Why Leon Kennedy's Resident Evil Return is an Issue, Let's Talk

We might have known about the impending arrival of Resident Evil: Requiem for some time now, but that didn't make it any less exciting when we got a brand new trailer for the game at this year's Game Awards.

That trailer confirmed the return of the always cool Leon Kennedy to the franchise, with players set to play in his shoes, just as much as they are as new protagonist, as confirmed in an Automaton interview with director Akifumi Nakanishi.

"In terms of gameplay, Grace and Leon's playable sections are almost equally split. It's almost like having two games with completely different types of tension mixed together. Early on, we worried players might not be able to keep up, but now we feel that the contrast gives the game a unique rhythm, like jumping into a cold bath after sitting in a hot sauna (laughs)," Nakanishi confirmed.

Now while I am personally very excited to try out this approach, which is similar to the setup we saw in Revelations, it has opened up the age old wound where a big portion of the community just doesn't want to stray from the original Resident Evil survival horror formula.

That's not to say that the game can't be an enormous success regardless, but it is a potential sticking point that's well worth talking about ahead of the game's release in 2026.

Leon Kennedy is Back, But What Does it All Mean?

Capcom

The return of Leon Kennedy at The Game Awards immediately generated a lot of conversation online, with many questioning whether they would play the game if it strayed too far from the straight survival horror formula.

"Is it gonna be survival horror? Because I was done with action adventure the day it began," one comment on Twitter/X read.

Under a post sharing the new trailer on IGNs official site, the comments were filled with people who feel that the move towards action previously had the potential to ruin the series.

"Making Resident Evil into an action franchise was when I really started to dislike the series. RE4 started it but was still good, but then RE5 and 6 went way too far into action and felt more like the zombies mode in a CoD game than a Resident Evil game," one comment stated.

"Ah man this has deflated my hype quite a bit. It sounds jarring going from horror to action. Even the analogy they use about going from a hot shower to an ice bath sounds horrible lol. I am much more into the horror focused resi games than action and so the grace sections look a lot more up my alley," another added.

Whatever the final product is like, if it doesn't contain enough of the roots the Resident Evil series was built on, the community is likely going to react pretty poorly. Fingers crossed Leon can slot in and get the job done, without upsetting the apple cart too much.