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May. 9th, 2026 11:50 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
samcybercatTonight I finished watching a longplay of Resident Evil Requiem, which brings me up to date with the main games in that series, at least until the DLC for Requiem comes out sometime in future. I know there are also many other games in the series outside of the main ones and I'm not ruling out that I might watch through those as well at some point, but for the time being I'm happy enough to tick this one off my list and move onto something else.
It feels good to have finally caught up with a series that I enjoyed watching my cousins play on the PS1 back when I was a kid. Certainly there were a few parts of the series that I was less invested in, but for the most part I've really enjoyed the vibes and how much you can tell the people involved in the series really care about it. My friend once told me that the secret sauce to a successful series is that even if you as the audience might think it's silly, the source material takes itself completely seriously and honestly, I think Resident Evil gets that right. Though obviously it's more than prepared to poke fun at itself sometimes, but it doesn't cross that line into irony poisoning that a lot of modern takes on long-running series like this one sometimes do.
With Requiem, you can see how hard they were working to strike the right balance and I think they got it. The first segment with Grace in the hospital ticked the survival horror box very well and it speaks to the strength of the game that they led with this before diving into the nostalgia bait of Raccoon City, when a game that had less faith in its material would've done that the other way around.
As for Raccoon City, I'll hold my hand up and say that, yes, I ate the nostalgia bait right up. Honestly, it surprises me that the series didn't return here sooner, since it always felt like the low-hanging fruit in that regard. But maybe it's best that they waited until now, when they could take everything they've learned about what does and doesn't work to do it justice.
Both of the main characters were great. I thought it'd take me a while to warm to Grace, but honestly, she acted so much like how I could see myself acting in those situations that it was hard not to be endeared to her. Not everyone is going to handle a zombie situation without swearing and panicking along the way. I let myself be baited by the game into assuming as soon as Emily appeared that Grace was an earlier clone from the same series as Emily, so they got me there when it turned out this wasn't the case.
As for Leon, well, he was the most Leon in this game, I think. He's always been quippy, but they amped it up this time around and that really felt like the right choice to make. If you ask me, Leon being as personable as he is and prone to acting on his own instead of being a soldier is what makes him the more popular Rezzie Guy between himself and Chris (sorry Chris).
Speaking of that though, having now gone through the whole series, like damn, Jill and Claire really got ripped off, huh? Leon and Chris both keep being pushed forward in each new instalment as important characters or at the very least a surprise Easter Egg at the end, whereas the two women who were introduced in the same games as them equally as a protagonist remain almost forgotten. Jill hasn't appeared in the main series since the somewhat unpopular RE5 and Claire even longer than that, not coming back after being reunited with Chris in Code Veronica, getting only a vague mention from Sherry in RE6 that she regards Claire as one of her best friends. I know that both characters did appear in some of the non-main games, which is all the more reason why I want to check those out at some point, but it's kind of sad to see them disappear from the main series.
Speaking of the female cast though, I was a little sad that my favourite character in the whole series, Ada Wong, wasn't in Requiem, but like, I know that both Ada and Leon have busy lives and only sometimes cross paths to give me those little ship-teases that keep me fed for a long time. I just have to hope that perhaps Ada will be in the DLC.
Oh, and before I forget, if that soldier guy who they made a big deal of Leon fighting in ARK doesn't turn out to be HUNK, then I'll be incredibly surprised.
It feels good to have finally caught up with a series that I enjoyed watching my cousins play on the PS1 back when I was a kid. Certainly there were a few parts of the series that I was less invested in, but for the most part I've really enjoyed the vibes and how much you can tell the people involved in the series really care about it. My friend once told me that the secret sauce to a successful series is that even if you as the audience might think it's silly, the source material takes itself completely seriously and honestly, I think Resident Evil gets that right. Though obviously it's more than prepared to poke fun at itself sometimes, but it doesn't cross that line into irony poisoning that a lot of modern takes on long-running series like this one sometimes do.
With Requiem, you can see how hard they were working to strike the right balance and I think they got it. The first segment with Grace in the hospital ticked the survival horror box very well and it speaks to the strength of the game that they led with this before diving into the nostalgia bait of Raccoon City, when a game that had less faith in its material would've done that the other way around.
As for Raccoon City, I'll hold my hand up and say that, yes, I ate the nostalgia bait right up. Honestly, it surprises me that the series didn't return here sooner, since it always felt like the low-hanging fruit in that regard. But maybe it's best that they waited until now, when they could take everything they've learned about what does and doesn't work to do it justice.
Both of the main characters were great. I thought it'd take me a while to warm to Grace, but honestly, she acted so much like how I could see myself acting in those situations that it was hard not to be endeared to her. Not everyone is going to handle a zombie situation without swearing and panicking along the way. I let myself be baited by the game into assuming as soon as Emily appeared that Grace was an earlier clone from the same series as Emily, so they got me there when it turned out this wasn't the case.
As for Leon, well, he was the most Leon in this game, I think. He's always been quippy, but they amped it up this time around and that really felt like the right choice to make. If you ask me, Leon being as personable as he is and prone to acting on his own instead of being a soldier is what makes him the more popular Rezzie Guy between himself and Chris (sorry Chris).
Speaking of that though, having now gone through the whole series, like damn, Jill and Claire really got ripped off, huh? Leon and Chris both keep being pushed forward in each new instalment as important characters or at the very least a surprise Easter Egg at the end, whereas the two women who were introduced in the same games as them equally as a protagonist remain almost forgotten. Jill hasn't appeared in the main series since the somewhat unpopular RE5 and Claire even longer than that, not coming back after being reunited with Chris in Code Veronica, getting only a vague mention from Sherry in RE6 that she regards Claire as one of her best friends. I know that both characters did appear in some of the non-main games, which is all the more reason why I want to check those out at some point, but it's kind of sad to see them disappear from the main series.
Speaking of the female cast though, I was a little sad that my favourite character in the whole series, Ada Wong, wasn't in Requiem, but like, I know that both Ada and Leon have busy lives and only sometimes cross paths to give me those little ship-teases that keep me fed for a long time. I just have to hope that perhaps Ada will be in the DLC.
Oh, and before I forget, if that soldier guy who they made a big deal of Leon fighting in ARK doesn't turn out to be HUNK, then I'll be incredibly surprised.
