I knew it. I told you all for months that Leon would be found lurking somewhere in the rubble of Raccoon City. This poor bloke can’t catch a break, so I don’t know why Resident Evil Requiem would be any different. But now that Leon’s involvement in the upcoming Resi game is confirmed, the devs can finally speak to his inclusion instead of pretending like they don’t know who he is.

“One thing’s for sure, Leon isn’t just handsome, he’s cool personality-wise too,” director Akifumi Nakanishi says in an interview with Automaton. “He’s the type who doesn’t hesitate to sacrifice himself to save others, but he’s not arrogant about it, and he has a passionate inner self. I hope you’ll also look forward to the dry wit and subtle sarcasm that only an older guy can bring.

“He’s a character who carries a lot on his shoulders. We took a lot of care in refining him to be an “ikeoji” (a cool/attractive older guy). The reactions to the trailer on that front have made us happy.”

I couldn’t have put it better myself. Leon is and always has been my favourite Resi character. Call me basic, but Resident Evil 2 and Resident Evil 4 are two of my top games of all time, so I just couldn’t imagine a world where we’d go back to Raccoon City and not see this icon.

“This is Leon’s first return to Raccoon City since Resident Evil 2, so seeing how he responds to the ‘place where it all began’ now that he’s older is another major point of interest,” Nakanishi says. “The battle this time will probably push Leon to his limits more than ever before, and this is a crucial part of the experience.”

Ok, that last part scares me a little. Leon doesn’t have limits. I know he’s 50 years old by this point, but surely he can still just backflip out of danger if things get too spicy. But I still have a bad feeling that the devs could be teeing up a permanent retirement for Leon, although I really hope that isn’t the case.

A Resi universe without Leon Kennedy would just feel empty. I know they have to pass on the torch at some point and that Leon can’t be out here repeating sassy one-liners until he’s 100 years old. But at the very least, I hope the devs can at least give him a peaceful last few years and not kill him outright. Although I don’t have much of a say when it comes to this.

“This is the first new game with Leon as a main protagonist since Resident Evil 6, and he’s older and more experienced now,” Nakanishi continues. “A major development theme for us was: ‘What would Leon be like in 2026?’ Even though he keeps fighting to save people, bioterror never goes away, so what state of mind has he reached now? What can he do with his seasoned combat skills? With those concepts in mind, we added new elements on top of a Resident Evil 4-style foundation. Grace’s gameplay is based on Resident Evil 2, whereas Leon’s gameplay includes martial arts and melee moves, based on Resident Evil 4.”

You may think this sounds rather disjointed, but Nakanishi is adamant that “Requiem has just one, unified story” and that they’ve managed to mesh Leon and Grace’s sections together seamlessly. Think Resident Evil: Revelations, the sections are “almost equally split”.

“As the plot advances, you switch between Leon’s sections and Grace’s sections,” Nakanishi says. “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.”

Funnily enough, this actually quells one of my biggest fears. After playing the demo at Gamescom, I was nervous that Requiem could actually be too intense and scary. The scene of Grace trying to escape the new big bad monster was horrific and left me so scared that I was told to sit down and drink some water. But knowing it won’t be all like this sets my mind at ease.

“If the whole game were Grace, it would be extremely scary,” Nakanishi says. “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.

“It’s almost like having two games with completely different types of tension mixed together. Early on, we were 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. 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.”

Despite the devs not wanting to unleash the news of Leon being in Requiem too early, all of this does line up perfectly with what they’ve been telling us all along. When first asked whether Leon would be appearing in the upcoming game, Nakanishi actually explained how they couldn’t add Leon into the horror sections as “no one wants to see Leon scared,” and he was right.