Interview: Suda51 on Shadows of the Damned

Mike Bantick
Friday, 27 May 2011 12:41

Opinion and Analysis

Suda51 has developed a significant aura of cool and design philosophy.  With Killer 7 and the No More Heroes franchise making such a splash in the west, it was inevitable that interest would be generated with his new collaboration project with Shinji Mikami (Resident Evil) Shadows of the Damned.  iTWire sat down with Suda51 to talk through developer Grasshopper Manufacture's soon to be released title.

Suda51 (real name Suda Goichi where in Japanese 'Go' means 5 and 'ichi' means 1) sits by his interpreter in an interview room that has been propped for Grasshopper Manufacturer's soon to be released Shadows of the Damned.

In a way, the graveyard imagery reflects Suda51's past as an undertaker, and present as the CEO and driving force behind Grasshopper Manufacture and its stylistic approach to video game development.  During our time with Suda51 iTWire decided to touch on the style of Shadows of the Damned, and Suda's view on collaborating again with Shinji Mikami, producer behind Resident Evil. 

Suda:  'Shinji Mikami is very special, we worked with him with Killer 7 and my career, or the reputation that Grasshopper Manufacturer as a whole was [helped with him], so this project was to pay him back in some way, and at the same time we wanted to make a great game that would appeal to a wider audience, so it was a great match.'

This led to a discussion about the intended audience for Shadows of the Damned, is it a westernized game aimed at a western audience?

Suda: 'Well, actually when you look at the visuals, you would see that this is really western, but when you play the game you will find actions and the way it is easy to play, it is really a Japanese game.  We can see the mixture of both cultures, East and West, you can see good things from both.'

So the game is meant to cross cultures and not be branded East or West, does Suda draw on his former experience as an undertaker for the imagery presented in Shadows of the Damned?

Suda: 'I think the expression on how we portray death is from my experience.  I think that experience as an undertaker really made me think about life and death, so in video-games you see death all the time, as a system or a symbol, but I always think of how to express that, or how to treat that.'

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