Grasshopper Manufacture.

[Neo Rasa]

THE STORY SO FAR:[/size]

www.grasshopper.co.jp/

Grasshopper Manufacture is a totally rad developer that only has a few games to their name. They are lead by the sardonic Suda 51 (Goichi Suda), who worked primarily as an undertaker until taking a job at Human Entertainment (Clock Tower, early Fire Pro Wrestling games).

He worked as a scenario writer for Fire Pro Special and so on, making some of its most infamous career events. Around 1998 or so Grasshopper Manufacture was formed.

Grasshopper Manufacture has only had four games published in the US:

Contact www.atlus.com/contact/home.html
Killer 7 www.capcom.co.jp/killer7/english.html
Samurai Champloo: Sidetracked www.champloo-game.com/
Shining Soul II www.atlus.com/ss2/screenshots.html


They also developed several games that didn't make it here that seem to be of some quality:

Blood+ One Night Kiss www.blood-game.jp/
Flower, Sun, Rain www.mmv.co.jp/special/game/ps2/fsr/index.html
Michigan (505 Game Street published this in Europe) zaka.tv/index02.html
Silver Jiken www.grasshopper.co.jp/silver/index.html



2007: NOW:[/b]

They are primarily working on No More Heroes for the Nintendo Wii. This is set to come out in Japan in Q3 2007.


These games are also in the works and seem highly enticing~

Kurayami: An action/adventure game for the Playstation 3 based on The Castle by Franz Kafka

Project-S: A Nintendo Wii adventure game that is being produced via a collaborative design effort between Suda 51 and Hideo Kojima. This has been revealed even on Hideo Kojima's own internet radio show. Given that Suda 51 is a big fan of Hideo Kojima's (and IMO his REAL masterpiece rather than the Metal Gear Solid series) Snatcher series, it is heavily rumored that this is some sort of new Snatcher game. Snatcher is literally the Blade Runner PC game in every concievable way except with 2D artwork and predating the Blade Runner PC game by ten years. If this situation becomes reality Grasshopper would be my favorite developer ever.


Now, NO MORE HEROES is an action/adventure game starring Travis Touchdown. Travis is an otaku who wins a laser katana off of E-Bay and utilizes it as an assassin to fund his ever growing collection of maho shoujo anime t-shirts. The game utilizes Killer 7 and Blood+'s super slick flat shaded artstyle. The controls seem pretty interesting as you just use the A and B buttons to do standard attacks are you run around the area. The boss fights involve some sort of dueling wherein you use the Wii Remote directly to sword fight with rival assassins to become the best.

Not much is known beyond that. The game is said to have "sandbox" style gameplay where you have a single large game world to explore rather than pre-set levels.

Every Grasshopper game that's come out in the US didn't sell well. This is a goddamn shame. From a control and gameplay standpoint their games can arguably be considered flawed, but even with this in mind, their visual and sound design sensibilities more than compensate. To that end, Samurai Champloo as an example looks mediocre in screenshots. When played its an experience.

It's rare that you can JUST run around and attack in Grasshopper's games. There's always something else involved, be it Killer 7's blood levels or Samurai Champloo's combo timing, that ties directly into the character or the storyline. They are masters of taking very NES-era logic restrictions and gameplay design quirks and somehow making them seem like the most reasonable thing ever. All always set to intruiging graphics and incredible music/effects design.

Their (and Suda 51's) earlier games were much slower paced affairs involving searching out clues, smaller but more developed characters, and other adventure game attributes you don't see a lot of anymore.


Now, I titled the thread what I did because No More Heroes seems like the game that would be a huge success for Grasshopper. The reason being that the controller FORCES you to feel involved in the game to an extent that was previously impossible outside of an arcade.


Oh hey, have some media. Don't look at this if you're at work. Sort of spoilers. I say sort of because their stuff tends to be rife with metaphor and double meanings. For their original works a lot of this stuff doesn't really "reveal" much about the games' "stories" given what they try to accomplish.

