Romeo is a Dead Man Review

Player(s): 1
Extra Features: N/A

Romeo is a Dead Man is the latest title developed from Grasshopper Manufacture. Yet again, we have another ultra violent science fiction title from Suda51. As usual, the style is really out there and totally wild. If you’ve played a Suda51 game before, you know what to expect. Expect the unexpected. Expect loads of wild gameplay, minigames, style, story and characters that only Suda51 could think of.

Players take on the role of Romeo Stargazer. After getting mutilated and left for dead, Romeo’s grandfather saves him by installing a mask on Romeo’s head to keep him alive. Romeo is now a walking “Deadman”. Using his newly modified body, Romeo continues his job as an FBI investigator that tracks down wanted criminals (drifters that can transform into dangerous entities) throughout spacetime. As usual, the story is told with a VERY wild style.

From the beginning, you only have a sword and handgun, but you quickly pick up other weapons as the game progresses. Besides the aforementioned, Romeo can wield a giant sword, gauntlets, a spear, a shotgun, a machine gun and a rocket launcher. The melee combat is ultra-violent and bloody. This game is loaded with eye candy once the action begins. There is honestly, so much stuff going on, it’s hard to focus on dodging enemy attacks at times.

Enemies come in the basic form of zombies that can be slapped around quite a bit. There are also more dangerous creatures. Bigger enemies often have visible weak points that you have to shoot in order to get big damage on them. The game does a good job of making you use your projectile weapons. Some enemies have to be shot or else you’re in for a tough battle. Each weapon is unique in its own way. You have strong and weak attacks that can form into a combo. You also have a dodge roll and a super attack. By building up blood points from hitting enemies, you’ll build up a super meter that allows you to unleash a powerful attack that will cause major damage and also heal Romeo. All weapons can be powered up and your overall character can be powered up as well.

Along with your normal combat, you can call in a “Bastard” helper. Bastards can be summoned during combat and they will each perform their own unique assist. Some of them will heal, some will provide support and some will attack or stun enemies. All Bastards are on a cool down. Your bastards are like your Pokemon or Digimon. They can be raised through seeds and you can raise more powerful bastards or get them to engage in combat to make them more powerful.

When it comes to boss battles, Suda often knows how to do some good ones and this game is no exception. You’ll battle some giant screen-filling enemies at times. Bosses have a variety of attacks and weaknesses. The stage 2 boss has a very in-depth list of attacks that he performs throughout all of his phases making him quite challenging. This game has random spikes in difficulty throughout it. Both bosses and normal enemies encounters can kill you in seconds if you are not careful. Thankfully, the game has a very forgiving checkpoint system, so you can always try again if you happen to die.

The game also has VR segments that you’ll have to engage in during action levels. In VR segments, you explore an area with constantly changing landscapes and have to find your way out of it. Walls might suddenly collapse to reveal a secret area. These is no combat in VR areas – it’s all about getting in and finding an item that will help get out and back into the real world. In between action levels, you get to explore a ship in an overhead pixel art area. You get to engage with other characters and perform minor quests in between dialogue and story segments. These pixel art segments, allow you to buy new items and upgrade your character. You can also engage in some minigames.

The overall look of the game is much like Suda’s other games. The cutscenes are very well done. You have your normal in-game cutscenes and some comic book strip cutscenes at times. The game also has many weird minigames. You sort of have to figure out the minigames yourself with little help. There was one involving lining up a circle that I never did truly understand, but I worked my way through them all and apparently figured them out. The music is absolutely fantastic! The boss battle music is very engaging and there are several other catchy tracks throughout the game.

My main problem with this game is the overall flow of the game. You get to do these great action combat levels and this suddenly everything gets dulled down into an overhead pixel art area with tons of dialogue to go through. The dialogue often feels like filler topics the majority of the time. The tutorials can be off the scale in this game as well. The minigames are just ok. They never are really that fun. If the game emphasized the action levels more with small breaks in between, I’d enjoy the game much better. The combat is the main attraction and it’s very noticeable when you’re outside combat.

Overall, Romeo is a Dead Man is a pretty good action title, but it gets brought down too much whenever it switches to just about anything outside of its action levels. The story is just ok (very weird as usual), the minigames are not all that exciting, the VR missions are pretty boring, and the overhead pixel art areas in between action levels gets tedious quickly. If you’re a fan of Suda51, Romeo is a Dead Man is worth a try for the style and action alone, but I find it to be one of Suda’s lower end titles.

The Good:
+ Pretty good hack and slash gameplay
+ Fantastic soundtrack and English voice overs
+ Usual bizarre Suda51 style is very evident

The Bad:
- Only the action gameplay stands out as good
- The dialogue in between action missions gets tedious