One of the many trailers from The Game Awards last night was Resident Evil Requiem. What delighted fans about the trailer was that while it may have started out focused on the protagonist, we all knew about, Grace Ashcroft, it soon morphed into a trailer about the fan favorite character, Leon S. Kennedy.
Yes, he’s officially back, and looking gruff! The trailer showed him interacting with Grace, taking down monsters, and highlighting that he will be a playable character in the story. That raised a lot of questions among gamers and critics, though.
As such, a special joint interview was held with director Akifumi Nakanishi and producer Masato Kumazawa, who talked about Leon’s inclusion and how his being a second protagonist affects the story. On the story front, Nakanishi noted:
“Requiem has just one, unified story. As the plot advances, you switch between Leon’s sections and Grace’s sections. There are even some scenes where they meet. 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 went on to state how Resident Evil Requiem would be segmented to showcase Grace and Leon in their own stories:
“In terms of gameplay, Grace and Leon’s playable sections are almost equally split. The structure is similar to Resident Evil Revelations.”
That being said, how these two play will be emphatically different. Grace’s sections will be focused on surviving the horrors around her, while Leon’s will be about taking on the monsters head-on. Kumazawa stated:
“After a scary segment, the action feels even more exciting. And after an action segment, the horror feels even more terrifying. I think it’s a combined experience only possible by merging two completely different styles of gameplay.
You’ll see how well it plays out when the game drops on February 27, 2026, for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC (Steam).
Source: Automaton-Media
