Kinda Funny Gamescast: Video Game Podcast - Suda 51's James Gunn DC Pitch - Kinda Funny Gamescast

Episode Date: February 3, 2026

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Go to boot.dev and use the code Kind of Funny to get 25% off your entire first year on the annual plan. If you want to get our shows ad-free and our exclusive shows, go to patreon.com slash Kind of Funny. Yo, what's up? Welcome to Kind of Funny Gamescast for Tuesday, February 3rd, 20206. I'm one of your host, Blessing, Adelia, Jr.,

joined by very special guests in the building. Of course, I'm joined by the founder and CEO of Grasshopper Manufacture, and the makers of Romeo is a dead man. Suda, 51. Welcome to the studio. Hi, nice to meet you, too. Hello, hello. And also, of course, we're joined by the community manager and interpreter here for Suda,

James Mountain, here to translate for us as well. Welcome to the studio to you as well. Thank you. Thanks for having us, man. Of course, thanks so much for being here. This is a bitch in studio. This is a bitch in studio. Hell yeah, thank you so much.

I was just like, wow. What are, you, me, yeah. Everything everyone's doing is just, Yeah, it was very fun seeing you guys in the other room watching kind of funny games daily the show before this and getting to experience the set changes and, you know, seeing the background and all this stuff. Like, of course, shout out to Tim, shout to Nick, shout out to Kevin for making that happen. Oh, I, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. You know, I'm gonna make that. Um, um, so you know, I'm looking for, you know, like, oh, like, this thing you're doing, yeah, oh, this thing, so I'm gonna do set-gawary, do you know, so.

Oh, I know. Yeah, yeah. Um, yeah. Um, thank you very much for having us today. Uh, we've been really looking forward to doing the show.

I've been really looking forward to talking to you. Cause, of course, Suda 5-1 or 51, I want to get to that in a second. Um, you've worked on so many games that I know many people in our audience are a fan of. I'm a fan of, you know, no more heroes, uh, let it die and more. Um, so I'm very excited to talk to you about that. Um, so let's get right into it. Of course, for those watching,

If you're watching live, you can be a part of the show by super chatting in. If you have questions for Suda, please write them in. Let us know. We'll try to get them read on the show by super chatting in. Of course, we couldn't do this without our producers over on patreon.com slash kind of funny. So shout out to Carl Jacobs, Omega Buster and Delaney the Somme twining. For now, let's begin with topic of the show. Tats, tats.

So the first question I've been instructed to ask you is, is it Suda 51 or is it Suda 51? or is it Suda 5-1? I'm sure you get this all the time. First, first, this is to say, I want to say, I know,

I know, I'm very, I'm not I'm thinking, but I'm basically, whether or the Cuda 51 or or five-one?

51. Yeah, okay, you've heard it here first. Can you explain for those who don't know how you came across that name? Um, I know,

there's some other people, how how much that's not really, My real Japanese name is Sudda Goe1 is a 5% is 5% and 1%

and 1% So, so the S-U-D-A-51 I'm My real name in Japanese is actually Sudha Go-I-I-I-I and it's not actually the same characters in Japanese

but if you kind of say it quickly or shorten it a bit then Go-I-e-e-S-1 and so I just started calling myself Suda 51 because it sounded cool. Love that. All right.

Well, I want to talk about the games, of course. If people know you or if they don't know you, you know, some of your credits include Superfire, Pro Wrestling 3, Final Bout, Killer 7, No More Heroes 1, 2, and 3, and Travis Strikes Again, Killer is Dead, Shadows of the Damned, Let It Die, and Lollipop Chainsaw. My first question is, will you ever make a normal video game? I'm not, now, so the title. I think of that.

Yeah, I think of it. Yeah, well, I'll probably, but I'll hear about it. I'm going to that's like, I'm not like, I'm doing it's gonna make

not, I'm gonna'n't Yeah, yeah, that, I always, I'm just, what, you know,

that I'm that I'm not, like, I'm making, like, so that's, offer

that's the publisher from not going to know. I'm waiting. You're

making a game can't make it a lot like I really like to do

something like make the kind of game that we would usually

never make like just a regular ass RPG or something like that

but nobody ever comes to us with an offer so if there's

any publishers out there who are watching and want to see

Grasshop do do a regular ass game get a a hold of

us that's amazing what would be your pitch for the regular grasshopper manufacturer game? It's a much, uh, grasshopper's a good game,

you know, where do you pitch should, what's the pitch to do you? Oh, what's pitch? Well, first of, uh, I'd probably bring it to EA. Okay. Okay. Okay, um, uh, uh, uh,

uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, , uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, so, uh, , uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, so, uh, uh, so, uh, that's not, that kind of that's gonna make yeah. But I'm not

you know. Yeah, he says I'd actually for once like to try making the kind of game where nobody

actually dies. Oh, yeah, yeah. Monster not even, you know, you wouldn't even be killing monsters or anything like that. So, so, so.

That's, so, they're, so we're, so you, roleplay to make, that role-playing

game where like, instead of like, killing monsters and like murdering dudes, you'd like talk to them and like give them hugs and be like it's okay you don't have to be like this you know like turn them into a good guy and you know in the end like everybody would hug and that's the that's the kind of game i'd like to try my hand at that's amazing now i mean that brings us to a very good question which is what is a suit of five one of course when i think of

51 51 sorry yeah see yeah thank you thank you suit of 51 i think of soon of 51 i think of you know heads blowing up, I think of gore, I think of blood splurting, I think of, you know, big action, fast-paced action. For you, what makes a Suda 51 game? No, 51's game, to think, the head's, whewa, yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, you're feeling, like, and, you know, fuchs or something,

that game, I mean, so-you-law-since-on-game, so-sha-fifty-one game, do you, what kind of thing, what kind of What are they? What kind of? That's not. It's not. It's not.

