Resident Evil Requiem, launching on February 27 for PlayStation 5, is the ninth and latest entry in Capcom’s iconic Resident Evil series. 

We recently sat down with the game’s director, Koshi Nakanishi, to chat about the latest and most immersive entry in the series yet.

Koshi Nakanishi Resident Evil Requiem director, Capcom

PlayStation Blog: When did development start, and how was the project greenlit?

Development began on a small scale six years ago, but it really took shape in its current form about three years ago. Ethan’s storyline concluded with Resident Evil 7: Biohazard and the eighth mainline entry, Resident Evil Village. While both Resident Evil 7 and Resident Evil Village were very well-received, they veered away from the main storyline leading up to Resident Evil 6. So, we decided it was time to steer the story back on track, and that’s how the development of this title started.

“Leon’s back in Raccoon City – the place where his bioterror nightmare began and caused his early struggles and losses.”

The demo threw us right into the game, so the story felt a little abrupt. Will the final product be accessible for players who haven’t played the earlier entries?

The game is designed to be welcoming to complete newcomers who don’t know anything about the Raccoon City Incident or haven’t played any Resident Evil titles before. While series fans will instantly recognize Leon, Grace is a brand-new character who’s never faced a zombie and only knows about the Raccoon City Incident through her mother’s involvement. New players can dive into their first Resident Evil adventure right alongside Grace.

This marks Leon’s first mainline return since Resident Evil 6, at which point he was a little over 30 years old. Exploring his character development is one of the central themes of this game. He’s back in Raccoon City – the place where his bioterror nightmare began and caused his early struggles and losses. Throughout the game, players will witness how the battle-hardened Leon feels and what he reflects on after all these years.

Verify your age to view this content.

Did you explore any new approaches to horror in this game?

A big focus for us was reinven

To make it to the top of Kami, the mountain at the heart of Cairn, you’ll need to develop skill and intuition for climbing and use all the tools at your disposal. There’s a lot in the game you’ll need to learn through experience, particularly as you reach the more treacherous challenges at higher altitudes. Here are a few tips that’ll help you reach greater heights and see fewer dangerous falls as you make your way to Cairn’s summit.

It’s all about planning, patience, and stamina

The climbing gym at the start of Cairn is a great way to get some training that will save you on Kami, and it’s worth trying all of its available walls to see what you’ll face ahead. The gym will teach you three things: to plan your route, climb slowly, and conserve your stamina.

You can check the wall ahead of you by angling the camera so that your protagonist, Aava, looks straight up, or by pressing L1 to get a zoomed-out view of the whole area. It’s always worth it to check your path so you don’t hit a point where you’re trapped or snagged and forced to climb back down, wasting energy and items.

Set for release on February 5, Dragon Quest VII Reimagined for PlayStation 5 reinterprets the classic 2000 PlayStation title, Dragon Quest VII: Fragments of the Forgotten Past. Featuring distinctive 3D diorama visuals with a warm, handcrafted doll-like aesthetic, the remake also introduces new storylines, including one that reunites the hero with his now-adult friend, Kiefer.

Over 25 years after the original release, producer Takeshi Ichikawa shares insights on the creative process and the decisions behind reimagining this beloved RPG for a new generation.

Takeshi Ichikawa, Producer, Dragon Quest VII Reimagined 

PlayStation Blog: Before we discuss the upcoming Dragon Quest VII Reimagined, let’s take a moment to revisit the original Dragon Quest VII: Fragments of the Forgotten Past, released for the original PlayStation in 2000. The title drew major attention at the time as the first in the series to feature 3D polygons and for offering an adventure that stretched beyond 100 hours. Do you have any special memories of that game?

I was a young kid in elementary school back in 2000, so my memories are a little fuzzy, but I do remember playing the original Dragon Quest VII. Funny enough, my first Dragon Quest game wasn’t one of the mainline entries – it was Dragon Quest Monsters Terry’s Wonderland. So when I finally played one of the mainline installments, I was surprised to learn that you actually fight as human characters.

Dragon Quest VII is known for its sheer scale, and it takes a while to reach your first battle. Honestly, as a child, I remember getting impatient, wondering when the fighting was going to start. Ultimately, I didn’t finish the game and gave up partway through. However, when I revisited the game later as an adult, I was really struck by how dark and unsettling the game’s world was, and how strangely relevant it felt in this day and age.

