Game Director goes over the contrast in playstyles between Resident Evil Requiem’s main characters Leon Kennedy and Grace Ashcroft

Capcom officially unveiled Resident Evil Requiem, the ninth mainline entry in the Resident Evil series, during Summer Game Fest 2025. The announcement confirmed the return of franchise icon Leon S. Kennedy, who first debuted as the co-protagonist of Resident Evil 2 in 1998.

Alongside Leon S. Kennedy, Capcom introduced a new playable character: Grace Ashcroft, an FBI analyst and the daughter of Alyssa Ashcroft, the investigative reporter who first appeared in Resident Evil Outbreak.

Much like Leon S. Kennedy’s dual-protagonist debut in Resident Evil 2 alongside Claire Redfield, Resident Evil Requiem will once again embrace a rotating protagonist structure. Players will alternate between Leon and Grace, with each character offering distinct locations, branching storylines, and unique gameplay mechanics as they work to unravel the evil machinations of Umbrella Corporation, a central narrative thread that has not been meaningfully explored since Resident Evil 5.

Leon S. Kennedy in Resident Evil Requiem/Capcom

So just how different will Leon’s playstyle be compared to Grace’s?

“Like jumping into a cold bath after sitting in a hot sauna,” game director Akifumi Nakanishi said in an interview with Automaton following Summer Game Fest.

Nakanishi explained that Leon and Grace’s paths will intersect during the game’s narrative and that whereas Leon is now a seasoned veteran, Grace might be “biggest scaredy-cat in Resident Evil,” which should make for some scenes of striking contrast.

“As the plot advances, you switch between Leon’s sections and Grace’s sections. There are even some scenes where they meet. Grace is ‘the biggest scaredy-cat in Resident Evil history,’ while Leon is a seasoned veteran, so seeing how those personalities interact is part of the fun.”

“In terms of gameplay, Grace and Leon’s playable sections are almost equally split. The structure is similar to Resident Evil Revelations.

Nakanishi continued, “I’ve said before that Leon isn’t well suited to horror. Since quiet sections where you cower before monsters don’t fit him, his chapters focus on intense, adrenaline-pumping action. Grace’s sections, on the other hand, are the scarier ones. We’re really emphasizing the difference in their experiences this time.

Grace looking worried in Resident Evil Requiem/Capcom

“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). It was important to combine the slow and fast segments well, and Grace and Leon turned out to be the best combination for that. Leon also has lots of new actions, giving you a strong sense of release compared to Grace’s sequences.”

Nakanishi believes that the different playstyles of Leon Kennedy and Grace will work well with the game’s pacing, helping to relieve the intensity during Grace’s more horror-intensive scenes with Leon’s more action-oriented ones and make it an experience different from previous Resident Evil titles.

Nakanishi explained, “If the whole game were Grace, it would be extremely scary. In this sense, Leon’s sections work to release the tension. You feel safe during Leon’s chapters, and then scared again during Grace’s. It’s a consciously designed horror structure. As a result, while Requiem is certainly scary, I think players will also feel a kind of exhilaration and satisfaction that past Resident Evil titles didn’t offer.”

Are you excited to test the contrast in playstyles between Resident Evil Requiem’s main characters Leon Kennedy and Grace Ashcroft? Or figuring out what Umbrella Corp is finally up to after all these years? Let us know in the comments.