All of the fans from, this is this is the Super 51 game that is I'm not I'm just it's going to

but it's so I'm not. It's not why Sudda 51 and why why

Grasopper is I'm not really know. I don't really know. this is really like Sousa 51-ish game or this is really grasshopperish game and I'm like, okay,

like we just made the game that I set out to make and sometimes I'll be like, yeah, maybe there's like not enough violence in this game maybe there's like a little bit too much violence, whatever, and yeah, I don't know, I try to tweak it stuff like that a bit sometimes and I try to do different things, but everyone's always like, yeah, that's like a real Suda 51 game.

So personally, I don't know what the hell is Suda 51 or a grasshopper game is. We just keep making them. Amazing. But if, if all the world of the studio in the one of the world

is the most of the lot of the studio of the ranking if there's probably, Grasshopper is number one is number one.

But if there was like some kind of world ranking, like all the game studios in the world ranked by just like the sheer amount of blood

blurting all over the place in their games, I'm pretty sure that Grasshopper would be probably at the top. Very, very. high up. How much blood can we expect from Romeo is a dead man?

Romion, in can't how much of the dead man? How do you do? Uh, uh, the usual grasshopper game, of a game, this one point five times more blood than the usual grasshopper game. Oh, beautiful. I love that. Now, I mean, let's talk about Romeo's the Dead Man. Of course, the game is coming out next week, I believe. How are you feeling now that we're a week away from your brand new game?

Yeah, Lidies, I think, right? but we're making big hit to need to get out of going to get him it's been

pretty crazy we actually just made the actual final decision to self-published the game in late November and announced

a couple days later and yeah you know it's going on sale on February 11th which is not a whole lot of time not only between

you know announcement and release date but between making this kind of decision in the really state. So for the past week or so, we've been doing this promotion tour. We just went to London last week. Now we're here kind of funny. We're doing something in San Francisco's for a couple days, just trying to promote the shit out of this game, hoping it becomes a big hit. So yeah, absolutely buy this game, everybody.

What determines the decision of self-publishing versus having another company help publish the game for you? this, I'm going to let's let's go and the good stuff

is very much macken's so so you get to buy it because Grasoppa

me much much macker this Rueva Deadman and we

actually spoke to a lot of different possible publishers about about take it

on the game and we actually got to the point with one or two

where it's like okay let's start drawn up contracts and you know it

getting all the final details taken care of. And then, yeah, in around late December, our parent company, NetEase, was like, you know, if you guys wanted to, you could have the option of just self-publishing it. And we're like, well, I guess now's as good a chance, as good as time as any to try it out. And it's been pretty rough,

but one of the awesome things about self-publishing is you make way more money than if you have a publisher, do all this stuff for you. So everyone out there, please buy Romeo's a dead man because since we're doing this ourselves we're gonna make a shit load of money off this if if you buy as many copies as you can oh yeah there we go we got the smoke machines for you is that my fault oh no I mean that's just I'm trying to hide people up to buy the game

yeah definitely go out and buy Romeo's a dead man now the more thank you yeah yeah of course yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah we both thought that maybe like uh I said like uh you know, naughty words. Oh, I was like, hey, shut the hell up,

you know. Okay, cool. Now, Kevin, in the document, I have the debut trailer for the game. If you can bring that up,

I think you might have been playing it earlier, but I want to bring it up because I want to ask, this was the trailer that you guys used to debut Romeo's a dead man, I believe at the PlayStation's state of play

just last year. Of course, for us, when we were watching this trailer here at the studio, as we were watching it, there was big reactions from us, right?

We were asking like, yo, what is this? What's going? of course you have the different art styles, you have the wacky tone. For you, how did you settle in into making this the trailer that you debut the game with? This is the state of play. So, yeah, yeah.

That's, yeah. This is that, that's the day, this was there, this is, what's this? What's it, what game, you're, what's game, you're, like, what game, yeah, and, and, oh, this game, you know, and then, I got to, you got up, I got up, Like, why this trailer

why this trailer, why this is, that's the first of that's that's that's what

I'm, what's the game or the first not the game if it's just that you're

something, shitcom of the game is not kind of that gamers

and people to think that's the day the day And so, and the glasshopper was made, I made it's

made it, I'm not quite five or five before fan from from the game to get back it,

I don't know, but it was, it was quite a big of a big enough much much, it was much, much,

more much, we thought, okay, we want to make this trailer kind of confusing, you know, we want to make it, we want to make the trailer

so when you first start watching, you think, oh, Like is some kind of like cartoon sitcom about to start or something, you know. And then, you know, obviously as a trailer goes on, you realize, oh, okay, so it's like some kind of action game, I guess. And we were like, okay, we're going to make it so that nobody knows it's a grasshopper game to like the very end. So, you know, we put a lot of work into exactly how we're going to, you know, put the trailer together, you know, how to set it up and everything.

