Celebrating the 30th anniversary of the Resident Evil franchise, producer of Resident Evil Requiem, Masachika Kawata, revealed some more details about the latest entry’s development. In a fan translation of the Biohazard 30th Special Mook – magazine book – Kawata spoke about the trial-and-error process of developing Requiem, and how one of the first decisions for the game was Leon being one of its protagonists.
The decision to add Grace Ashcroft as the second protagonist came soon after, since the team decided that Resident Evil Requiem just wouldn’t be scary enough with just Leon Kennedy, thanks to the character’s immense experience in dealing with outbreaks of zombies and parasites.
“Leon was also the first character confirmed to appear as a protagonist. However, we determined that with Leon alone, who excels in combat, ‘horror would no longer work,’ so it was decided to introduce Grace as a new character.”
As for why Leon was revealed as the protagonist so late in Requiem’s marketing cycle, Kawata said that the company wanted to build up tension regarding the game’s horror elements, which was done by focusing more on Grace with early trailers. “By keeping the full picture of the game, which would develop along both the horror and action sides, until the very end, we were able to successfully maintain interest in it up until release.”
While Kawata had previously spoken about how Capcom had toyed with different ideas for Resident Evil Requiem, including one where it would have ended up as an online game, he offered some more details here, including the fact that director Koshi Nakanishi was working on it as a multiplayer experience.
“Every game is a continuous process of trial and error. For example, with Resident Evil Requiem, [Nakanishi] initially went so far as to develop it as an online game.”
Kawata spoke about this last year, noting that the team ultimately decided against it since “it wasn’t what the fans wanted to see or play.” This led to the team going “back to the drawing board” to design what would eventually become Resident Evil Requiem.
In May, Nakanishi and producer Masato Kumazawa had spoken about how the team managed to strike a balance between the horror elements of Resident Evil Requiem and its action elements that could give players some much-needed catharsis. This also led to the team needing to define what kind of horror it wanted to achieve with Requiem. “Because if we don’t have a clear vision for that in mind from the start of [development], then it’s very difficult to structure and design the rest of the game around it as a core.”
Resident Evil Requiem was released on PC, PS5, Xbox Series X/S, and Nintendo Switch 2 earlier this year. The title has gone on to do incredibly well, selling more than 8 million copies since launch. Analysts have estimated that it has already generated more than $500 million in revenue, becoming the highest-grossing entry in the entire franchise.
For more details about Resident Evil Requiem, check out our review.
