Interviews
Suda 51 Talks No More Heroes: Desperate Struggle, Hideo Kojima, And Toilets
November 11, 2008
Even though the 2008 Tokyo Game Show was sort of a let down, and I’m not just talking about the booth babes. I got a chance to interview Goichi Suda (a.k.a. Suda 51), head of Japanese game developer Grasshopper Manufacture, about two of his upcoming projects. First on deck is No More Heroes: Desperate Struggle for the Wii, a sequel to No More Heroes developed by Grasshopper and published in the U.S. by Ubisoft earlier this year. But it’s also known the Suda-san is working on a confidential project with Shinji Mikami for EA. Yep, the duo that brought you acid-dipped, barking mad journey into schizophrenia, Killer7, is teaming up once again – which as Suda-san explains, will be just as crazy, if not more so. Hit the jump for the full interview including details on Desperate Struggle, his take on the state of next-gen development in Japan, the upcoming project with Mikami-san and the benefits of having a spacious bathroom.
Das Gamer: How many projects are you involved in right now? It seems like you have a lot going on.
Goichi Suda: There are two.
There are two announced projects, I would say, right?
Goichi Suda: Of course. There are two announced projects.
The big recent announcement was No More Heroes: Desperate Struggle for the Wii. It hasn’t been announced for the states yet, correct? Would you like to release it in the US?
Goichi Suda: No, it hasn’t been announced for the States, yet. Of course I’d like to release it there, it’s actually my main market for the game – the US and Europe.
What can you say about Travis’s next adventure?
Goichi Suda: While in the first game people were trying to murder Travis, Travis’s new adventures will revolve around a theme of revenge. This time the fighting will be really tough, and hard. Not as far as difficulty, but as a story it’s going to be tougher, more serious.
So no more mowing lawns?
Goichi Suda: Yes, there will be even more stupid stuff to do. Thematically you will see even more boring jobs to do.
One of the things I thought was interesting about No More Heroes was that you didn’t take it too seriously. You saved your game on the toilet; you mowed lawns – things like that I thought made the game unique.
Goichi Suda: (laughs) Don’t worry, for the sequel you’ll have those kinds of elements.
Then there’s also this other project in the works with Electronic Arts. I have to ask why EA?
Goichi Suda: (laughs) When I brought the project that I’m working on to the States, we presented it to a number of different publishers. Electronic Arts was the one that had the most respect for what we were doing and for Grasshopper. For me it felt natural. When EA saw the game concept that we brought, they were very enthusiastic about it, and so we definitely wanted to work on it with them. We’ve managed to build a good relationship with EA.
This may sound like an odd question, but I feel like your games have a lot of soul and personality to them. Some consider EA a soulless company. Personally, when I read the fact that you were working with EA, I was “really?!” It was surprising for a lot of people.
Goichi Suda: (laughs) Here in Japan, and for me personally, I didn’t really have this image of EA being soulless company. For me they were just another company, a publisher that publishes games. You don’t make games between companies, you make games between people. You shouldn’t worry about this project between Grasshopper and EA. I have a really good relationship with an executive producer at EA, and he really understands what we’re doing, and between that and Mikami-san who is also producing the game.
I guess that’s why the decision to go with EA was surprising, because a project that has you and Mikami-san working together is a non-traditional type of EA game. It seems when you and Mikami-san team up it’s a pretty crazy, fun, different type of game.
Goichi Suda: Yes, very crazy. Super crazy. (laughs)
