Whether or not the new Resident Evil 9 rumors are real is beside the point – it's clear what Capcom has to do next

May. 15, 2024

Opinion | Fan response to the most recent spate of RE9 rumors is something Capcom should pay attention to

When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.Here’s how it works.

There’s alwayssomethinghappening when it comes to Resident Evil 9, even though nothing has officially happened yet. The rumor mill has been abuzz for years now, rife with speculation on what the long-awaited ninth mainline entry in theResident Evil timelinemight look like. Will it follow in the footsteps ofResident Evil Villageand feature yet another member of the Winters brood? WillCapcomchoose to go in a different direction altogether, much as it did inResident Evil 7? Or, as one of the newest rumors suggests, will RE9 herald the glorious return of legacy heroes from the series' golden days?

To be honest, it’s anyone’s guess until Capcom unzips its hushed lips to announce the game and put us out of our misery. But that’s the thing: no one seems to be miserable about the prospect of a middle-aged Leon Kennedy being our leading man in RE9, as per Twitter userPRE_Alarabiya’s insider sources. The response to this latest bout of rumored leaks has been overwhelmingly positive, highlighting the importance of the developer’s next move in recapturing the attention and favor of its audience. It’s time for Capcom to do its business or get off the pot; go back to the classics, or commit to a brave new era once and for all.

Familiar faces

Here’s ourultimate guide to the Resident Evil gamesso far.

The most interesting thing I’m gleaning from all of this is that by and large, Resi fans really,reallywant their legacy characters back – for new games as well as remakes. The Resident Evil game described by PRE_Alarabiya reminds me in some way of what Capcom tried to do with Resident Evil 6, bringing back plenty of familiar faces in a series of episodic, high-action chapters that had some sort of overlap. While this attempt fell flat in the wake of Resident Evil 5, it wouldn’t be wild to think that perhaps Capcom wants to take another stab at this chaptered format; that’s pretty much the format of Village, after all, with each of the four Lords presiding over respective districts that need to be played in order.

Could Resident Evil 9 seek to learn from the mistakes of its predecessors, tweaking the formulajust soto incorporate aspects of everything that has worked best across the years – strong survival horror leanings, the success of legacy characters as per the remakes, memorable locations, iconic villains – to make classic Resi culturally relevant again?

Resi fans really, really want their legacy characters back – for new games as well as remakes.

Weekly digests, tales from the communities you love, and more

If you want to talk numbers, consider this: last year’sResident Evil 4 Remakesold over 7 million copies in its first year alone [viaVGChartz]. Resident Evil Village shifted about 8 million units acrosstwoyears [viaGameDeveloper]. Make of that what you will, but in my mind, that says the people want them some Kennedy and company.

But what if all these rumors turn out to be false? What if Resident Evil 9 goes fully rogue, bringing in new characters entirely and foregoing anything else that came before? It’s been done in the sixth and seventh entries alike, to varying levels of success, but perhaps the lack of success comes from not running too far with either new format. Either way, I would love to see Capcom narrowing its scope considerably, distilling the best of what it’s capable of to deliver a new Resi game that is less scattershot and more tightly-focussed on its assets. If those assets happen to be a certain ex-cop and his cohort of equally traumatized, firmly badass final girls and boys, that’s a happy coincidence for us all.

Check out all theupcoming horror gameson our watchlist, from Slitterhead to Bloober’s Silent Hill 2 remake.

Silent Hill 2 and Resident Evil 2’s introductory sequences showcase two different approaches to the survival horror remake, and both of them are valid

25 years after its initial release and 4 years after the remake, the original Resident Evil 3 is finally coming to PC

Marvel Rivals revives another classic Overwatch issue – insta-locking DPS players who won’t switch – and with it the debate over whether role limits are a good idea