Romeo Is A Dead Man

[regemond]

This game, is mental.

 

Could probably stop there and that's enough, tbh.

 

Take a cup of Lollipop Chainsaw, add some essence of No More Heroes and mix well before folding in a little big of Cooking Mama. Drizzle with 2D Pokemon and serve warm.

 

I'm still working my way into the main story, but essentially, you play as Romeo. A character who, at the start of the game, has his face ripped off, so your time-travelling grandfather puts a mask on you that will keep you alive. You're fated with skipping through time and space, finding Juliets to kill. Your first major battle is against a Juliet who cuts her own head before growing like one of Rita Repulsa's monsters. This also causes her to shed her clothes, so you're fighting a giant, naked and sagging Juliet. Who's headless.

 

Honestly, as with any Suda51 game I've played, it feels a little bit awkward. Every now and again it feels like you're not in complete control of the combat, but I'm slowly getting my head around it. 

 

It looks good, and the scripting is a lot of fun. 

 

But it's the minigames that seem to add tons of depth. I'm still finding my feet on these, but there's one that looks a bit like Pacman. I think as you build up strength you get more fuel you can use here, picking up various power-ups as you go. There's one that looks a bit like a cross between a fruit machine and a cut-out of a pinball table. Still haven't figured out how to do that one. Oh, and there's a katsu curry cooking minigame, too. You add ingredients and make different recipes to give varying benefits.

 

And then there are the bastard seeds. That's where the pokemon bit comes in. On board your time-and-space-travelling ship, you have a little garden. You plant seeds, and they allow you to grow bastards, which are essentially zombies with different powers. You can evolve them, combine them to create different powers, and it seems like there's going to be tons of depth in that aspect.

You'll find the various seeds, and the katsu ingredients, as you explore levels and pick them up.

 

Speaking of the levels, I don't know if this will carry through the entire game, but the first one at least is fucking weird. You start off exploring a small section of a shopping mall, and have to switch on 4 generators. But some parts of the mall are blocked, so you have to interact with one of the floating TVs, enter sub-space, explore there, and exit another TV to get to the next bit in real space. I'm writing that with a straight face, but you cannot convince me there's anything 'normal' about that.

 

It's got all the hallmarks of Suda51's normal mental approach, and it combines 'realism' with the blocky flourishes that make his games super recognisable. Yeah, I quite like this. Not sure how much legs it'll have for me though.

[DANGERMAN]

I completely forgot this existed, I need to get it at some point