Suda 51 and Shinji Mikami interview: two legendary developers reunite for Shadows of the Damned: Hella Remastered

“If I were to make a sequel to a game, I'd like to make killer7 and God Hand”

Shadows of the Damned: Hella Remastered / Grasshopper Manufacture

Suda 51 and Shinji Mikami are reuniting for a remaster of a cult classic horror-action game. Shadows of the Damned: Hella Remastered improves the 2011 original with enhanced visuals, additional outfits with special abilities, and a revised New Game+ mode.

Ahead of its release date on October 28, 2024 across PC and console, we chat to both Suda 51 and Shinji Mikami about why they wanted to return to this game in particular, as well as how gamers’ tastes have developed in the years since, and how their partnership has changed since they first teamed up for 2005 Capcom shooter Killer7.

For another video game legend, make sure to read our interview with Naoki Yoshida as the Square Enix icon details the future of Final Fantasy 14.

Suda 51, left, and Shinji Mikami / Grasshopper Manufacture

Video Games on Sports Illustrated: How have gamers’ tastes changed since the 2011 release of Shadows of the Damned?

Suda: When I played this remaster – and Mikami said this, too – I felt like the general tempo of the action was really high-paced compared to most games these days. It really feels like it was made specifically as an intuitive action game.

When we first made the original, I didn’t really get that impression, but I think it feels that way now because so many newer games and current players put a lot of emphasis on more finely detailed graphics and art in general, and higher resolution, things like that.

Because of this, I think that the action itself in action games has become a lot slower-paced now. Game developers and players tend to demand more realism in the visuals, and so the action maybe gets pushed to the side a bit and feels a lot “heavier” than it used to. But with Damned, I realized that even back when we first created it, the action was a lot lighter and speedier, and it was a good representation of the high-speed action games that are one of Grasshopper’s strong points.

And with Damned getting rereleased as a remaster in this current generation, I think – and hope – gamers will be able to enjoy how ‘fresh’ it actually feels to play it now.

Shadows of the Damned: Hella Remastered / Grasshopper Manufacture

Mikami: I think the industry is largely polarized between ‘gorgeous triple-A games that have everything’ and ‘niche indie games’. And of course, social games that are easy to play are still quite popular.

You are both highly influential figures in the games industry. What are the best elements of working with each other, and what are the most challenging?

Suda: I’ve worked together with Mikami on two titles –Killer7 and Shadows of the Damned– and as a director, I feel that working with him acting as producer allows me to work with a real sense of safety and relief, knowing that he’ll always protect and respect his director’s creativity and creative views. That’s one of the really great things about working together with Mikami.

As for the most challenging element of working together with him, that’s a difficult question...

I’d say the biggest challenge, since we’re basically being allowed to use the Shinji Mikami brand, is making sure that whatever we do, we don’t sully or disrespect his name and brand. Working together with him, I definitely feel a lot of pressure to ensure that we don’t screw things up and that we make a game that’s worthy of having his name on it.

Mikami: What I find outstanding about Suda is his ‘strong individuality that no one can imitate’. The challenging part might be whenever he comes up with a new idea, he immediately wants to change things (laughs).

Shadows of the Damned: Hella Remastered / Grasshopper Manufacture

Why did you want to remaster Shadows of the Damned?

Suda: The game we originally set out to make was actually very different from the game that Shadows of the Damned ended up becoming. When we were working with EA as our publisher, they had a lot of input in various changes and additions/subtractions from the various scripts and ideas that we submitted; it was actually the sixth draft of the script that ended up becoming the Shadows of the Damned that we know today, and each subsequent version of the script was vastly different from the last.

Anyway, despite what a lot of people seem to believe, I actually really love Damned and how it turned out, and I’ve always had a real soft spot in my heart for the characters of Garcia, Paula, and Fleming in particular. I’ve also always wanted to create a sort of catalog of Grasshopper titles, ensuring that gamers in the future are able to play our games regardless of how long ago they may have come out, and Damned is one of the games I’d specifically wanted to add to that catalog for a long time now.

