Not many games explore the dynamic between a boy in a doomed relationship, his reckless use of the space-time continuum, and a grandfather figure with a penchant for weird science, but if Back to the Future and Rick & Morty have taught me anything, it’s that this strange dynamic can work spectacularly well, especially if the grandfather turns himself into an inanimate object.
Enter the latest title from Grasshopper Studios, led by video game auteur Goichi Suda, better known as “Suda51”. With a strong pedigree of unusual and unique action-adventure titles ranging from KILLER IS DEAD to No More Heroes, the release of Romeo Is A Dead Man continues the trend of the absurd, comedic and over-the-top action – much like Lollipop Chainsaw, it also features a mutilated head as an important (and frankly very silly) plotline.
There’s a lot to unpack straight out of the gate, as Romeo Is A Dead Man is quick to drop mountains of exposition within the first few minutes, all of which is delivered through comic book pages depicting the various events leading up to the events of the game; it rehashes the same points a few times but in essence sets the scene to allow gameplay to start in medias res, plunging Romeo into one of many missions as a member of the Space-Time Police to find his lover-turned-fugitive Juliet – this name will probably not come as a surprise.
As grateful as I am for the game getting you straight into the meat and potatoes, the storytelling itself can be one of the weakest points of the game; its delivery through comic-style panels usually breaks up the action, often over-explaining things you may already be familiar with. Thankfully this becomes less frequent after the first few chapters, but it can be jarring at times to have a comic narrated to you about the exciting adventures you aren’t getting to play.
Thankfully these interruptions don’t take away from the sheer weight that the core gameplay holds, as combat is full of flourish and flair, despite being fairly simple to operate; consisting of the common hack ‘n’ slash fare, you’ll be performing a combination of light attacks, heavy blows, dodges and special moves to overpower your opponents either en masse or in one-to-one encounters – the latter of which are often grand spectacles. Alongside a selection of fully upgradeable short- and long-range gear, you could just as quickly be waggling a spear around a cramped room as you could be firing a rocket into a crowd.
Not only does combat feel strong and varied with the bold Bloody Summer finisher rounding out an already stacked wheelhouse, but each enemy feels suitably unique whenever you trade blows – a personal favourite comes in the form of Tomatohead – not for its large ramming noggin, but just purely because the name is suitably silly (and weirdly lore accurate). Like many others, Tomatohead also features a flower that acts as a shootable weak point, something you will find on any number of enemies, but especially during the grand boss encounters. There’s a degree of spectacle to bosses which I am certainly not eager to spoil, but with absurd names, obscene scale and abilities that require tact, they can be glorious to take on.
There are various consumables and equippables alongside your core gear, all of which have varying degrees of utility – much like The Perfect Pencil. I rarely found consistent use for some items, but other players may find this much more of a helpful thing to have on hand. One thing that always stayed handy, however, was the extra abilities you could employ by cultivating your own versions of the enemies you meet, appropriately named as a synonym for a child born out of wedlock – I appreciate that I’m talking about a game where your special attack involves massive sprays of blood, but a minor curse word in this article? Now that I can’t abide by!
These B*****ds are one of your greatest tools for making your way through certain areas, allowing you to create a temporary ally capable of providing buffs, stunning enemies and – in the case of SuicideAttack – breaking the Geneva Convention. The reason I raise them here isn’t just for their utility, however, but for the way you cultivate and grow each one for use in battle; on board your ship, The Last Night, you will find a handy set of garden plots in which seeds can be planted to grow your very own B*****ds – these can also be combined to strengthen or develop new ones.
The Last Night serves as your main hub throughout the course of the game, taking the form of a well-crafted pixel art area – much like your garden plots, there are a number of utilities and interesting minigames scattered throughout that offer you the opportunity to produce helpful items, upgrade equipment and improve stats – cooking katsu curry in the kitchen gives you an item that provides major buffs during missions, while the armoury allows you to navigate a miniature maze to pick up increases to your basic stats.
Minigames and quick-time events are a fairly common sight throughout Romeo Is A Dead Man, sometimes offering a nice little distraction as you progress, but much like the comic panels, they can also feel like an interruption to the flow of the game – there’s a huge focus on fluidity and flashy graphics in every aspect of the game, but for this to suddenly stop while you hold down a button can be slightly distracting. Thankfully this is more than made up for in the general UI design, which resembles the old-school interfaces of Windows 1.0 and Ceefax (if you don’t know what those are, just ask somebody over 30) and gives more weight to the time-travel antics.
Whether you are experienced with the oddities previously published by Suda51 and the Grasshopper team or will be coming into this game fresh, it makes for a superb entry in the catalogue of any hack’n’slash fan – combat that rivals Devil May Cry is seconded only by a vibrant, eye-catching style and an excellent soundtrack; while it may not be the best of its kind, nobody can doubt the weight it holds against the competition.
