I knew this game was divisive and for many didn't live up to expectations for a game with so many legends (Akira Yamaoka, Mikami, and Suda in one game could've been the most monumental game I ever played in my life) behind it but I wanted to believe I'd be different. For the first half of the game or so I wasn't sure what the issue was. The gameplay isn't anything particularly special and it's pretty repetitive but it's nothing that the incredible soundtrack, voice acting, and dialogue couldn't overtake. Garcia is incredible and the love of my life.

Like any other Mikami game I've played, the cracks started to show in the mid or late portion of the game. Things started to get a bit messy with some of the boss encounters being less than great. Lots of messy hit boxes that rely on context sensitive moments where damage can be dealt out while your health is being drained adds up to a frustrating experience. Some of them went on for what felt like ages on the normal difficulty so I couldn't even imagine on hard. Regardless, I was still enjoying my time up until this point.

The last straw of sorts was Act 4. The pacing all but screeches to a halt as we end up with a series of levels featuring repetitive gimmicks and three 2D turret/arcade shooter sections to top things off. I understand this is a thing with a lot of Suda games but I've never seen it be so prevalent and invasive in the other games. It was cute/mildly charming the first time even if the mechanics were bad, I was irritated the second time, and then the third time made me consider quitting the game if I wasn't close to being finished.

I'm glad I stuck around because I wanted to finish the story off and the gameplay did mostly improve to an at least acceptable state. The final bosses left a bit to be desired but I'll take it over more turret sections or chase sequences.

It's a shame this game had such a troublesome development period. I'm not exactly surprised it did with EA publishing but I'm not sure what anyone involved in this on either end was expecting of each other? I'm glad the game exists even in this not ideal form. One of the most unique and memorable games of its gen and I'd love to see it get a remaster/port someday.

Ok, there's only so many chopped-up women I can stomach without thinking the game has an issue. Even though they always killed one and the same person. Kinda makes it worse though.

The game has its charms with weird 2D-sequences, the OST, the sometimes funny dialogue and the weird storybooks you find in-game.

And even though the game seems to be self-aware of its own pulpiness, it's not aware of other things it did, that I really hated: sexualizing, killing, and - third time's the charm - CHOPPING UP the main female character. I get storywise why - but that story was a choice Suda51 made and that I had to play through to move on in this game.

There's too much of the old "woman dies so the man gets something to do" going on for me, which is why I didn't finish it.
Got to the last bit of the game and called it quits then.
Looking up the ending I'm glad I did.

This was my very first Suda51/Grasshopper Manufacture title, and it was a damn good one. Now, this game isn't going to go down in history as one of the all time greats, but god if it isn't a fun time. This game oozes atmosphere, and going through hell looking for your girlfriend is such a cool plot to play through, if paper thin in terms of subtext and themes. Obviously I would have preferred Suda51's original concept called Kurayami, but alas EA struck again. Regardless, if you like action shooters, and can cope with the fun, but admittedly a little cringy humour, then you should have a grand old time. If you're anything other than a casual gamer though, I'd recommend playing on the hardest difficulty, as easy and normal are a breeze.

came dressed in black ready to mourn immense creative stifling by the casual, profit-driven tyranny of western publishers, stayed for akira yamaoka's godlike score and for the comic and raunchy but often unrealized attempts to jab at the medium's hypermasculine paragons

if you haven't read kurayami dance and have any interest in suda or in this game's behind-the-scenes progression from kafkaesque horror to b-movie grindhouse romp, id highly suggest you do because it's insane how much of the language and iconography of that manga (itself a conceptual iteration on kurayami, a separate project that never saw realization, and the initial vision suda had for SOTD prior to ea's chokehold on creative direction) is reflected here; the manga presents a lovely middle ground between the two diametrically opposed visions at the core of SOTD's inception. shared in common are the ideas of an easy ride-influenced road trip, a talkative otherworldly companion, a journey through supernatural planes of existence, a mysterious castle separate from the general populace, and a few other smaller commonalities. still, SOTD opts for a much less thematically complete endeavour (with its sardonic and satirical throughlines of male insecurity as it relates to female sexuality feeling largely uninterrogated), and considering the pedigree behind the project it's shocking the gameplay really isn't up to snuff at all either, so it's harder to enjoy as just a thrilling and cheesy adventure. mikami somehow turned in a dull third person shooter with finicky controls and mechanics that trivialize the vast majority of the combat scenarios

