Mikami/Suda51's Project to be revealed next week

[derboo]

After what feels like 10 years of Japanese developers prefering to play FPS, they finally get off their asses and start to make... TPS. I do like what I see, though. I think the world needs good shooters out of Japan. This and Devil's Third are definitely the two mainstream games I'm most looking forward to.

[loempiavreter]

www.ea.com/shadows-of-the-damned

His name is Garcia Hotspur, hunter of demons, and his wrath will bring hell to its knees.

From the creative genius of Suda 51 (No More Heroes) and Shinji Mikami (Resident Evil) comes an all-new psychologically twisted vision of hell unlike anything seen before. Shadows of the Damned combines visceral action with dark, grotesque horror to create a mind-shattering adventure that has to been seen to be believed.

When evil demonic creatures kidnap Garcia’s girlfriend, it’s up to him to travel to the City of the Damned to get her back. Aided by a former demon with the ability to transform into an array of vicious weapons, Garcia will once again take on the mantel of “demon hunter” and rip apart the horrifying forces of the underworld to protect what he loves most.

Players must harness the power of the light to fight the army of the dark in unique light versus darkness gameplay that will forever change the way gamers perceive puzzles, combat, and terror.

Combining the punk rock style of Suda 51 with the legendary horror design of Shinji Mikami, Shadows of the Damned will take gamers on an in-your-face thrill ride through demon-torn towns, shadow infested forests, grimy sewers and more. Featuring the most twisted boss battles ever seen, warped visuals and intense visceral combat, Shadows of the Damned will challenge gamers to break through the ultimate head-trip to help Garcia rescue his tortured girlfriend from the clutches of a mysterious enemy.

Brace yourself for one hell of a trip to the city of the damned.

[munchy]

"unique light versus darkness gameplay that will forever change the way gamers perceive puzzles, combat, and terror."

Heeeeey, wait a minute! This sounds almost exactly like the early previews of Resident Evil 5. Would've made that game far more interesting.

Also I love how much the plot resembles that of Ghosts 'n' Goblins.

[X-pert74]

I think Shadows of the Damned looks awesome. It just might be my most anticipated game right now.

[loempiavreter]

Finally some new info, coming from Playstation Magazine:

"Demons are like men, they are always trying to get into the prettiest girl."
Possible minor SPOILERS ahead, you have been warned.

So lets start from the beginning. Garcia Hotspur (inspired by the Shakespeare character) is a demon hunter who has accomplished much over his long career. Then, out of the blue, a demon going by the name of Fleming kidnaps his girlfriend Paula and takes her to hell. Garcia, being the faithful lover that all action game stars are, decides to chase her into hell with his lovable demon companion Johnson. Before I go farther into the game I should mention a few things. First of all the tattoo on Garcia's neck reads "I would kill the world before I let it harm you." I've heard of people asking what that says so I'd just like to clear that up. Secondly nobody knows anything about Fleming. Apparently nobody at EA has even seen him. I have to admit though, its not a very tough sounding name.

The World
As I've mentioned before Shadows of the Damned takes place in hell. Suda 51 and Mikami have constantly been saying that hell is close to the human world. What they mean by this is hell is kind of like the human world. The demons all live in this city like version of hell. It is filled with signs, stores, and vending machines. One of the demons favorite past times is to make fun of the human world. For instance one of the signs reads "Try our new Strawberry Sh*t Cake!" Apparently when a demon says strawberries, he means human tongues.

Now the hell isn't just made up of that one city. It is apparently made up of many sprawling levels that are supposed to be extremely varied. The city we've seen so far works as a kind of hub level (or so I've been lead to believe). The other levels are reached by crossing through corridors of darkness (that's not what they call them but it gives you a good idea of what they are). For those who don't have that much imagination, they are long, twisting hallways filled with enemies. Your health is also constantly draining during these world transitions. Speaking of health the only thing that can replenish it is alcohol which is fond in any of the many vending machines found throughout hell.

As a side note, there is no light in hell ( Sora, Donald, and Goofy are not coming to save you). This is going to be a dark and gritty action game from start to finish.

The Demons

Not much new to say about them. Apparently the demons follow a very strict hierarchy and that they like Opera (Flemming in particular). Don't expect a bunch of singing demons though. When demons die they drop jewels (there are nice things in hell). These precious gems are the currency of the game and can be used to buy and upgrade various weapons (which I'll get to later) as well as buy booze. Here are some new pics of the demons brought to you by GameSpot.

www.gamespot.com/xbox360/action/untitledgrasshopperproject/screenindex.html?sid=6298878&om_act=convert&om_clk=picks&tag=picks%3Btitle%3B3

Garcia Hotspur

Our leading man will have two ways to combat demons (as far as I know). He can use his guns (which I'll talk about later) and can go in for some close range action. He will have a variety of melee moves as well as some stomping attacks (does this remind anyone of Dead Space). According to the magazine the amount of jewels you get from the demons depends on how "cool" you kill it. We are left to wonder what their definition of "cool" is or what kind of system will measure it.