And then it went live and we're watching, you know, the comments and stuff is it went live. And within about three, four seconds, people are like, oh, hey, Grasshopper. Oh, that's hilarious. Yeah, people seemed to, a lot of people seemed to figure it out pretty quickly. But, yeah, there was a lot of people had a lot of opinions on it. Luckily, some of them were actually nice and positive,

so we were stoked about that. Were there actually opinions out there that weren't as nice and positive? Um, um, a very good not, comment or, like, kind of,

there was, actually, it wasn't, I'm, I'm, I'm, I don't that I'm in

a way that's there's a thing that's really, it's very, it's very good.

It's, I'm know of the people from that from, that's the clienterer's probably not,

but at the same time, I think maybe I just kind of have a filter that like doesn't allow me to see

like negative comments and stuff. Also, I personally tend to like not, you know, report those. But he says,

A lot of people in the games in the industry itself told us, wow, that was an awesome trailer. This game looks really cool. We were really proud about that. Kind of Funny, it was more than, you know, kind of funny when the trailer was released. Were you guys hyped about it? You can be on it. Oh, no, we were super hyped about it. You know, I'm somebody who I love Suda 51 games, and so as soon as I saw the style, I got very hyped up.

And that funny enough brings me to my next question, because I'm a big fan of No More Heroes. Thank you. Yeah, and so when I saw this, I thought about that a little bit because I saw some of the similarities. You know, you have kind of the light sword and, you know, all the high-octane action, the blood splurts, all that stuff reminded me of No More Heroes. So I was curious, you know, how did the idea for Romeo's a dead man come about? And you consider it in any way a No More Hero's successor? First, I'm, I'm really

very much Thank you, yeah. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Like, style of style of like,

so forth that's that's it's a this trailer and I'm

like, you know, I'm like that's kind of kind of battle there are and

that's a lot of there's a lot of this game the concept was the first of

where's where's that's that's that's no more no more hero

hero like kind of think I'm think that we're no

my heroes there at a at a time at the switch of

play game slash action to shachachion to quite I really,

I thought, but I'm it's a more more than it's going to use and so we're between

and the we're not just gun action and just this just this not the last

the good all the good and all and the dead man and the little bit good thing

action game and I'm making to create Well, we kind of figured that with No More Heroes 3, we'd pretty much done what we could with, you know, kind of like hack and slash action games. Okay, this is the best we could probably do with this. But when we started making Romeo's a Dead Man, we're like, actually, I think we can do it better. I think we can take this a little bit higher, you know. So now we've got, obviously there's a lot of stuff that's similar to No More Heroes.

It wouldn't, I wouldn't say it's a successor or like any kind of sequel or anything. like that at all. But, you know, it's got similar, like, you know, hackensloss action. But this time instead of just a sword, there's a variety of different weapons. There's also guns that Romeo, the main character, can use. Yeah, we really made sure to add a bunch of stuff in it by end of the game that was Romeo's a dead man specific. So it didn't just look like another, you know, like we just kind of ripped ourselves off and no one of more heroes or whatever. But, yeah, there's a lot of new and original stuff on top of all that kind of somewhat

familiar, you know, kind of No More Heroes and stuff as well. I want to shout out. There are people in chat that have been calling it out all episode. A lot of people are loving your David Lynch shirt that you're wearing. And so I just want to make sure you're seeing the compliments. No More Heroes 3, trying to take it up a notch, right, seeing that there's something that you can do even better. When we look at the last, let's say,

decade to decade and a half of action games, you've had a lot of evolution, whether it be games coming from From Software, whether it be games like Liza P or Stellar Blade, and it feels like action games have gotten better and better and better. Does it feel tough to keep up with the times that we're in when there are so many

amazing action games out there? NoMone 3 from 6 minutes time is time and this 10, 15 15 years about action game

is really change really new new game series series game and software game

orize of P or CelererB or so you know that's this this

this time this this time this actually action game in

this kind of change I'll be honest. I have no idea if this actually answers your question. But he says, personally, I'm not really a fan of parrying in action games. Oh, interesting. So I decided, okay, we're not going to have like a paring mechanic in this game. I'd much rather have, like, you know, dodge mechanics and stuff like that.

Oh, so forth, wait, right? I'm not waiting, you know? That's pari-cour-in-lawing-money-o-stall-fitting, so, I can't win. that's, that's, that's, no, no,

yeah. One, uh, clearly a super important thing you wanted to add is, like, when you're pairing, you kind of have to,

like, wait for a second, right? You gotta wait for, like, the right moment to push the button. He says,

I can't wait for that shit. I just push that button and I ended up screwing it up. I feel that. So, uh, uh, around the time of No More Heroes 3, I decided,

okay, I want to have, like, you know, I want to keep pairing down to a minimum. If not, just completely get rid of it. So, uh,

There's a lot of non-perry, high-speed, kind of high-octane, badass action in this game. Again, no parrying. I love that. I love that answer. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Let's just say that worked, I guess. Now, I want to talk more about Romeo as a dead man, but we're doing a stream after this where we're going to actually play Romeo as a dead man. And so I'm going to save a lot more of the questions about that game for that stream.

I want to talk more about, you know, student's history. And I want to ask a lot of random questions. Of course, the audience is also writing and their questions. But before we get there, I want to tell the audience about patreon.com slash kind of funny and YouTube.com slash kind of funny games where you can get the kind of funny membership, which allows you to get shows ad free. Speaking of ads, let us tell you about our sponsors. This episode is brought to you by boot.dev.