*Screenshot of Dragon Quest VII: Fragments of the Forgotten Past on the original PlayStation

It’s one of the more melancholic works in the series, isn’t it?

Yes. In conversations with Yuji Horii, the creator of the series, we often used the word “irrational” to describe the game’s world and its themes.

What parts of the game felt irrational to you?

Even though the protagonists haven’t done anything particularly wrong, the story keeps drifting into darker territory and shows the raw, ugly sides of human nature. I think that lack of salvation and sense of unfairness made the game feel irrational at times.

And that Dragon Quest VII is now being remade as Dragon Quest VII Reimagined. Can you tell us how this project first came about?

The original game was released in 2000 and celebrated its 25th anniversary in 2025. We felt that its distinctive world and story would resonate even more strongly with players today, which is what led to the start of this project.

Why did you choose to develop a full remake from the ground up, rather than a remaster?

After 25 years, we wanted to create a game that was enjoyable for both past players and those new to the series. That’s why we went back and reviewed every single element from square one and r

February’s PlayStation Plus Monthly Games lineup is a bumper one, with four titles available to PS Plus members*. Battle to victory in the ring in boxing sim Undisputed, survive an alien world in Subnautica: Below Zero, mix combat and gardening in Ultros, and take to the skies in Ace Combat 7: Skies Unknown. All these titles will be available to PlayStation Plus members from Tuesday February 3 until Monday March 2. 

View and download image

Download the image

Close

Download this image

Undisputed | PS5

Become Undisputed and rule the ring in the most authentic boxing game to date! Featuring true to life visuals, bone-jarring action, and 70+ licensed fighters, Undisputed gives you unpre

Two race-bred machines that breathe octane, plus a high-powered EV curveball from one of the world’s biggest phone companies—that’s how Polyphony kicks off 2026.

The ’22 Porsche 911 GT3 R (992) arrives as a full-send, no-compromise, pure race car. The ’24 Hyundai Elantra N TC follows with a car built for touring-car domination, while leveraging the reliability of the road car. And then there’s the wildcard: the ’25 SU7 Ultra from Xiaomi, the tech giant’s vision of absurd-speed, 1,527 BHP EV.

Play Video

This year, MLB The Show is all about leaving your mark like never before. More than any single game, it’s about The Journey. It starts by putting in the hard work in high school, with a continuous drive to be better than the day before and a hunger for a Hall of Fame career. That drive was top of mind throughout the development of this year’s game, which is why San Diego Studio and MLB The Show are proud to welcome back 3x American League MVP, Aaron Judge.

His journey has taken him from high school to college, then the minors to the majors, and on to the world stage. We’ve mirrored the same journey in our game, striving to create the most authentic MLB experience outside of actually being on the field.

Aaron continues to rewrite history. He was our cover athlete in 2018, after a record-breaking rookie year in 2017. He’s now a 3-time AL MVP, 7-time All-Star, 5-time Silver Slugger award winner, AL single-season home run record holder with 62 homers, and the 2026 Team USA World Baseball Classic Captain. 

These are just a few highlights from his long list of achievements, and Aaron’s performances have not only inspired players on the diamond, but athletes and fans around the world. We’re excited to have him back as the cover athlete of MLB The Show 26. It’s now up to you; how will you leave your mark?

Play Video

Helldivers, do you ever find the squad standing before a towering foe with impenetrable fortifications and wish you had something to smash through them? The Ministry of Defense has just the Warbond for you. Let’s get to smashing, divers!

Play Video

Hello PlayStation Blog community, my name is Kenny Sun and I’m the lead developer of the Ball x Pit, and I’m here to share with you development on the game’s concept, inspiration as well as what players can expect in the first content update that releases today for FREE for all owners of the game!

This journey begins back in November 2021, and while I was on the subway, I saw an ad on my phone for a game called Punball. It looked like a roguelike version of Holedown, a game I enjoyed a lot, so I decided to give it a download. Fifteen minutes later, I looked up and realized that I had missed my stop. I knew that the core of the game had something special, but as I continued to play it I felt that there were a number of elements I wished were different. So, a few weeks later, I decided to make a version of my own. The gameplay for the prototype that would become BALL x PIT wasn’t too different from its original inspiration. But, there were a few key moments in its development that shaped it into a unique fusion of mechanics.

