Resident Evil 10 is still a long way off with no official announcement, but Resident Evil Requiem has already laid down a tantalizing blueprint for where Capcom can take survival horror next. Between Requiem’s dual-protagonist structure (Leon’s power fantasy vs. Grace’s vulnerability), its big lore swings with Elpis, and a finale that all but screams “this is the canon path,” the series has momentum again—and it would be a shame to waste it.
Here are five concrete ways Resident Evil 10 could build on Requiem, sharpening what worked, ditching what didn’t, and pushing the franchise forward without losing the identity that made it iconic.
Move on from Raccoon City—Requiem gave it closure
Requiem’s return to Raccoon City is the kind of anniversary flex that only Resident Evil can pull off: ruined streets, familiar landmarks, and that delicious dread of walking through a place the series has mythologized for decades. It’s nostalgia done with purpose, not just a victory lap. Leon and Grace’s journey uses the city as a narrative pressure cooker, tying personal closure to franchise history.
But that’s exactly why Resident Evil 10 shouldn’t cling to it.
Requiem frames Raccoon City as a full-circle endpoint: the wreckage of where it all began becomes the stage for discovering Elpis, which the story positions as a potential cure rather than another escalation of bioterror. When a series finally gives its most famous location a meaningful “goodbye,” the worst thing it can do is immediately backpedal into yet another tour of the same ruins.
If RE10 wants to feel like a true successor, it should treat Requiem’s Raccoon City chapter as closure, then use Elpis as the narrative excuse to widen the world again. The franchise has always been at its best when it’s moving—new outbreaks, new institutions, new moral compromises—rather than circling the same crater.
Dial back the late-game action and lean harder into stealth-driven horror
Requiem’s biggest flex is also its biggest risk: it successfully blends two different Resident Evil fantasies in one package. On one side, you’ve got Leon—parrying, shooting, and generally radiating “I’ve survived too many nightmares to be scared of this one.” On the other, you’ve got Grace, whose sections are built around careful movement, tension, and the kind of vulnerability that makes every hallway feel like a trap.
That contrast is powerful. It’s also a warning sign.
Requiem reportedly tilts more toward Leon-style action in its latter stretch, especially during his time in Raccoon City. It makes sense in the moment—Leon is Leon, and the game clearly wants you to feel that competence—but the series has been burned before when it chases spectacle too hard. Everyone remembers how easy it is for Resident Evil to drift toward the RE6 end of the spectrum if the balance slips.
Resident Evil 10 should take Grace’s loop as the foundation, not the side dish.
That doesn’t mean stripping Leon (or whoever the next lead is) of combat depth. It means making sure the default texture of the game is survival horror: stealth, resource pressure, and the dread of being under-equipped. Requiem already proved the formula works—especially when you add an unpredictable threat that can “suddenly pop up” and turn careful planning into panic.
If Capcom wants RE10 to be the next modern high point, it should resist the temptation to “go bigger” just because it can. Bigger isn’t scarier. Smarter is scarier.
Evolve Requiem’s semi-open level design without going full open world
Requiem apparently lands in a sweet spot: not open world, but not a straight corridor either—especially in its semi-open Raccoon City segments. That matters because Resident Evil’s tension thrives on authored pacing: the series is built on locked doors, looping routes, and the constant mental math of “Do I have enough to push forward?”
Go too open, and you risk diluting that pressure. Go too linear, and you lose the joy of mastery—of learning a space so well it becomes a weapon.
The smart play for Resident Evil 10 is to iterate, not reinvent.
Requiem’s approach suggests a future where Capcom can expand exploration while preserving fear: more meaningful backtracking, more layered gating, and more verticality—without turning the game into a checklist-driven sprawl. The best Resident Evil maps are practically characters: they teach you, punish you, then reward you when you finally understand them.
RE10 should aim for that “middle ground” Requiem hints at: a world that feels larger and more navigable, but still engineered to keep you tense. If Capcom can evolve that structure in a fresh location—one that isn’t leaning on Raccoon City’s legacy—it could be the next big step for the series’ level design philosophy.