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I wanted to talk to you more about your history as a game developer. How did you get your start in developing games? First, the game development of the career about, I'm going to talk about. I'm going to do you guys. Ah. I'm, uh, I'm, uh, I'm going to, uh, I don't know how much of game. I don't know, I don't know, I don't know, but I don't know, that I was like, you know, I'm really, so much, so much,

I like, I think, I mean, in the top ten to get to probably

to be a lot of I'm a real world in a world, I'm

a think that was that's all people that and that

could make not I'm not but I don't

talk long but can be a while is that okay

oh yeah go for it take your time we had so we have we

have so this This might take like two hours or something. Okay, maybe not that long. Short, short version. And I'm just before I was a sawgia

was doing a lot. And, uh, you know, a can of sogia and, uh, there's,

uh, where it's a lot of places, and a lot of and a lot of and, and, uh,

get a lot of sogirate. So, and so, so yeah, this, this job, I'm,

I'm, I'm, shy and say not and said so you like that so you

know I'm going I'm then I'm yeah I'm not even couldn't

so much so much I'm make up so he yeah and then she's

she's she and that that's that's that that's that's

that's that's I'm like that I'm yeah yeah yeah

I'm I'm yeah I'm I'm but I'm not because

I'm not you didn't I'm I'm but that might as Atlas and Human, at the time at the company, it was going to go ahead.

So, two shows, and the two shows, and the H-U-M-M-W-W-S-W-Ted, and H-U-M-M-Wed to go to-Mendsted, and then-Metsed to go to where. All right, so he's going to give you part one now. Okay.

He says, this is going to go all over the place. Okay. Just to let you know ahead of time. He says, well, first off, um, I've always loved pro wrestling.

Way back in the day, I watched like all the time. I would probably be literally like in the top ten of dudes in Japan who love pro wrestling. Somehow that led into. And also, I, I've always loved video games as well. I didn't go to like, you know, school to like learn how to make video games. I didn't even go to college. And in fact, when I was young,

I'd always assume that video games were made. by like professors like dudes in like lab coats like in a laboratory or something like geniuses of physicists genius physicists and stuff yeah um so i'd never even considered you know oh i might be able to work on games someday i'm not some like lab coat wearing professor dude you know um anyway uh after i moved up to to to Tokyo i uh you know i started looking for for work and i ended up of working for basically a funeral home. I worked there for a while. I learned the trade pretty well. I was pretty good at my job. And for a while, I was thinking, okay, you know what? I think this might actually be the career for me. I'm doing all right. I'm making okay money, you know? And I was actually

getting a couple offers from a few different funeral homes and crematoriums and whatnot. Say, hey, why don't you come work for us like full time and make you like a permanent employee, you know? and so I talked to my wife about it. I said, yeah, I think this is probably what I'm going to do for the rest of my life. This is going to be my career. And she kind of stopped me. She's like, wait a second. Like, think about that for a second.

Is this really what you want to do? Like, is this really what you came all the way out to Tokyo to do is work for like a funeral home? Like, isn't there something else you actually really want to do with your life? And so that got me thinking. And at the time, I was like, well, yeah, to be honest, I kind of like to work on video. games. She's like, well, then why don't you try that? And he looked through the papers, looking through the, you know, the wan ads and stuff. And at the time, there were two companies, they were hiring. There was Atlas and a company called Human. And Atlas, basically, I blew it. Human, I sent in my,

you know, papers, you know, made a phone call, set up an interview. And I got to that point. And here's where it continues, I believe. Well, if I can possibly interrupt, I'm so curious not how you blew it at Atlas. If we can get that intermission real quick. I'm going to, let's ask you. Why not why not enough not? No, no, I don't know. No, no.

He says, I have no idea. I actually got turned down at the point where I submitted my resume. Like, there wasn't even like an interview with anything. I just got told no. Gotcha. I did, but still there's a humanly,

uh, uh, I'm, uh, met with a month in a month in the last time,

that's the one way, that's not the that's, but I'm going to, but I'm let's go,

uh, yeah, don't know, and then yeah, it's, yeah, it's,

I'm, yeah, yeah, yeah, so, yeah, yeah, yeah,

yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, just, just, and I remember it and then

I'll get and then one one one way and then Fypro and you know human

famous title and the person that the person was and they didn't

no no no I'm I'm so I'm really actually I was

actually I was I'm going to get me you're getting in you Okay, so how it worked out with...

So, as he just mentioned everyone, this is a really good story, so wait for it. But what he's saying was so, you know, he contacted human, sent in his resume and his documents, you know, actually went in for an interview and it seemed to go okay. And after about a month, he's like, you know, I didn't get any phone call. and nobody contacted me so I figured okay I definitely screwed screwed that one up I blew that you know

so I'm just gonna give up and I'll go back to what I was doing and my wife was like well why don't you give them a call you know just make sure and he's like I don't want to do that like you know it's been a whole month they haven't contacted me

that means like I didn't make it you know and I'm gonna call up be like hey so do I have the job and they're like no dude what's wrong with you you know that would be embarrassing so I'm not gonna do that she's like no come on just try just try and call and you know

who knows what will happen right. So I called up. I was like, oh, hey, this is, uh, you know, I did an interview with you guys a while ago. I was just wondering if you had any news. And they're like, uh, actually, no, hold on one second. And they went and talked to the dude who, who did his interview. And he gets on the phone and with him, he's like, actually, uh, we want you to come in one more time. And so I'm like, okay. So, you know, I go back into human and I'm talking to the guy who, uh, interviewed me originally and it turns out that on that day this dude had actually turned in his resignation and he was working on a series of games that human did called fire pro which is a file

