STACK #256 February 2026

GAMING FEATURE

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The scares are back with the arrival this month of the much-anticipated Resident Evil Requiem . We had a chance to sit down with co-producer Masato Kumazawa and probe him about what we can expect from this latest entry in the storied series. Words Amy Flower SP K NEW EVIL FORMAT: GENRE: Survival Horror MULTIPLAYER: No

scary parts here and there, we're trying to maximise the player's emotions. We're trying to manipulate the player's feelings by adding in different elements, so that we make sure that there are waves of how the players feel. And what we wanted to make sure is that when the players are at the height of their fear, we try to scare them. It may have been a bit abstract and difficult, but as an experience, while maximising the

want to make sure that new players will also be able to come in and enjoy playing the game as well. We have a new protagonist aboard in Grace Ashcroft – the daughter of the deceased Alyssa, who we know from past games. Please can you tell us why you introduced somebody new? We ended the story of Ethan Winters,

With so much anticipation for this release, what sort of pressure have you felt?

player's emotions, we're trying to make sure that Grace is involved in the story, and that the player is moved – making sure not just to scare, but feeling how Grace feels when sad, or other emotions. Ultimately, what do you most hope that fans gain from their time with Resident Evil Requiem ?

We’ve felt a lot of pressure, because we’ve had to make sure that the game was well-made. And since it was announced to the public that

it's being released, myself – and also the development team - have received an overwhelming amount of good

DYK?

reaction. So, we just thought to ourselves, ‘Well, we have to make something good, or else we'll probably get scolded by the players’. I've seen a lot of the comments on social media, and there were a lot like, ‘This is right, this is wrong’, but I'm pretty confident that the feedback from the players

and this time we wanted to create a new character who was involved in the Raccoon City Incident. Alyssa was one of the victims, so we thought to ourselves, ‘What's the most logical thing to have?’ I mean, time has progressed, so it's probably very natural to have her daughter be involved in the game.

Well, first of all, what kind of ending will Grace have? As I mentioned earlier, this game has a lot of player consideration, so I think it would be great if people could enjoy the game without looking at spoilers. I understand how on social media a lot of players are playing detective in terms of what's going to happen – this is going to happen, that's going to happen. But I think the one thing I want to say is please don't finish it day one. In the past games, such as Village and RE4 , there was a lot of action, but this time it's a horror game, so I just want players to enjoy the scares that we have provided.

Grace isn’t the only protagonist we’ll play with, as familiar Resident Evil face DSO Leon S. Kennedy returns

to handle sections with more combat-focused gameplay.

has been well received. I’ve made sure that they’ll be able to enjoy the game, based on the reactions there.

Capcom promise us “a new era of survival horror”. How do you go about keeping the scares fresh now that we’re up to the ninth mainline Resident Evil game? Well, compared to the past games, the main feature of this game is that you can play for a long time without getting bored of the horror. It's not just scary, there are also different parts to it. It's a bit difficult to explain, but by inserting

What have you personally most hoped to bring to Resident Evil Requiem ? The first and most important thing is to make sure that it’s Resident Evil -like, and to make sure that it's a survival horror game. And the second part is that because this franchise has been around for more than 30 years, we just

• Resident Evil Requiem is out Feb 27

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