The Resident Evil Requiem Datamine suggests that Nemesis was not originally Gideon's final form

Resident Evil Requiem has been out for a while now, and since it's not exactly the world's longest game, most people who have picked it up will have finished it by now. That means they'll have seen the big twist involving protagonist Victor Gideon, the snakeskin-wearing, bespectacled madman who kidnaps Grace and is Leon's prime target.

Of course, with Requiem being a Resident Evil game, Gideon turning into some kind of horrible creature was always going to be inevitable, but there was a difference this time. If you don't want to see that difference, then it's your time to dip, because endgame spoilers are coming your way. You have been warned.

Gideon's final form was seemingly something else entirely

Okay, so those of you still here will probably be aware that during your final confrontation with Gideon, he essentially transforms into the final form of Nemesis from the Resident Evil 3 Remake, tying the two villains together. It was a bit of a disappointment to a lot of people, and didn't really seem to fit Gideon's overall aesthetic.

But that could be because Gideon's original form was seemingly something very different. Earlier today, a Twitter user named Umesooooo delved into Resident Evil Requiem's files to find two unstructured models of Gideon that hinted at a much more gradual and dramatic transformation.

Instead of the return of Resident Evil 3 Remake's Nemesis, Gideon would have started transforming with a single wing off his right shoulder, in a way that gives off some Sephiroth from Final Fantasy 7 vibes. Another model for his final mutation also appears to have been made, but this one consists of multiple chimeric heads and snake parts, which fit Gideon's aesthetic much better.

For some reason, it seems like Capcom made a pretty radical change during development to tie Gideon and Nemesis together, and we don't really know why. It could be a development issue, and making a whole new deformed beast would have been too much effort, or there's been a story change somewhere down the line. Anyway, it's interesting to see that Requiem's story could have been very different.