Suda 51's James Gunn DC Pitch - Kinda Funny Gamescast

Summary

Kinda Funny Gamescast – "Suda51's James Gunn DC Pitch"

Date: February 3, 2026
Host(s): Blessing Adeoye Jr., Greg Miller
Guest: Suda51 (Goichi Suda), with interpreter James Mountain

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Episode Overview

This episode of Kinda Funny Gamescast features an in-depth interview with renowned Japanese game director Suda51 (Goichi Suda) of Grasshopper Manufacture. The discussion covers Suda51’s creative process, anecdotes from his unconventional career path, reflections on game industry trends, and deep dives into the upcoming title "Romeo is a Dead Man." The show also spotlights Suda’s thoughts on game development philosophy, industry challenges, and a lighthearted pitch for a DC Comics game with James Gunn.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

Introduction & Set Vibes

• Suda51 expresses excitement about visiting the Kinda Funny studio, noting the creative atmosphere ([02:43] "This is a bitch in studio.").
• Greg and Suda banter about the energy of the studio and shout out the KF production team.

The Origin of the 'Suda51' Name

• Suda51 clarifies the nickname: his real name, Goichi, sounds like “5-1” in Japanese, leading to the moniker ([05:01] "Goichi sounds like 51. And so I just started calling myself Suda 51 sounded cool.").

Suda51’s Gameography and Signature Style

• Greg recaps Suda51’s diverse titles, including "No More Heroes," "Killer7," and "Lollipop Chainsaw," humorously asking if Suda will ever make a “normal” game ([06:18]).
• On making a ‘normal’ game: Suda expresses an interest in developing a standard RPG where no one dies and players can “hug” monsters instead of defeating them.
  • Quote: [07:21] "I’d like to make the kind of role playing game where...instead of killing monsters...you’d talk to them and like give them hugs...in the end everybody would hug." – Suda51

Defining a "Suda51 Game"

• Suda muses he doesn’t consciously aim for a tonal signature; others recognize his style for its unique violence and flair, but he simply makes what feels right ([08:55] "Personally, I don’t know what the hell a Suda 51 or a grasshopper game is. We just keep making them.").
• Thinks Grasshopper would rank near the top for “sheer amount of blood spurting” in games.

"Romeo is a Dead Man" – Behind the Scenes

• Game launches Feb 11, 2026, with 1.5x more blood than their usual projects ([10:13]).
• Decision to self-publish was made late, resulting in a hectic, last-minute promo push ([11:04] "We actually just made the actual final decision to self publish the game in like late November.").
• Self-publishing brings challenges but presents the chance for greater profits; Suda humorously encourages everyone to buy the game to support them ([12:40], [13:45]).

Trailer Reveal, Influences, and Successors

• Suda wanted the debut trailer to misleadingly seem like a "cartoon sitcom", hiding that it was a Grasshopper game until the end, but fans recognized the style instantly ([15:41–16:21]).
• "Romeo is a Dead Man" carries over hack-and-slash DNA from "No More Heroes" but introduces new weapons, guns, and its own creative vibe ([18:16]).
• Suda firmly says it’s not a direct successor but does build on prior experience from NMH.

Action Game Trends & Design Philosophy

• Suda is not a fan of parry mechanics, preferring fast-paced dodging and high-octane action ([22:57] "I'm not really a fan of like parrying and action games…there’s a lot of non parry, high speed, kind of high octane, badass action in this game.").
• No parrying in "Romeo is a Dead Man" by intentional design.

Career Journey: Funeral Homes to Game Dev

• Suda recaps his unlikely start: from top 10 pro-wrestling fans to working at a funeral home, then encouraged by his wife to pursue games ([29:37]).
• Almost missed the job at Human (Fire Pro Wrestling) due to lack of follow-up; only got the job because the original wrestling expert quit the very day he called back ([32:33]).
  • Quote: [36:03] "The gods of pro wrestling kind of smiled down upon me and got me my start in the game industry.”

Audience Q&A Highlights

• On Emotional Impact of Funeral Work: Suda reflects on growing numb to death, which pushed him toward a different career ([40:00]).
  • "You just kind of get like numb to it and after a while it just stops affecting you..."
• On Visual Novels: Not opposed but finds the writing workload immense after his experience with "The Silver Case" ([41:18]).
• On Studio Survival & Identity: Suda uses a surfing metaphor for riding out tough industry “waves”, emphasizing focus and dedication on each project as the studio’s key to longevity ([44:43], [46:19]).
  • Quote: "Just focus on making [the game] as best as we can."

