Resident Evil Reqiuem Is a Kick-Ass Leon Kennedy Legacy Sequel

Resident Evil Requiem Is a Kick-Ass Leon Kennedy Legacy Sequel Southeast Asia Home Amazon Deals Pro-tips by Codashop PC PS4 Xbox One Nintendo Mobile Entertainment EsportsMoreSearch Home More About IGN SEAContactAdvertisePressUser AgreementPrivacy PolicyCookie PolicyRSSIGN Southeast Asia is operated under license by Media Prima Digital Sdn Bhd (199901014126) Change Region United States United Kingdom Australia Africa Adria Serbian/Croatian Adria Slovenian Benelux / Dutch Brazil China / 中国 Czechia / Slovakia France Germany Greece / Ελλάδα Hungary India Israel Italy / Italia Japan / 日本 Korea / 한국 Latin America Middle East – English Middle East – الأوسطالشرق Nordic Poland Portugal Southeast Asia Spain / España Turkey / Türkiye world.ign.com Register / Login Register / Login Login Register Resident Evil 9 Resident Evil Requiem Is a Kick-Ass Leon Kennedy Legacy Sequel A few grey hairs can't stop our favorite hero. This post might contain affiliation links. If you buy something through this post, the publisher may get a share of the sale. By Brian Altano  Updated: March 4, 2026, 7:33 p.m. Related reads:MapleStorySEA Celebrates 20th Anniversary With Massive Summer Updates 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’ fan favorite hero, Leon S. Kennedy. Despite showing up in several remakes recently, Leon hasn’t had a genuinely new adventure since Resident Evil 6. That was 14 years ago! Requiem brings us a Leon who’s still that campy, quippy, tough-as-nails legend we’ve always loved, but now he’s 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’ll see it’s happening all the time now in movies. Old heroes from old franchises coming back to prove that a few extra wrinkles can’t stop you from kicking ass. That’s 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.  More like thisOpen Back Headphones: A Sound Experience Like No OtherYou could easily make the argument that Resident Evil 4 is the greatest video game ever created, and diehard fans of Capcom’s game changer have wanted a reunion with Leon for decades. His short part in Resident Evil 6 simply wasn’t enough, and while 2023’s Resident Evil 4 remake was incredible, it was ultimately a retelling of a story we all knew extremely well. For years, we’ve been left wondering if we’d ever get anything like Leon’s 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’s more interesting than many sequels offer. Leon may be older, but he knows how to swing a chainsaw. | Image credit: CapcomDespite 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 ‘80s and ‘90s. There are a few exceptions, of course. Uncharted’s Nathan Drake had aged slightly by the time we said goodbye to him in 2016, and Tomb Raider’s 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. The Resident Evil franchise is different; it’s 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’s why seeing a gruffer, more weathered Leon S. Kennedy’s return in Resident Evil Requiem feels so special – it’s something we don’t 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.  On the other hand, Hollywood loves to bring back older versions of classic movie characters for a big legacy sequel, partly because it’s fun to check in on old friends you haven’t 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’t seen in a while, and sometimes, even a perfect final sendoff to a character we’ve cherished our entire lives.When you’re put in control of Leon, it really does feel like a return to the character’s best days.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’s got the wrinkles and mannerisms to prove it. He’s slightly less likely to crack a corny one liner or silly pun after a big, violent encounter (but don’t worry, the man still has some jokes here and there.) Requiem balances Leon’s dad jokes (or should that be “hot uncle” 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’s story, we don’t really get a deep look into his personal life, which definitely works in both the character’s and our favor. Going decades without seeing Han Solo, just to find out he ended up being a deadbeat dad who’d 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