Resident Evil is one of the most beloved and enduring video game horror IP of all time, with backstory and lore going back almost three decades. The next mainline entry, Resident Evil Requiem, doesn't ignore that narrative foundation, according to producer Masato Kumazawa, but it does remove barriers to entry by making it accessible to series newbies.
Talking to VGC, Kumazawa touched on the tightrope Capcom walks between appeasing folks like me, who have been playing Resident Evil games for decades, and appealing to potential new fans. You know, doing the commercially responsible thing.
"We think it's important to balance the extra fun that you get from nostalgic Easter Eggs and hints and lore connections if you're a series fan, versus not making a game alienating to players who aren't caught up. I don't want people to feel they have to do their homework to fully appreciate this game.
"So while we're not really going into exactly how much and what you'll see of Raccoon City throughout the full game, I think that if you don't know anything about it, you're just going to play this as a horror game set in a ruined city, and you'll be able to understand and enjoy it 100%."
Essentially, this is the same challenge faced by any developer of a franchise as old and iconic as Resident Evil. Whether or not your existing player base is enough to sustain development financially, it's always wise to provide a seamless onboarding for curious onlookers. And yet, even though Resident Evil Requiem centers around brand new protagonist Grace Ashcroft, Kumazawa told VGC there will be plenty of callbacks to the series' past.
"If you're a fan and you see all the connections and the lore links and the background hints and stuff, I think you'll enjoy it 150%, and it'll give you that extra level of detail, but we don't want to make it so that you have to know about the incident and understand the relationship between that timeline in order to understand the game," he said.
Of course, the big question looming over Resident Evil Requiem is whether series mainstay and boy wonder Leon Kennedy is returning. I'm on the record as thinking it doesn't need him, and Capcom has made it clear that Grace is "the new main character," but it hasn't ruled out a Leon appearance, playable or otherwise.
Resident Evil Requiem is out February 27.