a pro wrestling series and um since you know we we had spoken about it at the original at the initial interview they knew that I was in a pro wrestling I was like super in a pro wrestling and they didn't happen to have anybody else working at human at the time who knew anything about pro wrestling and they were like so uh you know this guy's gonna quit um could you maybe come on after all and like take on his job and uh it turns out that originally uh I had failed they just decided to skip me over but the day that I happened to call

just happened to be the day when the one guy who knew about pro wrestling it was going to be running this game quit so they're like okay you know we'll give you a chance So I feel like the gods of pro wrestling kind of smiled down upon me. Wow. And got me my start in the game industry. That's awesome. And that all goes back to mean, of course, shout out to your wife for making you make that call as well.

Yeah, I'm not to say, you know what I said to me, you know, that's going to be, you know, that's why, so on the case, I'm going to, I'm going to, I'm probably, probably, maybe still work in, like, a few years. He says, if my wife hadn't said anything, I'd probably be still working at, like, a few. funeral homer or a crematorium or something right now. Wow.

Now, speaking of pro wrestling, my friend, Emron Khan, wanted me to ask you, if you could suplex one wrestler, who would it be, and who would you want to suplex you? Emron Khan, from Tomas, from Mr. Sam, said to say, I was going to, you know, one of pro wrestler,

and if it's a suplex to do it, if you're using to be who to be who if they're going to be I don't know. Who's like to now? First,

um, now, you know, I'm, you know, if I'm know, Dwayne

Johnson. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, I love that. Yeah,

that, that, double arm suplex, and I'm gonna do you. Okay.

So, at the moment, uh, if I was gonna suplex someone, I'd probably have to pick, uh,

the rock. You know, Wayne Johnson and it would have to be a double-arm suplex. Oh yeah, of course. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah. I'd like to make it. Yeah, I think of Rick Hare's

brim buster or nagherererererer. And if someone's going to toss me, uh, I'd like to go with Rick Flair and a brain buster. Okay, okay. Yeah, I love that. Wow. Um, to bring in, um, another uh, question I got to ask.

This one is from Ash Like a Dragon on Blue Sky. They wanted me to ask, of course, in Travis Strikes again, you had the feature where you had many indie game studio t-shirts in the game. If you were to release the game today, are there, what indie games since then would you put on the t-shirts? T-S.A in the time, you know, different indie titles, like, yeah.

And, again, that game to start, this indie game, this game, this game, I'm sure, the t-shirt to get-to-kid game.

Like, I'm like, like, the indie game, or do. Like, the, I think,

like, uh, skate-story? Oh, Skate Story. Oh, yeah, yeah,

Skate Story. And, Bala T'O was much about, Bala Tro. Yeah. So,

recently I've been really into Skate Story and Blaatro as far as as, you know, yeah, yeah,

yeah, I love, that. Of course, I asked the audience to write in with their super chats. And we got a lot, many people watching live right now have a lot of questions for you. So I want to get a few of them in here. Let's see here. Breaks scene writes in and says, Suna 51 said, if you're a funeral director, you can't cry your parents' funeral. Do you remember saying this? That's what I was

I think it's I'm going to I'm at the sogia in I'm I'm

my own my own like that I'm like that I'm remember I'm

remember I remember yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah

yeah you go you're you're that you're no I'm

every every day some my day I'm not gonna'n't, you know, that's the

kind of that's a quite, I'm just this work if I'm just to this job if my mom

yeah, maybe there's kind of a kind of, I'm gonna make a game I'm happy I'm happy

I'm happy not gonna make not gonna make not so, so, so, so, so he says,

yeah, I remember feeling when, you know, when working in a funeral home, like,

you're just constantly you know, facing like death, seeing dead bodies and stuff. It just, you just kind of get, like, numb to it. And after a while, it just stops affecting you, and you don't really think much of it anymore. So I started worrying, like, okay, if I keep doing this job,

then, yeah, one day when my parents die, I'm just going to be standing there, like, you know, blanks late, like feeling nothing. And that was, like, I got kind of scary. So luckily, here I am now making games instead. I have another one here from Airbagged Nine who writes in and asks, ever thought of making another visual novel game?

That's more one audience from the audience from I asked you. Also, other visual novel-like game, do you know, so, uh,

Glasshopper's debut was a silver case, silver case, that was, uh, Graff, novel-ke-novel-ke-no-ke-no-of-kay-n-old game

that was, um, uh, that, uh, Now, I'm not so not quite can't make. I want to

to make it. I want to make it's got to make time that's just I'm thinking I'm sorry I'm sorry.

He says, yeah, the first game I did as Grasshopper. You know, with Grasshopper was the silver case which is basically

a visual novel. And honestly, based on my experience with that, I don't think I could do it again. just because it's not that I don't want to.

It's just the, I remember, I think back on the, just the sheer amount of writing I had to do for that, it was just like this amazing volume. And it took a lot out of me. It took a long-ass time to do. And I'm thinking, you know, I think about it once in a lot. And I'm like, I don't think I could write that much these days.

