{"id":12429,"date":"2026-03-04T11:33:17","date_gmt":"2026-03-04T11:33:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nextlevelnews.co.uk\/blog\/2026\/03\/04\/resident-evil-requiem-is-a-kick-ass-leon-kennedy-legacy-sequel\/"},"modified":"2026-03-04T11:33:17","modified_gmt":"2026-03-04T11:33:17","slug":"resident-evil-requiem-is-a-kick-ass-leon-kennedy-legacy-sequel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nextlevelnews.co.uk\/blog\/2026\/03\/04\/resident-evil-requiem-is-a-kick-ass-leon-kennedy-legacy-sequel\/","title":{"rendered":"Resident Evil Requiem Is a Kick-Ass Leon Kennedy Legacy Sequel"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Great news: Resident Evil Requiem absolutely kicks ass. While it was initially advertised as a survival horror vehicle for new protagonist Grace Ashcroft, it turns out Requiem is equally a reunion with the series\u2019 fan favorite hero, Leon S. Kennedy. Despite showing up in several remakes recently, Leon hasn\u2019t had a genuinely new adventure since Resident Evil 6. That was 14 years ago! Requiem brings us a Leon who\u2019s still that campy, quippy, tough-as-nails legend we\u2019ve always loved, but now he\u2019s older, wiser, and carrying a bit more baggage with him. This kind of return is pretty uncommon in video games, but take a look at the screenings at your local multiplex and you\u2019ll see it\u2019s happening all the time now in movies. Old heroes from old franchises coming back to prove that a few extra wrinkles can\u2019t stop you from kicking ass. That\u2019s exactly what Resident Evil Requiem has done. It feels like a Hollywood blockbuster legacy sequel for one of the coolest video game characters of all time. <\/p>\n

You could easily make the argument that Resident Evil 4 is the greatest video game ever created, and diehard fans of Capcom\u2019s game changer have wanted a reunion with Leon for decades. His short part in Resident Evil 6 simply wasn\u2019t enough, and while 2023\u2019s Resident Evil 4 remake was incredible, it was ultimately a retelling of a story we all knew extremely well. For years, we\u2019ve been left wondering if we\u2019d ever get anything like Leon\u2019s gory Spanish vacation again. At least until now: Resident Evil Requiem is a worthy successor to Resident Evil 4. But more than that, it gives us a fresh take on Leon that\u2019s more interesting than many sequels offer. <\/p>\n

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Despite being a medium that has been going strong for over fifty years now, video games rarely let their protagonists grow older. Mascot characters like Super Mario and Sonic the Hedgehog are basically the same age now as they were when they were first introduced in \u201880s and \u201890s. There are a few exceptions, of course. Uncharted\u2019s Nathan Drake had aged slightly <\/em>by the time we said goodbye to him in 2016, and Tomb Raider\u2019s Lara Croft has jumped around to various stages of her 20s throughout her numerous sequels and reboots. But most video game characters live in an endless time loop, destined to stay encased in amber at the same age forever, like Bart Simpson and his fellow classmates being stuck in fourth grade for decades. <\/p>\n

The Resident Evil franchise is different; it\u2019s one of the few long-running video game series that actually allows its characters to experience the passage of time, albeit with all sorts of silly B-movie plot armor, continuity leaps, and other various nonsensical story beats to help carry them along the way. That\u2019s why seeing a gruffer, more weathered Leon S. Kennedy’s return in Resident Evil Requiem feels so special – it\u2019s something we don\u2019t get to see very often in video game form. Games are largely power fantasies, after all, and seeing an older Super Mario clutch his knees after a triple jump, or a hunched over Sonic the Hedgehog gasp for breath in the middle of a half pipe run, would be way less cool and way more of a stark reminder of our weary, fragile lives than just seeing those guys at their peak age forever. <\/p>\n

On the other hand, Hollywood loves to bring back older versions of classic movie characters for a big legacy sequel, partly because it\u2019s fun to check in on old friends you haven\u2019t seen in a while, but mostly because actual human actors – unlike video game characters – get older as time passes. For example, think about Harrison Ford in Star Wars: The Force Awakens portraying an older, greyer Han Solo. Or Harrison Ford in The Dial of Destiny portraying an older, greyer Indiana Jones. Or Harrison Ford in Blade Runner 2049 portraying an older, greyer Rick Deckard. (I swear I have more examples besides Harrison Ford.) Do all of these movies need to exist? Definitely not. But when a legacy sequel works, they feel like a great reunion with someone we haven\u2019t seen in a while, and sometimes, even a perfect final sendoff to a character we\u2019ve cherished our entire lives.<\/p>\n

When you\u2019re put in control of Leon, it really does feel like a return to the character\u2019s best days.<\/section>\n

We may have technically caught up with Leon recently, thanks to the glorious Resident Evil 2 and 4 remakes, but those games take place in 1998 and 2004, respectively. The Resident Evil timeline progresses in real time, though, so in Requiem, set in 2026, Leon is actually much older now, and he\u2019s got the wrinkles and mannerisms to prove it. He\u2019s slightly less likely to crack a corny one liner or silly pun after a big, violent encounter (but don\u2019t worry, the man still has some jokes here and there.) <\/p>\n

