One of the best things about Resident Evil is that Capcom isn't afraid to completely reinvent it when the series starts to become stale – and Resident Evil Requiem appears to be doing something similar. Resident Evil 4 was a radical departure from the survival horror roots of the original trilogy, embracing a more action-heavy approach. When this had gone too far by Resident Evil 6, Capcom grounded things again, telling a more intimate and creepy story for Resident Evil 7: Biohazard – one that put the "Resident" back in Resident Evil.
Both of these entries marked a new era for the franchise. While everything that came before was still considered canon, so many events, characters and moments felt swept under the carpet, never to be referenced again – has anyone heard from Jake Wesker lately? On top of this, some numbered entries are so wildly different from the last that new players would be forgiven for thinking they were a reboot or part of a different series entirely.
This feels most pronounced with the jump from Resident Evil 6 to Resident Evil 7, but these discrepancies have been littered throughout the games for many years, and they go beyond the tonal shifts and changes in gameplay, impacting the lore most of all. But this hasn’t stopped Resident Evil's infamously wild story from becoming beloved, its webbed lore and sincere cheesiness are part of the appeal and have been since the days of the “Jill Sandwich”.
With the reveal of Resident Evil Requiem, (AKA Resident Evil 9), the series finds itself at a crossroads: It can either be the game that unites the series' fractured lore, or it can continue to double down on the cracks.
Curing the infection
Ahead of Requiem, we've ranked the best Resident Evil games
When I say cracks, I'm mostly referring to the bizarre coincidences and loose plot threads that the series has amassed over the years. I've always found it weird that both the T-Virus, which has its origins in some African flowers, and the Las Plagas parasites are completely unrelated mutagens. Yet, both apparently create big blobby monsters with eyeballs for biceps. When playing the original Resident Evil 4 back in 2005, I was convinced that Las Plagas was going to be revealed as a key ingredient in the T-Virus. Yet nothing ever came of this, which has always felt like a wasted opportunity to me.
By the time Resident Evil 7: Biohazard came along, a new and third mutagen was added, the Mold, which comes from another monstrous but apparently natural phenomena – the Megamycete of Resident Evil Village. So with Resident Evil Requiem set to soft reboot the series again, I can't help but think that the Raccoon City era, the Las Plagas era and the Ethan Winters saga of Resident Evil 7: Biohazard and Resident Evil Village are all starting to feel like separate islands and that we're just expected to accept the coincidences and discrepancies.
The good news is that Capcom has started knitting connective tissue between these three eras of Resident Evil. For example, creatures reminiscent of Las Plagas-infected humans showed up in the Resident Evil 3 remake, with the game directly referencing the parasites of Resident Evil 4 in their creation. Not only that, the villain of Resident Evil Village was revealed to have been a tutor of sorts to the man who'd go on to become the founder of the Umbrella Corporation, and therefore the T-Virus.
These little links between the mutagens are tantalizing morsels of lore, but I'd argue we need much more, at least if we're going to see the numbered Resident Evil entries (and their various spin-offs) as one coherent and interconnected narrative. With Resident Evil Requiem looking to the past and the future to tell its story, I believe this is the perfect opportunity for Capcom to do just that.
With new protagonist Grace Ashcroft – and maybe even a returning Leon – potentially returning to the ruins of Raccoon City, the game can tie the original era of Resident Evil to the new one. However, I believe that Requiem should also not forget the Las Plagas and Ethan Winters sagas, finding a way to keep these stories, events and characters relevant. Let's not forget, Raccoon City wasn't the only US city wiped off the map after a bioterror outbreak.
The same fate befell the town of Tall Oaks in Resident Evil 6, something the series has totally forgotten about. So if Requiem is going to spend time reflecting on the destruction of one city, it should really acknowledge the other. This is yet another example of the franchises' tendency to ignore its own past and what it can do to rectify this. Sure, Raccoon City is in focus due to Requiem's protagonist being the daughter of one of its survivors, but the point still stands.
Resident Evil Requiem could be the bridge the series needs to connect all these loose strands of lore. Each era of Resident Evil shouldn’t be an isolated island where events and characters are forgotten about, or where incredibly similar events play out only to be explained away as coincidences. Instead, let’s see Requiem acknowledge Resident Evil’s full history, explain how everything is connected and how everything that’s happened still matters.
Then, with the timeline of the series re-established, let’s take a deep breath and go back to where it all began – Raccoon City.
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