Hideki Kamiya, director of the original Resident Evil 2, marked the franchise's 30th anniversary with an unexpected pitch: a cozy life-simulation game built around a retired Leon Kennedy, far removed from the survival-horror action the series is known for. Offered as a joke, the concept swaps gunfights and outbreaks for garden beds and bread ovens. Judging by the response online, plenty of players would take that trade.
What Retired Leon Actually Does All Day
Kamiya's pitch imagines Leon Kennedy in retirement, living a quiet life in the countryside. According to the concept, retired Leon spends his days fishing, foraging wild vegetables, and baking his own bread. He walks the dog, tends a home garden, and drives roughly 50 kilometers to the general store for supplies. The social side of the pitch leans just as domestic. Leon invites old friends over for a barbecue, fixes a neighbor grandmother's oven after she asks for his help, and sells homemade lemonade at the local festival. None of it involves a single infected enemy.
Fans Are Already On Board
The response from fans has been enthusiastic rather than skeptical. Commenters reacted to Kamiya's pitch by saying they would genuinely play it, with one writing they "really wanna do it so bad." Another fan latched onto the comedic potential of failure states in a barbecue-cooking mechanic, enjoying the image of "Uncle Leon grumbling" when a dish goes wrong. Part of the appeal seems to come from the contrast. Leon is a longtime Resident Evil action protagonist, so picturing him fumbling a barbecue instead of fighting off a bioweapon reads as a novel kind of comedy specifically because of who he is.
Kamiya Wants Capcom to Consider a Non-Horror Entry
Kamiya didn't leave the idea as a throwaway joke. He followed up by urging Capcom to consider a Resident Evil title without horror elements, saying many fans have voiced a desire for what he called a "Biohazard that's not scary" — using Biohazard, the series' Japanese name. That framing lines up with Kamiya's own publicly stated dislike of horror games, even though he directed the original Resident Evil 2. Resident Evil is made by Capcom, but there's no indication the publisher is developing anything resembling Kamiya's cozy pitch. For now, the pitch is nothing more than an anniversary joke rather than a project in development. Even so, the enthusiastic fan reaction suggests there's a real audience for a Leon Kennedy spinoff built on gardening and lemonade stands rather than gunfire — even if it never leaves the realm of a what-if.
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