Resident Evil Requiem uses Nostalgia like no other; it almost abuses it. Did you really need another Tyrant, a nemesis, a wannabe Wesker, or a Plant 69 in your brand new Resident Evil game? This is a textbook example of cramming thirty years’ worth of history into one game while neglecting to write a fresh narrative with believable characters that will be remembered ten years from now.
RE 9 Characters (Good & Bad)
Grace Ashcroft
Introduced as a timid FBI analyst, Grace Ashcroft represents the majority of us in a similar horrific situation, that being abducted and put in a place to fend off the nightmares herself. (Despite the hot shots that were born to slay zombies in real life.) Moving from town to town due to Alyssa, Grace’s mother’s freelance work, and experiencing her death right in front of her eyes eight years ago had negatively affected her social life and clearly pushed her to ostracize herself.
At the beginning of the game, I didn’t like Grace’s character since she seemed too anxious. (This is coming from a person whose middle name is Anxiety.) But later, I got used to the nervous stuttering, and she actually grows on you because she becomes a little tougher as she progresses through the endeavor. Especially, regardless of her lack of confidence and physical and mental ability to survive, the way she survives and attempts to help Leon is admirable.
Leon S. Kennedy
Need I say anything about him other than, “The hero returns!”? For the sake of this review, I would say the years have been VERY kind to him. Now a Division of Security Operations (D.S.O) agent on a mission to investigate and hopefully find a cure to the Raccoon City Syndrome, Leon has become even stronger. He has never been bulkier, sexier, and tougher. It’s also wonderful to see some residue of his crazy one-liners in this installment as well. It goes without saying that Nick Apostolides does a brilliant job bringing Leon’s tougher side to life through his voice acting. Wiser? I’m not so sure, but I’ll get into it in a few seconds. With the addition of his killer hatchet, Leon is more formidable and focused than ever. He is the contrasting character to Grace, whose gameplay is stealthy and based on pure survival horror.
Dr. Victor Gideon
A former Umbrella researcher, currently working for The Connections, Victor Gideon, had purchased Rhodes Hill Chronic Care Center to carry out his secret experiments. He is also behind the abduction of Grace, and upon meticulous examination of the late Spencer’s research, he is dead-set on finding Grace and releasing Elpis. Being obsessed with and idolizing Spencer, Gideon assumes that Elpis is the ultimate virus to control minds. Even though he is the main antagonist, he is written as a comical character, not that there is anything wrong with it per se, but most of the time, he is laughable and doesn’t seem threatening at all, which reduces the quality of the fear factor of the game. His character design, well, is fine, but it’s certainly not worth discussing.
Zeno the “Nothingburger.”
There’s nothing more to say about Zeno. The internet has spoken. He is nothing but a nothingburger. Capcom seems to have placed him in the story just to have another villain that resembles the legendary villain himself—Wesker. But, not an ounce of his charisma, character, or power is given to Zeno, making him, in Gideon’s own words, “Nothing but an imitation.” Zeno adds another layer of anticipation for a boss battle that never happens. Some say that his character is there to prove that there are other Weskers out there and to establish that, in fact, another one would appear in the next game. Either way, his shallow character adds nothing but false hopes.
Story—So good yet, not so much…
Unlike some other players out there, I didn’t feel the story was completely out of place, except that it entailed some extremely stupid stuff. I was a little bit worried that they might have chosen Alyssa Ashcroft as a last resort out of the bin of hundreds of scrapped ideas. For me, she hasn’t made a large impact on my memory, and on top of that, now we have an offspring that came out of nowhere that we got to play as? Even so, there might be thousands of gamers out there who loved Alyssa’s involvement in the past games. Moreover, her work appeared here and there in some games afterward. On the one hand, people can argue about her importance to the game, but on the other hand, if her presence were that crucial, Capcom would never make her appear in a game years later just to kill her off a few minutes into it. They probably wouldn’t do that to Jill, Claire, or even Ashley, for that matter. I cannot imagine how Hunk fans feel after seeing him in the unenthusiastic Krauser fight rip-off. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves now.
Naturally, at the beginning, I was leaning towards the judgment that choosing Alyssa and her daughter was lazy writing; my view changed a little after seeing how they knitted and carefully twisted the narrative into something interesting while tying Grace to Raccoon City.
