Goichi Suda

Goichi Suda (須田 剛一, Suda Gōichi^?, born January 2, 1968), is the CEO of Grasshopper Manufacture. The "51" in his nickname, Suda51, is a pun on his given name. In Japanese, "Go" means 5 and "ichi" means 1. His works include Moonlight Syndrome, The Silver Case, Flower, Sun and Rain, Michigan, killer7, the No More Heroes series, and most recently, Shadows of the Damned and the upcoming Lollipop Chainsaw. He was known to make appearances wearing a lucha libre mask while promoting killer7. He has been called an "auteur" video game director.^[1][2]

Suda and his studio also frequently collaborate with other developers, including creating the story sequences for the Wii title Fatal Frame IV: Mask of the Lunar Eclipse, Suda's involvement in Super Smash Bros. Brawl (his nickname "Suda51" appears in the credits for the game's "Subspace Emissary" mode), and a radio drama prequel to Snatcher with Hideo Kojima titled Sdatcher.

In August 2008 Electronic Arts announced a deal to publish Shadows of the Damned, an action horror game developed by Grasshopper in conjunction with Q Entertainment. The game was directed by Suda and produced by Shinji Mikami with music composed by Akira Yamaoka, and was released on Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 in June 2011.

On January 26, 2010, No More Heroes: Desperate Struggle for the Wii was released in North America, with successive releases in Europe and Japan later that year. It is one of the few Suda 51-directed franchises commercially successful enough to earn a sequel.

Grasshopper consists of about 140 employees.

Career highlights

Suda was working as an undertaker, enjoying the booming Japanese arcade scene, when he noticed an advertisement for an opening at Human Entertainment, best known for designing the Clock Tower and Fire Pro Wrestling series'. Suda applied but for weeks had not received a reply from Human. He figured his application had been passed over and planned to continue working as an undertaker, a job which he found himself disliking. Suda finally received a call from Human, and was immediately hired. He began work as a scenario writer on Super Fire Pro Wrestling 3 Final Bout. The next game he would work on, Super Fire Pro Wrestling Special, remains one of his most infamous to date due to its shocking ending.

Goichi Suda then worked on games in the Syndrome series until his departure in 1998 shortly before Human disbanded. He went on to form Grasshopper Manufacture around this time, and began work on The Silver Case. The Silver Case (also known as Silver Jiken) marked the debut of Grasshopper's signature "Film Window" style of editing, where text bounces and jiggles onto the screen at random. The game's story was written into two chapters, one following the investigation of a series of murder cases, the other about a journalist covering them.

In 2001, Grasshopper Manufacture developed Flower, Sun, and Rain for the PlayStation 2. Flower, Sun, and Rain takes place on an island called Lospass, with the Flower, Sun, and Rain hotel placed at the center. The game was known for its twisted story, about a "searcher" who is forced to relive the same day, again and again. While going about his business, he is trapped within other characters' problems. As the game continues, his hotel room begins to twist and turn, and he loses his sanity piece by piece. An enhanced version of the game with added content was released for the Nintendo DS in 2008 in Japan and Europe, and in North America in June 2009.

In 2005, Suda made his North American debut with killer7. The player takes control of Harman Smith, a 60-year-old wheelchair-bound assassin with seven personalities who manifest themselves into the real world. Each personality has his or her own personal style of killing, and the group is collectively known as the Killer7. The dominant personality is Garcian Smith ("The Cleaner"), who, while in the presence of security cameras or television sets, has the ability to call upon the six other members of the Killer7 anywhere at any time. Unlike most multiple personalities, Harman does not just think he becomes someone else. Rather, his personae actually take on a unique physical body when called upon. The Killer7 uncover a political plot between Japan and the United States, as Garcian slowly begins to realize the truth behind his past. While not a huge commercial hit, the game garnered a large cult following and in addition, killer7 also brought Grasshopper Manufacture to the interest of North American gamers.

Grasshopper later collaborated with Marvelous Interactive to release Contact for the Nintendo DS. The game was a much smaller hit than killer7, as Suda51 instead opted for a more "family friendly" title. Contact is the story of a young boy who is mixed up in a battle between the Professor and a group of intergalactic characters known as the CosmoNOTs. The game was localized by notable Atlus writer Tomm Hulett, and released in North America in October 2006. There is also rumored to be a planned Contact sequel.

