In the absurdist video games of Grasshopper Manufacture, death-obsessed even by the standards of their medium, eclecticism is the spice of life. Romeo Is a Dead Man, the new hack-and-blast action game from Grasshopper godfather Suda Goichi, also known as Suda51, and protégé Yamazaki Ren, takes that philosophy to another level.
The game’s visual repertoire, expanding on Grasshopper’s long history of multimedia collage aesthetics and pushing it further than ever before, offers a dizzying array of representations. This not only includes semi-realistic Unreal Engine models but also retro pixel art, kaleidoscopic psychedelia, diorama and sculpture photography, Western-style comic books and anime segments—all produced by a multitude of artists in multiple different styles.
The spirit of eclecticism isn’t limited to the game’s visuals. The soundtrack ranges from J-rock to chiptunes to hip-hop ballads detailing the inner motivations of the boss characters. Collectible items come with descriptions of urban legends and the international origins of food. NPCs regale players with Buddhist koans, proverbs, quotes from ancient Roman intellectuals, and English soccer trivia. Save menus are simultaneously presented in 10 different languages. Romeo Is a Dead Man is a game about literally clashing realities that, despite its morbid motifs, is breathlessly eager to find the most vivid thoughts and sensations in all of them.
The story, such as it is, stitches together beloved pop-culture iconography from both sides of the Pacific: Back to the Future and Rick & Morty on one end, Kamen Rider and Chainsaw Man on the other, amid a sea of touchstones from schlock to Shakespeare. When his heartbreak at the hands of a mysterious woman shatters space-time and triggers an apocalyptic invasion of zombie-like “white devils” from another dimension, Romeo Stargazer, an upright small-town Pennsylvanian sheriff’s deputy of thick deltoids and a thicker head, is saved from the brink of death by his mad scientist grandfather and reborn as cyborg superhero Deadman.
Now able to fight back using such weapons as a glowing sword with chainsaw teeth but unable to show others the once-beautiful half-eaten face beneath his wiry metal-haloed helmet, Romeo and his family are recruited from the future by the FBI Space-Time Police to board a dimension-hopping spaceship in pursuit of the outlaws responsible for the disaster. The outlaw boss: Juliet Dendrobium, the soulful out-of-towner who stole Romeo’s heart, and whose mutating, monstrous visage he must now hunt and slay across parallel timelines throughout history.
To this end, Grasshopper deploys a mash-up of ideas from its own history of crunchy, aggressive, and fast-paced virtual bloodletting combined with a few smartly pilfered ideas from the slower, more tactical Miyazaki Hidetaka action-RPG oeuvre. As Romeo, you advance between save points in Americana-themed maps, carving through hordes of not-zombies using melee and ranged weapons. Melee combos rack up damage fast, but Romeo cannot block or parry attacks, making smart positioning and dodging crucial to the rhythm of combat.
Firearms can be safer than up-close engagement, and tough enemy variants, like bloated heavies and miasma-spewing scorpions, have weak points that can be hit for massive damage with an aimed shot. (One bull-rushing enemy type, humorously, has a bulbously oversized head, but its weak point is the center of its chest.) The more enemies mob Romeo in the game’s midsized rooms and narrow corridors, though, the riskier it is to stand his ground lining up these kill shots, and the harder it is to safely reload. What to do?
The game permits a modest but meaningful set of playstyles within these confines, allowing players their pick of weapons, accessories, upgrade paths, and friendly summoned not-zombies called Bastards obtained through an addictive but time-consuming farming minigame. Bosses are, unsurprisingly for Grasshopper, major highlights. Each space-time fugitive gets an episodic arc that needles the veil of escapism by evoking real-life horrors of the past—from slavery to maltreatment of the mentally ill—which continue to haunt America’s fractured present.
On higher difficulties, their varied, evolving, and extra lethal attack patterns often necessitate that you return to the drawing board to experiment with different approaches and equipment, every setup potentially game-changing but none of them game-breaking. Though occasionally held back by camera and performance issues, the overall combat experience is the most thoughtful and robust Grasshopper has ever produced, without sacrificing the percussive momentum or base satisfaction of mashing hostiles into giblets.
Beyond the combat, Romeo Is a Dead Man is as eclectic as one would hope. Levels are broken up by vaunts through a floating TV set and into “subspace,” a hazy, semi-abstract Tron-like realm of neon light, black cubes, and luminescent flower petals, with a cryptic pixelated gatekeeper who offers Zen provocations. Its structures materialize in front of Romeo and disintegrate as he walks away, with distorted jazz instruments on the soundtrack matching pitch and pace to the player’s movement. In this twisted space, players engage in mind-bending navigation puzzles to circumvent roadblocks in the “real” world.
Between chapters, players get to explore an RPG-style 2D spaceship hub reminiscent of Grasshopper’s forgotten Nintendo DS game Contact from 2006, populated by a diverse selection of quirky NPCs and minigames. Romeo’s mom makes him curry in a cooking game, his kid sister runs the Bastard farm, a humanoid cat oversees two different ship navigation games (one reminiscent of Pong, the other Kingdom Hearts), and a flirty nurse opens up a sadistic dating sim parody to test how far determined players will go for digital love.
Colorful dialogues with characters like these offer unexpected dollops of earnest comradery in what is a characteristically bizarre and blood-soaked pastiche for Grasshopper Manufacture. Even when the overarching story feels truncated, particularly in its final stretch, the (white) devil is in the details, adding up to a lucid, giddy, uneasy experience not quite like anything else. Romeo Is a Dead Man in all its multiplicity comes off as a meaningful evolution for the studio, and the best game that it’s made since the heyday of No More Heroes.
This game was reviewed with a code provided by ZG Public Relations.
Since 2001, we've brought you uncompromising, candid takes on the world of film, music, television, video games, theater, and more. Independently owned and operated publications like Slant have been hit hard in recent years, but we’re committed to keeping our content free and accessible—meaning no paywalls or fees.
If you like what we do, please consider subscribing to our Patreon or making a donation.