Elpis, the ultimate bioweapon
By now, you know that RE 9 is paying homage to the other games in the series from left, right, and center, which is a good thing when done effectively, and connecting Elpis, the ultimate virus that Victor Gideon wishes to release, can be considered one of them.
Elpis is supposed to be a result of clandestine operations led by Spencer within his hidden laboratory, ARK. Obsessing over the recovered bits and pieces of Spencer’s work, Gideon assumes that Spencer was able to perform mind transfers successfully. Provided Spencer’s history in virus research, The Connections, and other black market groups mistake Elpis to be a powerful Bioweapon that could tip the military balance of the world. This is why Elpis is sought after by Zeno, a high-ranking member of the Connections. He uses Victor Gideon’s extensive dig into Ark’s long-lost experiments to retrieve it.
Alex Wesker, the main antagonist in Resident Evil Revelations 2, conducted broad experiments based on fear to transfer her own mind to a little girl she had abducted named Natalia. A similar premise, I would say. In a way, it seems like Capcom borrowed this plot and fleshed it out for RE 9. Cloning is something that RE always had in its storylines, and in Requiem, we realize that Umbrella was involved in cloning children and experimenting with them for years. When Spencer was alive, a series of clones were tested with memory transfer experiments. Subsequently, Dr. Gideon, someone who has been pedestalizing Spencer for a long time, finds out that among these cloned children, his master gave away the one true successfully created clone that contains his memories. With this clone, Gideon seeks to fulfill his obsession with making Spencer a God once again, hoping that the child, now a grown woman, will know how to release Elpis. Zeno expects that Grace would share a password that would help them obtain Elpis. If someone were to use the wrong password, Elpis would be lost forever.
The creator, Oswell E. Spencer, the horror maker himself, blathers about being a God to Albert Wesker in RE 5, and ultimately faces a gruesome death. In RE 9, he seems like he is after repentance. He is certain that he cannot be forgiven, nor does he feel any remorse, yet he might have had a slight change of heart to create “Elpis”. But, according to some players, the Spencer in RE 5 and 9 felt polar opposite characters. My take on this is, perhaps he doesn’t need to act as good as in front of a creature like Albert Wesker because there’s no need for it. However, when it comes to the interview with Alyssa, it may have brought out the human side of him. After all, it’s we who have to read between the lines. Then again, this series is ancient; it is 30 years in the running, to be exact. Therefore, no matter how hard the writers try to tie the events of RE 9 to the rest of the story, players who are putting two and two together will always find a plot hole.
I also like the idea of reversing it all, despite the thousands of casualties and blood-curdling experiments that occurred over the years throughout every game. To counter this, many players are asking, Spencer was the epitome of evil, still, he was producing an anti-viral in secret? Again, let’s leave it to the imagination of the geniuses, but I would want to speculate here, what if Spencer yearned to reverse it all, just to keep the God status to himself? He couldn’t perfect a superior human race; no one could even after his death. Or he just wanted to go against the connections and finally paid the price with his life, as Zeno remarks. Even though many cures existed throughout the franchise and other games, if I am not mistaken, this must be the very first fool-proof cure to ever exist, perhaps to wipe the slate clean, to finish the nightmare by the creator’s hands, ultimately taking the final credit himself, becoming a savior, a God; what he always wanted.
Be that as it may, according to Grace’s in-game report, Ozwell E. Spencer, James Marcus, and Edward Ashford founded the Umbrella Corporation in 1968, and Spencer’s goal was to bring a new era to humanity. Although by nefarious means, Spencer wanted to see the viral evolution of the human race. In this report, Grace explicitly says that his horrible actions aren’t forgiven nor are they dismissed. However, it indicates that James Marcus was the most evil of the bunch, who had a bigger hand in developing the T-Virus. After that, his protege, Brandon Bailey, made connections with The Connections, and the Raccoon City incident put the final nail in Spencer’s coffin. I.e., The Connections conspired to put the blame solely on Spencer, and after Umbrella fell apart, the Connections seized their assets. Witnessing his empire crumble down in front of his eyes, Spencer seemed to have started repenting, but his project of Elpis existed long before this, and the reason for it remains a mystery.