Also I would wager money that if one were to sit down and discuss politics with Goichi Suda or one's head would explode.

Shining Soul II:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=rYoCnmHu3lo
www.youtube.com/watch?v=GoTLmUaXTek
www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZFmJuSTk1dM


Killer 7:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=GNN0o-pks5A
www.youtube.com/watch?v=e6BmgK5s5to
www.youtube.com/watch?v=jrWP4cZY4mY


Blood+ One Night Kiss
www.youtube.com/watch?v=TZYJIi1WijQ
www.youtube.com/watch?v=bKZXzxr46Oo
www.youtube.com/watch?v=B8vloukoMdA


Contact
www.youtube.com/watch?v=cEtx2NKi11E
www.youtube.com/watch?v=gXQkNyu-DIU
www.youtube.com/watch?v=oqKv-HtzkEM

Samurai Champloo: Sidetracked
www.youtube.com/watch?v=WEVMJE6km78
www.youtube.com/watch?v=svu5pEp7qTk
www.youtube.com/watch?v=91M_k7tCwHg

No More Heroes
www.youtube.com/watch?v=J6YqLK3DvCg
Sadly due to the removal of ultra violence and other controversial content in many recent Japanese games. It seems not even the makers of the absurdly visceral Killer 7 are immune. This trailer is the same as the older trailers (back when the game was simply called Heroes) but with less decapitation. Hopefully this is still rated M as it's about people with laser swords and automatic firearms hunting each other down for execution.





I feel Grasshopper Manufacture warrants discussion not only for the general radness of their games, but because they tend to use visual styles that aren't photorealistic, which my biased self feels is the most important characteristic a developer can have at this time in the industry. The super slick flat shading they utilize in their 3D games is unstoppable (and apparently perfect for licensed anime games judging by Samurai Champloo and Blood+).

If people want to discuss say Jet Set Radio, Last Express, or other visually and aurally gorgeous games, go for broke. Though I'd like the topic to mostly revolve Grasshopper's work. Hopefully some people take an interest.


Also if anyone wants more information on any specific game mentioned here just say the word.





With No More Heroes, Grasshopper's website says it's proceeding smoothly and they except it to launch around the end of the summer in Japan. I really wish there were some more information or screenshots available.

img251.imageshack.us/img251/6382/nomoreheroes20061204053bw0.jpg
img260.imageshack.us/img260/7571/nomoreheroes20061204053qk5.jpg
img251.imageshack.us/img251/3818/nomoreheroes20061204053bw8.jpg
img251.imageshack.us/img251/2786/nomoreheroes20061204053he9.jpg
img412.imageshack.us/img412/430/nomoreheroes20061204053ej6.jpg
img251.imageshack.us/img251/5924/nomoreheroes20061204053ra9.jpg

[kyouki]

I really dig Contact but haven't played any other of their games. Human was a great developer back in the day and I love the early clock tower and Fire Pro games. So they're cool in my book.

[michiyoyoshiku]

wasn't Michigan horrible?

[Neo Rasa]

Supposedly, I want to play it to see for myself though.

[kal]

Hmm, I hope the slip the violence back into Heroes for the US/Non-Japanese release, if it was anything like Killer 7's style it'd be much nicer with it in. Shame it's a teaser and there's no real footage.

[Neo Rasa]

Said violence was removed from the Japanese version, there is no US version yet.

Decapitation is not okay in Japan anymore, look at Resident Evil 4 and Ninja Gaiden.

[kal]

Yeah, I've spoken about Japanese censorship laws before I have

And honestly, I'm saying Nintendo will want Heroes to be releaesed, since it will probably make great use of the WiiMote which is exactly what they need.

[Neo Rasa]

Interestingly it seems to make very little use of the Wiimote compared to most games.

It seems most all the combat is performed with the A and B buttons, while the motion sensor is used only for finishing moves.