Resident Evil Requiem Development Started by Exploring the Concept of Fear, Says Director

While Resident Evil Requiem certainly has many action-packed moments, director Koshi Nakanishi has said that its design process still started with the notion of fear. In an interview with Eurogamer, Nakanishi and producer Masato Kumazawa spoke about the success of Resident Evil Requiem and how Capcom even began with the process of making it.

On the subject of starting out with the concept of fear, Nakanishi went on to discuss how Requiem is also able to strike a balance between its horror elements and giving players some catharsis with action elements.

“There are obviously other horror games out there that try and induce a sense of fear in the player,” he explained. “So I think Resident Evil‘s essence is the balance between the feeling of intense pressure from handling horror situations and the catharsis you get from being able to survive them and also fight back against them.”

“I think our starting point always has to be, as a team, defining the type of horror we’re seeking to achieve with a particular title,” Nakanishi continued. “Because if we don’t have a clear vision for that in mind from the start of [development], then it’s very difficult to structure and design the rest of the game around it as a core.”

Nakanishi also went on to discuss whether a game in the franchise could even be considered a Resident Evil title if it didn’t include elements of survival horror along with action.

“I don’t know if it’s for me personally to define what is Resident Evil, but I can say with confidence that if we did make a game that was only one or the other, that there’d be a lot of fans who probably wouldn’t accept it as a Resident Evil game,” he said.

On the subject of Requiem’s success, Kumazawa said that the reaction from players has been quite exciting for Capcom, especially for later parts of the game, which involve Leon S. Kennedy revisiting Raccoon City.

“It was a really great thing,” Kumzwa says, via translator. “We were very happy to see the reaction of players around the world after the game launched. In particular, because we were very tight-lipped [before release] in order to maintain the surprise for players, especially about what happens after the return to Raccoon City. So watching people’s streams and clips and online reactions… we felt not only pleased they were enjoying it, but relieved our strategy was right to try and save that for them.”

In the same interview, Kumazawa was also asked about Resident Evil Requiem being part of Nvidia’s DLSS 5 showcase in March. While he didn’t address the controversy directly, he did note that the fact that fans of the game were passionate about the character design for Grace Ashcroft was a great thing for Capcom.

“The fact a lot of players commented they really liked the original design of Grace and didn’t want to see it changed was a positive,” he said. “It meant we got the design right and points to the fact that Grace quickly established herself as a fan favorite, that people had such strong opinions on her design.”

Resident Evil Requiem is available on PC, PS5, Xbox Series X/S, and Nintendo Switch 2. For more, take a look at how there was a “phantom Chapter 2” for the game that was ultimately cut out.