Initially, gameplay in Ball x Pit was turn-based. You would fire a series of balls, they would bounce at incoming enemies, and after all bouncing was complete, enemies would advance and a new row would spawn. I thought the gameplay was fun and wasn’t really considering ways to improve it. But, in February 2022, I downloaded Vampire Survivors, and the idea to try making it into a real-time action game was sparked. I made the change a few weeks later, and immediately the gameplay clicked, I knew I made the right decision.

Another important mechanic in Ball x Pit is the fusion system, where any ball can be combined with any other ball to synergize their abilities. This stemmed from the way I coded the ball mechanics. In code, each ball has 3 categories of ability types: status effects, area-of-effect, and unique effects. So, it was obvious that combining status effects and area-of-effect abilities would be a great way to power up the balls. And naturally, an alternative to this was the evolution system, which combines certain sets of balls into a whole new one. This new stronger ball in turn can be fused with any other ball. For inspiration of different evolutions, I looked at online guides for games in the Doodle God series to see what combinations they had.

The last defining system of Ball x Pit I wa

Capcom recently invited me to go hands-on for a few hours with Resident Evil Requiem. The new sections are set in Rhodes Hill hospital and feature series icon Leon S. Kennedy, playable for the first time since being confirmed last December. My mission going in was to examine what’s new with Leon’s combat options and compare to his past blood-drenched outings like Resident Evil 2 (2019) and Resident Evil 4 (2023). 

Grace Ashcroft vs. Leon S. Kennedy: To understand Leon’s place in Requiem, we must understand his counterpart, Grace Ashcroft. Capcom is very up front that the two playable protagonists offer very different experiences. Grace’s sections focus heavily on evasion, puzzles, and resource management. She can aptly fight back with crude melee implements and firearms, but she’s still new to the whole “battling bio-engineered monsters” thing. By contrast, Leon’s sections focus heavily on the intense combat and improvised crowd management fans loved from RE4. The result feels like a balance between the horror of RE2 and the white-knuckle action of RE4.

“The team gave [Leon aging] a lot of thought. He’s been fighting biohazards since RE2 where he got his sudden start there. Now it’s been close to 30 years of Leon’s life that he’s been doing that. He’s seen a lot of sacrifice, a lot of tragedy. He couldn’t save everyone in RE2 or RE4. He’s seen a lot. He’s been through a lot. So that’s a weight that weighs down on him. So you’ll see that Leon that that weight is something that the development team wanted to express with Leon’s appearance and personality in Requiem. So you’ll notice he does carry that weight, and he’s maybe a little bit more pessimistic.”

– Kōshi Nakanishi, Director

Leon’s signature sass: The Leon S. Kennedy we meet in Requiem is a little older with some extra gravel in his voice, but he’s got his trademark charm. When confronted with an infected, chainsaw-wielding doctor he calmly mutters “I want to get a second opinion.” 

Email us at PSPodcast@sony.com!

Subscribe via Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or download here

Hey, everybody! Sid, Kristen, and I are back this week to talk about the new Marathon DualSense and all the new info surrounding the title, a look at how remakes and remasters have brought many respected classics to the forefront, and our current gaming adventures.

Stuff We Talked About

• Next week’s release highlights:
  • Cairn | PS5
  • Code Vein II | PS5
  • I Hate This Place | PS5
  • Highguard | PS5
    
    
• Marathon pre-orders and DualSense — A plethora of Marathon content dropped this week, including the limited edition DualSense controller, Destiny 2 crossover content, a new gameplay trailer, and more details on the extraction shooter ahead of its March 5 release date.
  
  
• Fatal Frame 2: Crimson Butterfly Remake Interview — We speak to the game’s Directors, Hidehiko Nakajima, and Makoto Shibata on revitalizing a PS2 classic for the modern audience, coming to PS5 March 12.
  
  
• Fable is coming to PlayStation — The action role-playing franchise is coming to PlayStation with its latest entry that will be a new start for the series.

The Cast

View and download image