On December 6, 2007, No More Heroes was released in Japan, and later in the rest of the world during early 2008. The story follows Travis Touchdown, who is a stereotypical otaku – his motel room decorated with professional wrestling and anime collectibles – living in near poverty in the motel "NO MORE HEROES" of Santa Destroy, California. After winning a beam katana in an internet auction he becomes a hitman. When he runs out of money to buy video games and wrestling videos he accepts a job to kill Helter Skelter, also known as "the Drifter," which earns him rank 11 by the United Assassins Association, a governing body of assassins. Realizing that he has now made himself a target for aspiring assassins, he sets out to secure himself the coveted position of number one hitman in the UAA.

Suda expressed disappointment in the Japanese sales of the game, saying that only Nintendo is doing well in regard to the Wii's success because of its adoption by casual gamers. He later stated his comment was being misinterpreted, saying his "point was that No More Heroes, unlike a lot of Nintendo Wii titles currently available is the kind of product which will attract a different kind of consumer to the hardware, i.e. gamers who are looking for a different genre to the products which have been successful on this platform thus far." Outside of Japan, sales of the game fared much better, even sparking talk of a sequel.

Suda 51 stated in an interview with Computer and Video Games that he was definitely interested in producing a follow-up to No More Heroes, but it would have to be on the condition that the game sold enough to convince its publishers that it would be worth it.^[3] This goal was reached, and on October 9, 2008 at the TGS he showed off a teaser trailer of No More Heroes: Desperate Struggle a sequel to the first No More Heroes and the first 100% sequel. A little over a year later, in January 2010, it was released in North America. The game has received the overall highest and most universal praise of any game in Grasshopper's history, scoring an 86 out of 100 according to media aggregate site Metacritic. In particular, it has been noted for finally striking the right balance between mainstream accessibility and Suda 51's signature offbeat style, a goal which many felt had eluded Grasshopper's games up to this point.

Trademarks

Many of Goichi Suda's games developed under Grasshopper Manufacture exhibit similar trademarks such as:

• A video game within a video game (the virtual "killer7" game in killer7; "Dragon & Dragon" and "F-1 Racer" in Contact; "Pure White Giant Glastonbury" in No More Heroes; "Great Demon World" in Shadows of the Damned).
• Excessively long passages (beneath Eleki Island in Flower, Sun and Rain; the Senton Splash Tunnel in No More Heroes).
• "Film Window" style of editing text in cutscenes (The Silver Case, killer7, and to some extent, Samurai Champloo: Sidetracked).
• Stages with a series of forks in the road, where taking the wrong path causes the player to be returned to the beginning of the path. Someone or something accompanies the player, giving them hints on which is direction is the correct one (Step Dsing at the Randelman Garden in Flower, Sun, and Rain; music in the Dominican Republic in killer7; Thunder Ryu in the Forest of Bewilderment in No More Heroes; the maze in the "Castle of Hassle" in Shadows of the Damned).
• The inclusion of a boss fight in which the player has no control over the outcome (the Handsome Men in killer7; the CosmoNOTs' show in Contact; Letz Shake and Dark Star in No More Heroes; Fights with Akira Saeba in "Super Fire ProWrestling Special"; Elliot's human form in Shadows Of The Damned).
• The prominent inclusion of hotels or motels (the Flower, Sun, and Rain hotel in Flower, Sun, and Rain; the Union Hotel in killer7; the "NO MORE HEROES" motel in No More Heroes).
• Use of the number '51' (51 ranked assassins, Area 51 in No More Heroes and Airport 51 in No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle)
• Anime cut-scenes and culture (Travis' obsession with the fictional Bizarre Jelly anime and an anime intro sequence in No More Heroes; characters Ayame Blackburn and Angel in killer7 and cut-scenes in chapters Sunset, Cloudman and Alter-Ego.)
• Libraries, as seen in Killer7's "Angel", the boss fight with Shinobu in No More Heroes, and the bridge puzzle in the library in Shadows of the Damned.

Works

Other works

Goichi Suda wrote the lyrics for two songs used in his games. A Japanese song was used in Flower, Sun, and Rain entitled "F.S.R.-For You-" and an English song in No More Heroes. This one was entitled "The virgin child makes her wish without feeling anything".

References

External links

• killer7 fan biography
• Formula 51 - A look at Suda 51
• IGN February 2007 interview
• Kotaku April 2007 Interview
• GameTrailers April 2007 Video Interview
• CVG April 2007 Interview
• GO3 2007 Keynote Write-Up
• Gamasutra July 2007 Interview
• Suda 51 at the Internet Movie Database
• Goichi Suda on Suda51 Wiki, an external wiki
• Goichi Suda at GamerWiki
• Scott Munro interviews Suda 51 - DailyRecord.co.uk