Resident Evil 9 - It's Finally Happening!
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00:00Things have been a bit quiet on the old Resident Evil front in recent years. The release of
00:04Village back in 2021 capped off the Ethan Winters storyline which had been driving the
00:09series since 2017, and as much as that game was… well, yeah… the question now was,
00:16where on earth did Resident Evil go next? Well, clearly Capcom were gonna have to do something,
00:22next year was the 30th anniversary of the series so they couldn't let that go unmarked,
00:26and at Summer Game Fest a couple of days ago, it finally happened. Resident Evil Requiem is on
00:33the way. Now, I have to admit, the moment I heard that title, it brought back horrifying memories of
00:40Alien vs. Predator Requiem and that's a movie that I've invested a lot of time and booze into forgetting.
00:50Believe that. Seriously, what's with all these weird taglines for Resident Evil games nowadays?
00:55Why can't you just call it Resident Evil 9? That's what it is. Nah, whatever.
00:59Grab your emergency green herb and let's get into the details, shall we? Because just like I tell
01:04Tatiana on a Saturday night, I'm going in hard and fast and I'm not pulling out until I'm done.
01:12What we know from the trailer so far is that the game follows Grace Ashcroft,
01:16the daughter of Alyssa from Resident Evil Outbreak.
01:19Damn man, that's a baller move right there, making the protagonist of your big-budget mainline
01:26game the daughter of a character from an obscure 20-year-old Resident Evil spin-off that nobody
01:32fucking played. Just as a side note actually, if you ever need an example of a game that was too
01:37far ahead of its time, it was definitely Outbreak, an online co-op survival horror released at a time
01:42when most people were still on dial-up internet at best and the PlayStation needed some weird
01:47network add-on just to get online in the first place. Did they really think this one was going
01:51to be a major hit? Anyway, I digress. So it turns out that Grace is now an agent working for the
01:57FBI or something and she's been assigned to investigate the Renwood Hotel, the spooky
02:02residence of evil you might say, where her mother was murdered eight years earlier. And as you can see,
02:08the investigation doesn't exactly go to plan. Not only does Grace get captured and apparently
02:17experimented on by an unknown faction, but it seems like there's a pretty strong connection to what
02:22happened to Alyssa. Resident Evil has a bit of a thing these days for making you replay past events
02:27instead of just showing them, so it might well be that Alyssa's fate will get gradually revealed
02:31through multiple flashbacks and playthroughs. What exactly was she investigating and what did she
02:36uncover? I imagine we'll find out. One thing a lot of people are wondering is, who exactly is the
02:41guy in the chair? Now I'm no expert on RE lore, but he does look a lot like Oswald Spencer, the original
02:47founder of Umbrella. Now he was very much an old man by the time he died in Resident Evil 5 and he
02:53doesn't look quite as old here, but if this was a flashback to say the events of Outbreak, then he'd be
02:58at least 10 years younger, so it could add up. But let's be real here, the thing that got everyone
03:03talking was this right here. That's right, Resident Evil is coming home to where it all began, Raccoon
03:09City. Well, if you want to get pedantic about it, it actually began in the Spencer Mansion, but who's
03:14keeping track? Anyway, I always kind of wondered what became of Raccoon City after the nuke got
03:19dropped on it. Sorry, apparently it's been retconned into a thermobaric weapon now. Hmm, I wonder why.
03:26Anyway, was it just abandoned? Was it rebuilt? I mean, it's been like 30 years now, so you'd think something
03:31would have happened to the place. Just for comparison, by the way, Hiroshima was almost
03:35completely restored by the early 1960s, so it's definitely possible that people could live there
03:40again. In fact, when I take a look at this overhead shot, it almost looks like the buildings here on
03:45the lower left have been reconstructed. They don't look destroyed like the other structures closer to
03:49the blast zone, the windows and roofs still seem to be intact, so it could be that Raccoon City is in
03:54the process of being reoccupied. Then again, there's not much sign of activity on the streets,
03:59so it could still be a ghost town. I don't know. But when you think about it, what better place to
04:03build some secret research facility to do all your evil umbrella stuff than the ruins of a city where
04:09no one's allowed to go. Either way, the old police department isn't looking so hot these days. It's
04:14actually kind of poignant and eerie to see such an iconic location so many years later, ruined and
04:19crumbling but still very much recognisable, and I'm really hoping the game's going to allow you to
04:23explore what's left of the place. Ultimately though, I have to admit I'm pretty excited by all this.
04:28This is exactly what I've been wanting from a Resident Evil game for the better part of a decade
04:33now. I return to the series roots with Umbrella, Raccoon City, illegal experiments, science gone
04:39wrong and mutated monsters running loose. The whole Ethan Winters arc was an interesting little diversion
04:44but that's all it really was, and after dealing with vampires and castles and death cults and
04:49fucking werewolves, I just want to fight zombies and bioweapons and evil corporations again.
04:54That was always the core of Resident Evil and it's about time the series remembered that.
04:58Speaking of core elements that everyone wants to see return, the other big question hanging
05:03over this game is, where are all the other characters? Where's Leon, Jill, Chris and Ada?
05:08More important, where's Barry fucking Burton when you need him? Come on Barry,
05:12dust off that old magnum. Now's your time.
05:15I have this. I mean with this being the 30th anniversary of the series, I'm pretty sure it's
05:21going to be more than just a random side story about an obscure character from a semi-canonical
05:26game. I'm willing to bet that some of the big hitters are going to play a major part in this,
05:30but Capcom are keeping them under wraps for now. Which probably makes sense to build up the intrigue
05:34and anticipation, but I've got to admit, I'm excited to see what a lot of these guys are doing now.
05:39Yeah, I know the CGI Resident Evil movies have dealt with stuff like this to some extent,
05:43but I consider those loosely canon at best. I want to see my favourite characters in a mainline game
05:49again, especially for such a major anniversary event. I mean, imagine for one moment the original
05:54Starz members joining forces for one last mission. Imagine Claire and Leon working together to take
06:00down a resurgent umbrella. Imagine if they did fucking anything with Shiva. Ultimately, while this
06:06trailer definitely wasn't what I was expecting, I think it lays the groundwork for what I actually
06:10want from an anniversary game like this. A return to the series' thematic roots, a nostalgic look
06:16back on past hits, and a chance to pick up some of the major plot threads that have been hanging
06:20for years if not decades now. My anticipation is stoked and my hopes are high for Resident Evil
06:26Requiem. Let's just hope they don't fuck it up. Anyway, that's all I've got for today. Go away now.