Resident Evil 9 has finally been announced at Summer Game Fest, and its official title is Resident Evil Requiem. This debut trailer gave players the first glimpse at a game that has received a lot of speculation and rumors, especially regarding who would take the role of protagonist this time, now that Ethan and Rose’s stories are wrapped up for the most part. While Rose could return in the future, Requiem is giving her a break by introducing a new protagonist, although not one who’s completely unrelated to previous games. Instead, you’ll be returning to Raccoon City in the shoes of Grace Ashcroft.
Although Grace Ashcroft herself is a new character, her mother has appeared in the series before. Grace is the daughter of Alyssa Ashcroft, who doesn’t appear in the main games. Instead, she’s one of the characters you see in Resident Evil Outbreak. As a result, there are a number of players who might not know about Alyssa or how she’s a driving force behind Grace going to Raccoon City.
Who Is Alyssa Ashcroft?
Not to be confused with Alexia Ashford, the villain of Resident Evil: Code Veronica, Alyssa Ashcroft was an investigative journalist who started digging into Umbrella in 1993 when she learned about rumors that a company was bribing a hospital to test drugs on patients. She was accompanied by her friend, who ended up partially eaten by Dorothy Lester, who was infected with a strain of the t-Virus. To avoid Alyssa revealing this event, a researcher for Umbrella used a procedure to make Alyssa forget what she saw at the hospital. As a result, she simply knew that there was some kind of accident or event that made the hospital shut down.
If she had her memories, then Alyssa might’ve been able to expose Umbrella before the full outbreak in Raccoon City, or she might’ve saved herself from being present during the outbreak by leaving the city earlier. Instead, she’s in Raccoon City during the events of RE2 and RE3, managing to escape before the city was destroyed.
After her escape, Alyssa continued writing articles to try and take down Umbrella, but was working against entities like the government, which preferred to cover up the entire existence of Bio Organic Weapons, or B.O.W.s. She also wrote about a series of mysterious disappearances happening over a course of two years in Dulvey Parish, Louisiana. Naturally, those disappearances were because of the Baker family, and you get quite familiar with them in Resident Evil 7. Alyssa would then die during an investigation, which had her looking into the Wrenwood Hotel.
How Alyssa Is Important to Resident Evil Requiem
Grace Ashcroft, Alyssa’s daughter, is now an FBI agent looking into mysterious deaths. Now, her identity as Alyssa’s child is taking her to Raccoon City. Not only is this the place her mother escaped from during the outbreak, but it also seems to be where the Wrenwood Hotel is located, or at least close to the hotel, since the city itself is still destroyed. So, Grace is given the task of looking into the deaths happening at the hotel, which includes her own mother’s death from eight years ago.
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As a result, Alyssa is a driving force behind the plot of RE9 because the trauma of her death lingers with Grace, and that will likely play a large role in how Grace reacts to what she finds at the hotel. It’s also an interesting way to almost echo the relationship between Ethan and Rose that you see in Shadows of Rose, where a daughter is following clues left behind by a parent to unravel mysteries that are related to their own lives. While only the first trailer is out, it looks like RE9 will continue Capcom’s recent string of successes with this franchise.
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