Disclaimer: My analysis and review of Resident Evil 9, otherwise known as Resident Evil Requiem (Biohazard Requiem in Japan), will contain spoilers. As someone who grew up with the Resident Evil game series, I may make references to characters that do not show up in the game being analyzed and reviewed; however, I try my best to provide a brief explanation in the event that someone who hasn’t played the previous games is reading this. Also, as much as I enjoy playing games and have always loved the Resident Evil series, I’m used to mostly reviewing and analyzing books. So, game reviewing is still actually quite new for me!
An Analysis and Review of Resident Evil 9 Requiem
Late this February, Capcom dropped the ninth game in the series of one of its most beloved franchises, Resident Evil. Resident Evil Requiem follows the story of an FBI analyst named Grace Ashcroft, who is sent to investigate the most recent death in a string of homicides that exhibit similar pathologies at the Wrenwood Hotel—the very place her mother, Alyssa Ashcroft, was murdered.
Early in the game, Grace is established as a woman with many anxieties and a traumatic history. Her character jumps at the slightest of sounds, is easily caught off guard, stutters, and often hesitates to confront both her past and what lies before her.
While the reason for an analyst who is obviously inexperienced in fieldwork being sent alone to the location where her trauma began remains a point of contention, it becomes evident that Grace being at Wrenwood was no mistake.
Grace is kidnapped by a man named Dr. Victor Gideon shortly after arriving at the Wrenwood Hotel and taken to the Rhodes Hill Chronic Care Center. From here, Leon S. Kennedy—the golden boy of the Resident Evil franchise—is introduced to the story of Requiem.
As one of the few survivors of the Raccoon City outbreak back in 1998, Leon finds himself in a race against time after six other Raccoon City survivors were found dead with symptoms of a latent strain of a t-virus infection known as “Raccoon City Syndrome.” This particular strain affects those who were exposed to lower levels of the t-virus during the 1998 outbreak in Raccoon City, resulting in the virus adapting to the host’s body and developing an immunity to the antibodies.
With the help of Sherry Birkin, who escaped Raccoon City as a child with the help of Leon and (mostly) Claire Redfield, Leon tracks down Dr. Gideon, who is believed to be a person of interest with ties to pharmaceutical company Umbrella Corporation, leading him to Rhodes Hill Chronic Care Center.
Thus, the narrative of Grace Ashcroft and Leon Kennedy converges.
What transpires is a series of events that reveal the truth of who Grace really is and the events of the 1998 Raccoon City incident.
When I first played Requiem, I didn’t expect to love Grace’s character as much as I did, especially since this is the first introduction to her character within the Resident Evil series. But the progression of her character’s confidence and resolve felt so natural: from being a fearful woman who could barely fathom revisiting the Wrenwood Hotel where her mother was brutally murdered to braving through the Rhodes Hill Chronic Care Center to rescuing a child to helping Leon put an end to Dr. Gideon’s schemes.
Moreover, the dynamics between Leon and Grace were akin to a mentor and mentee. While most of the gameplay is spent playing both characters separated from each other, there were many difficult moments that they helped each other through. And the few scenes they do share were emotionally impactful, highlighting the trust that Leon had for Grace and the decisions that she made despite the critical condition he was in and how much was at stake for him; and the reassurance he provided Grace during her moments of panic and fear. It truly seemed as though Leon was confronted with the younger version of himself—the hopeful, idealistic rookie cop—in meeting Grace.
A Closer Look at The Themes of Resident Evil Requiem
Resident Evil Requiem is one that explores themes of trauma and survivor’s guilt through Grace and Leon’s narrative. Both characters, who are burdened by the memories of incredibly horrific events, are forced into a situation that demands them to face their monsters or lose what is left of their own.
Grace Ashcroft: No more regrets … Whatever it takes
Grace, who witnessed the murder of her mother and harbors guilt over the death of her only family, begins the story as a timid and anxiety-ridden woman. She stutters helplessly and starts at every sound; she breathes like she is in the midst of a breakdown; and seems unable to wield even her own gun with steady hands despite being in the FBI. During the sections in which I played as Grace, her fear was palpable and did nothing to ensure me of my safety or instill a sense of confidence that I would be able to handle whatever awaited me behind the next door.
