Suda51 and his Grasshopper Manufacture game development studio should need no introduction, as they have developed some of the most unique PC and consoles games ever released, including the No More Heroes series, Shadow of the Damned, and many others. Earlier this year, the developer announced its next game, Romeo is a Dead Man, which, from its very first showing, promised to be an uncompromising Grasshopper Manufacture game sporting a rather unique visual identity and the trademark high-intensity gameplay the studio is known for.
During Gamescom 2025 last week, I was given the chance to try out Romeo is a Dead Man. Although the demo was only 30 minutes long, it was enough to highlight how Suda51's next game has the potential to be one of his very best. For starters, the game has a very distinct indentity that is unmistakebly Grasshopper and Suda51, with comic book cutscenes providing a recap of how FBI agent Romeo came to be a dead man and turn into a space-time agent hunting all sorts of criminals and searching for his missing girlfriend Juliet, an 8-bit visual flair for a lot of UI elements, and a no-holds barred approach to combat, with multiple melee weapons and guns and skills with effects ranging from dealing more damage to enemies caught in the attack to buffing and debuffing that take advantage of the game's wacky setting. Although gameplay was definitely on the simpler side of the hack-and-slash genre, with mostly mindless regular enemies and the occasional more resilient foe that required more focus on defense and dodging attacks, the experience was definitely exhilarating, thanks to the game's excellent presentation and style.
Even though the Romeo is a Dead Man Gamescom 2025 demo was mostly about taking down multiple foes, it also provided a good glimpse of how the game's unique premise will influence level design. To proceed through to his objective, Romeo will often have to jump into Subspace, an alternate dimension with some rather flashy looks, where he will have to solve some simple puzzles. Given how the entire game has done away with the typical open-world setting seen in the No More Heroes series, in favor of tighter linear progression, this inclusion is extremely welcome, as the "real world" stage where the demo was set was a simple open-field with a swamp feel that wasn't particularly interesting by itself.
Although Romeo is a Dead Man will be balanced more around melee combat, as Suda51 himself confirmed to me after playing the demo, gunplay will still play a rather important role, as the first taste of the experience clearly showed at the end with a boss fight. Sometimes, enemies will have some weak spots that are out of reach for melee weapons that can be shot down with guns to deal a lot of damage. This element in particular made the boss battle against the giant deformed monstrosity posing as Juliet quite fun, so hopefully these mechanics will be used in the final game to up the complexity of the combat system, which is fine for the most part though far from that of other action-focused games.
Romeo is a Dead Man is not only a Grasshopper Manufacture and Suda51 game through and through, it's also a title that isn't afraid to be a simple video game, somewhat going against the trend of trying to make games as realistic as possible. W
With a very personable feel, a wacky story mixing dark humor and gory violence in true Suda51 fashion and and an experience that feels fun right from the beginning, which continues to be prevalent in the game's second chapter, I feel Romeo is a Dead Man has the potential of becoming one of the best games ever released by Grasshopper Manufacture, and one I am very much looking forward to it, even in a packed February 2026.
About the author: Francesco De Meo has been covering video games and technology since 2012, starting his career at small outlets like Gamersyndrome and GeekSnack. After joining Wccftech gaming section in 2015, he quickly expanded his video gaming coverage with in-depth reporting, interviews with iconic industry figures such as Grasshopper Manufacture founder and No More Heroes creator Goichi "Suda51" Suda, Resident Evil series creator Shinji Mikami, Team NINJA's president and Nioh series director Fumihiko Yasuda, and Silent Hill creator Keiichiro Toyama, reviews and on-the-ground coverage of major industry events such as Gamescom and E3. When he's not reporting or reviewing, Francesco can be found playing the genres he loves most, spending time with his six cats, reading, writing music, playing guitar and drumming for his progressive rock band.
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