Johnson and the Guns

Johnson is all of your guns (or so I know). So far we know only of three. A machine gun, a high damage single shot hand gun that fires bones (and is literally named The B*ner), and a gun that fires skulls. More will be reveled as time goes on. Johnson has a long history with Garcia but we won't know what that is until the game comes out.

Source of summary, ContraMundiX on gamefaqs boards of SotD

[akumajobelmont]

Sept 15, 2010 15:29:47 GMT -5 loempiavreter said:

Only thing I wasn't to fond was was that 'orrible background music. Hopefully that Silent Hill fella comes up with some quality tunes, and this bgm was just for trailer only.

Woah, that's some classic Yamaoka in that there background music!!! I adore it already. There's no one on Earth that sounds like Akira Yamaoka does, and I'm thankful for that; I can pick him a MILE away

[Catalyst]

That is all.

[susanismyalias]

daaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaamn

[Snarboo]

This looks suitably insane but good lord the voice acting and dialogue is terrible.

[derboo]

Mar 9, 2011 4:44:48 GMT -5 Snarboo said:

This looks suitably insane but good lord the voice acting and dialogue is terrible.

I wouldn't want it any other way. That trailer got my hype level up again after I almost forgot about the game.

[loempiavreter]

Mar 9, 2011 4:44:48 GMT -5 Snarboo said:

This looks suitably insane but good lord the voice acting and dialogue is terrible.

And that's perfectly fine, as Suda wants exploitation cinema style. Although how it stands it reminds me more of The Evil Dead series, then a true exploitation film.

But that's perfectly fine as well ;D

Damn now I understand the choice for the reds and greens in this game:


aging film reel of course

[loempiavreter]

Gameplay footage:

[munchy]

Mar 9, 2011 4:44:48 GMT -5 Snarboo said:

This looks suitably insane but good lord the voice acting and dialogue is terrible.

Am I the only one who loled at the talking skull stick?

Game looks awesome though. It's as if Quentin Tarantino made a movie out of Ghosts 'n' Goblins. Someone might have said it in another forum but I'm gonna pretend this is RE5 and that the real one never happened.

[America Young Fusion]

LOL @ his dead girlfriend teasing him, Sylvia and this makes me think Suda has the same issues with women as Garth Marenghi.

[Catalyst]

Short Article on How Shadows of the Damned Came to Be

Shadows of the Damned, the latest from Grasshopper Manufacture and the newly-independent Shinji Mikami, is finally just about complete. It's due out for the PS3 and 360 on June 21, and the way that Mikami and Grasshopper head Goichi Suda put it to Famitsu magazine this week, it's a miracle that it ever happened.

The Damned project got its start in 2007, not long after Suda and Mikami (who was still with Capcom back then) collaborated on Killer7 on the GameCube. "In 2007 I got a Hollywood agency to sign on to the project, and I figured that was our big chance, so I called up Mikami and we went around the US doing presentations with me as director and Mikami as producer," Suda said. "Several companies displayed interest, but out of them, EA was the most interested in what we were doing," Mikami added. "They were the first one to take real action, in other words."

The game they had at the time, called Kurayami (or "darkness" in Japanese), was a bit of a different game -- one where your gun had a monitor showing a girl that matured and revealed the story as you went through the game. "At the start of development," Suda recalled, "Kurayami was largely concentrated around hand-to-hand combat. However, Mikami talked things over with EA and we decided to introduce guns into the mix as well. I wrote up the story to go along with that, and just as we were just about done with the game, EA was all 'Wait a second!'"

"Everything got turned over and we wound up restarting from scratch," Mikami said. "This is the first time EA has ever really teamed up with Japanese creators, so they were probably being too hands-off with us at first. Looking back, we both probably should have been more direct with our opinions from the beginning."

Part of the reason for EA's hesitance was a desire to make the story easier to understand -- something that Suda's games are not generally well-known for being. "It's what they call the elevator pitch," Suda said. "It's easier to get into a story if you can explain it to someone in the couple of seconds you have before the elevator you're riding reaches its floor. David DeMartini [head of EA Partners] asked us to remake the story into something where the hero is trying to rescue a girl that's been kidnapped." ("Something completely the opposite direction from what Suda was doing right when Kurayami was nearly done," added Mikami."

Still, Suda remained unfazed. "Both Mikami and I fervently want this project to hit it big worldwide, so we took that feedback as a cue to rework the game," he said. "We decided to create the sort of love story that only we could do, and that's when the name changed to Shadows of the Damned. "Looking back, the first Damned press conference was back in 2008. Three years on, and we're finally nearing completion on the project -- it's been a long journey for me, Mikami, Grasshopper, and EA. It's a very emotional thing to see us now, just a few months away from being finished."

Link www.1up.com/news/shadows-damned

Plus New Trailer