Resident Evil 9: Requiem's director explains how in one crucial way, it is the "most extreme" title in the series yet

Resident Evil 9: Requiem’s director wants you to know that it may very well be the most extreme title in the series. But not in the way you might think. When he talks of extremities Kōshi Nakanishi isn’t talking about blood, guts, and gore – he’s talking about . And your heart rate, for that matter.

For my money, Resident Evil 7: Biohazard is one of the finest-paced video games around. I’ve written about my admiration for the curve of RE7’s gameplay and narrative before. The way in which protagonist Ethan Winters claws his way from scared and alone to practically Rambo-esque in the finale with the ultimate transition masked by an action-packed flashback is fantastic. A lot of horror games feature this curve, but few manage it as deftly as RE7. It’s real chef’s kiss stuff. One of the chefs in question was Nakanishi, who directed RE7 and is back in the director’s chair for Requiem. So naturally, sitting down to talk about his new game, I ask him about pacing.

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“My approach is the same this time,” Nakanishi notes after some modest hand-waving of my interpretation of RE7’s pacing. Requiem protagonist Grace will start off quite defenceless and certainly terrified. Spoilers mean Nakanishi offers no specifics, but he promises that Grace’s situation will change as the game progresses – something he sees as integral to the DNA of the Resident Evil series in general.

“There’s really this graph of tension and release throughout the game, building up to a climax. That’s something that I think Resident Evil is really unique with among horror games. We don’t just scare you – we offer you a chance to release that tension by overcoming it all.”