Requiem balances Leon\u2019s dad jokes (or should that be \u201chot uncle<\/u><\/a>\u201d jokes?) with some grit and gravitas. He is reminded of his regrets and past failings as he revisits the horrors that unfolded in his early days as a cop in Raccoon City, with its current bombed-out streets, dilapidated police station, and gun shop all trudging up the grief and remorse from his first big missions. But while this offers a darker side to Leon\u2019s story, we don\u2019t really get a deep look into his personal life, which definitely works in both the character\u2019s and our favor. Going decades without seeing Han Solo, just to find out he ended up being a deadbeat dad who\u2019d resorted to once again dealing with low life gangsters and petty crimes in The Force Awakens was a pretty depressing get together in hindsight – like running in to the older kid from your town that you grew up idolizing and finding out he still lives with his mom and he mostly just sells cigarettes to teenagers behind a gas station. We didn\u2019t need that downer with Han and I\u2019m glad we don\u2019t get that with Leon, a character who in Requiem is largely focused on a new assignment with nearly all of the passion, intensity, and wit we expect from him. He\u2019s struggling with his memories of Raccoon City because he\u2019s back in it, not missing his daughter\u2019s dance recital because he\u2019s pounding shots at the bar. <\/p>\n

What\u2019s important, though, and an experience unique to the video game medium, is that Requiem\u2019s Leon still feels like he did in Resident Evil 4, despite being much older. Mechanically, he moves and controls just like he did in RE4\u2019s 2023 remake, just with a few extra tricks up his sleeve thanks to the benefit of age and experience. There were so many little moments in Requiem where I thought to myself \u201cI cannot believe I\u2019m getting more Resident Evil 4 right now.\u201d It wasn\u2019t that I thought I\u2019d never ever play anything like that again in this franchise, it\u2019s just that after RE7 and Village, I truly had no idea where things would go next. And while Requiem certainly does build on the survival horror elements of those games, when you\u2019re put in control of Leon, it really does feel like a return to the character\u2019s best days.<\/p>\n

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So many of Leon\u2019s sections in Requiem work as callbacks to things I loved about Resident Evil 4, but he approaches them with the added benefit of the wisdom and experience that comes with getting older. Remember the chainsaw wielding lunatics from the village? Well, there\u2019s new ones now, and this time you can shoot those chainsaws out of their hands and use them to tear a room full of zombies apart. Remember the high speed jetski escape sequence? There\u2019s a new one now that\u2019s an infinitely cooler set piece and adds enemies to the mix. <\/p>\n

Not everything here is an improvement over Leon\u2019s most iconic mission, of course. Requiem doesn\u2019t have a lovably weird merchant character, or shiny costume jewelry dangling from its corridor ceilings or inexplicably hiding in the bellies of its creepiest basement creatures. Resident Evil 4 is, after all, one of those once in a lifetime video games where a team of bold creative geniuses were given several years and a blank slate to create a sprawling, cinematic single player game that reinvented a beloved franchise. We\u2019ll almost certainly never get anything like it on that scale again. But when Requiem comes close to hitting some of those same highs, it\u2019s a fantastic feeling.<\/p>\n

But the one thing a truly great legacy sequel recognizes \u2013 and one that Requiem very much understands \u2013 is that our heroes don\u2019t live forever and, frankly, it\u2019s selfish of us to expect them to. The people we look up to eventually get old and die, and leave us with just memories to remember them by. Yes, even the ones that can somersault over zombies or dive roll through a second-story glass window and land on both feet unphased. But the greatest heroes don\u2019t just leave their legacy behind, they impart their wisdom and experience on the next generation in the hope that they will grow to become as great, or even greater, than they ever were. That\u2019s how legacy sequels bring together their original and new cast members, and we see that in action with Leon and Grace, a skittish FBI agent who enters into Requiem\u2019s instantly threatening story with fear and trepidation. <\/p>\n

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Grace begins her journey quite literally stumbling around in the darkness, holding a crude knife in a shaky hand and struggling to survive. But by teaming up with Leon while also confronting her own past traumas, she slowly becomes a strong, resilient, fully capable star of her own. She might never go full blown action hero like her mentor, and that\u2019s okay, but it\u2019s exciting to think her story may just be getting started. What we see between her and Leon is a torch passing ritual, a necessary chapter in any ongoing story where characters are allowed to age naturally, reach the end of their tale, and eventually even die. <\/p>\n

That\u2019s not to say I would turn down any more adventures with our old friend Leon in the future, of course. I love the guy, and I think there\u2019s still a lot of gas left in his tank. I just don\u2019t know if I want to play a video game where he\u2019s 80 years old and I need to upgrade his hip replacement every time he attempts a spin kick. Then again, for all of the ways Requiem handles an aging legend gracefully, Resident Evil has long been a franchise where body mutating mega viruses and super serums allow once-human characters to return bigger and stronger than ever, even after getting axed apart or blown to smithereens with nukes. So hey, maybe next time Leon\u2019s in town he\u2019ll be looking a little less like a hot uncle.<\/p>\n

But until they jump that zombie shark (and this series literally has one of those, named Neptune) I\u2019ll gladly take more Grace and Leon games in the future. And seeing how well Capcom handled an older Leon opens up all kinds of possibilities for other classic Resident Evil characters to return with a few more grey hairs. After all, Resident Evil Requiem never makes any mention of Claire Redfield (outside of a reference on a charm) so here\u2019s hoping she shows up in some DLC or even gets to star in the next mainline game. Either way, it\u2019s great to see a series I\u2019ve loved for so long find so many great ways to stay alive and thriving while so many other classic franchises shamble along long past their expiration dates, like the rotting, festering zombies that Leon – and now Grace – are so great at defeating.<\/p>\n