Last updated: 25 June 2026
Resident Evil Requiem Story & Setting: What We Know
Resident Evil Requiem returns the series to its most iconic location — the ruins of Raccoon City — nearly three decades after a government missile erased it from the map. The ninth mainline entry introduces Grace Ashcroft, a young FBI analyst whose investigation into a survivor epidemic pulls her into a conspiracy that rewrites what players thought they knew about the original outbreak. This page covers only officially confirmed story and setting details, clearly labelled where the line between confirmed fact and community expectation lies.
01 The Setting: Raccoon City, October 2026
Resident Evil Requiem is set in October 2026, 28 years after Raccoon City was destroyed in September 1998. The city's ruins are not merely a backdrop — they are the investigation's destination and one of the game's primary playable environments. The Raccoon City Police Department, familiar from Resident Evil 2 and Resident Evil 3, reappears here as a crumbling structure frozen in the aftermath of the original disaster.
The wider play space also includes Wrenwood, a city near the remnants of Raccoon City, and Rhodes Hill, where the Rhodes Hill Chronic Care Center stands as the game's first major enclosed location. A third major area — the ARK facility, hidden beneath Raccoon City itself — is introduced later in the story. Capcom's development team confirmed that returning to Raccoon City was a deliberate and difficult decision: producer Masachika Kawata stated in a Creator's Message video that the team initially thought they "couldn't touch Raccoon City," and that finding a credible reason to set a story there nearly 30 years on was one of the central creative challenges of development.
02 Grace Ashcroft: Who She Is and Why She Matters
Grace Ashcroft is the game's primary protagonist and one of the most lore-connected new characters the series has introduced. Several facts about her are officially confirmed.
- Role: FBI intelligence analyst, assigned to investigate a series of mysterious deaths among survivors of the 1998 Raccoon City incident.
- Adoptive mother: Alyssa Ashcroft, the investigative journalist and Raccoon City survivor who is one of the playable characters in Resident Evil Outbreak (2003). Grace takes Alyssa's surname after Alyssa formally adopts her following the death of Umbrella founder Oswell E. Spencer in 2006.
- Biological connection: Before Alyssa's adoption, Grace was taken in as an infant by Spencer himself. Spencer described Grace as his "blind hope and atonement," and arranged for her to be transferred to Alyssa's guardianship before his death, calling the act "a requiem to those who have passed" — a phrase that gives the game its title.
- Voice actor: Angela Sant'Albano in English; Shihori Kanjiya in Japanese.
Grace's connection to both a Raccoon City survivor (Alyssa) and to Spencer himself makes her one of the most structurally significant protagonists in the series, tying together storylines that span the original 1998 outbreak, the Umbrella collapse in 2004, and Spencer's death in 2006.
03 The Dual-Protagonist Structure
Resident Evil Requiem splits its campaign between Grace and the returning Leon S. Kennedy, DSO federal agent. The two characters are mechanically and tonally distinct by design, a difference reinforced by the game's perspective system.
Grace vs. Leon: how they differ
| Character | Default perspective | Gameplay tone | Closest precedent |
|---|---|---|---|
| Grace Ashcroft | First-person | Survival horror — scarce resources, deliberate pacing | RE7 / Village |
| Leon S. Kennedy | Third-person | Action horror — confident, faster-paced combat | Resident Evil 4 |
Both perspectives can be manually switched at any time — you can play the entire campaign from first-person, or entirely in third-person, or follow the defaults. Critics noted that the default split is the intended experience, as it reinforces each character's personality: Grace is a newcomer stepping into a situation that dwarfs her, while Leon is a veteran who has been here before.
Leon's psychological state is tracked by a "fear meter" mechanic confirmed by director Koshi Nakanishi: when it spikes, the screen desaturates and audio distorts, affecting combat efficiency — a systemic way of underlining that even Leon is not immune to what Raccoon City does to a person.
04 The Villain and the Conspiracy
The confirmed antagonist is Dr. Victor Gideon, a former t-Virus researcher at Umbrella who idolised Spencer. After Umbrella's collapse, Gideon purchased the Rhodes Hill Chronic Care Center — previously sponsored by the Spencer Foundation — and used it as a cover for a kidnapping and infection programme. His goal was to recreate Spencer's experiment in blood-based memory transfer, which required harvesting infected blood from hundreds of victims.
