What’re ya buyin’? As soon as you read or hear those words, you know exactly who I am talking about. It’s the catchphrase spoken by Resident Evil 4‘s mysterious Merchant, who Leon can get weapons and upgrades from as he battles his way through the Las Plagas-riddled villagers.
The latest Resident Evil – Requiem – does not have a merchant, but it seems that at one point, Capcom did consider having one, which we now know thanks to dataminer umesooooo. On X, @AestheticGamer1 shared the most interesting findings from a recent scour of Requiem’s files, and noted there was a “merchant-type character spotted” in the background of “a scrapped weapon customisation screen”.
According to this datamine, there was also going to be a “seizure mechanic for Leon”, and there were ideas for scrapped missions that would apparently have been like Resident Evil 4’s side missions.
The shared screenshots also show Leon investigating a crime scene to find a murder weapon, which wasn’t in the final game, even when playing as Grace. As well as this, there was a scrapped map concept which would have shown both Leon and Grace at the same time. And, it would appear Capcom also originally intended Leon to use the Blood Collector as well as Grace. “Leon could use the blood to temporarily enhance abilities, could craft items related to this, and was also an ‘overdose’ mechanic,” AestheticGamer1 said.
I’ve asked Capcom for clarification on Requiem’s newly-discovered cut content, and will let you know if I hear anything.
Plenty of cut bits and pieces, but of course we already knew Capcom removed content ahead of Requiem’s release in February. Last month, we learned that Capcom chopped an entire chapter of Requiem as part of a “rigorous process of selection and elimination”.
Regardless, the game has been a huge success for Capcom, becoming the fastest-selling game in the Resident Evil series to date. In Eurogamer’s Resident Evil Requiem review, we showered the game with praise, declaring it an “all-time high” for the long-running horror franchise.
