Coming from the imagination of the same mastermind, Resident Evil's Leon Kennedy and The Evil Within's Sebastian Castellanos have naturally several things in common. At times, the impression that I was getting while playing The Evil Within was that Shinji Mikami shaped Sebastian with using traits and attributes that he maybe had wanted to add to Leon but for some reason didn't back then. It is interesting to see some of these things and analyze them a bit, since both Leon and Sebastian are wonderful characters, put to life with great detail and being among the finest elements of the games in which they appear.
Wherever Leon is, there are always zombies somewhere nearby. I guess this drops dramatically his chances for a successful romantic date: one can never know when a zombie will suddenly pop up from around a corner or from the back of a car or from inside a dumpster.
As early as in his first day as a cop in Raccoon City (Resident Evil 2), Leon had to deal with hordes of zombies while struggling to survive in the infested town.
Things didn't become any better in his other great mission to find and rescue the USA president's daughter in Spain (Resident Evil 4). Although the infected people were not zombies there, they were equally dangerous - lethal even.
And as old loves never die, he bumped onto zombies again in his Tall Oaks adventure (Resident Evil 6), where a whole town got infected again and there were classic zombies everywhere (which appeared again later in China, where he went with Helena to look for Simmons).
Trapped inside STEM, Sebastian has had his very fair share of zombie encounters so far. Although truth is that the zombies that Leon had to deal with were a joke compared to what awaited for Sebastian. While tangled in Ruvik's twisted web of memories (The Evil Within), Sebastian came across several terrifying and extremely strong zombie-looking people, called The Haunted.
Years later, while exploring Union inside STEM (The Evil Within 2) he had to face a whole town full of aggressive and persisting monsters called The Lost.
Almost from the beginning of his adventures, Leon had a guardian although he never actually realized it. There was always a mystery surrounding the spy Ada Wong, and it was not so clear whether she was working for the good or the bad guys, but she has always been there to help him through, and her assistance ranged from mild interventions, like shooting a few zombies out of the way to clear the path for him (Resident Evil 6), to major life-saving risky actions, like disobeying orders from above and stopping a hired mercenary from murdering him (Resident Evil 4). Ada's real identity still remains top secret, but it's pretty clear now that she is on the good side.
Sebastian has always had a secret helper, although he was ignorant about it for a long time. Juli Kidman was a rookie whom he was training during his detective days, but she was also a spy working for Mobius. Sebastian found out that she was playing a double role (The Evil Within), but it was not until somewhere midway through his Union adventure (The Evil Within 2) that her true mission was revealed to him. It turned out that Juli was on his side all along, and everything she did was to aid him through those really tough times. She went as far as defying the almighty Administrator and risking her own life to save Sebastian.
While Leon was on his mission in Spain (Resident Evil 4), the diabolical and twisted Lord Saddler infected him with the Plaga virus. Subsequently he started having symptoms of the infection, that were rather severe.
Still inside Ruvik's mind (The Evil Within), Sebastian temporarily became a Haunted himself, with all the consequences that came along. He even had the chance to see how he looked like, through a reflection in a glass.
It is also worth noting that in the beta version of Resident Evil 4 which never saw the light of publicity, the story had Leon wandering in a spooky house while suffering from hallucinations caused by the infection, a situation which resembles the one Sebastian is going through while being connected to STEM in the first Evil Within.
When Leon started his Spanish mission, he was wearing a fancy leather jacket with white fur.
After he is being captured by the villagers, one of them steals his jacket and he goes on the rest of the adventure without it, offering generous eye candy.
Upon visiting the Beacon Mental Hospital to investigate a mysterious massacre (The Evil Within), Sebastian is wearing a long trenchcoat.
Soon he gets attacked by Ruvik, loses his senses and gets captured. After waking up, he has lost his trenchcoat and he proceeds in the adventure without it. This is done for practical reasons, but also for our viewing pleasure.
Very early in the Spanish village (Resident Evil 4), Leon gets captured by the village chief and when he wakes up, he finds himself tied up back to back with Luis Sera, in a rather sexy-looking composition.
After Ruvik attacks Sebastian (The Evil Within), Sebastian wakes up in the sad*st's lair only to realize that he is tied and hanging upside down. His situtation is extremely frustrating and, unlike Leon's, not sexy at all.
For a rather long time in Spain (Resident Evil 4), Leon is chased by a disfigured psycho. Ramon Salazar is everything that Leon isn't: short, ugly, stupid and deranged. Most of these traits are a result of his Plaga infection (quite possibly some kind of side-effect), although he doesn't seem to be aware of his situation and apparently thinks too highly of himself.
Trapped in STEM without knowing it (The Evil Within), Sebastian is haunted by a deformed lunatic. Ruben Victoriano (aka Ruvik) was a relatively decent-looking kid, but a painful tragedy that he experienced scarred him for life, both physically and (senti)mentally. Now he is an ugly, frightful and sad*stic ghoul who wants to do as he pleases with Sebastian (his own words).
