(NOTE: This post begins with a description of the lead up to the announcement of Resident Evil Requiem. Feel free to skip to the Hands-Off Impressions section for thoughts on the gameplay video.)
Leadup to the Announcement
It all transpired on June 6, 2025, at the Summer Game Fest (SGF) Showcase. While there were persistent rumors of a new RE announcement, specifically a Resident Evil 9, at SGF, the two-hour showcase went on to unveil game after game, with nary a RE title insight–until the halfway point that is, when a brief trailer featuring Lady Dimitrescu’s English voice actress Maggie Robertson began to play. But this would not turn out to be a new game announcement: rather, it was a commercial for newly slashed prices for past titles like Village, Resident Evil 4 (2023) and Resident Evil 7: Biohazard.
Later, show host Geoff Keighley segued into a discussion on a certain franchise that would celebrate its 30th anniversary in 2026. Of course, this was about RE (sorry, Pokémon fans!), and then another video began to play. This time, Maggie Robertson began singing the “happy birthday” song as RE Executive Producer Jun Takeuchi appeared on screen from within his office, greeting fans and thanking them for supporting the RE franchise. He briefly asked fans to “bear with [Capcom] a little longer, just a blink of an eye more” before it was ready. The video ended, and other games were shown. Wow!
But right before the show ended, Keighley had one more announcement, a title he’d learned about the previous summer and admits could have been shown at any major game event but had been graciously offered to SGF. And then the trailer played.
We see a new protagonist, FBI agent Grace Ashcroft, who turns out to be the daughter of Resident Evil Outbreak protagonist Alyssa Ashcroft. A look at the bombed ruins of Raccoon City. A seemingly unhinged character in back garb. Although the story, at initial glance, looks unrelated to any known existing RE plot thread, the stakes somehow seem far higher than ever with the return to Raccoon City.
The trailer ends by revealing that this game is RE9; officially, it is called Resident Evil Requiem.
In keeping with recent tradition, Capcom has “integrated” the number 9 in the subtitle, by associating it with the letter Q to form RE9UIEM. It’s incredibly clever and despite many fans speculating for the past years what sort of wordplay Capcom would pull, RE9UIEM was one that no one on the internet had guessed. It’s even more impressive how well the wordplay works in Japanese: the number 9 is pronounced either as “kyuu” (キュウ), which coincidentally is pronounced virtually identically to the letter Q, or “ku” (ク), which also is one of the katakana characters used to spell the name of the game in Japanese (バイオハザード レクイエム).
Hands-Off Description and Impressions of the Trailer
For most SGF attendees, Capcom offered a 15-minute video of Requiem gameplay in a closed theater. As an industry-only event, all attendees were subject to an embargo lifting at 8AM Pacific Daylight Time on June 11, and were not allowed to record footage or audio, or snap photography. For clarity, viewers in the theater could not play the game themselves, and as such, the impressions/description below are based purely on watching the gameplay footage prepared by another person. Moreover, the gameplay video contains cuts and transitions, so it is not a single piece of coherent footage. And as no recordings were allowed, I am drafting this description and my impressions off my written notes and memory. Some minor details might turn out to be different upon a second look, and I may neglect to mention a small number of little things. Hopefully Capcom publishes a proper video before long!
Direct Nakanishi Greets Viewers
The video began with Director Koshi Nakanishi addressing viewers (in Japanese, with English subtitles) to explain the basic concept for Requiem. Nakanishi specifically used the words “addicting fear” to describe the experience players should expect–that the game would instill scares upon players, but rather than chase them away, players would come back asking for more. Also, the footage viewers would about to see was recorded on PlayStation 5 Pro hardware. Very bold words, but Nakanishi previously directed Resident Evil 7, which is certainly the scariest mainline RE to-date. I’m inclined to believe him.
Next begins the demo itself. We see protagonist Grace Ashcroft wake up in a frantic and panicked state, with her face drenched in sweat and her panting and breathing erratically. Confused and frightened, Grace has clearly been abducted and taken to a dark room somewhere. She’s strapped into gurney, indicating that she’s inside of a hospital (this isn’t Silent Hill, after all!). She observes her surroundings, and notices that one of her arms is connected to a tube that has been slowly absorbing blood out of her. The tube leads to a glass bottle that’s collected a significant amount of her blood.
To free herself, Grace successfully uses her body weight to tip the gurney onto its side, causing the blood tube to pull hard enough to knock the glass bottle with her blood onto the floor, shattering it into at least two pieces. But this presents an opportunity: with the glass shattered, she manages to grip the top half with her hands and use the now-sharpened bottom to cut her straps loose, finally freeing herself.
Exploring the Hospital
At this point, gameplay begins… in first person view. Requiem is a first person Resident Evil game!
The player immediately begins exploring the room around her, which appears to be a hospital room. It’s extremely dark; the power is clearly out. It’s raining heavily outside. Although Grace trapped inside a hospital, it has some semblance of gothic décor on its door fixtures and furniture. Such imagery tends to be associated with psychopaths in the RE series, so this is not a good sign for Grace.
Grace explores the room, searching for clues and items to help her get situated. From my vantage point watching the video, the first person exploration looks highly reminiscent of Resident Evil 7, both in terms of how the camera moves and how the scene is framed overall. There might be some subtle differences, but the exploration reminded me of Ethan Winters’ lovely adventure in the Baker Estate. It’s worth noting that Village, as an original Resident Evil 4-inspired game, generally featured larger and brighter environments, so Requiem seemingly marks a return to the dark, claustrophobic and narrow corridors that defined much of Resident Evil 7. Given that they share the same director in Nakanishi, I don’t think this is a coincidence.
