Goichi “Suda51” Suda is known for putting unusual things in his games, and Grasshopper Manufacture’s latest title, Romeo Is a Dead Man, is no exception. But for every Easter egg and practical effects scene that makes it into the finished game, there’s bound to be as many features are left on the cutting room floor.
Lead background artist Izumi Watanabe recently told 4Gamer that one of the most surprising moments during Romeo Is a Dead Man’s development was an idea Suda51 came up with during what was supposed to be a routine review of the game. Suda apparently pitched a mechanic whereby players would have to intensely mash button(s) to open a door that leads to a boss fight. While the mechanic may seem nonsensical, especially in this day and age when quick time events are generally frowned upon, Suda51 was thinking about how the repeated inputs would increase the difficulty of the succeeding boss fight.
“The idea was that players would get physically tired before the boss fight, affecting their performance. That fatigue would compound the boss fight’s difficulty.”
While the button-mashing idea never came into fruition (you only have to press a button once to open a boss door and hold another input to summon your weapon before the fight), it shows Suda51’s thought process when it comes to implementing game mechanics. In this particular instance, however, it seems he was only half-serious in the first place.
“What struck me was that after that conversation, a senior colleague rushed over to me, saying, ‘Suda was worried you might be upset that he started saying outrageous things while you were listening to him seriously.’ I hadn’t taken it negatively, but apparently, I was so shocked that I looked frozen (laughs). He says bold things, but I feel that he genuinely cares about that kind of thing.”
Romeo Is a Dead Man is available for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and Windows (Steam). A Nintendo Switch 2 version is currently in development.
Related: Suda51 doesn’t know what makes a “Suda51 game” a Suda51 game
