february

I’ve been a big fan of Suda51/Grasshopper Manufacture for most of my life at this point (weird to type this out). killer7 and the No More Heroes games are some of my favorites of all time, and I’ve been eagerly awaiting Romeo is a Dead Man since before it got announced. It finally released this past week, and I’ve been spending much of my free time devouring it whenever I could. I had to play it. Especially after how Travis Strikes Again made me feel.

I went into it fairly blind and was able to finish it up last night and I’m happy to say: I really loved Romeo is a Dead Man. I don’t want to go too in-depth on the story just because it’s still so new (not even a week old) and I expect many people still aren’t very far at all. But there’s enough to talk about without spoiling things at least.

From a gameplay perspective, it follows a similar framework to something like No More Heroes 3’s in-game combat. It’s an action game. It’s mostly okay but I did find that enemies and bosses could frequently stunlock you since the game doesn’t feature any i-frames when you get hit, which led to some unfortunate situations. It also feels a bit clunky with its merging of melee combat and third-person shooter gameplay. Trying to reload too quickly for example can result in melee attacks. Level design is also a bit hard to parse and I found myself going in circles for extended periods on more than one occasion because I walked by something I had to do. Despite this, it works well enough and it starts to feel pretty fun overall. Probably not something I’d play on Hard Mode (even Normal Mode was harder than I expected), but it has its moments even if it feels somewhat stiff.

Likewise, it’s filled to the brim with all sorts of various gameplay systems. It has a 100 question quiz out of a dating sim that’s a reference to The Silver Case, an upgrade system that involves you moving around a maze, a cooking system for items, procedurally generated dungeon areas for upgrades, a system for special moves using summons called Bastards which involves raising and fusing them, and so on. It’s a surprisingly meaty game on that front and there’s a lot to dig into (if you want). Which is kind of wild for one of these.

But of course, anyone into these games know they’re more than the sum of their parts. Just like GhM’s other games, Romeo is more about the overall experience moreso than being a competitor to games like Devil May Cry. And on that front: it delivers. Romeo features an incredible soundtrack, gorgeous art, and a strong narrative and endearing cast of weirdos and freaks. And it all comes together for a truly one-of-a-kind game.

The narrative was my favorite part of it all. It’s a fun love letter to movies like Back to the Future mixed with influences from American comics, sci-fi works, a variety of musical artists like The Clash, and more. It’s not afraid to get weird and disorienting while also still having a strong message beneath it all. I’m truly excited to see more Suda/GhM fans finish it and try to dig into the meat of its messaging. It resonated with me pretty hard with where I’m at in life right now and some recent experiences in my own personal time. It’s messy but it feels very human and that’s one of the best things about art.

Besides Romeo is a Dead Man, I’ve been playing more Deadlock as expected. The new character batch finally finished this past week and I think Valve has really found their groove with their design direction here. They all feel fresh and lovingly crafted. One of the characters, Silver (a werewolf woman from the South), is one of my new favorites to play as. So I’m quite pleased. Game is as fun as ever.

I also started Dragon Quest VII Reimagined. I love DQ and it’s one of my favorite RPG series, but I never got around to playing DQVII’s previous releases. I haven’t had a chance to play a ton yet but I’m digging it so far. Yes, it’s changed or removed some series traditions. But, honestly, I’m fine with that and can’t feel too bothered. I can play either of the two previous releases of the game if I want that. Or I can boot up one of the many other entries. It still has my favorite parts of the series present such as the general sense of whimsy and warm feelings. So I’m excited to play more. I’ll give the last remake a try as well after to see how different they are. I like when a remake isn’t afraid to make some drastic changes since it gives me more of a reason to do so personally. So this works out for me. It’s a great time to be a fan of the series.

I also watched through Cosmic Princess Kaguya last week and absolutely adored it. I’ve always liked the tale of Princess Kaguya since being introduced to it via Okami years ago, and I thought this was a great and fun modern spin on a classic tale. It’s well directed, gorgeous, and endlessly charming. I loved the story and main leads here, and I found its 2+ hour runtime really just flew by for me. You’ll probably see a lot of chatter about this one from anime fans and I highly recommend giving it a watch. Even if the story doesn’t work for you, you’ll still probably find it entertaining from an audiovisual perspective. It’s beautiful.

Funnily enough, I found this and Romeo is a Dead Man to be pretty interesting companion pieces to one another. Hard to explain without being familiar with either but, for those of you who fall into this same venn diagram of interests as me: maybe you’ll see my vision here.