Hideki Kamiya, the director of the original 1998 version of Resident Evil 2, has shared his thoughts about a ‘cozy’ spin-off of the survival horror franchise, which would see Leon S. Kennedy trade his trusty sidearm in for green fingers. Yep, we’re talking about a retired Leon taking up gardening!
Speaking in a recent post to acknowledge the 30th anniversary of Capcom’s iconic franchise, Kamiya-san again spoke of his desire to see a non-scary mode added to Resident Evil, and has his own idea of what Leon would do after he’s retired from slaying zombies.
“If I made it, it’d turn into a game where retired Leon goes fishing in the countryside, forages for wild veggies, bakes bread, walks the dog, [and] tends a home garden,” he said. Kamiya added that retired Leon would “drive 50 km to the general store for supplies, invite old buddies over for a barbecue, fix the neighbour grandma’s oven at her request, sell homemade lemonade at the local festival… but that’d be cool, right…?.”
Kamiya previously expressed his interest in seeing a non-scary mode added to the Resident Evil games, having stated back in March in a video posted by Clovers that he just wants to “enjoy the puzzles.” While we’re on the subject of Leon, he recently appeared in this year’s Resident Evil Requiem as one of two playable main characters, where his investigations into mysterious deaths has him revisiting the ruins of Raccoon City.
Clovers Inc. is currently working on a full sequel to 2006’s critically acclaimed Okami, with Kamiya in the director’s chair. The project was announced during December 2024’s The Game Awards, although we haven’t seen anything on the game since.
[Source – Hideki Kamiya on X via VGC]