Resident Evil Requiem will focus on a classic storyline instead of being inspired by other titles/media, says developers [Exclusive]

Resident Evil Requiem sounds like it’s going to bring fans back to what they remember in the old days, according to Masawa Kumazawa (Producer) and Koshi Nakanishi (Director). At Gamescom Asia 2025, our writers had a chance to speak with the Producer and Director of the upcoming horror title, and while the other games have traveled the world and shown some horrifying, yet memorable moments, it sounds like they’re more focused on what made the franchise popular to begin with.

While there’s still so much we don’t know about Resident Evil Requiem, there’s one thing we know for certain after our talk with the developers at Gamescom Asia 2025, and that’s they’re very much focused on the Raccoon City incident.

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Resident Evil Requiem takes fans back to the classic Racoon City incident

There’s so much we want to know about Resident Evil Requiem, as long-time fans of the franchise. While our time with the developers was brief, I did get one of my questions answered, via Angshuman Dutta, who asked this for me:

"In terms of gameplay and storytelling goes, what would you say the “theme” of Resident Evil Requiem is? What inspired this particular story?”

After a bit of discussion, we received an answer through a translator. While the response was brief, it told me what I needed to know. While I do enjoy the other, more recent games in the series, what really captured my attention was the Raccoon City Incident. Here’s what they had to say:

“For Resident Evil Requiem, we are going back to Raccoon City again. We are going to be moving away from the mainstream and will go back and focus on the Raccoon City Incident. If you're asking about the inspiration or where it all started, there is no movie, nothing to inspire. It's from the series itself. Thank you.”

While that doesn’t sound like much, I think it’s a pretty important thing to know. We’ve been to several other regions in the RE world over the last mainline titles, but they’ve really kind of strayed away from what made the series enchanting. Sure, this resulted in memorable characters and moments, but sometimes, you have to go back to your roots.

In this case, that’s what the Resident Evil developers are doing. Focusing on the Raccoon City Incident will bring the focus back to what long-time fans no doubt want to learn more about. While going back to the past is fantastic, I just hope we don’t also go back to Tank Controls when Resident Evil Requiem launches in 2026.

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Check out our other Gamescom Asia 2025 coverage below

• Pragmata devs are working hard to achieve their vision
• Onimusha Way of the Sword will feel more like a modern "Action Game": Akihito Kadowaki and Satoru Nihei
• Monster Hunter Stories 3 will be more "epic": Ryozo Tsujimoto and Takahiro Kawano on upcoming title

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Edited by Jason Parker