The Raccoon City Syndrome
The Raccoon City Syndrome is where we say, “Oh, the plot thickens!” In short, if you were a survivor of the Raccoon City viral outbreak, chances are you’re now infected with a strain of the T-Virus. Nonetheless, 98 was decades ago, so how come we didn’t see anyone before Requiem suffer from the infection or Ada going berserk and trying to kill Leon in RE 4, for that matter? Turns out, it is a dormant strain of the virus, meaning, if you’ve been a happy-go-lucky survivor for decades, now you might have black marks appearing on your skin, and eventually you’ll cough blood and die.
At this time, we get the news that both Leon and Sherry are infected, and Raccoon City survivors are slowly dying one by one. It seems that even though Sherry has regenerative healing powers stemming from the residual G-Virus she had in her system, she also has the dormant T-Virus infection finally kicking in. We can only assume that Jill, Claire, Carlos, and Ada are infected as well. I read somewhere that the T-virus wasn’t airborne until it reached the city, indicating that Chris, Barry, Rebecca, or Wesker, for that matter, weren’t infected. But this is just speculation, and as far as I have gathered, no explanation is given in the game. What’s more, it seems that somehow Zeno was exposed to the T-Virus, and we don’t know how.
Truth be told, keeping up with a 30-year-old story is exhausting, and connecting all the dots seems impossible. So, in the case of the Raccoon City Syndrome, it’s best to stick to the basics and not overthink. If we’re able to do that, it becomes a nice little plot point that builds tension and adds another strong yearning to see the fate of our beloved heroes.
The questionable writing continues…
While this story is undeniably intriguing, it’s raising a couple of eyebrows as well. For example, it is unlikely that a competent scientist like Victor Gideon would miss the fact for years that it was a wild goose chase. The documents found throughout the game even suggest that he has been able to partially receive Grace’s genetic information as early as the year 2004. This suggests that even if the information was incomplete, he had more than 20 years to figure out whether it was actually from a clone. Besides, why would he wait so long to kidnap Grace? He practically wasted Zeno and everyone’s time. Given how he speaks, however, he definitely doesn’t seem like the sharpest tool in the shed.
The uncanny resemblance between Grace and the cloned girls is also causing a lot of confusion among the fans, and in reality, it is just a Red Herring that the developers used to distract and misdirect the players into thinking that Grace is actually cloned.
Let’s look at the whole kidnapping-Grace fiasco for a bit. Instead of safely abducting Grace as they did in RE 4 with Ashley, Gideon sends assassin zombies after Grace. Once she was kidnapped, he let her wander through a care center with literal zombie giants crawling around. He puts the life of the one person who has all the answers to his questions in danger. What were the writers thinking? This is why RE 4’s story made much more sense. They let Leon live because he was infected, and by the midpoint, they consider him one of their own. Saddler eventually seeks to control him, and in the meantime, Saddler does everything in his power to retrieve Ashley and keep her at his side since Ashley is valuable to him. No such thing happens in Requiem.
Plus, how moronic it is for Zeno and Gideon to conveniently assume that Grace would waltz in to provide the password even if it’s etched into her memory after everything she’s been through?
In RE 4, Leon is a pain in the neck for Salazar, Saddler, Krauser, and everybody involved. It’s fair to see them getting frustrated with Leon hanging around them, trying to save Ashley like a cockroach; hence, their behavior is understandable. But why is Gideon so frustrated and says, “I’ve had enough of you!”? Gideon literally had so many chances to kill Leon if he wanted, because Leon is apparently no match for him. Leon hasn’t even done anything drastic to make him this mad, and it’s just hilarious.
Now, look at some things Leon does for a change. After being escorted inside the care center in the first place by the nurse, Leon literally stands there till she gets sliced and diced by the chainsaw surgeon, which is downright laughable. Leon has plenty of time to realize the doctor is turned, and Leon is never known to be sluggish. Still, he does nothing. Who wrote this again?
