Key Takeaways
1. Kazuhiro Aoyama, director of Resident Evil 3: Nemesis, is confused about the existence of Raccoon City in Resident Evil 9: Requiem after its destruction in previous games.
2. The original game’s ending intentionally aimed to close the book on the outbreak’s origin by wiping Raccoon City off the map.
3. The Resident Evil 3 Remake shifted focus to Jill Valentine’s escape, making the destruction of Raccoon City seem less severe.
4. Aoyama speculated about the possibility of time travel in the series, reflecting its tendency for exaggerated B-movie elements.
5. Koshi Nakanishi, director of Requiem, acknowledged the stretch in logic regarding the city’s survival and explained their approach to depicting the bomb’s effects in the game.
The director of the iconic 1999 game, Resident Evil 3: Nemesis, Kazuhiro Aoyama, is puzzled about how Raccoon City and its landmarks, including the Raccoon City Police Department, still exist in the new Resident Evil 9: Requiem.
Aoyama’s Insights
In a recent chat with YouTuber Under The Mayo, Aoyama reflected on the game’s explosive finale, where a powerful missile devastates the zombie-ridden Raccoon City, leaving it in ruins and turning the police department into mere ashes. The ending of the original game clearly states that “Raccoon City has been literally wiped off the map.” It’s as clear as day.
Aoyama was at the helm of Nemesis, which transformed the initial spin-off idea into a full-fledged sequel. The choice to destroy the city was intentional, aimed at “closing the book” on the outbreak’s origin, thus bringing closure to the terrifying storyline.
The Story Continues
The new game takes place years after the events of Resident Evil 3 Remake. In that remake, while the ending still shows Raccoon City’s destruction, it shifts focus to Jill Valentine’s escape rather than the chaos, making the impact of the missile seem less severe as the city is shrouded in smoke rather than outright destruction.
Jumping to Resident Evil 9: Requiem, the remnants of Raccoon City and the RCPD are still standing amidst the post-apocalyptic landscape. Aoyama expressed his “confusion” during the interview, as Under The Mayo’s host refrained from giving full details “out of professional courtesy,” but still found it to be an “interesting” situation.
Theories and Fan Reactions
Aoyama even speculated if “time travel was involved.” This thought plays into the series’ love for exaggerated B-movie elements, which fans are used to since Resident Evil has dabbled in timeline twists before.
Koshi Nakanishi, the director of Requiem, embraced this uncertainty during the game’s creation and recognized the stretch in logic, mentioning, “Revisiting some of these iconic locations isn’t necessarily realistic.”
Naturally, fans were skeptical about this sudden change in the story, but Nakanishi addressed this during an interview at Gamescom 2025, saying, “I won’t say we went into a physics simulation of exactly how it was affected by the bomb. But we were like, ‘Okay, well, this is where the bomb landed in the city. Then this would be the blast zone, you know, the shock wave would maybe travel into these areas, and that’s how they’d be affected.’”
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