Quick Fire Segment ([47:24–60:13])

• Misses Wii Remote design and would "want to get back to that as much as possible."
• Current music: Zazen Boys, "super cool" Japanese band.
• Would put Travis Touchdown in Tekken if not Smash Bros.
• Favorite director/movies recommendations:
  • "Gozu" (Takashi Miike)
  • "Sonatine" (Takeshi Kitano)
  • "Crazy Thunder Road" (Ishi Sogo)
• DCU role? Wants to play comic character Hitman ([53:12]).
• Underrated Games: "Samurai Champloo: Sidetracked" and "Blood+" on PS2; notes they paved the way for "No More Heroes" ([55:04–57:43]).
• Last Game Ever: Jokes he’d like "No More Heroes 11" to be his swan song ([59:12]).
  • "In number 11, the whole story will finally come together…When I go, Travis goes."
• Dream collaboration is with James Gunn on a DC Hitman game ([60:13]).
  • "James Gunn, if you’re watching, he’s gonna send you a DM."
• Advice for New Devs: "Ignore what Sakurai says and just do your own thing...there’s all different ways to develop games." ([61:20])

Why Play "Romeo is a Dead Man"?

• Suda analogizes the market to a school where every class needs a “fuck up” kid: “Romeo is a Dead Man” is that "not too perfect," weird, and lovable misfit game ([63:46–65:52]).
  • Quote: "If the game market was a classroom right now, Romeo’s a Dead Man would be that fuck up…not made too perfectly...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...made too well."
  • Greg: "I love that. That's such a beautiful answer."

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• [06:18] Suda51: "Nobody ever comes to us with an offer [to make a basic RPG]. So if there’s any publishers out there...get a hold of us.”
• [07:21] Suda51: "You'd like talk to them and like give them hugs...everybody would hug. That's the kind of game I'd like to try my hand at."
• [23:07] Suda51: "I'm not really a fan of parrying in action games...I can't wait for that shit. I just push that button and I end up screwing it up."
• [36:03] Suda51: "The gods of pro wrestling kind of smiled down upon me and got me my start in the game industry."
• [63:46] Suda51: "If the game market was a classroom right now, Romeo's a Dead Man would be that fuck up."
• [65:16] Suda51: “For those of you into 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.”

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Important Segment Timestamps

• [04:10] – Is it Suda51 or Suda Five-One? Origin of the name.
• [06:18] – On making a “normal” game.
• [08:55] – What is a “Suda51” game, really?
• [10:13] – Blood level in "Romeo is a Dead Man."
• [11:04] – Self-publishing the new game.
• [15:41] – Approach to trailer and fan recognition.
• [18:16] – Inspiration and “No More Heroes” influence.
• [22:57] – Game design philosophy: No parries.
• [29:37] – Career journey: wrestling, funerals, games.
• [36:03] – Breakthrough in game industry thanks to pro wrestling.
• [41:18] – On visual novel development.
• [44:43] – Industry’s challenging climate; surfing metaphor.
• [47:24] – Quick fire questions (music, movies, crossovers, etc.).
• [55:04] – Two most underrated Suda games.
• [59:12] – Dream “last game” ("No More Heroes 11")
• [60:13] – Dream collaboration: James Gunn & DC Hitman.
• [63:46] – Why you should play the new game.

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Final Take

This episode provides rare and authentic insights from one of gaming’s most eccentric, original voices. Suda51’s humor and sincerity shine through, whether reminiscing about lucky career breaks or musing about the weirdness that defines his work. "Romeo is a Dead Man" is positioned as a deliberate outlier—a playful, creative antidote to overproduced perfection—promising fans the distinctive, over-the-top action only Suda51 can deliver.

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For listeners looking for offbeat, insightful commentary on creativity in games, a loving reflection on the art and struggle of indie development, and unexpected career stories, this episode is unmissable.

Transcript

[Suda51]

Monster Energy. Everybody knows White Monster Zero Ultra. That's the OG it kicked off this whole Zero Sugar energy drink thing.

[Greg Miller]

But Ultra is a whole lineup now. You've got Strawberry Dreams, Blue Hawaiian Sunrise and Vice Guava. And they all bring the Monster Energy punch. So if you've been living in the White can branch out. Ultra's got a flavor for every vibe.