So while I would like to maybe revisit again somehow, I don't think it would be physically possible for me to write that much again all at once. One of the things I've been thinking about when it comes to Suda 51 and Grasshopper games and the kind of games that you put out, especially within the last couple of years, is the state of the industry where you've seen so many studio closures, layoffs, things like this. And it feels like a lot of big companies have to focus on the games that are going to make the most money or live service games, right? Revenue becomes a big focus for a lot of game companies nowadays. But manufacturer, or sorry, grasshopper manufacturer has done a good job of maintaining the identity. You know, I look at Romeo as a dead man and it's still this stylish, attitude-driven, single-player action game.

How does Grasshopper manufacturer go about navigating an industry that's, you know, in some turmoil while also maintaining your own identity? how how like, like, like, uh, exist and being

so on the um, like, like, like, like, kind of sort of

game can make, so, oh, uh, a good question, just a

that's a, that's a pretty sharp-ass question. Give me a second for that. Thank you, thank you. Yeah, yeah.

Okay, take your time. Um, um, um, um, how, Now, now, game yorka is, really, mecha, mecha.

Um, we, uh, yeah, yeah, but, um, it's, uh, , this year,

uh, year, and, it's, yeah, long in here, many, many, many, many,

that's, many, uh, , many times, the name, that's, now, now, , now, , you know,

, to get to go over to go to surfing, I'm doing, and I'm trying to kind of a lot of kind of

know how to make up to make out of I'm going to think we're going to think we're going to be right now

things are tough all over in the game industry, you know. And it's our as far as grasshopper's

concerned it's our 29th year in business this year. I personally have been making games for 30 something years now.

So I've seen lots of troubled times. And stuff like this tends to come in waves. And when one of these waves comes, then more stuff within that waves tend to kind of come in waves too. And we at Grasshopper right now, we're experiencing our own kind of waves coming at us at the moment. So I guess you can say right now what I'm doing is every day, I'm going out to the beach,

I'm learning how to surf, learning how to like navigate these waves as best I can. Metaphorical beach. I thought you're for real at first. Oh, no, totally metaphorical. Okay, okay. And, I'm not going to, I can't actually swim or surf or anything.

Oh, that's fair. But, actually, one, one, make sure, to make, kind of kind of, that's just kind of, that's just kind of,

I'm actually, original game, but we've made, this this anime of the other

other stuff and other other other and I'm a work work work and I'm

doing all the all the only not not even just to do

and so to do and that that so the

company so so we know we have we're

that we're again we can do I'm I

think the one thing I can say is you know preserving

an environment in which we can all focus and work really hard on, you know, the one game that we happen to working on in any moment. That's probably one of the most important things that I do to keep the company going. That's what I've been trying to do since we started up is, you know, some of the games we work on our own completely original games.

Sometimes we work on stuff that's based on, say, for example, like an anime or somebody else's IP that we get contracted to do development for, whatever it is we're working on, I want to make sure that we can concentrate really hard on that and just do the best we can. And just, yeah, putting all your focus and effort into each individual game, that's pretty much the best we can do to

keep going. So that's the kind of environment that I'd like to maintain the future is the kind of place where we can just focus really hard on whatever it might be that we're making. Just focus on making that as best as we can. Well, I put together a short list of quick fire questions that I want you to clear your brain for, right?

I want you to give, shoot from the hip, I want, you know, the immediate answers that come to your mind. Are you ready? Um, right. So, uh, pa, p, p, puss to keep. Okay, right. First, all the, all right, just, just, just,

just, just, just, just, um, my head off the, so-re-oh-and-to-moy-to-mo-cuit-to-you-go-old. All right. I, go for it. designing for the Nintendo Wii Remote. Nintendo's Wee Remote for the game

design to design to, like, I'm going to like to do more again again, I'll want to yeah. Yeah, charge it up.

Want to back to as much as possible, you know? Exactly. Yeah. What music are you listening to currently? What music are you listening to?

Like, what? Like, what? What's, what's, what's, what's, Zazen Borge's a

Bounde Metsch who Metschum Mentioned Mentioned sure so people listen to

please there's a Japanese band called Zazen Boys and these guys are

badass these guys are super cool if you get a chance please check them out Zazen Boys

Zazen Boys Yeah he's yeah I'm a big fan myself too they're awesome

I'm gonna all check them out that sounds awesome aside from Smash Brothers what

fighting game would you put Travis touchdown in as a guest character? Umabler, if, um, for the game, uh, actu game,

uh, character to set up game, do the game, do know, so it's a love that. Yeah,

oh, yeah, that's the right answer right there. For those audio listeners, I'm wearing a teck in a jacket right now. Um, if you could enter the Criterion Clause and tell the world

about two or three movies, which ones would you pick? Um, This is the other than I was a Traitlion Cofft that that's, uh, uh, I, uh,

my own, uh, I'm, and then, so in the, so in the, this one, like,

let's, let's, see, and, the world of people to do you, do you

want to, uh, a, yeah, two, three, three, three,

three, this one, this is, this is, this, this, this, this,

this, You know, you know, but, you know, the Japanese, Takashi Miki is very like, Miki,

Miki's in the name of there's one, goz, definitely, see,

a lot of people out there, especially people watching this, probably, uh, are aware of this director and my fondness for him, but there's a Japanese director named Takashi Miki

and I love his, I love his movies. Among his movies that he's made, which are like a lot, there's one in particular called Gozu, G-O-Z-U, that I specifically like. So that's one movie that I want everybody out there to go and check out. Well, can't say to, you know, Yoshino Kimiqa, of the night, Icah, Scho, maybe, I don't know, I don't know,

that's, that's just kind of it's kind of like, it's kind of like the actor Aykawa Shoe was born from inside Yoshino Kimika and nobody's gonna get

what the fuck he's talking about let's just leave it at that other Kitano Takeshi Kahn Tuck that's I'm all the

but in that you know if you see like that that's not that's me to see

see what I'm not not that's newmone so that that's

that's that's okay that's okay okay okay I'm

okay there's I'm gonna uh I'm gonna try to figure this out

a second Oh, Sonatine Sotomay. Ah, so much. Okay, never mind. He was going back and forth between two movies. And one of them, I don't know the English title for. So he said, screw it, I'll just go back to the first one anyway. Okay, okay.

