Resident Evil Requiem director relies on fans to tell whether the game is scary. Read on to learn more about how they approached the horror for RE9 and the experience in optimizing the game for the Switch 2.
Resident Evil Requiem Style of Horror and Switch 2 Optimization
Devs Can’t Tell If The Game is Scary
Resident Evil Requiem (RE9) developers are unsure whether they have created a scary game due to the number of horror titles they have developed over the years. In an interview with IGN during Tokyo Game Show (TGS) 2025, RE9 Director Koshi Nakanishi and Producer Masato Kumazawa compared RE9 to past Resident Evil titles.
Nakanishi said that the franchise has seen different styles of horror through its rich history, but RE9 will closely resemble what they had with RE2. He stated that RE games can be classified into either being like RE2, which focused more on horror elements, or RE4, which has more action compared to other titles.
RE7 is also a title that swings toward the style of RE2, and while RE8 built upon this and added more action and gunplay to the series, Nakanishi felt that going down this direction would push the series away from its classic horror elements.
He said, "I didn't want to have to do that with Resident Evil's ninth title where I just tried to outdo the action in Village and ended up making something I didn't want to make. Firmly swinging the scale toward the Resident Evil 2 style was our intention, and it's almost an upgrade of that Resident 2 style."
Nakanishi stated that their goal wasn’t really to innovate horror, but the team wasn’t sure whether the game they were making was actually scary anymore. He explained, "There was actually a bit of a worry internally before we showed the [Resident Evil: Requiem] hands-off at SGF and the first hands-on at Gamescom, was this actually scary? Because we don't even know anymore. This is our bread and [sic] better, what we make every day."
Newcomers Will Enjoy 100% RE9, While Long-Time Players Will Enjoy 150%
While RE9 will return to Raccoon City once more, newcomers will still enjoy the game despite not being familiar with the nostalgic easter eggs that the new title will have. Kumazawa spoke with VGC during TGS 2025 and discussed the game’s development.
He emphasized that the team focused on striking the perfect balance between giving long-time series fans something to get excited about and introducing newcomers to the franchise. Kumazawa stated, "I think that if you don’t know anything about it, you’re just going to play this as a horror game set in a ruined city, and you’ll be able to understand and enjoy it 100%."
Meanwhile, existing fans of the series will enjoy the game even more. "If you’re a fan and you see all the connections and the lore links and the background hints and stuff, I think you’ll enjoy it 150%, and it’ll give you that extra level of detail, but we don’t want to make it so that you have to know about the incident and understand the relationship between that timeline in order to understand the game," Kumazawa said.
Smooth Optimization for Switch 2
Although Nintendo’s latest console offers more powerful hardware compared to its predecessor, many were still surprised when Capcom announced that RE9 would launch on the Switch 2. Speaking with Famitsu during TGS 2025, Nakanishi shared their experience on optimizing RE9 for Nintendo’s recently released handheld.
He said that the game is scalable, as during development, the team made sure that it could support high-spec to relatively low-spec systems. According to Nakanishi, this made the process for optimizing the game for Switch 2 "pretty smooth."
Additionally, he stated that they did not downgrade the quality of the game just to fit it to certain devices. Even though this is the case, they were still surprised that RE9 ran well when they tested it on the Switch 2.
Nakanishi elaborated, "Even we were surprised at how beautiful it moved when we saw it for the first time. I think the reason why we were able to go so smoothly was thanks to the hard work of the engine team."
Capcom is making strides in delivering a new horror experience for both newcomers and long-time fans, offering the game on various platforms. With the feedback they received from their recent showcase at TGS 2025, they were glad to witness the players’ reactions and are excited to release the game soon.
Resident Evil Requiem is set to release on February 27, 2026 on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC. To stay up to date with the latest information about the game, check out our article below!
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