it's difficult to fault any of this - reading kurayami dance, one gets the sense that suda wanted to make something more in line with flower, sun, and rain again and simply couldn't because EA didnt see those ideas as trendy or appealing to western markets - but it's a shame the end result is a poor experience that appealed to no one if sales data is anything to go by, that hasn't aged especially gracefully, and that games criticism of its era struggled to sum up, reconcile with, or effectively assess. the most common criticism was so of its time it almost hurts - the lack of a new game+ feature. no discussion of narrative, stilted mechanics, corporate meddling, what have you. just a run of the mill release to throw into the 7/10 pile and forget.

of the titles suda had a hand in in the early 2010s, produced in his absence from the director's seat, this is probably my second favourite, but it's really not saying much. there's interesting insight from the development of killer is dead that showcases yet more publisher strangulation - the implementation of gigolo mode, mandated by kadokawa. what's interesting here is that, commenting on gigolo modes inclusion, suda explicitly acknowledged that these features would probably harm grasshoppers reputation, especially when taken in conjunction with both this game and no more heroes 2, but there wasn't much he could do about it. that lack of control speaks volumes about the experiences on offer, and SOTD is the poster boy for that fraught process. playing through the game, i can say that as interesting as it could be at times? thank god that eras over and that grasshopper is moving on to self-publishing. at this rate, you'd be better off reading kurayami dance and playing travis strikes again than trying your hand at SOTD, both of which are more interesting to experience, are far more emotionally affecting, and reflect on this title in interesting ways. dissociative identity might be a trademark of sudas works, but it's always bleak when the game itself is undergoing an overt identity crisis

Shadows of the Damned is what you get when you mix the gameplay of Resident Evil 4 with the story of Dante's Inferno and the type of humor you would expect in a Deadpool property.

It's plenty of fun. The graphics seem to hold up well for the time. It's plenty colorful, literally and in terms of character. And it's a terribly easy game making it a breeze to play through. I didn't even realize I was on the hardest difficulty until I was nearly to the final boss. The boss fights are easy but frustrating for how long they take. After you rinse and repeat the same action and process for what feels like the umpteenth time you desperately want nothing more than the fight to be over with. It's not a test of skill but rather of patience.

The game also reminded me a ton of Lollipop Chainsaw in terms of tone and style which makes sense because after I finished the game I discovered that both were Suda 51 projects. I liked this a hell of a lot more than Lollipop Chainsaw though. No pun intended.

A Japanese game that stars a Mexican character voiced by a White American is an interesting decision to say the least. I feel like that wouldn't fly in 2020 but snuck under the radar in 2011. I didn't love Blum's voicework on this. I'm a huge fan of him as Wolverine but he was just distracting in this. I quite enjoyed the voice actor for the character of Johnson though.

This game felt janky at times and like it needed a bit more polish. I hated the camera placement which made it hard to see at times but they balanced that with terrible AI hitbox detection. You could simply barely move to any direction and it would cause the enemy attack animation to miss. Again this game was terribly easy.

Overall it was fun, interesting, and original enough. I'm glad I played this game and it was a hell of a lot better than a lot of similar crap I've played from this era. I really like 3rd person horror shooters and while this was on the lesser end of that spectrum it was still a solid enough game.

I like it more than I thought I would, considering Suda's games never really jive with me. I attribute that almost entirely to its presentation. This game had a lot of heart and was genuinely funny at just how baffling shit was at times. That zaniness never really hit in his other games, but the delivery of lines invoked a lot of charm that is much needed with this style of humour. It doesn't hit all of the time, and can be rather stupid even, but even then the absurdity had some value for me. Unfortunately the act of play just didn't feel all that great. The bosses were easy, and all followed a similar gimmick of just getting them to their respective breaking points to uncover the shiny red weak point. The standard combat did present more of a challenge from time to time, but a lot of the challenge came from struggling with unresponsive radial menus. I didn't feel like I learned anything new from each failure besides trying to heal much earlier than I thought I needed to avoid futsing with the game reading an input at an inconvenient moment. With more polish I honestly think I would love this game, and perhaps more Grasshopper games, but that doesn't seem like something they allow themselves unfortunately, or rather those they end up working with in this case.