Leon's mission in Spain (Resident Evil 4) was to rescue the USA president's daughter who had been kidnapped. Ashley Graham was a 20-year-old girl who was almost always frightened (with a few surprising exceptions), hiding behind Leon and constantly screaming his name for help.
While trying to make sense out of what was going on after the Beacon mystery (The Evil Within), Sebastian meets Leslie, a 20-year-old boy with a mental health problem who used to be a patient at the hospital. Leslie is constantly terrified and calls Sebastian's name in the most inconvenient situations.
After Leon finds Ashley in the village church (Resident Evil 4), they get ambushed by villagers and are forced to lock themselves up in an isolated cabin. As it turns out, Luis is also hiding there. Seeing that the infected villagers are approaching the shack and are about to burst in, Leon and Luis have no other choice but to defend their temporary shelter by enganging in a fight against the lethal intruders.
At some point during his journey in Union (The Evil Within 2), Sebastian mysteriously finds himself in a hut where he also meets a soldier girl. Esmeralda Torres informs him that the cabin is surrounded by Lost enemies and together they do their best to defend the place and defeat the zombies.
Luis Sera, the ally that Leon finds in Spain (Resident Evil 4) is a scientist who helped Saddler develop the Plagas. Luis is not proud of his creations and will do whatever it takes to make up for what he did. He offers Leon valueable information about the experiments and their results, and his notes prove to be extremely useful.
After Sebastian gets separated with his team (The Evil Within), he arrives at a Haunted-inhabited village where the only other human being is Marcelo Jimenez, a mysterious scientist. Dr Jimenez, who is actually Leslie's doctor, accompanies Sebastian for a brief time, although, unlike the brave Luis Sera, he prefers to remain hidden while Sebastian deals with the zombies.
Although Leon gets to know Luis for a rather short time (Resident Evil 4), the two become very close friends. Unfortunately, Luis gets killed by Lord Saddler just as he is about to hand the Plaga sample over to Leon. But like the good friend that he is, he gives Leon a handful of pills with the antidote just before he dies.
During their attempt to destroy Father Theodore's device with explosives (The Evil Within 2), Sebastian and Esmeralda get seriously hit by the explosion. A heavily wounded Esmeralda carries the unconscious Sebastian out, and subsequently sacrifices her life to protect him from a horde of attacking zombies. It's also worth noting that, just like Luis Sera, Esmeralda is Spanish too (or Latin American maybe, but Latino anyway).
While trying to locate Ashley on Saddler's island (Resident Evil 4), Leon bumps onto an old friend. Jack Krauser, whom he had met and befriended during a mission in South America (The Darkside Chronicles: Operation Javier), is now back and is also a bad guy. Krauser has been ordered by both Wesker and Saddler to murder Leon, and he seems rather enthusiastic about it. When he finds Leon, he greets him with the blade of his knife, leaving him a deep scar on the cheek.
Just like Jack Krauser, the twisted photographer Stefano Valentini (The Evil Within 2) has a weird fascination with knives. After teasing Sebastian long enough, he captures him with his camera, during which time he cuts Sebastian's cheek with his beloved knife.
It is very rare to have a video game hero without a bromance, and Leon is no exception. His legendary bromance with Jack Krauser started back in 2002, when the two first met in the South American jungle (The Darkside Chronicles: Operation Javier).
The two became close friends and were getting along greatly but things got a bit out of hand when Jack was heavily wounded during a fight and realised that his military career was soon going to be over. Feeling jealous about Leon getting a position he was always dreaming of, he succumbed to his dark side and became one of the bad guys. Following Wesker's orders, he chased after Leon (Resident Evil 4) and attempted to kill him.
Sebastian's bromance with his partner Joseph Oda (The Evil Within) is even more prominent, because the two share plenty of on-screen time together and we have the chance to see how much they care for each other. Sebastian is always there to boost Joseph up and support him and at some point, when Joseph is seriously hit, Sebastian even risks going through an extremely dangerous area to get him a blood bag and save his life.
While in Union (The Evil Within 2), Sebastian finds a slide showing himself and Joseph, and it is revealed that all this time he was unable to deal with the fact that Joseph was dead, refusing to come to terms with this painful memory.
Juli however informs him that Joseph is alive, and promises to give all the necessary explanations after all is over.
It may not be obvious on first look, but Resident Evil 6's Leon looks a lot like Sebastian from the first Evil Within. Leon has a fair complexion and light-colored hair and eyes and, aside from the scars and wounds acquired during missions, is rather fresh-faced.
Sebastian is darker, with dark hair and golden eyes and although he is very handsome, the personal tragedies he has been through have left a mark on him.
Despite these differences however, they resemble each other very much, and if you notice their individual features, they are very similar.
