would be closer to the high-intensity action of the Resident Evil 4 remake. To that end, both of their gameplay parts will work towards building up and then releasing tension respectively. “Each part is ordered to offer the ultimate balance of tension and release,” he said.
In another interview, Nakanishi had revealed that Grace and Leon can actually affect each others’ gameplay sections. If one character kills certain enemies in a room, these enemies will remain dead when the other character also reaches the same room. This, of course, will have to be balanced with the scarcity of resources that Grace will have to deal with. Nakanishi went on to note that this will end up offering more replay value, since players can come up with strategies about which enemies are better to kill and where you might want to conserve your ammo.
Resident Evil Requiem is coming to PC, PS5, Xbox Series X/S and Nintendo Switch 2 on February 27.