Gideon's investigation trap is how Grace enters the story: using government connections, he arranges for her FBI unit to be assigned the Wrenwood case, ensuring she specifically is on-site. When Leon witnesses Gideon abducting an unconscious Grace, his pursuit triggers a localised outbreak in Wrenwood, setting the game's events in motion.
The conspiracy expands into the ARK, a facility established in the game's story to exist beneath Raccoon City. The ARK contains Elpis, described in-game as Spencer's "ultimate creation." Elpis is initially presented as a mind-control bioweapon, but the story reveals it is actually an antiviral agent capable of reversing virus-based infections — and that suppressing knowledge of its existence was a contributing factor to the government's decision to destroy Raccoon City in 1998.
05 Returning Characters
Beyond Leon, one additional returning character is confirmed and one remains officially unconfirmed but strongly indicated by pre-release material.
- Leon S. Kennedy — confirmed as co-protagonist, playable for roughly half the campaign.
- HUNK — confirmed, appearing as "The Commander" who confronts Leon inside the ARK facility.
- Sherry Birkin — not officially confirmed by Capcom as of launch, but multiple trailers showed a blonde companion alongside Leon whose appearance and voice match Sherry's established design in Resident Evil 6. Multiple sources note the voice closely resembles her longstanding English voice actor. She is widely described in reviews as appearing in a supporting role. This page treats her as "not officially confirmed" until Capcom states it directly, though the weight of evidence makes her appearance effectively certain.
06 Tone, Atmosphere, and the "Requiem" Theme
Capcom positioned Requiem as a tonal course-correction after the more globe-spanning horror of Resident Evil Village. The game is described by its development team as grounded and clinical, with an emphasis on what 28 years of radioactive quarantine and government silence have done to the people who survived Raccoon City. The RE Engine's ray-traced lighting is used to emphasise the contrast between the preserved horror of the ruins and the modern institutional sterility of the Care Center.
The title itself is meaningful and confirmed: Spencer's own words to Alyssa Ashcroft — that Grace would serve as "a requiem to those who have passed" — are the direct source of the game's name. A requiem is a mass for the dead, and the word frames the entire story as both a mourning for Raccoon City's victims and an investigation into why they were never truly mourned by the institutions responsible.
Critics at launch praised the dark tone and the way it balanced Grace's slower, more frightened survival horror against Leon's faster but psychologically stressed action sequences. The atmosphere has been described as the series' most intimate since Resident Evil 7.
FAQ
Who is Grace Ashcroft in Resident Evil Requiem?
Grace Ashcroft is the primary protagonist of Resident Evil Requiem. She is an FBI intelligence analyst and the adopted daughter of Raccoon City survivor Alyssa Ashcroft. The game later reveals she was originally taken in as an infant by Umbrella founder Oswell E. Spencer, who gave her to Alyssa's care before his death. She is voiced by Angela Sant'Albano in English and Shihori Kanjiya in Japanese.
When is Resident Evil Requiem set?
Resident Evil Requiem is set in October 2026, approximately 28 years after the destruction of Raccoon City in September 1998. The ruins of the city — including the Raccoon City Police Department — serve as a central location in the game.
Is Resident Evil Requiem first-person or third-person?
Resident Evil Requiem supports both perspectives and you can switch freely. By default, Grace's survival horror sections are first-person (similar to Resident Evil 7 and Village) and Leon's action-oriented sections are third-person (similar to Resident Evil 4). The default split is designed to make both characters feel mechanically distinct.
Does Resident Evil Requiem connect to the Outbreak games?
Yes, confirmed. Grace Ashcroft is the daughter of Alyssa Ashcroft, one of the playable survivors in Resident Evil Outbreak (2003). Grace even inherits Alyssa's lockpick ability as a gameplay mechanic, and the game acknowledges the lineage with a dedicated trophy or achievement.
What is Elpis in Resident Evil Requiem?
Elpis is described as Spencer's ultimate creation, housed in a secret facility called the ARK constructed beneath Raccoon City. The game reveals that Elpis — presented initially as a mind-control bioweapon — is actually an antiviral agent designed to undo all virus-based infections. Covering up its existence was a key motivation behind the original missile strike on Raccoon City.