There's a Japanese director, Takeshi Kitano, who, uh, he's, you know, he's got a bit of buzz, like outside Japan past 20 years or so, too. Um, uh, Sonatine is a movie of his, it's really great. Awesome. So that'll be the third one. And then, this is, this one of most of the

most of the most the American of the Krujcii Sogantuk, of Kruizaki Sunder Road. This is all of probably,

probably, maybe. There's, the last movie I'd say is by Ishii Sogo, that

at the time, that was Eastie Songo, okay. There's another Japanese director who's changed his name

before but at the time his name was Isisogogu and he has a movie I believe the English title is Crazy Thunder Road Um he's saying I believe

pretty much all Japanese people have seen that movie I'm gonna tell you that's definitely not true but um yeah that's a great movie that apparently all Japanese people have seen and that's definitely something that everyone should check out out

there you go so All right that one man only one hundred 100 every 10,000 people knows it. Perfect. Okay. Yeah, it's kind of leveling down a bit, I guess. What character would you want to play in James Gunn's DCU?

Oh. James Gunn of DC universe, um, do you kind of character injured to us to make? Hit Man. Oh, nice. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Is that a DC character? That's DC? Yeah, yeah. that, uh, Batman's the world of the

one of the hero there's a comic that's a comic- there's a man's

there's that's that's that's yeah, so Kevin if you

can bring up an image of the from DC sorry to interrupt yeah yeah

yeah that dude yeah that dude yeah that dude yeah that in the in the

Batman universe in the comics um he's basically like he's like the

he's like the lowest tier of yeah But that's who he loved to play. He kind of reminds me of like Punisher a little bit, but on the DC side. So, like, DC-foo-noe-like punisher like that. But he's not nearly as cool as Punisher actually.

What is a game of yours that not enough people played and should check out? Uh-huh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, uh, so that's made that made that game that's that's not not. I'm not people who are

not really not to be able to let's be not even that you know what I'm

that you're not that not that not the No Mer Heerer 7 from

no one we're two make sure we're that no Mer Heroes

to need to two there's this Bandae Manmco

from from this this of the PlayStation 2, or it's out of this. This is a North American

people who are and then then the Blatt Plus game made more this two were there were nother

because no gameerer's game of the two sets to play play there are actually two games

that I've done that I really feel don't get a lot of recognition and don't get enough love

you know Grasshopper were really known for games like No More Heroes and Killer 7 There are actually two games that I made In between Killer 7 and No More Heroes One of them, it was based on an anime It's called Samurai Champleu And it's a PS2

It was on the PS2 And I believe it was actually released Here in the States So it should be around somewhere The second game was a game Bandae Namco Did you both

do you? These games were both done for Bandai Namco The second game is called Blood Plus which was also based on anime This game I'm not sure if it got a Western release But

these two games Again they were in between Killer 7 Oh, that's Hellen nostalgic. Is this the Samurai Shamplu one? Yeah, yeah, Samarajampleu, side-tracked is what it's called in the same. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's actually, it's actually really well-made, fun, but...

These two games were in between Killer 7 and No More Heroes, right? These two games are basically where the No More Heroes series, like, sprang out of. This is where we kind of learned how to, you know, really get really do the hack and slash they back in and it's because we did these two games that we were able to do No More Heroes and the whole No More Heroes thing started

so these are the two that I'd really like to see more people play and do they think about them This is hip-hop Chambal action and it's um samurai action and so so that hip-hop to the same as you track can't go on the action in music can't go in the

this endang in the war in the same time. It's kind of like a hip hop samurai sword fighting game. Oh, yeah. And the music changes during the battle and in the middle of scenes and stuff. And just the way the soundtrack is made and the way it flows together with the action and everything, it's just, I really love the way it was made. I think it's really great. Ariel Knight, who is watching live, writes in with a question that I really like, who says, what would you like your last game that you make to be?

That's the one-sign-sign-to-game, what do you want to do? Oh. Oh. Oh, you know, it's just before I die? Um, oh so you mean, like, just before I die, or... I think if you were to... If it was like, you know, regardless how much longer I'm going to live, this is the last game. Let's say before you retire.

Unless you're saying you're not going to retire until you die, and then it'll be before you die. Well, um, um, you're... If you're not to die-m-dyeyeyeye but, for the other than in-time, the one-stice-in-taxed game is this one of the game. What's it? Oh, it's difficult.

Yeah, I think of a game a lot of people are quite. What, yeah? Just a little bit of time. You'd like to get a little bit of time, because there's a lot of things that he's been thinking of recently. So, give him a second.

It's fun, because I had to play of previewing Romeo was a dead man. And I feel like even in just that game, there are so many ideas that are in there that I'm very impressed that you still have so much more that's on your mind. Oh, I thought you were like predicting his death or something, okay.