[Suda51]

And every single one is Zero Sugar.

[Greg Miller]

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[Suda51]

It's good to be Hawaii.

[Greg Miller]

Hey, new girl.

[Suda51]

Hey.

[Greg Miller]

Look at what you've done to yourself.

[Suda51]

For a new plant to grow, the

[Greg Miller]

seed has to die. Slanted Rated R Only in theaters March 13th. Side effects may occur. Close your eyes. Exhale.

[Suda51]

Feel your body relax.

[Greg Miller]

And let go of whatever you're carrying today. Well, I'm letting go of the worry that I wouldn't get my new contacts

[Suda51]

in time for this class.

[Greg Miller]

I got them delivered free from 1-800-contacts. Oh, my gosh. They're so fast. And breathe. Oh, sorry. I almost couldn't breathe when I saw

[Suda51]

the discount they gave me on my first order.

[Greg Miller]

Oh, sorry. Namaste. Visit 1-800-contacts.com today to save on your first order. 1-800-contact contacts. USAA knows Dynamic Duos can save the day like superheroes and sidekicks or auto and home insurance. With usaa, you can bundle your auto and home and save up to 10%. Tap the banner to learn more and get a'@usaa.com bundle restrictions apply. Go to boot.dev and use the code kinda funny to get 25% off your entire first year on the annual plan. If you wanna get our shows ad free and our exclusive shows go to patreon.com kinda funny. Yo, what's up? Welcome to Kind of Funny Gamescast for Tuesday, February 3, 2026. I'm one of your host blessing, Addie Oye Jr. Joined by Very special guests in the building. Of course I'm joined by the founder and CEO of Grasshopper manufacturer and the makers of Romeo Is a dead man, Suda51. Welcome to the studio.

[Suda51]

Hi, nice to meet you.

[Greg Miller]

Nice to meet you too.

[Suda51]

Hello. Hello.

[Greg Miller]

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.

[Suda51]

Thank you. Thanks for having us, man.

[Greg Miller]

Of course. Thanks so much for being here.

[Suda51]

This is a bitch in studio.

[Greg Miller]

Hell, yeah.

[Suda51]

I was just like, wow. Everything everyone's doing is just like, yeah,

[Greg Miller]

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 out to Nick, shout out to Kevin for making that happen. Yeah, yeah.

[Suda51]

Thanks a lot, really for having us today. We've been really looking forward to doing the show.

[Greg Miller]

I've been really looking forward to talking to you because of course, Suda 51 or 51. I want to get to that in a second. 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, Let It Die and more. So I'm very excited to talk to you about that. 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 kindafunny so shout out to Karl Jacobs, Omega Buster and Delaney the Psalm twining. For now, let's begin with topic of the show. Tots, Tots.

[Suda51]

Tots.

[Greg Miller]

So the first question I've been instructed to ask you is, is it Suda 51 or is it Suda 5 1? I'm sure you get this all the time. Okay, you heard it here first. Can you explain for those who don't know, how you came across that name?

[Suda51]

My real name in Japanese is actually. And it's not actually the same characters in Japanese, but if you kind of say it quickly or shorten it a bit, then Goichi sounds like 51. And so I just started calling myself Suda 51 sounded cool.

[Greg Miller]

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 super fire 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?

[Suda51]

Actually, I think about it a lot. Like, I'd 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 Grasshopper do a regular ass game, get a hold of us.

[Greg Miller]

That's amazing. What would be your pitch for the regular Grasshopper manufacturer game?

[Suda51]

First off, I'd probably bring it to ea.

[Greg Miller]

Okay.

[Suda51]

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

[Greg Miller]

Oh,

[Suda51]

not even, you know, you wouldn't even be killing monsters or anything like that. Because I'd like to make the kind of role playing game where like, instead of like, you know, 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 him into a good guy. And you know, in the end like everybody would hug. And that's the kind of game I'd like to try my hand at.

[Greg Miller]

That's amazing. Now I mean that brings us to a very good question, which is what is a Suda 5. One game? Of course, when I think of Suda 51. 51.

[Suda51]

Sorry.

[Greg Miller]

Yeah, yeah.

[Suda51]

Thank you.

[Greg Miller]

Thank you. Suda 51. When I think of Suda 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 51.