I could point this out all day long, but I’ll add one more thing and shut up. I can’t help but notice again and again how slow Leon’s character is written. When Grace disrespectfully throws the high-powered magnum revolver, Requiem, right back at Leon and decides to go with Dr. Gideon, Leon is within earshot. It’s difficult to believe that Leon doesn’t go after her, even though he conveniently coughs up blood and gets deterred. He literally lets her leave, and then goes to save her. “He is sick,” some would exclaim. I would counter that this is the same guy who, maybe a few minutes later, would slay a massive spider, and that says a lot about his strength. What were the writers smoking?
Don’t get me started on what Leon says about “Not hitting any of her vitals.” I for one shot Emily’s head and heart, and I wasn’t dreaming. But, yet again, we are supposed to believe that Elpis, the cure-all, magically saved Emily.
Nostalgia, how much is too much?
The developers might have thought, “Having just Leon isn’t enough, we’ve gotta bring more!” For those fangirling over Leon for decades (Me included), just seeing him in a new title is the answer to all their prayers. His model is created to perfection, so much so that he can make anyone who’s in front of him a little weak in the knees. BUT, apparently, he needed to be reminded of everything that he’s been through over the past three decades to multiply his torture.
Returning to the Raccoon Police Department itself is quite cathartic, especially with the old background score. However, it’s just the ruined setting from the Resident Evil 2 Remake. There’s nothing but a few optional puzzles to solve there. Frankly, as soon as I went inside, I wanted to get out. I can’t put my finger on it, but it felt too much. Then, the players are greeted by Mr. X, followed by a rinse-and-repeat boss battle. What’s worse, the writers haven’t forgotten to spoonfeed the players by making Leon say, “I remember you.”
Another example is Plant 43. How many monstrous plants are going to be there in this series? Then the Lickers. Mind you, this was one of the most powerful enemy types we have encountered in Resident Evil 2, yet these can be killed in one blow by Leon’s hatchet if the attack is executed when they aren’t alerted. Not only did they bring back one of the most iconic enemy types, but they also insulted them by making them feeble.
Last but not least, Leon meets The Commander, or implied as Hunk, another beloved character in the past games. This fight is supposed to remind us (Because we have amnesia, we don’t remember anything) of the knife fight with Major Krauser in Resident Evil 4, original and the remake.
What about the wannabe Wesker? This gullible, weak, and less charismatic copy of Wesker brings nothing to the table. Seen as a wasted potential among players, he has no backstory or anything intriguing about him. At this point in the game, we can only assume that the writers were out of ideas and attempted to hide their shortcomings by bringing all the past ideas into this game.
But, wait, the nostalgia dump isn’t over yet. Gideon turns into Nemesis, and the final boss fight entails fighting with an exact copy of the Nemesis from the Resident Evil 3 remake. Now, that feels desperate, and Capcom should consider hiring some new writers and designers and at least try to be creative next time.
Although it’s convenient to think that the writers were out of ideas, I do understand why this might have happened. It has a lot to do with the title itself. It’s a Requiem for the dead, and Leon is confronted by his old nightmares, one last time. Hence, the ridiculous amount of copied and pasted gameplay and storylines. Nonetheless, did it land? I don’t think so, and I genuinely think it’s exhausting and shallow. Writing Leon’s return to RPD was the right call; the overloaded nostalgia wasn’t. We ought to wait for a few months for real RE fans to call it out.
Wrapping up
Requiem’s story sometimes doesn’t add up, but it isn’t my main issue. My concern is why have they kind of dumbed down Leon’s character and made virtually nonsensical antagonists? Are the writers getting old, too? A senior moment perhaps? Are these the same people who invented Albert Wesker, Krauser, Saddler, Nemesis, the Baker couple, even Ustanak from RE 6, etc.?
If you dissect everything a little deeper, you’ll probably realize that narratives in the Resident Evil universe are not credible in any way, and it is OKAY. It has been OKAY for three decades. Because, as hardcore fans of Resident Evil, we’re accustomed to seeing weirder crap over the years. However, when it comes to Requiem’s story, they went astray even by Resident Evil standards.
The majority of this story is half-baked and unconvincing to the point that it becomes one of the worst in the series. Forget about crafting an intricate, layered, or inventive story with twists; weaving a basic story with realistic characters that make conceivable choices should be the bare minimum. This one doesn’t hold its own among some previous installments, and it shows.