Oh, no, no, no, no, yeah. Oh, okay, he's got it. But the game is no more Heroes 11. Yeah. No More Heroes 11, I love it. The game, the last game I wanted to before I die.

I'm a big fan, because that means seven more no more heroes for me, which I'm a big fan of. No one heroes like and I'm like seven, eight five or

not to and then I'll get to and then 11 and then number 11

like the whole story will finally come together perfect I with with Travis

will probably probably and I and I think Travis

will yeah when I go Travis goes perfect yeah we

we're gonna die together now now if you can team up with another dev

like you did with Shinji Mikami Shadows of the Damned. Who would you pick? I don't know, Damned at the Meecombe

and with a team creator to come and if you're going to come to come to whom would like to? Game creator, not but, well, a little bit more, just a game with James Garn to come and hitman's game

game to create. It's not a game developer and it's kind of something came up a minute ago, but he says, uh, I'd like to get back together with James Gunn again and make a hitman game. Oh, nice. I love that. I love that. Could I force a developer answer out of him too?

No, I mean, that's perfect. Yeah. Listen, James Gunn, if you're watching or listening, or if people want to clip this out and send this to James Gunn, hey, two to 51 wants to make a hitman game, let's make it happen. James Gunn if you're watching, if you're watching, then James Gunn, if you're watching, he's going to send you a DM, so pay it, so look out for that. Made it happy here. What advice would you give to younger developers in the industry? In the UKKahny's more than a better guyhatser to say, if any advice would say, don't know if I'm not advice.

Yeah, but, yeah, but, yeah, but now, the world world's really interesting game, I'm a lot of funerial games, too, So, I mean, you want to I'm

recently, Sakhry 's on YouTube on game of like a game like, like,

you know, that's really good good good said, but all all right just

just to make sure, so so so soqa's that's so

that's just that make it's I'm right now

there's a lot of interesting games and ideas out there there's a

lot of really people in the world too. And he says, I'm going to emphasize the fact that he says this, I'm just interpreting. But there's lots of places to get good advice.

For example, Sakurai has this thing he does on YouTube where he kind of, you know, he gives advice and tells people, hey, you know, this is how you should, you know, look at game development, here's some, some shit you should do, you know? And you see, he's saying some really good stuff. This guy really

knows his shit. He's got some really good advice. So I would tell game developers ignore what Sakurai says and just do your own thing, do what you think you're best at because there's all different ways to develop games. That's beautiful. Sakura, in case you're watching, he's half joking. Only half, only half. Don't take it too seriously.

My final question for you is, why should people play Romeo's a dead man? Why do you want to do you want to be? Why do you have why players people are I think of now. Now, now

there's a money-caquette really, really, and this this is not a game, it's

I'm like, I think I'm really like it's there's a lot of I'm going to I'm going to

But, but, but, you're very much done too don't mind it's not not quite

so much it's going to be able to think it's I'm going to more just, you know, kind of

class in a lot of kind of that's kind of that's that's not a

game is Romo the Dead Man and so so that so that's

you're better do you know, kind of Romney Zeddon's all all the reason is all since

recently, again, there are a lot of really good games out there, a lot of really great games, like really well-made games. And, you know, I'm playing some of these games that will come out. I mean, this year there's a couple games coming out that don't not yet, but, you know, they're being really hyped up, people

are really looking forward to them. And, yeah, I play a lot of these really amazingly well-done games recently. And I think, wow, there's, you know, there's, I can't think of a single problem with this game, so they're playing it, like, trying to find mistakes or, you know, little sucky parts, whatever. And it's, like, there's nothing. It's just, like, it's a flawless game. This is perfectly made.

And it's like, and after a while, I start feeling it's a bit too well made, you know. Like, if this, like, if the game market was, like, school, it's like you have all these kids who, you know, they're nailing their test and they're doing all their homework and everything. And, um, I feel like every, every. class should have one kind of fuck up, you know? Like one kid who just kind of screws around and, you know, he's funny

and, you know, kids might like him and doesn't really do his work, doesn't really really, you know, isn't the best student or anything. And as an aside, we had a similar question earlier, so I'm kind of adding some the stuff he said earlier to hopefully make it a bit more interesting.

But if the game market was a classroom, right now, Romeo's a dead man would be that fuck up. I love that. It's not made too perfectly. There's going to be flaws in it. There's going to be stuff that pisses people off.

But it's funny and it's interesting. And it's a break from all the stuff that's like just, you know, made too well and was way more expensive than anything we can afford to make. And I think not only is the room in the industry in the market for that, but the market needs those kind of games sometimes too. So for those of you who are in the games that aren't, just done flawlessly and perfect and honestly might piss you off sometimes and are just kind of fucking weird Romeo is a dead man is the game for you so buy it I love that that's such a

beautiful answer suit of 51 thank you so much for joining me on this interview this has been fantastic to talk to you and so I appreciate it I look forward to talking more yes thank you I look forward to talking more in the next show. We're going to play the game with Greg Miller on the set as well. And so we'll talk more about Romeo is a dead man. But for now, this has been the kind of funny games cast where each and every weekday we get together and talk about the biggest reviews, previews, and topics in video games live right here on YouTube, Twitch and all podcast services around the globe. If you love what we do, remember to support us with the kind of funny membership on Patreon, YouTube, Apple Podcasts, or on Spotify to get all of our shows, ad free, and get a daily exclusive show.

Until next time, Suite 151, thank you again for joining me, and it's been our pleasure to serve you. Thank you.