[Suda51]

Is honestly, I don't, I don't really know. Like people, people tell me all the time, oh, this is, this is really like Suse51ish game. Or this is really grasshopper ish game. And I'm like, okay, like we just, 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 a little bit too much violence, whatever. And yeah, I don't know, I try to tweak, 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 a suda 51 or a grasshopper game is. We just keep making them amazing. But if there was like some kind of world ranking of like all the game studios in the world ranked by just like the sheer amount of blood burning all over, spurting all over the place in their games. I'm pretty sure that Grasshopper would be

[Greg Miller]

probably at the top, very, very high up. Now, how much blood can we expect from Romeo as a dead man?

[Suda51]

We've got about 1.5 times more blood than the usual Grasshopper game.

[Greg Miller]

Yeah, love that. Now, I mean, let's talk about Romeo's the Deadman, 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?

[Suda51]

It's been pretty crazy. We actually just made the actual final decision to self publish the game in like late November.

[Greg Miller]

Wow.

[Suda51]

And announced like a couple days later. And yeah, you know, it's going on sale on February 11, which is not a whole lot of time, not only between, you know, announcement and, and release date, but between making this kind of decision and the release date. 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 at kind of funny, we're doing stuff in San Francisco 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.

[Greg Miller]

What determines the decision of self publishing versus having another company help publish the game for you?

[Suda51]

We actually spoke to a lot of different possible publishers about taking on the game. And we actually got to the point with one or two where it's like, okay, let's start drawing up contracts and you know, 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 the 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 shitload of money off this if, if you buy as many copies as you can. Oh yeah, there we go.

[Greg Miller]

We got the smoke machines for you.

[Suda51]

Is that my fault?

[Greg Miller]

Oh, no. I mean that's, that's just us trying to hype people up to buy the game. Definitely go out and buy Romeo's the dead man now.

[Suda51]

Okay, thank you.

[Greg Miller]

Yeah, yeah, of course.

[Suda51]

We both thought that maybe like I said, like, you know, a naughty word.

[Greg Miller]

Oh, trigger words.

[Suda51]

Shut the hell up. Okay, cool.

[Greg Miller]

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 Deadman, I believe, at the PlayStation State of Play, Jack. 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 on? 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? Hi.

[Suda51]

Well, as for the trailer, we. 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 it, you think, oh, what's this? Like, is this some kind of, like, cartoon sitcom about to start or something? You know, and. And then, you know, obviously it's 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 gonna 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 gonna, you know, put the trailer together, you know, how to set it up and everything. And. And then it went live. And we're watching, you know, the comments and stuff as it. As it went live, and within about 3, 4 seconds, people are like, oh, hey, Grasshopper.

[Greg Miller]

Oh, that's hilarious.

[Suda51]

Yeah, people seem to. A lot of people seem 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.

[Greg Miller]

Were there actually opinions out there that weren't as nice and positive?

[Suda51]

There's a. 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. In the games, in the industry itself told us, wow, that was, you know, that was an awesome trailer. This game looks really cool.

[Greg Miller]

Nice.

[Suda51]

We were. We were really proud about that. So I'm kind of funny. When the. When the trailer was released, were you guys hyped about it or. You can be on It, Yeah.

[Greg Miller]

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. Oh, thank you.

[Suda51]

Yeah.

[Greg Miller]

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 as a Dead man come about and do you consider it in any way a no More Heroes successor? Oh, thank you.

[Suda51]

Yeah. So you took a policy. Well, we kind of figured that with no More Heroes 3, we'd pretty much done what we could with, you know, these 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 the 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, hack and slash 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 into 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 with no More Heroes whatever. But yeah, there's a lot of new and original stuff on top of all the kind of somewhat familiar, you know, kind of no More Heroes stuff as well.

[Greg Miller]

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. Now talking about no More Heroes 3 going into Romeo is a Dead man and that level of action, trying to take it up a notch. Right. Seeing that there's something here 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 fromsoftware, whether it be games like Lies of 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?

[Suda51]

I'll be honest, I have no idea if this actually answers your question. What he says. Personally, I'm not really a fan of like parrying and action games.

[Greg Miller]

Oh, interesting.

[Suda51]

So I decided, okay, we're not going to have like a parry mechanic in this game. I'd much rather have like, you know, dodge mechanics and stuff like that. One. 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 got to wait for like the right moment to push the button. He says, I can't wait for that shit. I just pushed that button and I end up screwing it up.

[Greg Miller]

I feel that.

