I didn’t expect to need anyone from Resident Evil 9 but I need Grace in a way that’s honestly humiliating to admit. The game functions, technically. Enemies spawn, doors unlock, things explode, people shout. But when she isn’t on screen it feels hollow, like the oxygen got pulled out of the room. I rush through sections just to get back to her. Not for progression. Not for rewards. Just to see her stand there again. The way she holds herself, like she’s bracing for something no one else can see. The way her eyes shift slightly before she speaks. The pauses. The restraint. She doesn’t try to dominate a scene and somehow that makes her dominate every scene. I rotate the camera slowly around her during quiet moments just to catch the smallest change in expression. I let idle animations loop. I replay dialogue for the way she breathes between lines. I muted the music once because I didn’t want anything competing with her voice. That’s not normal behavior. I know that. I don’t care.

When she’s in danger I’m not excited, I’m uncomfortable. I don’t want the plot touching her. I don’t want character development that changes her too much. I don’t want anything that reduces the amount of time she exists in front of me. When the story shifts away from her, I feel it physically, like a drop in temperature. I’ve caught myself thinking about her when I’m not even playing, filling in conversations that never happened, imagining extra scenes just so she occupies more space in my head. It’s fixation. It’s embarrassing. It’s real. I’ve played every major horror release for years and none of them followed me after I shut the game off. Grace does. I didn’t just enjoy her as a character. I attached to her. The credits rolled and instead of satisfaction I felt cut off, like something was removed too abruptly. 10/10. I don’t even know if I’m recommending the game. I’m recommending whatever this feeling is, this quiet, obsessive need to see her on screen again because apparently that’s all it takes for me to feel normal while playing.