Imagine the scene: it’s 6pm on the last day of Gamescom. My head hurts from dehydration and fluorescent lights. My voice has been raised since the three days of interviews. My feet will be destroyed. At the final appointment of the entire event, the energy levels are low. Thankfully, Romeo is a dead man Immediately blew my lethargy into deep space. It’s an attack on the senses, flashy, bloody combat and constant theme whiplash.
“You’re Dead” screen, which depicts skin peeling from a person’s face before revealing the spinnable game show style wheels. A difficulty setting that is presented as a variety of chocolate flavors. A hot date that tears her own head, transforms into a breath of fire, a 30-foot-high hatred. This is a bloody and eccentric game, as only one studio in Grasshopper Manufacture could make it. I was able to play a small slice of Romeo. We interviewed Grasshopper’s iconic studio head gaych ‘suda51’ suda, the dead man.
As a cyborg cop called Romeo Stargazer, it’s no surprise that he has the appearance of the left field so that he can travel space and time to face all sorts of surreal enemies. The futuristic sheriff suit and his dead gear helmet are perfect for interdimensional brawls, and he is one of the most memorable heroes I have seen for a while.
“(The Romeo figure was created) Tadayuki nomaru, one of our lead concept artists – basically, the guy is a genius,” Suda51 tells me through a translator. “I didn’t need to give him any specific instructions. I just said, ‘This is the basic setting we have in mind.’
As for the wider universe surrounding Romeo, Suda51 says it’s more modern and quirky space hopping seen in Rick and Morty, as he’s deeply inspired by one of his favourite franchises, one of his futures. Both influences are undoubtedly felt, but there is never a point that can be specifically labelled “future moments” or “references between Rick, Morty and Morty.” Romeo also carves out its own identity – its flavour and aesthetics, well, many flavours and aesthetics. The cutscenes and elements of the UI between Western comic books, comics and hand-drawn cartoons act as something like a vodka shoot, sipping on a more attractive, higher fidelity, unrealistic engine 5 action. Even real-time gameplay still has big, unexpected moments.
My hands-on demo starts like many zombie games. You are in a dark, harsh wasteland where you switch between several weapons and shoot down your limbs. But out of nowhere, like a siren screaming in your ears, you are imprisoned in a small area by digitalized red police tapes. It’s time to pull out melee weapons, including a massive double-end staff that can swell you with a horde of zombies (and some offensive crows) and then rip your enemies apart. Things end with a battle with the boss. Juliet is a romantic acquaintance who is very obsessed with Romeo before beheading herself, throws her noggin’ into a bonfire and transforms her into a giant, sagging, headless monster. A rather simple loop of shooting weak points will stun and continue to move for a high-damage slash. Third-person shooting and hack-and-slash combat don’t describe as S-Tier isolated as S-Tier, but it’s certainly fun to combine, and the immediate availability of both styles is refreshing. This combat system is Grasshopper veteran Toru Hironaka, another “genius” job in the ranks of Suda51.
“We made a game called Killer is Dead a while ago, where the main character uses both a sword and a gun,” says Suda51. “So I think we have a bit of experience in the ‘sword and gun’ arena. I explained to Hironaka because Romeo is a dead man. These are the kind of characters we have. These are like environments,” he said.
Suda51 praises his lead programmer. That’s why we are issuing industry-wide warnings. “If you’re a game studio that you’re reading this article later, take your hands off Hironaka. If you try to take Hironaka out of us, James will kill you,” he jokes, referring to Glass Hopper’s very nice and unthreatening community manager and localized guru, James Mountain, who was translating this interview.
Romeo is a dead man. It’s been a few years since Grasshopper’s first completely original IP. Ask Suda51 if they’re forging the universe and characters from scratch again. “With that pressure to make up everything and ensure it all makes sense, it’s both a refreshing and difficult task,” he admits. Without “sounding like an asshole,” he says his game features rather iconic and beloved characters like Travis Touchdown (No More Heroes) and Juliet Starling (Lollipop Chainsaw).
“(Romeo’s new characters are dead guys) don’t necessarily have to go all out and get these previous characters on top, but at least they have to be able to hold themselves against them. I don’t want them to be just running around trash. They need to be good.
That doesn’t mean that past favorites won’t reappear in Romeo. Given all the space and time hopping, we ask if there is a possibility that a crossover could be on the card. “That’s a really sharp question,” says Suda51. “I think the chance, or chance, in Romeo, is a dead man you’ve seen before in a previous Grasshopper game.
Suda51 closes the interview by pointing me to the banana when asking about my favorite game of the year (if I don’t get any hints, it’s Donkey Kong Bananza). I’m sure the battle will close a bit before launch, but honestly, even if that’s the case, my 20-minute madness and massacre was enough to convince me that I wanted to play it more.
