{"id":409280,"date":"2025-09-09T02:09:19","date_gmt":"2025-09-09T02:09:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/409280\/"},"modified":"2025-09-09T02:09:19","modified_gmt":"2025-09-09T02:09:19","slug":"how-the-smiths-shaped-suda51s-wildest-world-yet-in-romeo-is-a-dead-man","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/409280\/","title":{"rendered":"How The Smiths Shaped Suda51’s Wildest World Yet in Romeo Is a Dead Man"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Preview:<\/a>Image: Push Square<\/p>\n

With a career spanning over 30 years, Suda51 could be forgiven for running out of ideas.<\/p>\n

But his upcoming Romeo Is a Dead Man<\/a>, a scrappy mix of third-person shooting and melee combat, may be his most insane creation yet \u2013 not bad for a director whose credits also include zany efforts like Killer7<\/a> and Killer Is Dead<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Watch on YouTube<\/strong> <\/a><\/p>\n

Subscribe to Push Square<\/a> on YouTube161k<\/a><\/p>\n

We caught up with the veteran Japanese director in a non-descript corner of the Gamescom<\/strong><\/a> show floor, immediately after playing through an early PC build of his latest project.<\/p>\n

Suda was in trademark cheerful spirits when he spotted our Gundam tee, but he was especially excited we noticed the Morrissey reference he\u2019d snuck into the demo.<\/p>\n

It turns out Manchester\u2019s most miserable crooner is a key source of inspiration for the veteran, who got his start in the industry with the Super Fire Pro Wrestling<\/a> series. Interestingly, that game also features a grappler named Morio Smith \u2013 a nod to The Smiths\u2019 forlorn frontman.<\/p>\n

\"Preview:<\/a>Suda was a big fan of our Gundam tee \u2014 Image: Push Square<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve loved The Smiths since I was a teenager,\u201d he tells us. \u201cI\u2019ve always been a fan of their music. I\u2019ve got a big Smiths poster up on the wall in the office.\u201d<\/p>\n

He adds that he often finds himself looking at it when he needs inspiration. We suspect that\u2019s how he got the name for the boss \u2018Everyday Is Like Monday\u2019, a riff on Morrissey\u2019s hit \u2018Everyday Is Like Sunday\u2019, of course.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Smiths have become like a really fundamental part of who I am as a person, as an individual,\u201d he adds. Personally, we think Suda\u2019s far too personable to be so heavily inspired by Morrissey, but we certainly share his music taste.<\/p>\n

The good news is, with Johnny Marr et al watching over him, he\u2019s not worried about running out of ideas. In fact, Romeo Is a Dead Man may just be his maddest effort yet \u2013 although he also credits his team for keeping him constantly motivated.<\/p>\n

\"Preview:<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think I\u2019m ever going to run out of new ideas,\u201d he admits. \u201cThe thing is, it\u2019s not necessarily because I’m some kind of creative genius or something. It\u2019s because, for one thing, I like coming up with new things.\u201d<\/p>\n

He continues: \u201cIt’s not just me creating these games; it\u2019s not just me thinking them up and developing them. It\u2019s everyone at Grasshopper. We\u2019ve got a lot of really great people at Grasshopper and a lot of people with a lot of really good ideas and input.\u201d<\/p>\n

It also feels like there\u2019s no limit to the ideas the team will explore. During our demo, we\u2019re told there\u2019s a farming sim aspect to the title, where you\u2019ll cultivate \u201cBastards\u201d which can be used in battle.<\/p>\n

These mobile minions come with a range of abilities; some explode and function like bombs, while others will help you to regenerate your health.<\/p>\n

\"Preview:<\/a><\/p>\n

While we found the system a little complicated at first, we can see how cultivating \u201cBastards\u201d will become a key component later in the campaign \u2013 a system perhaps best compared to, say, the Atelier<\/a> games, where the items you craft will assist you in combat next time you\u2019re out in the field.<\/p>\n

But you\u2019ll also find yourself collecting ingredients to make curries, as part of a minigame which has been worked on by a famous Japanese anime studio.<\/p>\n

\"Preview:<\/a>Unrelated, but if Suda reads the article we figured he’d appreciate this photo \u2014 Image: Push Square<\/p>\n

Suda points out that past Grasshopper titles have had an emphasis on food, with No More Heroes 3<\/a> famously focusing on ramen for example. This time he wanted to focus on katsu curry.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just felt this was, like, this amazing, wonderful food,\u201d he beams. \u201cThat was kind of like Japan\u2019s culinary gift to the world and I wanted to make sure that I could get as many people as possible to be aware of this amazing food and maybe even get some people to try it on food sales.\u201d<\/p>\n

Suda was all smiles when we pointed out we\u2019re big fans of Coco Ichibanya<\/a>, a Japanese chain dedicated to serving katsu curry. Asked if that\u2019s something even locals enjoy, his team all put their thumbs up.<\/p>\n

While we didn\u2019t get to play enough of Romeo Is a Dead Man to truly formulate an opinion, we enjoyed enough to appreciate its blend of third-person shooting and melee combat.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve got one of our lead programmers, a guy named Hiro Nakata, who’s been at Grasshopper for a really long time. He’s in charge of a lot of the action, a lot of the battle aspects of the old games. He was like, I want to go with the gun and sword thing \u2013 I want to have both of these,\u201d he remembers.<\/p>\n

It plays a little bit like Shadows Of The Damned<\/a> and No More Heroes<\/a> had a baby, which isn\u2019t a bad marriage at all.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe decided to blend [third-person shooting and melee action] together and keep them both in the game,\u201d he explains. \u201cSo, do you want to get close up in melee or do you want to stand back and start kicking things off? Yeah, we just worked really hard to not only keep the balance, but make it so that the player could choose whichever style suits them the best.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Preview:<\/a><\/p>\n

But the demo was no walk in the park, and one of Suda\u2019s team actually encouraged us to die at one point. That\u2019s because the Game Over screen shows sped-up footage of a waxwork model being melted by a flamethrower.<\/p>\n

The team filmed this itself, on location at a special studio. Apparently it was quite an expensive endeavour.<\/p>\n

Asked if Suda felt he\u2019d invested his budget into the right aspects, he pondered this question for a moment before answering succinctly, with a smile.<\/p>\n

\u201cOf course!\u201d<\/p>\n

Are you desperately waiting to get a taste of Suda51\u2019s latest effort, or are you a Bastard who hasn\u2019t been particularly inspired by what you\u2019ve seen of Romeo Is a Dead Man thus far? Prove there\u2019s a light that never goes out in the comments section below.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Image: Push Square With a career spanning over 30 years, Suda51 could be forgiven for running out of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":409281,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3936],"tags":[77,126,117447,269,25893,55,140873,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-409280","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-music","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-features","10":"tag-grasshopper","11":"tag-music","12":"tag-previews","13":"tag-ps5","14":"tag-romeo-is-a-dead-man","15":"tag-uk","16":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115171909104701523","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/409280","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=409280"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/409280\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/409281"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=409280"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=409280"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=409280"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}