As we play the game, we actually see that trauma and guilt that Grace carries compound upon meeting a child named Emily. Emily is one of the children kept behind a glass room within the care center as a subject of experiment—although she wasn’t born blind, it is later revealed that Emily developed cataracts due to the various medications that she was being given while at the care center. While Grace is initially hesitant to continue interacting with Emily, she ultimately concludes that she will require Emily’s help to read and input a sequence that was written in braille to unlock a box that will give Grace the final key required to escape the facilities.
Emily agrees to help Grace, and this becomes the start of their journey together.
However, given the nature of survival horror games, things don’t exactly go as planned. A series of events result in Emily being injured, mutating into a monster, and is ultimately “put down” by Leon. Grace, who naturally feels responsible for Emily because not only was Emily a child, but she had helped Grace escape the care center, is anguished by this and begs Leon not to shoot Emily to no avail.
It was definitely one of the more heartbreaking moments in the game, and I admittedly teared up.
The emotional and psychological weight that this moment places on Grace only further increases as the story goes on and she meets Zeno.
Zeno is the secondary antagonist in Resident Evil Requiem. He is identified as a mutant reminiscent of Albert Wesker, albeit a less powerful one, who works alongside Dr. Gideon. Although it isn’t revealed the full extent of Zeno’s role in creating bioweapons, it is indicated that Zeno is involved with The Connections, a rival company of Umbrella that sought to take control over Umbrella’s assets.
It is through Zeno that Grace discovers where she truly comes from and why she was kidnapped by Dr. Gideon in the first place, which further deepens her spiral of guilt.
Interestingly, when the bad ending is obtained and Leon is killed, we see how Grace’s character inherits the trauma and guilt that Leon bore at the memory of Raccoon City, because she leaves that very place alone and regretful for not being able to save anyone—not her mother, not Emily, and not Leon.
Alternatively, in the good ending, we not only see a resolution to all the events of Requiem but also a lifting of the darkness that burdens Grace and Leon. Both characters walk away from the events of the modern-day Raccoon City with hope and a cure.
In fact, in the end credits scene, we see a much more confident Grace catching up with Leon over the phone and talking about her life with Emily, whom she was ultimately able to save using the same anti-viral used to cure Leon of Raccoon City Syndrome.
Leon S. Kennedy: The heart of the rookie endures
Much like Grace, Leon enters the picture in Requiem with a history rife with trauma. Having witnessed the many lives lost in the 1998 Raccoon City outbreak, he returns to the very place where it all began for him as a much older and rugged veteran agent twenty-eight years later, still bearing the guilt of not being able to save the those who were caught in the mess of Umbrella’s bioterrorism. He has seen enough and dealt with more than his fair share of jump scares that every section of his gameplay left me feeling impatient and frustrated towards the zombies and other experimental mutations set to hinder my progress of the story. With Leon, I was more than willing to take on hordes of infected creatures, confident of my combat skills to the point of recklessness, and incredibly generous with my ammunition.
From the moment we are introduced to this more mature version of Leon in Requiem, a brusqueness to his character that wasn’t quite there in Resident Evil 2 or Resident Evil 4 is readily apparent.
However, Leon’s return to Raccoon City, and in particular, the Raccoon City Police Department, introduces a brief yet poignant moment of quiet.
The somber atmosphere, the old “Welcome Leon” banner meant to celebrate his first day at work; the notes from his lieutenant, Marvin Branagh; and even the zombie in uniform haunting the halls of the police station are met with reverence.
Upon opening those doors, we are hit with a wave of memories, both terrifying and tragic.
Elliot being torn in half by zombies. Marvin, infected and dying, instructing the young Leon Kennedy to find a way out of the city and save himself. Kendo, angry and in tears at having to put down his own daughter who was infected and turning into a zombie.
So many innocent lives were lost.
Here, the weight of Leon’s guilt is made clear. It isn’t his fault—he was just a rookie cop headed to Raccoon City for his first day of work, completely unaware that he would be walking into a city that had already been ravaged by the t-virus. But of course, none of this matters. To Leon, who freshly graduated from the police academy as a 21-year-old and sought to pursue a career at the Raccoon City Police Department under the naive belief that he could help every person in need, the moral injury that he sustained in failing to save anyone from the Raccoon City outbreak despite somehow making it out alive becomes an inevitable part of his narrative.
