The crown jewel of the Summer Game Fest 2025, and one of the titles we did include in our article about the event, has been without a doubt the next entry in the popular Resident Evil franchise, which will arrive next February 2026. We’re talking about Resident Evil Requiem, a title that has generated, since its announcement, a lot of controversy, and tons of hype. If by any chance you’re not aware, here we’ll talk about everything we know about the highly anticipated next Resident Evil.
Resident Evil Requiem will be the ninth title in the main Resident Evil saga, and its story will bring us back to Raccoon City, the place where it all began. Yes, okay, I know the first game took place in the Spencer Mansion, just outside Raccoon City, in the surrounding forest of the Arklay Mountains, but we also know that the Alpha Team of the S.T.A.R.S. response unit was deployed from their base in Raccoon City, and eventually the action moves there for the second and third entries of the franchise, not to mention that Umbrella’s presence in the city has tremendous weight in the Resident Evil universe in general, even without speaking exclusively about games.
“Requiem for the Dead. Nightmare for the Living.”
That’s what the game’s description says on Steam, where we can also gather some extra information: this story promises to give us intense characters and gameplay far more immersive than anything seen before. As we’ve already mentioned, once again we’ll be returning to Raccoon City, this Midwestern city in the United States, and former headquarters of the old global pharmaceutical company Umbrella. As a consequence of the 1998 zombie outbreak, the government approved a sterilization operation, a missile strike on this city to try to quickly control the situation, then rapidly covering up the entire operation.
In Requiem, the player takes on the role of Grace Ashcroft, an FBI intelligence analyst who has shown great concentration skills and sharp insight for reasoning and analysis. Having been deeply affected by the death of her mother, Grace is now an introverted woman buried in work. That’s why she decides to venture alone into a certain abandoned hotel to investigate a mysterious death.
Leon S. Kennedy? 😮
Just as we might expect, Steam doesn’t tell us everything we’d like to know about the lore behind this new entry, since they usually enforce a strict anti-spoiler policy, which of course we’re thankful for most of the time. But even so, we can still mention a few more things, like for example the fact that a large part of the community firmly believes Leon S. Kennedy could be back, either as a playable character, or as a secondary character in the story, maybe even some kind of cameo.
Those who’ve come to this conclusion have mentioned the most recent update of Nick Apostolides’ résumé, who is the voice actor that has played Leon in previous entries, such as the remakes of Resident Evil 2 and 4. In that résumé, his participation is listed in a new unannounced AAA title, with a role described as “Lead_Full P-Cap,” which is the same designation his past work as Leon received. Interesting, right?… The well-known leaker DuskGolem has stated that although Grace will be important, players will eventually play as Leon for most of the campaign. “He might take a while to appear, but his presence will be key in the story”, he said in his own words.
Grace Ashcroft
As soon as the impressive Requiem trailer went public, a big part of the community thought they were seeing Rose, daughter of Ethan Winters, who was the protagonist of Resident Evil VII and Resident Evil Village. However, sooner than later, we find out that her name is Grace Ashcroft, the main protagonist of this RE9. Grace is the daughter of Alyssa Ashcroft, a journalist in Raccoon City and one of the playable characters in Outbreak and Outbreak File #2. Alyssa was one of the few people who survived the outbreak in the famous city, as well as a talented investigative journalist.
Immediately after the events of RE2 and RE3, Alyssa was the one who initiated the trials that brought Umbrella down, thanks to the publication of her findings about the company’s experiments. In RE7 there’s also a mention of Alyssa, and we find out she was in Dulvey, Louisiana, investigating the disappearances linked to the Baker family, although in the end everything got covered up. The story now moves to the Wrenwood Hotel, where something happens that we choose not to mention, but it’s important enough that Grace eventually makes her way to that hotel, where the most observant fans will spot references to the Outbreak games, hinting that there’s much more hidden in that place than we could imagine.
So…
As we’ve said, Resident Evil Requiem will launch next February 27th, 2026 for PS5, Xbox Series and PC via Steam. It goes without saying that given what we know and the visuals we can already see in the video, all our expectations are through the roof! As for you, well, you can go ahead and add this title to your Wishlist right now, and then let us know down below what you think about it, deal? You know gamer, we’ll be reading you! 🙂
Images Source: Resident Evil Official YouTube Channel, Resident Evil Requiem Official Website, Resident Evil Requiem on Steam