[Suda51]

So around the time of no More Heroes 3, I decided, okay, I don't want to have like, you know, I want to keep pairing down to a minimum, if not just completely get rid of it. So yeah, there's a lot of non parry, high speed, kind of high octane, badass action in this game. Again, no pairing.

[Greg Miller]

I love that. I love that answer.

[Suda51]

Yeah, yeah. Now let's just say that worked, I guess.

[Greg Miller]

Now I want to talk more about Romeo's a Dead man, but we're doing a stream after this where we're gonna actually play Romeo's a Dead man and so I'm gonna save a lot more of the questions about that game for that stream. I want to talk more about, you know, students history and I want to ask a lot of random questions. Of course the audience is also writing in their questions, but before we get there, I want to tell the audience about patreon.com kind of funny and YouTube.com/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. are you ready to be a software developer? Kevin is My favorite feature is that you could find a solution that works but then afterwards you can hit solution and see the way that they were trying to teach you to do it. That's really cool. Learn backend web development from start to Finish in Python SQL and go the fun way with boot.dev. it's an RPG like experience where you learn to code by building real projects, earn XP levels, achievements, complete quests, and fight bosses while learning to code. All content is free to read and watch. Watch. A paid membership unlocks interactive features like hands on coding, progress tracking and game mechanics. Boot.dev has a 30 day no questions asked refund policy, a free demo of the interactive experience on every course, and a discord community with tons of real humans to help you. If you ever get stuck, go to boot.dev and use the code kinda funny to get 25% off your entire first year on the annual play. That's boot.dev code kinda funny to get 25% OFF your entire first year of the annual Plan this episode is brought to you by Redfin. You're listening to a podcast, which means you're probably multitasking, maybe even scrolling home listings on Redfin, saving homes without expecting to get them. But Redfin isn't just built for endless browsing. It's built to help you find and

[Suda51]

own a home with agents who close

[Greg Miller]

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[Suda51]

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[Greg Miller]

Get [e-mail] own the dream this episode is brought to you by White Claw Surge. Nice choice hitting up this podcast.

[Suda51]

No surprises.

[Greg Miller]

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[Suda51]

Let's go get ready for a new case.

[Greg Miller]

We're the greatest partners of all time. New friends Gary the Snake and your last name the Snake Dream Team Hit new habitats. Zootopia has a secret reptile population.

[Suda51]

You can watch the record breaking phenomenon at home.

[Greg Miller]

Zootopia 2 now available on Disney Plus. Rated PG and right now you can get Disney plus and Hulu for just

[Suda51]

$4.99 a month for three months with

[Greg Miller]

a special limited time offer ends March 24th. After three months, Plan Auto renews at $12.99 a month. Terms apply and we're back. And suit, I wanted to talk to you more about your history as a game developer. How did you get your start in developing games?

[Suda51]

Kaihat Satoshiro do.

[Greg Miller]

There.

[Suda51]

This is gonna Take a while. Is that okay?

[Greg Miller]

Oh, yeah, go for it. Take your time. We have so much time left in the show.

[Suda51]

This might take like two hours or something.

[Greg Miller]

Okay, maybe not that long there.

[Suda51]

All right, so he's, he's gonna give you part one now.

[Greg Miller]

Okay.

[Suda51]

He says this is gonna go all over the place. Okay, let you know ahead of time. He says. Well, first off, I was, 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 10 of dudes in Japan who, who love pro wrestling. Somehow that led into. And also I, I've always loved video games as well. I, I didn't go to, 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 assumed that video guys, the video games were made by like professors, like dudes in like lab coats, like in a laboratory or something. Like geniuses of physicists. These genius physicists and stuff.

[Greg Miller]

Yeah.

[Suda51]

So I had 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. Anyway, after I moved out to Tokyo, I, I, you know, I started looking for, for work and I ended up 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, 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, from a few different funeral homes and crematoriums and whatnot. Say, hey, why don't you come work for us like full time and we'll make you like a permanent employee, you know. And so I talked to my wife about it. I said, yeah, I think, 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. Like, 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, 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 want 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. 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.

[Greg Miller]

Well, if I. If I can possibly interrupt, I'm still curious on how you blew it at Atlas. If we can get that intermission real quick.