So after twenty-eight years, more than the Raccoon City Syndrome that threatens to end his life as it did several other survivors, the guilt and trauma that he carries from that night becomes the true sickness he seeks to cure in his pursuit of Dr. Gideon and uncovering the truth of Elpis.
Symbolism in the Game Storytelling
One of the many things that I enjoyed while playing Resident Evil Requiem was the symbolism woven into the story. For starters, Leon’s requiem gun, which plays a significant part in surviving Grace’s section of the gameplay, echoes the very title of the game.
The requiem gun, besides being my favourite gun to use while playing as Grace due to its high critical hit rate, becomes emblematic of the trust and hope that Leon and Grace have for their respective situations. When Leon and Grace first meet at the Rhodes Hill Chronic Care Center, she is being dragged away by an enormous, monstrous creature. Witnessing her struggle, Leon shoots the monster with the requiem gun and saves her. Though they are ultimately separated by Dr. Gideon, he hands her the requiem gun as a means to protect herself as she attempts to find a way out of the care center.
Given the considerable damage that the requiem gun can inflict against enemies, equipping it not only made me feel safer playing as Grace (when I had the ammo, that is), but it also effectively put the infected to rest.
Throughout the care center, the zombies that Grace encounters are all former employees of the facility who have become infected—although the infected are no longer human, they still retain elements of their nature resulting in them carrying out habits and mannerisms that tied them to their role even after “dying.” Thus, without taking the zombies out using the requiem gun or a hemolytic injector, there would quite literally be no rest for the dead.
Furthermore, following the section in which Leon shoots the mutated Emily as Grace begs him to stop, Grace returns the requiem gun to Leon before turning her back on him and walking away. This moment, heightened with grief and regret, where Grace throws the requiem gun by Leon’s feet serves as a representation of the hopelessness that sets in to her after witnessing Emily mutate and Leon subsequently put her down. Here, Grace is at her most emotionally vulnerable—she is left confused in her anguish and unable to trust the only person in the game who seeks to help her.
One other point of interest was the naming of the protagonist, Grace. It is revealed later in the game that Grace was adopted by Ozwell Spencer—founder of Umbrella and one of Resident Evil’s legacy villains—as an act of atonement towards the end of his life. The traces of Spencer shown in Requiem is indicative of a man who was remorseful for all the horrible things he had done: the monsters he had unleashed into the world, the inhumane experiments, literal eugenics projects, and many other the atrocities committed against hundreds and thousands of lives. While it isn’t clear whether Spencer named Grace or if she had been left a name when he found her, the symbolism behind her very name is compelling. Spencer can never justify all the nefarious things that he had done. Yet, he created an anti-viral and named it Elpis (of course Leon, Grace, Dr. Gideon, and Zeno are all unaware of what Elpis really is until the end), after the goddess of hope found in Pandora’s box. It is then Grace who releases Elpis, offering mercy and aid to a world of people affected by the very monsters Spencer unleashed.
In a way, Resident Evil Requiem serves as the beginning of a new chapter in offering its protagonists the opportunity to overcome not only the evils that have been released on to the world but also to put one’s past to rest and heal the emotional and psychological wounds caused by such events. By introducing Grace, giving Leon closure from the 1998 Raccoon City outbreak, and making the downfall of Umbrella resolute, the game sets the stage for the future of the Resident Evil series. Perhaps this might include further examination of the Wesker project and his potential cloning given the presence of Zeno; the introduction of key figures involved with The Connections, which has established itself as a much greater threat to humanity than Umbrella given the documents found throughout Requiem; and maybe even a new set of protagonists that legacy players such as Leon can pass the torch on to.
Overall Thoughts and Game Experience
While there were several moments throughout the game that I found to be cheesy—fighting Dr. Gideon and the Cerberus hounds while speeding on a motorcycle to the center of Raccoon City; going full action mode and fighting against elite guards—it didn’t take away from my overall experience of the game’s story. I particularly appreciate the pacing of Requiem. Despite my initial worries that switching between Grace’s segments and Leon’s segments would be clunky and jarring (especially if you play on the recommended mode of first person for Grace and third person for Leon), I was pleasantly surprised at how natural the transitions were. Whenever I was just about done with the horrors of playing as Grace, the game pulled me into Leon’s side of things. And when I was dangerously low on patience handling the nonsense thrown Leon’s way, the game would take me back to Grace.
