In a recent media interview, director Akishima Nakanishi stated that he's been conceiving the series for quite some time, and this long immersion ultimately led to a "numbing effect" on the development team's perception of horror elements.
"We've created so much of this type of content that we need others to play it to judge its effectiveness. In fact, before the closed-door demo at Summer Games Fest and the first playthrough at Gamescom this year, there were doubts within the team—is this really scary? We couldn't tell for ourselves. These horror elements are as commonplace as our daily bread," Nakanishi explained.
During the interview, Akishima Nakanishi also discussed the balance between survival horror and action elements in the series. He emphasized that Requiem will draw heavily on the design principles of Resident Evil 2, rather than continuing the path of games we'd rather forget (specifically, Resident Evil 5 and Resident Evil 6).
"I think the series can be divided along a spectrum of 'Resident Evil 2-like' to 'Resident Evil 4-like'. Resident Evil 7 leaned clearly in the direction of Resident Evil 2, returning to its survival horror roots and earning widespread acclaim.
Resident Evil 8 built upon this foundation by adding more action and shooting elements, moving closer to the trajectory of Resident Evil 4.
However, if this trend continues, it will create an 'inflationary effect'—consistently piling on more action elements to surpass the previous game, ultimately leading to the same mistakes as Resident Evil 5 and Resident Evil 6.
While they are still excellent games, the general consensus is that the excessive action focus has deviated from the series's true horror roots."
He stated explicitly, "I don't want Resident Evil 9 to repeat the same mistake and deviate from its original purpose in order to surpass Resident Evil 8's action design. We are determined to tilt the balance firmly towards the Resident Evil 2 style, making it a near-complete upgrade of the classic Resident Evil 2 formula."
Resident Evil Requiem will be released on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, Nintendo Switch2 and PC platforms on February 27, 2026.