Several years ago, we actually spoke with EA about getting the rights to Damned and making a remastered version, and they told us, ‘Yeah, sure! But with one stipulation – it has to be an Origin exclusive.’ Well, making the game an Origin exclusive would pretty much defeat the purpose of what we wanted to do – which was, again, ensuring that people could play the game long into the future – so we declined the offer at the time and put the idea on the backburner.

Shadows of the Damned: Hella Remastered / Grasshopper Manufacture

A few years later, right around the time Grasshopper joined the NetEase group, we went and spoke with EA about it again. At that point, the Origin exclusive thing was no longer an issue and they gave us their blessing, so we went ahead and started planning and working on the remastered version right away.

Another reason I’ve always wanted to do a remastered version of Damned is because there were a handful of elements that we had wanted to include in the original version, but were unable to due to reasons such as time constraints, budgetary and technical limitations, etc. Specifically, I wanted to include a New Game+ mode – and this is something that Mikami had wanted to include as well – where after completing the game once, you’d be able to restart the game while retaining all the weapons and power-ups you’d collected in your first playthrough.

Two more elements that I wanted to include in the original but that we ended up not being able to were including different costumes for the main character, Garcia, and a gimmick that would allow him to gradually become ‘demonized’ as the game went on, becoming stronger and having more powerful attacks. We’ve included four new costumes in the remastered version, and one of them, called Demonio Garcia, does basically that – Garcia looks like a demon, and your attack power doubles when you use the costume (which becomes available after clearing the game once).

So after all these years, we were finally able to include the stuff that we weren’t able to in the original version, and so we just went ahead and did it.

Mikami: By the time I noticed, Suda had already made it (laughs). I’ve heard from Suda that he wants to create an archive of GhM titles. 

Shadows of the Damned: Hella Remastered / Grasshopper Manufacture

Shadows of the Damned has a 76/100 on reviews aggregate site Metacritic. How fair do you think the reviews were?

Suda: To be honest, I don’t really feel that reviews on websites affect us very much. Of course we see reviews of our games here and there sometimes, but personally, I’m neither happy nor unhappy when one of our games receives a good or bad review. What’s most important to us, and to me in particular, is whether or not the players actually enjoy playing our games.

The algorithm used by Metacritic can be a bit wonky sometimes, and I don’t feel that the general score attributed to a game truly reflects how good or bad the game actually is. Sometimes I’ll see that one of our games has gotten a score of 0 in some review, and I’m just like, “What...?” (laughs). Anyway, I don’t pay much attention to the reviews we get, and I don’t really let them affect or influence me or how we make our games at all.

Mikami: Shadows of the Damned is a really divisive game when it comes to players’ opinions, so I don’t think it’s a bad evaluation. I believe it’s a work that can be really satisfying to those who really get into it.

Shadows of the Damned: Hella Remastered / Grasshopper Manufacture

What other remasters of your previous games would you like to make?

Suda: The first title we want to revisit would be Flower, Sun, and Rain. Whether it be a remaster or a remake or whatever, this is definitely the number-one past Grasshopper title that we’d like to get to first. Not only due to personal preference, but we’ve sort of made a promise to our fans as well.

Mikami: I have no interest in ‘remasters’. If I were to make a sequel to a game, I’d like to make killer7 and God Hand.

We’re seeing many remasters recently, including Silent Hill 2, Metal Gear Solid 3, and the Resident Evil series. What, for you, are the most important elements of a successful remaster?

Suda: I feel that the most important element of a remaster being successful is simply whether or not the original game was interesting and fun to play. Of course, there’s also the issue of how carefully and true to the original the remake/remaster has been made as well.

Mikami: I think what’s important are the nostalgia revival effect and how the visuals and gameplay are arranged to fit the current era.

Shadows of the Damned: Hella Remastered releases October 31, 2024, for PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, PC and Nintendo Switch.