What to know when Resident Evil 9 releases

Resident Evil 9 poster (courtesy of CNET)

By Alana Moscoso-Mendoza, Opinions Editor 

Resident Evil is a beloved video game series boasting 30 years since its creation as of 2026; what better way to celebrate this momentous anniversary than with another addition to the main series? 

Resident Evil Requiem (9), releasing Feb. 27, will be Resident Evil’s latest and greatest addition since the Resident Evil 4 Remake back in 2023. This means it is time to brush up on relevant backstory before diving into Capcom’s newest video game. And before you ask – yes, Leon Kennedy will be making a significant appearance come the end of February.

Resident Evil 9, set in Oct. 2026, follows Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) analyst Grace Ashcroft as she investigates a series of mysterious deaths at the Wrenwood Hotel. This is where Grace’s mother, Alyssa Ashcroft from Resident Evil Outbreak, died eight years before Resident Evil 9. While investigating, she is kidnapped by an unknown figure and is transported to the Rhodes Hill Chronic Care Center, where she is trapped. 

Leon Kennedy, however, is on a mission from the Division of Security Operations (DSO), an anti-bioterrorism agency that is made up of the United States’ best agents and that Leon has worked under since 2011. His given goal is to track down a former Umbrella scientist, Victor Gideon, who will serve as Resident Evil 9’s main antagonist. 

If you are familiar with Resident Evil, Umbrella will be a familiar organization to you, but in case you’re rusty, they are essentially the big bad of the entire series. Umbrella is a multinational conglomerate acting from 1968 into the early 2000s that performed a large number of operations, but was primarily active in creating bioweapons which often play central roles in connection to the series’ main antagonists (Resident Evil Wiki). 

Before delving into the backstory, there are some key features of Resident Evil 9’s gameplay that cannot be ignored. For example, players will switch between Grace’s and Leon’s perspectives; while Grace offers a more survival horror experience that Resident Evil is well known for, Leon will present a hack-and-slash method of gameplay that the series has dabbled in previously. 

The game will also be offered in first and third person. Leon is able to pick up enemy weapons that they have dropped, and can parry as he did in Resident Evil 4. Grace’s key mechanic is her ability to harvest blood from slain enemies and use it to craft items.

Speaking of enemies, Resident Evil 9 is introducing new “smart” zombies that have different personalities and ways to harm you. These zombies will have retained memories from their previous lives, such as a janitor zombie compulsively cleaning. They can also manipulate the environment, such as turning on and off a light switch, can utilize tools like chainsaws to harm the player, and can also react to light and sound. 

In short, these new enemies have much more personality and uniqueness than enemies in previous Resident Evil installments. There are also new enemies named “Blister Heads,” which are mutants of Crimson Heads from the Resident Evil 1 Remake.

Most notably, a new stalker-type enemy dubbed “Chunk” haunts both Grace and Leon at the Rhodes Hill Chronic Care Center. Grace can do nothing but hide from it due to her limited capabilities in weaponry, but Leon can dispatch it during his sections of the game. 

Chunk is massive, and unlike previous stalker enemies, such as Mr. X or Nemesis, Chunk blocks doorways, creating an even more oppressive atmosphere. For reference, Mr. X appears in Resident Evil 2 as its main antagonist and stalker enemy, while Nemesis functions the same in Resident Evil 3. As their titles suggest, they stalk the player throughout the game, serving as a constant threat that is meant to consistently unnerve the player. As mentioned earlier, Resident Evil 9’s new enemies can also react to light, and Chunk appears to shy away from light in gameplay trailers. 

As for the technical elements of gameplay, a noteworthy feature is an option to enable saving through ink ribbons. This feature was utilized in much earlier Resident Evil games, in which the player would only be able to save their progress by using limited ink ribbons found throughout the game. 

Bringing back this feature, while optional, is definitely a way to pay homage to Resident Evil’s earlier installments. On a more disappointing note, Resident Evil 9 will not be released on older consoles such as the PlayStation 4 (PS4) and Xbox 1, as it will require hardware from the current generation of consoles. 

Now, let us get into the backstory, starting off with Grace’s mother. If you are a Resident Evil fan with more extensive knowledge of the lore, that name might ring a bell – Alyssa Ashcroft was a reporter/journalist appearing in both Resident Evil Outbreak and Outbreak: File 2 as an unlockable character. She investigated Umbrella’s illegal activities and is a survivor from the Raccoon City outbreak, which I will cover later. She is shown in a Resident Evil 9 gameplay trailer, serving as a character in the game’s prologue.

The Raccoon City outbreak is an essential piece of the story if you are going to dive into Resident Evil 9. It is an extensive event spanning multiple games, so I will summarize what happened: an epidemic broke out within Raccoon City in Sept. 1998 as a result of the t-Virus. 

This virus was created by the notorious Umbrella Corporation, but was spread when the Umbrella Security Service (USS) gunned down Dr. William Birkin, a virologist for Umbrella, and thus caused vials of the virus to crack and spread through rats. 

William Birkin created the g-Virus and planned to betray Umbrella by selling it to the U.S. military, which Umbrella executed him for (Resident Evil Wiki). 

Many characters, such as Leon, Chris Redfield, Jill Valentine, and Ada Wong, to name only a few, traversed the highly infected region throughout many games. After about a week, the U.S. government decided to sterilize the area by ordering a nuclear missile strike to destroy the city and eradicate the t-Virus, and the city was officially bombed after Resident Evil 2 and 3. The strike also served to bury evidence of Umbrella’s bio-weapon experiments (Resident Evil Wiki).

On the topic of Leon, his background is important when considering Resident Evil 9’s setting – Leon’s journey in the Resident Evil universe began in Raccoon City when he was a rookie police officer for the Raccoon City Police Department (R.P.D.). 

Leon made his debut in Resident Evil 2 at just 21 years old, traversing the t-Virus-ridden city with little experience as a police officer and not a clue as to what Umbrella was. Now, he is 50, boasting almost 30 years as a beloved character within Resident Evil. In Capcom’s newest installment, he will be brought back to where his career began, likely marking an extremely significant moment for the video game series.

The lore of Resident Evil is extensive, and a simple background summary of the events preceding Resident Evil 9 is truly not doing the series justice. If you feel so inclined, I would highly recommend doing a deep-dive into Resident Evil’s story, especially as Resident Evil 9 adds even more lore and information.