Resident Evil Requiem’s big text splashes explained

The big font splashes in Resident Evil Requiem are so cool and stylistic! Many might mistake these pseudo-title cards for a stylish flourish that looks neat but remains utterly meaningless as a scene-setting device when you can already see exactly what the giant text is declaring – but you’d be missing the true brilliance of these stylish, cool, aesthetically booming words. Big spoilers in this discussion.

First of all, plastering big all-caps text onto the screen is a great, impactful way to introduce new characters, fresh to the Resident Evil series, like FBI agent Grace Wrenwood.

But it works even for characters we know and love, like former cop and successful car salesman Leon Rhodes Hill.

Oh, wait, no. I see the confusion now. He’s Leon Scott Kennedy. She’s Grace Ashcroft, not Wrenwood. Excuse me. I misunderstood the format. Once you get it, it’s very simple and effective. Clearly it goes:

FIRSTNAME
PLACE

That’s okay, now that we know the format, we can continue to meet new characters like…

Oh, no, wait. I see the new confusion. Elbridge is not a person. That’s okay, the title cards don’t need to be consistent or actually useful 100% of the time, like the typographic splashes every time you change areas in Control. They can vary according to whatever just looks cool! The format for this one is actually:

PLACE
TIME

That’s fine, it doesn’t lessen their impact. We can just--

Huh, that’s an odd one, it’s probably just the game breaking the fourth wall and--

Okay, so this one may seem unusual at first glance. But we’ve seen enough to know that the title cards must either be some combination of: a name, a place, a time, a Porsche, or a description of a small frightening girl. It’s straightforward once you know this.

Like I say, the splash text is always either: a name, a place, a time, a Porsche, a description of a small frightening girl, or a rhetorical question.

Oh, weird, now the font is very small and quiet. This one includes a name, a date, and a more precise time. But at least it seems to have returned to normal. This is reflective of the slower and deliberate pace of Resi9ent 9vil Re9uiem, which examines serious themes like trauma and loss, discarding the schlocky melodrama of previous Resident Evils.

Right, so: a name, a place, a time, a Porsche, a description of a small frightening girl, a rhetorical question, a date, a precise time, or an assertion about a pantomime villain who has apparently come back from the dead. It’s extremely simple and effective and bold and makes the game more profound. All clear? Good.