Suda 51 is one divisive character, at least when it comes to his videogames. No More Heroes and Killer 7 are games that people either love or hate. An easy enough situation to have, as cel-shaded, stylized, and bat-s**t crazy games are not going to have the broadest appeal.
A quiet, sharply dressed man rocking a scarf wasn’t the Suda 51 I expected to find. Wouldn’t he be busy doing some punk stuff somewhere? He wouldn’t be this soft-spoken gentleman standing in front of me…would he? And yes it’s true. Behind the games, the snazzy business cards, the wacky mantra of “Punx not dead”, Suda 51 was not the man I expected him to be.
So it was appropriate that, sitting in the cafeteria of Ubisoft’s San Francisco’s office, I was able to pick the brain of the man who is working to challenge what can and can’t define a game. Quiet and dignified, it was like having a normal conversation with any other developer, except everything he stated was in Japanese, and I needed a translator. But what followed was an interesting look at what inspires the man, and especially how he views developing for both Western and Japanese audiences. Follow the jump to see what I mean.
Now let’s be real, the conversation I had was a second-hand discussion through Taiki Homma, who not only woks as Associate Producer at Ubisoft, but can handle his Japanese pretty well. Between the three of us, we were able to pick Suda’s mind on the nature of game, Western and Japanese game design, as well as what actually inspires the man.
First up was a question on the nature of symbolism. Suda 51’s games, as opposed to state, a Mario game, are certainly one for our friends in the Philosophy department at your nearby community college. You can’t sit through the insanity of No More Heroes, or especially Killer 7, without trying to untangle their convoluted insanity.
After a short pause from Suda, then a swift flurry of words, Homma said, “He adores the fact that fans examine what Sudo-san is actually trying to portray in the game. He does admit that there are certain parts that he’s trying to get across using symbolism, but there are also things that he didn’t think about. So he adores that kind of conversation between fans and himself. Yes, he loves that part.”
More than just the fans that are inspired by his work, I wanted to ask him what inspires Suda to get up every day and make videogames. Music, films, even the games he himself plays. As it turns out, for No More Heroes 2, “He listens to punk and post-punk music, with The Smiths and Joy Division. And that’s where he got inspiration for the music [of the game].” And while they weren’t as influential to the creation of this game title, “he does listen to The Ramones and the Clash, but the thing is, the most inspiration he got was from Joy Division and The Smiths.”
After some pressure, and an ambiguous response about films (“He says he pretty much watches everything. Modern movies.”), we got speaking about what he’s been playing. His response was somewhat surprising: “Right now, Uncharted 2.”
