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It's not often that video game directors are known the same way that movie directors are, but game director Goichi Suda, better known as SUDA51, is an exception. NPR's Vincent Acovino reports on his newest project and investigates why this creator's strange games continue to resonate with people.
VINCENT ACOVINO, BYLINE: Video game developer Oli Clarke Smith thinks a lot about a game he played years ago. It's called No More Heroes. You play as an assassin, cheerfully hunting other assassins.
(SOUNDBITE OF VIDEO GAME, "NO MORE HEROES")
UNIDENTIFIED VOICE ACTOR #1: (As character) For some reason, I feel this sense of euphoria.
ACOVINO: It had sensationalist violence and a sense of humor.
OLI CLARKE SMITH: And I grew up in a punk band in the punk scene, and then to see this dude turn up and start cutting heads off after flipping his bike over and swearing - and, you know, there was the energy there that I hadn't seen in a game before.
ACOVINO: Today, Clarke Smith makes games that still draw inspiration from this nearly 20-year-old game. The Japanese game designer who made No More Heroes is Goichi Suda, better known by his alias, SUDA51. He spoke to me through his interpreter.
GOICHI SUDA: (Through interpreter) I want to think that we make the kind of games that make people who play them think, oh, wow, this is something I've never seen before. This is something totally new and original and kind of crazy.
ACOVINO: The games of SUDA51 are abstract, over the top, funny, but they can also turn grim and serious. One of his first projects was a wrestling game that had a story mode, and at the end, even though the player wins and becomes a world champion, the main character dies a tragic death.
SUDA: (Through interpreter) I think there were a lot of people that were kind of - they were kind of, like, shocked by that. Like, oh, wow, I didn't think this is the kind of thing we do in games, you know?
ACOVINO: SUDA51 runs his own company now, Grasshopper Manufacture. It's been turning out games for nearly 30 years, which is a lifetime in the games industry. And he's still making games his way.
SUDA: (Through interpreter) You know, I'm not just going to make games way people expect them to be made. I want to make them the way that I want to make them.
(SOUNDBITE OF VIDEO GAME, "ROMEO IS A DEAD MAN")
UNIDENTIFIED VOICE ACTOR #2: (As character) Romeo, listen up. You're going to die in about 15 seconds.
ANTONY DEL RIO: (As Romeo Stargazer) Seriously?
UNIDENTIFIED VOICE ACTOR #2: (As character) Seriously.
ACOVINO: His latest game, "Romeo Is A Dead Man," borrows from a ton of genres, ideas and classic stories - "Back To The Future," "Rick And Morty," "Romeo And Juliet," "Twin Peaks."
SUDA: (Through interpreter) It is kind of a culmination in a way of most, if not everything, we've done up till now.
ACOVINO: SUDA51 is an auteur. People recognize his name, his creative voice and even his likeness. And that's unusual because the video game industry is so collaborative. There are story departments, programming departments, art departments, but it's rare that a game's top decision-maker is also a writer with a strong voice and style. And it's not just the writing says Suriel Vazquez, who's coauthoring a book about the history of Grasshopper Manufacture.
SURIEL VAZQUEZ: They really like to play with the video game medium as a form. Certain parts of the game will alter, will change very drastically to fit the story.
ACOVINO: For example, in "Romeo Is A Dead Man," the game's visual style constantly changes to match the action on screen. Imagine going from a realistic 3D experience like "The Last Of Us" to an early '90s "Mario" game.
VAZQUEZ: There are sections where the game is more action-focused, then you're attacking enemies with a sword and a gun. But when you are on the ship, for example, the whole game becomes this 2D pixelated kind of adventure game.
ACOVINO: In another instance, as Suda explains, the player travels to an alternate dimension, inspired by "Twin Peaks."
SUDA: (Through interpreter) Something's kind of off and you can tell it's not normal reality. You're definitely somewhere else, and you get the sense that you're sort of in-between worlds or something like this.
ACOVINO: These kind of creative decisions and their antiestablishment tone - it's what separates SUDA51's games and inspires other creators, like Oli Clarke Smith, to keep taking risks.
CLARKE SMITH: One of the ways you do that is to make something that, like, enough people love with all their heart that it opens doors. People like Suda and people like us are aiming for that.
ACOVINO: Proof that even as the industry changes, there's still a place for games that are wild, inventive...
(SOUNDBITE OF VIDEO GAME, "ROMEO IS A DEAD MAN")
UNIDENTIFIED VOICE ACTOR #3: (As character) Being human is about keeping your soul beautiful.
ACOVINO: ...And in defiance of a focus group. Vincent Acovino, NPR News. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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