A SUDA51 game is always hard to explain. You can break it down to its base elements of combat, minigames, weird story, out there visual design and maybe something more underneath, but that doesn’t really describe it or most things developed by Grasshopper Manufacture. There is no real formula, no real description to be given to games like No More Heroes, Killer7, Killer is Dead, etc. and the same is easily said about Romeo Is A Dead Man.
A SUDA game is not a game, it is an experience. A tripped out, deep, confusing, enjoyable, hard to grasp but easy to control experience and one that isn’t you either love or hate, truly an experience that can run the gamut of emotions as I have seen through more than one review or reaction to previous games but mostly especially in this post everything, five years since No More Heroes 3 world we live in of creation and critique.
I did state you couldn’t break down a SUDA61 game or Romeo is Dead Man to the visuals, but at the same time, pictures do speak a thousand words. Sound does too. The music (by a multitude of creative ear candy doctors) and visuals combine to really reflect the escapade the eyes, ears and mind take over switching from pixel farming to hectic combat (which is arguably at time times repetitive but NEVER boring), to cut scenes which evoke comics, cartoons, CGI and even more you should always be engrossed and never deeply thinking “well it could be this, but they did this thing I didn’t like but not because it was bad, but just because I would do it this way, but I don’t create, I just review”. This is a problem I see a lot of folks seem to be having with video games in “modern times”, allowing expectations (built on nothing actually ever presented or announced) to ruin their appreciation of the art as it stands. I don’t want to get into a rant here, nor am I calling Romeo Is a Dead Man a perfect game, but it is a SUDA51 game through and through and anyone thinking it doesn’t match up, are looking at it with specially tinted glasses with scratches (periodt).
Here are some more stills from the game that speak to it more than anything else I can say.
Romeo Is A Dead Man is now available to download on Steam, PS5, Xbox and the Windows store (other platforms as well as an art book, soundtrack and physical copies are planned for the future.)
[This isn’t to say Romeo Is A Dead Man is not without some severe flaws.
- Dying while fighting a boss sends you back to a section before the boss level and you must sit through animations again, some of them skippable but others not. The idea I believe is maybe you need to grind more to beat the boss, but what if you don’t want to? The option should exist.
- The TV subspaces are cool idea but seem more about finding paths through checking every nook and cranny in a fairly bland space instead of possible actual puzzles.
- The mini-games do lack a bit of charm and seem difficult to master and fully understand as well, even with full instructions they don’t respond as well as you’d hope.
- Something else I’m sure, but that’s all I got, the rest is just a mind trip.]