[Suda51]

He says, I have no idea. I actually got turned down at the point, like, where I submitted my. My resume. Like, there wasn't even like an. An interview or anything. I just got told no, got. Okay, so how it works out with. So as he just mentioned, everyone, this is. This is a really good story. So. So wait for, Wait for it. But what he's saying was, so, you know, he, He. He contacted Human, sent in his. 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. I didn't get any phone call. 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 him 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 that means, like, I didn't make it, you know, and I'm gonna call it, 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 Suda. You know, I did an interview with you guys a while ago, just wondering if you had any news. And they're like, 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, and he's like, actually, 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 interviewed me originally, and it turns out that on that day, this dude had actually turned in his res. 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 since, you know, we had spoken about it at the original. At the initial interview, they knew that I was into pro wrestling. I was, like, super into 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, you know, this guy's gonna quit. Could you maybe come on after all and, like, take on his job? And it turns out that originally 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 and 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. The gods of pro wrestling kind of smiled down upon me.

[Greg Miller]

Wow.

[Suda51]

And got me my start in the game industry.

[Greg Miller]

That's awesome. And that all goes back. I mean, of course, shout out to your wife for making you make that call as well.

[Suda51]

He says, if my wife hadn't said anything, I'd probably be still working at, like, a funeral home or a crematorium or something right now. Wow.

[Greg Miller]

Now, speaking of pro wrestling, my friend Imran Khan wanted me to ask you, if you could suplex one wrestler, who would it be and who would you want to suplex? You?

[Suda51]

Oh, yeah.

[Greg Miller]

Dwayne johnson. Yeah, yeah, I love that. Yeah. Okay.

[Suda51]

So at the moment, if I was gonna suplex someone, I'd probably have to pick the Rock, you know, Dwayne Johnson. And it would have to be a double arm suplex.

[Greg Miller]

Oh, yeah, of course. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Suda51]

And if someone was going to toss me, I'd like to go with Ric Flair and a Brain Buster.

[Greg Miller]

Okay. Okay. Yeah, I love that. Wow. To bring in another question I got to ask you, this one is from Ash Like a Dragon on Bluesky. 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, what indie games since then would you put on the T shirts? Yeah.

[Suda51]

So recently I've been really into Skate Story and Balacho as far as go.

[Greg Miller]

I love that. Yeah, 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. Freak Scene writes in and says, Suda51 said, if you're a funeral director, you can't cry at your parents funeral. Do you remember saying this? There you go.

[Suda51]

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 and seeing dead bodies and stuff. It just, you just kind of, 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, when one day when my parents die, I'm just gonna be standing there like, you know, blank slate, like feeling nothing. And that was, that got kind of scary. So luckily here I am now making games instead.

[Greg Miller]

I have another one here from Airbagged9 who writes in and asks, ever thought of making another visual novel game?

[Suda51]

He says, yeah, the first, 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 while 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'd be physically possible for me to write that much again all at once.

[Greg Miller]

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 manufacture go about navigating a, an industry that's, you know, in some turmoil while also maintaining your own identity.

[Suda51]

Imani, thank you. That's a, that's a pretty sharp ass question. Give me, give me a second for that.

[Greg Miller]

Thank you. Thank you. Yeah, yeah. Oh, yeah. Take your time.

[Suda51]

There's. Yeah, you know, as you said right now, things are tough all over in the game industry, you know, and it's, it's our. As far as Grasshopper is 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, you know, 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, tends to kind of come in waves too. And we at Grasshopper right now, we're experiencing our own kind of, you know, waves coming at us at the moment. So I guess you could say right now what I'm doing is every day I'm, I'm going out to the beach, I'm learning how to surf, learning how to like, navigate these waves as best I can. Yeah, and.

[Greg Miller]

Yeah, just metaphorical beach. I thought you were for real at first.

[Suda51]

Oh, no, totally metaphorical.

[Greg Miller]

Okay. Okay. Yeah.

[Suda51]

To be honest, I can't actually swim or surf or anything, so.

[Greg Miller]

Oh, that's fair.

[Suda51]

But I think the one thing I can say is preserving an environment in which we can all focus and work really hard on the one game that we happen to be working on at 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. Some of the games that we work on are our own completely original games. Sometimes we work on stuff that's based on, say, for example, like an anime or, or somebody just, you know, 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, you know, do the best we can and just, yeah, putting all your focus and effort into each individual game, that's, that's pretty much the best we can do to, to keep going. So that's, that's the kind of environment that I'd like to maintain in 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.

[Greg Miller]

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?

[Suda51]

I know.

[Greg Miller]

All right.

[Suda51]

All right. Go for it.