Bring more of the core cast back—without letting Leon and Chris hog the spotlight
Requiem is framed as Leon and Grace’s adventure, and Leon in particular remains a gravitational force in the fandom. The community is currently in full Leon mode—riffing on his one-liners, imagining him dropped into other universes, and generally treating him like the franchise’s most charismatic chaos engine. Even the game’s more unexpected details—like Leon driving a custom Porsche that modders immediately started swapping into absurd alternatives—have become part of the conversation.
That popularity is real. But it can become a creative crutch.
Requiem’s story choices also highlight who isn’t there. There’s a strong argument that Ada Wong feels conspicuously absent from anything involving a major virus-related MacGuffin. Jill Valentine is referenced, but not meaningfully present. Claire Redfield—with her TerraSave connections and her long-running role as the series’ humanist counterweight—feels like she’s been waiting for the franchise to remember how valuable she is.
Resident Evil 10 should widen the playable and narrative roster. Not as a gimmick, but because the series’ world is bigger than two super-soldiers and whoever the new protagonist is.
Requiem also raises a key question: what happens to Grace next? If Capcom is serious about a “younger generation” coming into its own, RE10 is the moment to prove it—by letting newer characters matter beyond one game, and by letting legacy characters return in ways that feel earned rather than obligatory.
Leon and Chris don’t need to disappear. They just need to stop being the only pillars holding the mainline games up.
Finish what Requiem started: make Resident Evil 10 the payoff for The Connections arc
Requiem doesn’t just do fanservice and setpieces—it pushes the overarching plot forward in a way the franchise can’t easily ignore. The game reportedly establishes that The Connections were responsible for Raccoon City’s destruction, and ties them to T-virus experimentation aimed at enhancing abilities and potentially creating mind-controlled operatives.
That’s not a side plot. That’s an endgame thread.
This also dovetails with a lingering hook from Resident Evil Village, where Chris encounters disturbing signs within the BSAA and resolves to get answers. Requiem adds more fuel by bringing new information into the light via the discovery of the ARK facility, and it even includes a post-credits scene—the universal language of “we’re not done here.”
If Capcom wants RE10 to feel essential, not optional, the cleanest route is obvious: make it the conclusion of this arc.
That doesn’t mean tying everything up with a bow. Resident Evil never truly ends; it mutates. But it does mean delivering a satisfying payoff: confronting The Connections directly, resolving the BSAA corruption thread, and making Elpis matter beyond a single finale choice.
And speaking of that finale…
Requiem’s ending hinges on Grace choosing whether to release or destroy Elpis, with the villain Zeno promising to spare Leon only if it’s released. The game heavily signals which option is “right”: releasing Elpis is framed as the good (and canon) ending, saving Leon and curing infections, while refusing leads to Leon’s death, ARK collapsing, and the game practically nudging you to redo the decision.
That kind of “choice” is controversial for a reason. It’s a throwback to Resident Evil 7’s infamous end decision—where one option is effectively non-canon and the sequel steamrolls your pick.
If RE10 is going to build on Requiem, it should do it with confidence: commit to the canon outcome and stop pretending the player had meaningful agency there. Use the ending as a springboard into the next chapter—Elpis in the world, The Connections exposed, and the series poised for a real reckoning.
What Remains Unknown
Even with Requiem fresh in players’ minds, there are major unanswered questions about Resident Evil 10—and Capcom hasn’t officially confirmed the next numbered entry.
- No official announcement has been made for Resident Evil 10, including platforms or a release window.
- Requiem’s director Koshi Nakanishi has said more content is coming to Requiem, including DLC, a photo mode, a mini-game, and a “surprise” in May—but how any of that connects to the next mainline game is unclear.
- It’s not confirmed which characters will lead RE10 (or whether Grace returns as playable).
- The exact nature of Requiem’s post-credits scene and how directly it tees up RE10 hasn’t been officially detailed here.
- Rumors about remakes (including talk around Resident Evil Zero and Code Veronica) are swirling, but nothing in this set of details constitutes an official confirmation of those projects or how they might feed into RE10.
Requiem feels like Capcom playing the hits and moving the chess pieces forward—exactly what Resident Evil needed as it barrels into its next decade. If Resident Evil 10 can take Requiem’s best ideas (semi-open exploration, stealth-forward horror, meaningful lore progression) while avoiding its most frustrating indulgences (lopsided late-game action, “choices” that aren’t really choices), the series won’t just be back.
It’ll be untouchable again.