My only point of criticism is that the main villains of this game, Dr. Gideon and Zeno, felt quite anticlimactic for the horrors that we had to endure as Grace and the hardships we were expected to navigate as Leon.
It would have been nice to see the snake motifs of Dr. Gideon carry into his final mutation and to even play as Grace in the final boss fight instead of just being literally tossed aside and having to carry out the final battle as Leon. While it would likely be difficult to battle Dr. Gideon first as Grace considering the minimal weapon choice provided her character, I imagine it might have been thrilling to do so while Leon took some time to recover from the anti-viral as the ARK lab begins to fall apart. Then, once Dr. Gideon is “defeated” by Grace and pushed off the platform, Leon would wake up to find that Dr. Gideon has reached his final mutation, allowing the player to eliminate the mutation as Leon.
It isn’t a deal breaker in the least, but I did think it would add to the experience of defeating the final boss as both characters given that Requiem is both Leon and Grace’s story.
I was also a bit disappointed at how easily we were rid of Zeno despite him being quite an obvious clone of Wesker. Understandably, Zeno might have just been used as a way to introduce key plot points to the story of forthcoming games in the Resident Evil series; however, the presence of both villains in Requiem felt lacking.
Nonetheless, I enjoyed Resident Evil Requiem and not only look forward to the upcoming release of the DLCs and the notoriously baited at story expansion, but I am also eager to see where Resident Evil 10 (Resident Evil X?) takes us. Perhaps then we’ll get further clarification on the cloning of Wesker in addition to learning more about The Connections.
Overall, Resident Evil Requiem reminded me of why I became such a fan of the game franchise. While having an attractive legacy character such as Leon S. Kennedy most certainly aided in Capcom’s marketing of the game, at the end of the day, a good story is a good story.
Mission Complete…Now What?
Upon completing the game, players unlock Grace’s report detailing the events of Requiem; the closing of Umbrella’s chapter in the story; collusions between the state and Umbrella’s rival company and the potentially greater threat that is known as The Connections; as well as other key players involved in the mess of the 1998 Raccoon City incident. In addition to this, concept art for Grace, Leon, and Emily, among other key figures to the game, become unlockable using the points earned throughout your gameplay.
Despite the chaos that ensued throughout the story of Requiem, one major point of interest for players and fans of Leon S. Kennedy is the silver band adorning his ring finger in the concept art for his character.
While I have no doubt that there are ship wars taking place right now, I’m keeping my eyes and ears closed from any and all speculation as to who Mrs. Kennedy might be … unless it’s from Capcom or official Resident Evil sources (i.e. directors, writers, and/or developers).
Besides, there are bigger things for me to worry about. In particular, where the heck is Ada Wong? Of all the legacy characters, I’m most curious to know about Ada’s narrative development and whether she even survived the Raccoon City Syndrome. While it might seem odd for such an iconic character to be abruptly killed off by a franchise as big as Resident Evil, it wouldn’t be impossible (I’m of the belief that anything can and should be done in service of the greater narrative of a story).
Of course, I wish to see her alive and for her character to finally be given a main game that furthers her narrative in the franchise. However, as it relates to Requiem, her fate is most puzzling to me as I don’t see how she might have gotten a hold of the anti-viral that could cure her of Raccoon City Syndrome—Leon obviously retrieved a dose for Sherry, which means that it isn’t too impossible to imagine that he may have gotten a hold of enough for Claire, who he would maintain connections to by virtue of being in contact with Sherry (and because Chris sent a chopper for his rescue); and Jill, who I can only assume would receive a dose of the anti-viral due to her close ties to Chris. After all, they work on the same side despite their titles. But Ada? She’s a freelance spy with whom Leon has undefined romantic ties.
Despite how compelling the story of their relationship may be, it is wrought with uncertainty and tension making it a coin toss as to whether or not Leon and Ada have kept close ties after all these years and if securing a cure for her too was always a part of the agenda for him in Requiem.
Thanks for reading my review! Please note that unlike my reviews for books and comics and other literary works, I will not be giving this game a coffee rating. Lord knows how many times I struggled to keep my heart in check while playing through this game, so the last thing I needed was to inject any sort of caffeine into my system. Also...yes, the coffee ratings I give my other reviews really do reflect how much I drink as I work through the text in addition to how I feel about it.
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