Suda51 says Grasshopper won’t ‘pump the brakes’ on extreme content to avoid online criticism
The No More Heroes studio won’t “hold back in case people get angry”
Grasshopper Manufacture founder Goichi Suda (aka Suda51) has said the studio has no plans to dilute the content of its future games to avoid controversy.
In a recent interview, VGC asked Suda if instances where social media users have called out controversial products has made him think twice about the extreme content and choice language often used in his studio’s games.
Suda replied that while Grasshopper’s games do indeed have mature content, the studio doesn’t consciously set out to make a game controversial.
“Yeah, there certainly is a lot of that kind of stuff in the games we make, but honestly, it’s not really something I think about when I’m sitting down and creating a game,” he explained. “We start out with the scenario and the characters, it’s not like I’m sitting there thinking ‘okay, let’s put these adult themes into it’ or ‘let’s make the character talk like this’.
“I sit down and think out the scenario and let it go from there, and as the characters become more realised and fleshed out, the way they speak and the way they look also becomes more realised and fleshed out. I just sort of let them grow the way I feel they would naturally grow from that creative process.
“While I don’t purposely set out to put lots of adult themes or risque themes into the games, at the same time I don’t really try to hold back on anything either. If I think this is how a character would talk or look naturally, then that’s what it’s going to be like.
“So honestly, I don’t really see myself pumping the brakes a bit, or trying to hold back consciously from here on out, just because that’s not really the way we do things here.”
Suda also explained that the studio isn’t necessarily against removing content from its games, and actively does so as part of the creation process, but that it’s never in anticipation of how it will be received.
“Once the game starts coming into shape and the scenarios are laid out, the dialogue’s written out and the characters are drawn out, once we actually start putting it into the game there are times when we’ll speak with the staff and say ‘okay, actually, maybe this should be changed a bit, maybe this isn’t the best fit for this character or this scene’,” he told us.
“So obviously there are going to be things that get taken out and changed, and things that maybe we’ll feel later on that we should dial back a bit, but I guess you could say it’s purely a matter of creative choice, not a need to hold back in case people get angry or anything.”
Further reading
Suda and Nagoshi: NetEase has given us freedom
Grasshopper’s last game was No More Heroes III, the final game in the trilogy, which was released in 2021. The studio is currently working on an HD remaster of Shadows of the Damned.
