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Features51 things you didn't know about Suda512-May-2010 No More Heroes boss lets us in on the little things Suda51 is the man behind some of the maddest games to grace Nintendo consoles, including Killer7 and the No More Heroes series. He's the closest thing the industry has to a rock star, and when we interviewed him recently,
we asked him to tell us 51 things that we wouldn't know about him and No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle. This is what he revealed...
He was born in Japan's Nagano prefecture. "It was a beautiful place surrounded by mountains and snow."
He hated it. "Since I was little I was always thinking about escaping."
He doesn't have any sisters.
He's not particularly close to his family. "When I moved to Tokyo, I didn't have any relatives or anything. I left my family behind to follow my dreams of making games. I stay away from my family - although now I have my own family. Make sure you mention how much I love my wife!"
It took him ages to get into the games industry. He had dozens of jobs before he broke into the world of gaming employment at the age of 24. Immediately before getting his first gaming job, making wrestling titles for Human Entertainment, he was working as an undertaker, which he hated.
Being an undertaker made him think about how he portrays death in games. "I'm probably one of the few game developers that's actually seen a dead body! I've always wanted people to experience death in my games in a powerful way."
He's a huge wrestling fan. "I started out writing wrestling games. I felt that no one else knew as much about wrestling as I did, which gave me a lot of confidence."
Suda was a shoegazer. When working on his first game, Super Fire Pro Wrestling 3: Final Bout, he obsessively listened to the ten-minute-long song Grasshopper by Oxford indie band Ride. "I'd work till midnight, listening to that song on repeat. That's why I eventually named my own studio Grasshopper Manufacture, because things only got made thanks to that song!"
He struggled to get people to listen to his ideas at first. "I was 24, the other people in the team were also very young, so we found it difficult to get our bosses to listen to our ideas. After I had some success, it became easier. My knowledge eventually convinced people to trust me."
He wanted to celebrate his first game sale with a hug. "When my first game hit the shops, it felt unbelievable. On release day I stayed in the games shop all day. When people were checking out the game on the shelf, I was standing behind them, almost whispering 'Buy it, buy it, buy it...'. When someone finally did, I wanted to hug them. Of course, culturally, you can't really do that in Japan, but I really wanted to follow them home and give them a big hug. I was so happy."
His second game featured a highly controversial ending. "After fighting his way to the top, there was nothing really left for the wrestler to achieve. So I had him commit suicide!"
He was sad the first No More Heroes wasn't popular in Japan. "No More Heroes 2 hasn't even been released in Japan yet. I really hope it is soon."
The Beam Katana used by hero Travis Touchdown isn't inspired by Star Wars. "It's actually inspired by Spaceballs!"
He didn't want to make another No More Heroes game. "After No More Heroes, I felt I'd told the story I wanted to tell."
Fans convinced him otherwise. "Once I got lots of requests from the fans that wanted to play a sequel, I sort of wanted to find out what happened next to Travis myself. Which is how the sequel came about."
He's sorry we didn't get the gory version of No More Heroes in the UK. "I wanted to make sure you guys got the more extreme version this time!"
No More Heroes 2 was inspired by a Yakuza movie. "Battles Without Honor & Humanity is referenced a few times - it was a huge influence on this game, and Killer7. It's directed by Kinji Fukasaku, who's probably most famous in the west for Battle Royale."
He wouldn't hang out with Travis Touchdown in real life. "He's too violent! Maybe if he promised not to kill anyone."
He really wanted Travis to appear in a Smash Bros game. "Can you imagine him taking on Mario?"
He thinks Sylvia Christel is his best female character. "In the past, I've never felt that I've been very good at female characters, but Sylvia is the first character I've been really happy with."
Sylvia's based on a famous actress. "Last time she was more Scarlett Johansson. This time I wanted her to look a bit like Kiera Knightley. Only with bigger breasts."
Her name is taken from slightly a less famous actress. "Yes, her name's a tribute to Sylvia Kristel!" She appeared in various, er, special grown-ups' films in the '70s and '80s.
He loves movie directors. "I put Miike Takashi in No More Heroes 2. I'd love to see him make a game. He works so fast, it'd only take him a week!"