[Greg Miller]

Do you ever miss designing for the Nintendo Wii Remot? Yeah. Charge it up.

[Suda51]

Want to get back to that as much as possible.

[Greg Miller]

You know exactly. What music are you listening to currently?

[Suda51]

There's a Japanese band called Zazen Boys, and these guys are. These guys are badass. These guys are super cool. If you get a chance, please check them out.

[Greg Miller]

Zazen Boys.

[Suda51]

Zazen Boys. Z A Z E N Boys.

[Greg Miller]

Boys.

[Suda51]

Yeah, I'm a big fan myself, too. They're awesome.

[Greg Miller]

I'm going to. I'll check them out. That sounds awesome. Aside from Smash Brothers, what fighting game would you put Travis Touchdown in as

[Suda51]

a guest character mostly? I don't know. Cocteau Gaining. Yeah.

[Greg Miller]

Tekken.

[Suda51]

I love that.

[Greg Miller]

Yeah.

[Suda51]

Oh, yeah. There you go.

[Greg Miller]

That's the right answer right there. For those audio listeners, I'm wearing a Tekken jacket right now. If you could enter the Criterion closet and tell the world about two or three movies, which ones would you pick? Oh,

[Suda51]

All right. So the first one would be. A lot of people out there, especially people watching this, probably are aware of this director and my fondness for him, but there's a Japanese director named Takashi Miiken, and I love his. I love his movies. Among his move. You know, among all the movies that he's made, which are like a lot, there's one in particular called Gozu G O Z U.

[Greg Miller]

Okay.

[Suda51]

That I. I specifically like. So that's one. That's one movie that I want everybody out there to go and check out. Perfect. All right. So to explain it really simply, it's kind of like the actor Aikawa show was born from inside Yoshinokimika, and nobody's gonna get what the fuck he's talking about. Let's just leave it at. Also another Japanese direction. Okay. There's. I'm gonna. I'm gonna try to figure this out in a second. Okay. Never mind. He was. 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. I'll just go back to the first one anyway.

[Greg Miller]

Okay. Okay.

[Suda51]

There's another Japanese director, Takeshi Kitano, who. He's, you know, he's got a bit of buzz, like, outside Japan, past 20 years or so too. Sonatine is a movie of his that's that's really great.

[Greg Miller]

Awesome.

[Suda51]

That'll be the third one. There's. The last movie I'd say is by. There's another Japanese director who's changed his name before, but at the time his name was Ishi Sogo, and he has a movie. I believe the English title is Crazy Thunder Road. 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, yeah, that's a great movie that apparently all Japanese people have seen, and that's definitely something that everyone should check out.

[Greg Miller]

There you go. So, all right.

[Suda51]

At the very least, one out of every one out of every 10,000 people knows it, so perfect.

[Greg Miller]

Okay.

[Suda51]

It's kind of leveling down a bit, I guess.

[Greg Miller]

But what character would you want to play In James Gunn's DCU? Who?

[Suda51]

James Gunn? No, D.C. university. Hitman.

[Greg Miller]

Oh, nice. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Is that. Is that a DC character?

[Suda51]

Yeah, yeah.

[Greg Miller]

Nice. Kevin, if you can bring up an image of the. Of Hitman from dc. Sorry to interrupt. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Souls.

[Suda51]

That dude. Yeah. In the Batman universe, in the comics, he's basically like. Like, like, he's like the lowest tier.

[Greg Miller]

Yeah.

[Suda51]

Of superhero, but that's who he loved to play.

[Greg Miller]

He kind of reminds me of, like, Punisher a little bit, but on the DC side.

[Suda51]

So DC food, But he's not nearly as cool as Punisher.

[Greg Miller]

What is a game of yours that not enough people played and should check out?

[Suda51]

Game, He says. 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, at Grasshopper, we're really known for games like no More Heroes and Killer seven. There are actually two games that I made in between Killer seven and no More Heroes. One of them, it was based on an anime. It's called samurai Champloo. And PS2. It was on the PS2.

[Greg Miller]

Okay.

[Suda51]

And I believe it was actually released here in the States, so it should be around somewhere. The second game was a game. Yeah. These games are 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 are these two games. Again, they were in between Killer seven. Hella nostalgic.

[Greg Miller]

Is this the same, right, Shampoo one?

[Suda51]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Greg Miller]

Somebody Shampoo Sidetracked is what it's called.

