I gotta feel for some of the public-facing creative folks at companies like Capcom who try to interface with fans, only for things to quickly get out of hand. Resident Evil Requiem director Koshi Nakanishi has received an influx of messages on social media since the game’s launch, and his alleged responses to fans about a certain topic of interest have apparently gotten him a bit of heat from the community. However, it seems like some of those interactions being shared around the internet were fake, and shouldn’t be considered confirmation of anything.
As is revealed at the end of Requiem, cop-turned-antibioterrorism-agent Leon Kennedy got hitched at some point after Resident Evil 6. The game doesn’t tell us who the lucky lady is, but Leon is shown putting a wedding band on in one of the last scenes in the game, and you can see it in his concept art as well. Naturally, fans want to know who Leon is married to, as he’s been the subject of shipping wars over the many years. Some folks think it must be his elusive frenemy Ada Wong that he’s always had romantic chemistry with, while others are arguing that he could have gotten with Claire Redfield, who has had some fleeting romantic interactions with him over the course of the series.
Rather than being content with speculation, fans have been messaging Nakanishi and posting his responses online. Though the messages I saw seemed to be teasing the possibility that Leon was married to Ada rather than outright stating it as fact, folks ran with it and have been spreading them on social media, claiming victory for Ada in the ship war.
Now, Nakanishi has posted a few stories on his personal Instagram account thanking fans for their messages and saying it’s hard for him to reply to everyone, though they “warm [his] heart.” He also says that he has been “called out for screenshots of edited messages,” implying that some of what’s being spread around may have been faked. Nakanishi goes on to say that he hopes to be able to officially announce new information at some point, but for now he’s going into a “hermit mode.”
I imagine when a series is as long-running as Resident Evil, and garners so many fans who love to post about it online, that being a major face for the series on social media can become untenable, especially if people are creating mock-ups of conversations you’re having and using them as ammunition in an imaginary war. Nakanishi seemed eager to interact with fans but it looks like the ship war has gone from fun to disruptive. While Requiem may keep the identity of Leon’s partner a mystery, I can’t imagine it will stay one as the series goes on. Will the internet take it well when his spouse is finally revealed? No, I imagine that day will be the internet equivalent of a bomb going off on Raccoon City.
