It’s Time For Resident Evil To Fix Its Most Ambitious Failure

Resident Evil has entered a new golden age with fantastic remakes and excellent sequels following Ethan Winters, and the upcoming release of Resident Evil Requiem has some pretty large expectations to meet. Thankfully, Capcom’s recent track record leaves little room for doubt when it comes to the continued horrifying themes and decades of continued story development, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t still room for improvement.

While the franchise seems to be at its highest peak with several major successes in recent years, there’s clearly plenty of demand for more characters to return after waiting for so long. Even if Resident Evil Requiem only has fan-favorite characters making a brief appearance in its full release, the Resident Evil franchise could be in the perfect place to fix the most ambitious failure the franchise has ever faced.

Resident Evil 6 Is Still The Black Sheep Of The Franchise

There’s endless debate over which mainline game in the Resident Evil franchise is the best in the series, but Resident Evil 6 is generally seen as one of the weakest entries by far. This isn’t to say that Resident Evil 6 is a terrible game by any means, but it fails to deliver upon what made the series so special in the first place.

Attempting a multi-protagonist globe-trotting adventure with nearly every major character in the series being included, Resident Evil 6‘s over-the-top blockbuster action, simultaneous storylines, and inconsistent horror didn’t do its initial reviews any favors. It’s gained a more favorable reception online over the years for its unique storytelling and ambitious gameplay premise, but it still struggles to hold a candle to either its predecessors or the games that came after it.

The biggest thing holding back Resident Evil 6 wasn’t its concept of bringing together its ensemble cast into one big adventure, but rather the execution of the overall experience. Aside from sidelining major protagonists like Jill Valentine or even Sheeva from Resident Evil 5, the introduction of new characters took away time that could have been spent developing existing ones, while leaving little time to give them the spotlight they deserved.

Despite how much potential the concept behind Resident Evil 6 has for the series, there hasn’t been another major project from the Resident Evil franchise to bring back a majority of its cast outside its animated film franchise.

Resident Evil Requiem Could Be Setting Up A Larger Cast Reveal

Immediately after its first reveal trailer dropped, it was clear that Resident Evil Requiem isn’t afraid to dig up the roots of the franchise, and even some of its past protagonists, like Alyssa Ashcroft. On top of revisiting the iconic Raccoon City, several leaks have even shown what seems to be an older Leon Kennedy, raising hopes he will be a playable protagonist similar to Chris Redfield in Resident Evil 8.

Despite the developer’s claims that Leon Kennedy, Chris Redfield, and Lisa Trevor won’t be appearing in Resident Evil Requiem, that hasn’t stopped fans from speculating or flat-out accusing Capcom of intentionally lying to not spoil anything. While it’s incredibly unlikely that Resident Evil Requiem will do anything as dramatic as bringing back a whole array of fan-favorite characters, it could still be setting up something special for Resident Evil fans.

Even if we can’t play as Leon Kennedy or anyone else from the Resident Evil franchise aside from Grace Ashcroft in Requiem, that doesn’t mean it can’t still contribute towards developing its overarching story, while helping to fill in the gaps about what happened between now and the events of the original Raccoon City disaster.

Resident Evil 10 Needs To Acknowledge The Series’ Overarching Story

While it’s easier to ignore certain characters or plot elements that haven’t been touched on for over a decade at this point, recent developments from Resident Evil 7 and Resident Evil 8 make it even harder to ignore the ongoing narrative of the franchise.

With how many story beats have been left unanswered or scattered about from previous Resident Evil games, the current state of the BSSA’s use of Bio Organic Weapons is easily the most prevalent. It’s not hard to believe that the BSSA could once again have ties with the remnants of Raccoon City, which would be an excellent way to set up a future ensemble cast storyline in a more cohesive fashion.

Thankfully, Resident Evil Requiem‘s more grounded tone and outside perspective with Grace could also provide a glimpse into a wider perspective of the Resident Evil universe, and how day-to-day life has changed in the wake of its disasters, which could easily set the stage for a more dramatic setting in Resident Evil 10.

Even if there’s only a slim chance that Capcom is willing to repeat a potential disaster like Resident Evil 6 again with the next mainline game following Resident Evil Requiem, there’s still a glimmer of hope that a full remake of Resident Evil 6could offer a more concise gameplay package that helps round out some of its weaker edges.

Systems

Released

February 27, 2026

ESRB

Rating Pending

Engine

RE Engine