[Suda51]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's actually really well made and fun. But these two games were in between Killer 7 and no More Heroes. Right. These two games are basically where the no More Hero City, the no More Hero series, like, sprang out of. This is where we kind of learned how to, you know, really get really do the hack and slice really thin. And it's because we did these two games that we were able to do no More Heroes and the whole, 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. It's kind of like a hip hop samurai sword fighting game.

[Greg Miller]

Oh, yeah.

[Suda51]

And the, the music changes like during, during the battle and, you know, in the middle of scenes and stuff. And just the way the, the way the soundtrack is made and the way it flows together with the action, everything, it's just. I really love the way it was made. I think it's really great.

[Greg Miller]

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.

[Suda51]

Also. So you mean like just before I die or.

[Greg Miller]

I think if you were to.

[Suda51]

If it was like, know regardless how much longer I'm going to live, this

[Greg Miller]

is the last, let's say, before you retire. Unless. Unless you're saying you're not going to retire until you die. It'll be before you die,

[Suda51]

You'd like to get a little bit of time. There's, there's a lot of things that he's been thinking of recently. So, yeah, give him a second.

[Greg Miller]

It's fun because I. I had the pleasure of previewing Romeo as 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 that's on your mind.

[Suda51]

Oh, I thought you were like predicting his death or something. Okay.

[Greg Miller]

Oh, no.

[Suda51]

Okay, he's got it.

[Greg Miller]

Yeah.

[Suda51]

No More Heroes 11. The game, the last game I want to make before I die.

[Greg Miller]

I'm a big fan because that means seven more no More Heroes for me, which I'm a big fan of.

[Suda51]

And in number 11, like, the whole story will finally come together.

[Greg Miller]

Perfect.

[Suda51]

Yeah. When I go, Travis goes, yeah, perfect. I love that we're gonna die together.

[Greg Miller]

Now, if you could team up with another dev like you did with Shinji Mikami on Shadows of the Damned, who would you?

[Suda51]

It's not a game developer and it's kind of something that came up a minute ago, but he says, I'd like to get back together with James Gunnigan. And make a Make a Hitman game.

[Greg Miller]

Oh, nice. I love that.

[Suda51]

I love that. Did I force a developer answer out of him too, or.

[Greg Miller]

No? I mean, that's perfect.

[Suda51]

Okay.

[Greg Miller]

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, Suta51 wants to make a Hitman game. Let's make it happen. So.

[Suda51]

James Gunn, if you're watching, he's gonna send you a dm. So look out for that.

[Greg Miller]

Made it happen here. What advice would you give to younger developers in the industry?

[Suda51]

YouTube. Right now. There's, you know, there's a lot of interesting games and ideas out there and there's a lot of really interesting people in the world too. And he says, I'm gonna, I'm gonna emphasize the fact that he says this. I'm just interpreting. But there's, there's lots of places to get good advice. For example, Sakurai has this thing he does on YouTube where he, he kind of, you know, he gives advice and tells people, hey, you know, this is, this is how you should, you know, look at game development. Here's some, some, some you should do, you know, and he's, he's saying some really good stuff. He's, this guy really knows his shit. He's, he's got some really good advice. So I would tell game developers, ignore what Sakurai says and just do your own thing. Do, do what you think you're best at because there's all different ways to develop games.

[Greg Miller]

So that's beautiful.

[Suda51]

Then Sakurai, in case you're watching, it's, he's half joking. So only, half, only don't take it too seriously.

[Greg Miller]

My final question for you is why should people play Romeo as a dead man?

[Suda51]

Moskimonai parashi.

[Greg Miller]

Guys,

[Suda51]

He says 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, some of these games that will come out. I mean, this year there's a couple games coming out they don't know yet, but are, you know, they're, 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. They're playing it, like trying to find mistakes or, you know, little sucky parts or 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, then after a while I start feeling like it's a bit too well made. You know, like if this, like, if, if the game market was like school, it's like you have all these kids who, you know, they're, they're nailing their test and they're doing all their homework and everything. And I feel like 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, 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 of the stuff you said earlier to hopefully make it a bit more interesting. But if the, 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.

[Greg Miller]

There's.

[Suda51]

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 that we could 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 into 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.

[Greg Miller]

I love that. That's such a beautiful answer. Suda51 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 gonna 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 yout 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. SU51, thank you again for joining me and it's been our pleasure to serve you.

[Suda51]

Thank you.

[Greg Miller]

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