Grace exits the room into a t-shaped hallway. With the electricity cut off, it’s mostly dark and derelict. Some lamps and lightbulbs flicker with faint traces of light. I could observe raytracing visual effects being used, especially given the demo was running on the PlayStation 5 Pro. As Grace explores the hallway, she observes a giant hole in the ceiling. Who or what caused it is nowhere to be found.
The footage cuts to a different room in the hospital, where Grace finds the source of the hospital’s power outage. There’s a fuse box on the wall–and you guessed it–one fuse is missing, and Grace must find it, much like Ethan did at the Baker Estate. It becomes evident at this point that Requiem is going to contain the traditional RE gameplay loop of finding key items, unlocking doors, reading files, and obtaining clues.
The footage transitions to Grace exploring another room, and here we catch a glimpse of the game’s inventory screen. It turns out, the game is using Resident Evil 2 and Resident Evil 3’s block-based inventory menu. I believe the game pauses once you’re in the inventory screen, unlike Resident Evil 7, but the glimpse was brief and there were no enemies in the room to confirm that. In Grace’s inventory was an Empty Bottle, presumably acquired somewhere in the hospital, that she could use as a weapon by throwing it.
Shortly after, Grace acquires a gold Zippo Lighter, which she immediately uses to illuminate the dark areas of the hospital (like a flashlight), similar to what Claire Redfield could do in Resident Evil CODE: Veronica. This produces a very stark visual contrast between light and dark and is no doubt going to be a raytracing showcase if you have the correct hardware to support it.
Confronted by a Mysterious Creature
Eventually, the footage cuts to Grace exploring what appears to be either a laboratory, examination room, or a medicine storeroom. Grace opens a door at the end of the room, and suddenly, a human corpse falls out of it onto the ground. The corpse, seemingly that of a hospital doctor based on the medical robe it’s wearing, looks like it’s decomposed significantly, but it may have been infected with some kind of virus or other pathogen.
As Grace inspects the corpse, the cause of the gigantic hole in the ceiling is revealed: it’s the creature from the final frame of the reveal trailer! It’s unclear what this creature’s name is, but it is clearly humanoid, with gigantic teeth and long hair, and it’s so tall that it appears to be hunchbacked. Its hands are shackled by chains, while the creature has giant feet and pointy toes. The creature emerges from the ceiling, and single handedly bites off the corpse’s head, which provides context as to how large the creature really is.
Grace attempts to flee from the creature, which appears to be filling in the role of this entry’s resident stalker, running down one of the hospital’s hallways. Grace takes refuge in one of the rooms, attempting to hide behind a piece of furniture. The creature apparently can’t open certain doors and gives up its pursuit for the time being. Grace goes back out into the hallway and notices another hole in the ceiling above her. The footage cuts back to the room where the creature previously appeared, with Grace attempting to explore the rest of the room. The creature somehow returns and even takes a clean bite off Grace’s shoulder; notably, we see this happen in third person perspective. Grace is forced to use a rectangular injection, like the Steroids Chris uses in Not a Hero and Village, to recover her health.
The footage transitions to Grace finding a functioning fuse that she needs to restore power in the other room from earlier. However, it’s locked behind a glass case that can only be unlocked with a screwdriver. (Nakanishi seems to really like screwdrivers, given one appeared in Resident Evil Revelations, as well.) The footage cuts to a storeroom, where Grace notices a toolbox on top of a shelf. She’s not quite tall enough to reach it on her own, but climbing a laundry cart allows her to grab the toolbox, with the exact screwdriver needed. Grace obtains the fuse, but before she can progress forward, the creature returns once again, and attacks Grace. The footage goes black, and the video ends with an ominous message:
“This is merely the overture to our darkest symphony.”
A Shocking Twist
…but wait, the footage restarts once again. It shows Grace exploring a hallway. The player pauses the game, goes into the Options screen, and in the settings menu, finds a Viewpoint menu item and switches the game to third person perspective. Returning to gameplay, the camera pans outward so that most of Grace’s body can be seen from behind, just like the third person option from Resident Evil Village Gold Edition. The creature shows up once again to stalk Grace, and the video ends for real there.
Resident Evil Requiem can be played entirely in first person or third person. The choice lies with the player.
Brief Thoughts and Impressions
Wow. Where do I even begin? Suffice to say, this hands-off demo was but a tiny slice of what to expect from Requiem. I was genuinely surprised at how similar the gameplay looked to Resident Evil 7. The narrow, dark hallways, the relatively helpless protagonist, the stalker creature, and the overall tension reminded me of Nakanishi’s previous title, one that I love and consider to be in my top 5 among all RE games.
Visually, the game is a nice, if subtle evolution and improvement of the RE Engine Resident Evil style we first saw with Resident Evil 7 in 2017. Since the game is optimized to run on the PlayStation 5 Pro, which should offer a better visuals and performance among consoles, Requiem should hopefully be a visual showpiece title. It’s certainly an upgrade over Village, although a comparison with Resident Evil 4 (2023) is a bit tougher due to the different visual styles.
It’s impossible to gauge how well the game will turn out, or what else Requiem has in store for players. However, I strongly believe in Nakanishi’s ability to direct a strong new entry in the RE series, and I’m excited to see more. The next info drop, as well as the first playable trailer, will be at Gamescom, which takes place in Cologne, Germany from August 19-24. It’ll be a long wait until then, but I’ll be staying tuned quite closely to see what we can learn from the game.
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