Resident Evil Requiem Won't Need You To Track Down A Copy of Outbreak To Play It, Promises Developers

There's two kinds of reactions you might get to the reveal of Resident Evil Requiem's main character, Grace Ashcroft. You might go, "Wow, neat! a new Resident Evil character!". Or, you might remember her late mother Alyssa Ashcroft, of Resident Evil Outbreak fame.

Thankfully, Outbreak won't be required playing for Resident Evil Requiem. At gamescom Cologne, we caught up with director Koshi Nakanishi as well as Producer Masato Kumazawa about Capcom's big return to familiar (ish) faces and locales with Resident Evil Requiem.

Do You Need To Play Other Resident Evil Games To Play Resident Evil Requiem?

"You definitely don't need to catch up on anything to enjoy this game", Nakanishi promises. "Even if you never played a Resident Evil game before, you can pick up Resident Evil Requiem and enjoy it 100%".

"If you're a fan and you know Resident Evil 2, Resident Evil 3, Outbreak, those games set in Raccoon City, I think you'll get a little extra out of it because you'll understand the lore and connections and easter eggs. That's like you're getting 120%".

After pondering the idea for a bit, he also shared one more obstacle that people might have if they think Requiem is a direct follow up to any of the Raccoon City games:

"It's also pretty hard to get a copy of Resident Evil Outbreak these days, so… don't worry about going too far into easter eggs and doing your homework".

Instead, he compared it to another series that's both new and a chapter in a storied history: GQuuuuuux, the newest Gundam anime.

"For Gundam, you don't need to watch the First Gundam to get into Gquuuuuux", he says.

The Outbreak Of Alyssa Ashcroft Fever

This kind of dedication isn't uncommon among Resident Evil fans. Since the game's surprise reveal at Summer Game Fest, many had latched on to key details, primarily around Alyssa Ashcroft- survivor from Resident Evil Outbreak.

Some fans had even found an easter egg referencing her from 2017's Resident Evil 7- though Nakanishi says that wasn't some kind of hint on what would come two games later.

"I'd like to say 'of course! it's all part of the plan!' but actually it's mostly not related", he laughs. "It was a bit of an easter egg for fans of RE7 and bringing Alyssa into the storyline for this game was just a perfect fit for what we wanted to do".

"I like to put easter eggs in all my different games, just as a fun glimpse into what they might be doing", he says. "I also worked on Resident Evil Revelations and you can find easter eggs about the character O'Brian in that. It doesn't necessarily imply that we have some huge plan, it's just a fun way for fans to discover all the connections".

Unfortunately Alyssa's role in requiem isn't quite as short as an easter egg: the game is pretty dead set on reminding you Alyssa has gone to the great save point in the sky, setting the stage for the events of Grace's story.

Despite what looks like it'd be a short amount of screentime, Nakanishi stressed that Alyssa is a central piece in the Requiem story:

"Alyssa was a great choice for this storyline because she fit what we wanted to do", he explains. "She was involved in the Raccoon City incident but she survived it. As a journalist she was chasing Umbrella Corporation and trying to uncover the dark forces behind it".

"The title Requiem both refers to a requiem for the dead which is the people who were killed in the Raccoon City Incident as well as something that refers to the remaining survivors, which was originally Alyssa and is now her daughter Grace. She just had a really perfect position to let us return to Raccoon City, call back to the incident", he says.

"One of the key elements of the story is figuring out what was it that Alyssa discovered that lead to her death, that she had to be killed for. Grace wants to pick up the trail from her mother's investigation and find out the actual truth".

That doesn't mean some fans haven't wondered if she might continue to make posthumous appearances: in the hands-on at gamescom Cologne, some fans put on their conspiracy hats to question if the tall monster stalking Grace in the clinic was actually the late Alyssa Ashcroft.

Nakanishi couldn't be pressed to confirm or deny the fan theories, only giving us this:

"I think you'll have to play the game to get the full story about the truth behind what this creature is", says Nakanishi.

Not Just Raccoon City

While a lot of the early marketing has featured the nuclear crater once known as Raccoon City, the team had one important thing to clarify: Resident Evil Requiem would not only be locked to that particular set of ruins. The game would instead take place across a variety of locations, one of which was already shown at gamescom:

"One thing I want to make clear is that Raccoon City is not the only setting for this game", Nakanishi says.

"A lot of people are thinking it's only set in the city. For example, the demo, that clinic is not in the city. As you can tell because it hasn't been destroyed".

That being said, he did say the return at all to the iconic location gave the team more to work with. After two whole games with a new protagonist not at all tied to the exploits of Chris, Leon or Jill, he's excited to show new fans who jumped on at 7 the appeal of Raccoon City.

"Going back to Raccoon City and seeing what's happened in the last 30 years actually makes it a scarier game because players who played the most recent games won't have any idea what to expect", Nakanishi.

It's not just the location, either: the game's new support for both first and third-person cameras also lets players choose if they want a more Ethan Winters-style immersion or classic Resident Evil experience, according to Kumazawa:

"By having both perspectives I think that it gives you different experiences. For example with the first person perspective, it's more immersive and scary. If you're playing in third person you can actually see Grace on the screen and I think you can feel closer to her. You can see her animations and how scared she is, and that makes you feel scared for her", he says.

Speaking of Mr Winters, if you're one of the many who jumped in from his saga, you might notice that Resident Evil Requiem has a severe lack of charismatic monsters to splash in the marketing. Remember: by this point in Village's marketing the internet was already collectively drooling over Lady Dimitrescu.

Nakanishi said the villain-first marketing for the Ethan games was largely in part because of the team's decision to rob him of a face: he was a stand-in for the player, and that meant not showing his mug in the marketing. Replacing it? The charismatic Bakers or domineering Lady Dimitrescu.

"In order to make it feel like its you who's stepping into his shoes and experiencing the game, we couldn't show his face. Which means we can't show him on the posters, in the video or in the artwork. So we actually had no choice but to focus on the enemy characters: the Baker family and they had a huge focus in the marketing because of that", he says.

"The sequel, Resident Evil Village, because it's the same character, we had to follow the same pattern in Lady Dimitrescu and the other characters who were prominently featured in the marketing. Again, because we have no protagonist to show basically".

Given that Grace very much has a face, he says it's back to business as usual with the typical Resident Evil marketing:

"It's exceptional in the series history because we almost never do that. With Requiem we're kind of back to normal, and doing the more typical style we do which is introducing a protagonist early in the campaign, and showing her on the artwork", Nakanishi says. "We're taking opportunities to get to know the protagonist first and then as the campaign progresses, you can expect we'll show more of what bad guys you're going to get".

Speaking Of Fans…

Kumazawa also took this mention of Lady Dimitrescu to also thank the fans for their support for the character:

"We were actually surprised with how much players loved Jack Baker and Lady Dimitrescu. It wasn't planned that she'd become so virally popular among the fans but of course, we're really happy", he says.

Speaking of the fans, there was one more takeaway from the Opening Night Live reveal: that Grace Ashcroft, for some reason, wears shoes in bed. It's a joke that got popular enough for even the Resident Evil Twitter account to give it a cheeky nod, and Nakanishi said he's thankful to have fans who pay that much attention.

"Didn't you know? Everyone in Japan wears their shoes in bed *laughs* " he says, sarcastically.

"We did think about it, and she's in a hotel. We researched about it and she definitely takes them off when she goes in to sleep. But in a hotel room you might not do it when you're just sitting in bed", he elaborates.

"The most important is that fans inspect every detail, so we're glad to hear fans are inspecting everything", he says, with an air of gratitude.