The hotel in No More Heroes is also a movie reference. "It's modelled after the room Guy Pearce stays in during Momento."
He loves anime. "Our publishing company in Japan is Marvelous Entertainment, who do a lot of popular anime shows. I always wanted to do an anime show with them. I finally got to do it when I made No More Heroes 2."
His in-game anime show is called Bizarre Jelly. "I wrote the scenario myself. It's sort of a parody of Pretty Cure, which is an anime about magical schoolgirls. I had to laugh when I saw it for the first time, the characters' breasts were so big!"
Travis uses Bizarre Jelly catchphrases when he kills someone. "He's so obsessed with the show, he steals their lines! 'Raspberry chocolate sundae!'"
Bizarre Jelly was supposed to be in the first game. "I didn't get the idea until near the end of the first game, but they said we'd run out of money. This time we made sure we had the money up front."
His biggest regret about the No More Heroes series is a musical one. "I really wanted to include the Stranglers song that inspired the title in this second game, but the rights are just so expensive."
No More Heroes 3 won't appear until the next generation of Nintendo console has been released. "As long as this one sells enough copies!"
He's an Anglophile. "I saw England as a magical place. In fact, London was the first place I ever went to visit overseas - it inspires me so much."
He'd like to set a game in England - but not London. "To be honest, The Getaway really put me off, so I'd rather set a game in Manchester, in the Factory Records era."
British music was his first love. "In high school, my friend was a really big fan of the band Japan [who were, ironically, from Lewisham - Music Ed]. So I really got into them, and New Romantic bands like Duran Duran, then bands like Joy Division and The Smiths."
He used to dress like a New Romantic. "I actually dressed like Duran Duran - I had the hairstyle and everything."
The Cure is the band he'd have most liked to have been in. "Third guitarist at the back, just behind Robert Smith."
He's putting together a band. "I'm actually trying to start a band at the moment, called The Temptation."
They're not going to have much of a setlist. "We're only going to perform one song - Temptation by New Order. We might do different versions though, reggae, punk, electronic and so on."
He wishes that money wasn't such a barrier to creativity. "I'd love to make a game like Trainspotting, with a really amazing soundtrack of bands I love. But it would be so expensive just to get the music rights."
His favourite alcoholic drink isn't sake. "I drink it a lot, with friends, but I prefer wine."
He once saved Resident Evil creator Shinji Mikami from drinking shame. "Once the president of Capcom invited Shinji Mikami and myself out for drinks, and Mikami-san drank so much wine he threw up. I had to secretly carry him out of the bar!"
He recently lost all his clothes. "They lost my bags on the flight from Japan. I had to go clothes shopping as soon as I landed."
Ironically, despite being temporarily shirtless, he has his own fashion label. "I love making cool clothes!"
His favourite writer is Franz Kafka.
He once tried to make a game based on the existentialist's work.
He didn't know that fans had translated his unreleased-in-the-west Fatal Frame IV. "Really? I had no idea! That's so incredible! I'm so glad people can play it."
He'd like to make a Killer7 sequel some day. "Unfortunately, Capcom own the rights, so it'll probably never happen."
He wants game developers to have a more punk attitude. "Just creating something is punk to me. The very first time I played a videogame, I was so shocked at the feelings I had, and I always want other people to feel that when they play my games."
He really likes the Burnout series. According to Criterion's server logs, he's put over 700 hours into the game.
His all-time favourite game is Another World.
He feels that making games is a battle. "I have really innovative ideas, but people don't always accept them. So it's a constant battle between compromising my ideas, or pushing them through."
No subjects are off limits when it comes to creativity. "I don't think there are any limitations. If it was too gross for me, than maybe, but if the publishers let me do it, then I'd probably do it anyway. I guess there is a line, but I've never hit it."
He won't tell us anything about his upcoming EA collaboration that also involves Shinji Mikami and Silent Hill producer Akira Yamaoka. "Will I tell you anything about it? No! Haha."
Bonus fact! No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle is out in May.
| NGamer Staff |  |
| What an absolute legend  | |
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| Ha this guy is awesome.
kudos on CVG for the sort of odd ball style of the interview write up | |
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