Capcom’s Horror Fatigue Is Real — And Resident Evil 9 Might Pay the Price

Resident Evil 9 has a date on the board — February 27, 2026 — and Capcom is talking about it in a way that is both funny and a little alarming. After almost 30 years of making this series, the team basically admitted they are so deep in it, they are not sure what actually scares people anymore. Weirdly relatable problem for a horror franchise, but here we are.

The very behind-the-scenes problem

At Tokyo Game Show 2025 (via IGN), director Koshi Nakanishi and producer Masato Kumazama said the biggest hurdle on Resident Evil: Requiem is not a monster design or a boss fight — it is perspective. They have made so many of these that their internal scare meter is fried. Before letting the public touch the game, they were asking themselves if Requiem was even scary at all. Not because they are ditching horror, but because constant exposure numbs you.

'We have made so many of these that we cannot tell anymore until someone else plays it.'

So instead of guessing, they are leaning hard on audience reactions. The team showed Requiem hands-off at Summer Game Fest and then let people go hands-on at Gamescom to see what actually lands with players. That is the barometer now.

Yes, they almost went way over the line

Nakanishi also shared a darkly funny cut idea: at one point they toyed with a scene where the new protagonist, Grace, loses her leg. Eventually they scrapped it — not because they could not do it, but because it felt like a step too far. That is the kind of edge-testing you do when you are trying to recalibrate fear without just escalating gore for the sake of it.

What Requiem is actually aiming for

Despite the creative burnout talk, the plan sounds promising. Requiem introduces Grace Ashcroft, a new lead, and steps away from the action-forward adventures associated with Leon S. Kennedy. Nakanishi says the target is closer to Resident Evil 2's suffocating tension than Resident Evil 4's firefights. In other words: scale back the gun-fu, crank up the dread.

'I did not want to turn the ninth Resident Evil into a project where I tried to top Village for action and ended up making something I did not want to make.'

The goal is to bring back that early-series vulnerability — the kind where every corridor feels like a decision, not a shooting gallery. And yes, the team knows their own scare compass is off, which is exactly why those public demos matter.

Quick catch-up

• Title: Resident Evil: Requiem (aka RE9), starring new protagonist Grace Ashcroft.
• Tone: A push back toward survival horror, leaning RE2 over RE4.
• Developer reality check: After decades on the series, the team admits they cannot reliably feel what is scary anymore.
• Testing the fear: Hands-off showing at Summer Game Fest; first hands-on at Gamescom to gauge reactions.
• TGS 2025 (via IGN): Director Koshi Nakanishi and producer Masato Kumazama explain the desensitization problem and why audience feedback is shaping the final balance of fear, tension, and gameplay.
• Release date: February 27, 2026.

Bottom line

Even horror pros get numb. The difference here is Capcom is using players as a tuning fork instead of pretending they have all the answers. If Requiem sticks to the plan — more atmosphere, less spray-and-pray — and Grace lands as a grounded lead, this could be the most genuinely tense Resident Evil in years.