Suda51 reveals that Romeo is a Dead Man is just an advert for katsu curry

Lollipop Chainsaw, No More Heroes, The Silver Case and of course, the incomparable Killer7 punctuate a career spent pushing the boundaries of storytelling in games.

Ahead of the release of Grasshopper's upcoming title, Romeo is a Dead Man, we sat down for a chat with Suda at Gamescom 2025.

"We've been working our asses off, finishing up, polishing up and debugging the game," Suda says, of his pre-Gamescom prep.

Romeo is a surreal mishmash of art styles, themes, gameplay mechanics and more, telling the story of the half-alive, half-dead Romeo Stargazer, an FBI Space-Time special agent hunting down inter-universe fugitives.

Having spent 15 minutes hands-on with Romeo, enough to confirm that it is as uniquely 'Suda' as it sounds, I question where his inspirations come from.

"[Romeo] is mainly inspired by Back to the Future and Rick and Morty, which was inspired by Back to the Future. To get a bit more into Romeo is a Dead Man, it's basically Back to the Future and Rick and Morty, seen through the filter of space-time police and a bunch of zombies that you kill in different time periods," he explains. "As one does."

Having established that, yes, this is in fact a Suda51 title, I ask if he ever has to reign himself in – is there ever a moment where he thinks: "Maybe this is too much?"

He confirms that, rather than stopping himself, this is a job that typically falls upon his fellow Grasshopper staff.

"I tend to have lots of ideas and decide, 'OK, I'm gonna put it all into our game', and put all this stuff in there, and I'll talk to the members of staff about it and say, 'OK, this is the kind of game we're gonna make.'

"And we'll bounce ideas back and forth, and instead of stopping myself or telling myself, 'OK, this is a bit too much, a bit too far', I usually have somebody else telling me, 'OK, this is just too much, man, because it's going too far, man – let's cut back a little bit.'"

There are many aspects of my brief stint with Romeo that stick with me. Notably, the game's death screen features a clip of a physical, prop head being melted with a flamethrower, before being slimily reformed after choosing to revive.

But despite that ridiculous premise, one theme sticks in my mind more than anything else – curry.

Like the gachapon capsules of No More Heroes, Romeo sees you collecting various curry-themed ingredients, notably turmeric, cumin and various other spices.

As it turns out, the reason for this is quite simple. Suda is a man who loves a curry.

"If I had to list up the three most delicious foods in the world, the list would probably change from time to time, but katsu curry is definitely going to be in that," he explains, before asking me, "Have you ever had Japanese katsu curry before?"

I tell him I have, and that it's delicious. At hearing this, he immediately turns to me and delivers a thrilled "Subarashii" – Japanese for excellent.

"OK, so you know what's up! I wanted people around the world to understand the magnificence of katsu curry, you know? It's just, especially in Japan right now, it's kind of a thing that you can get all different kinds of.

"It's just amazing, and I wanted to spread the word – the good word – about katsu curry to people throughout the world."

I remark that Romeo is a Dead Man is just an advert for katsu curry. "That's exactly what it is, yeah," Suda laughs in reply.

Curious as to how Suda himself views his games, I ask if there's anything in particular that he looks to achieve with each title, or that he wants players to have experienced.

"When I put out a game, I don't want people to just play it – 'Oh, that was cool' – and finish it and then just have it be over, you know? I want people to, you know, they start the game, they figure out how to play it.

"They get used to the game, they play through it and they clear it. And then they think about it later, like 'Oh man, that one part was really awesome', or 'That one place in the game was really cool, I wish I could go there in real life' or something.

"I want people to, again, not just play the game, be done with it and that's it. I want the people who play my game, who play our games, to feel that it sort of left something over for them in their everyday lives afterwards.

"I want them to remember it once in a while and feel something that they felt from the game everyone once in a while. I want it to stick with them in one way or another. That's the main thing I'm trying to do with the games that I make."

After only 15 minutes with Romeo is a Dead Man, I can already confirm that this is certainly a game that is going to stick with me.

Romeo is a Dead Man releases comes to PC, PS5 and Xbox Series X/S in 2026.

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