From Let it Die and S chairman Suda-51, Grasshopper Manufacture is a unique Tokyo-based studio that’s known for games like No More Heroes, Killer7, and now Shadows of the Damned, as well as its humorous, tongue-in-cheek style that never takes itself too seriously. As the studio nears its 25th anniversary, we have our very first Grasshopper Manufacture Direct.
Grasshopper was founded on March 30 in 1998 – the Direct is marking its 25th anniversary with a look at a new game. This first Grasshopper Direct was light-hearted and comical, ad-libbing between two Grasshopper Manufacture employees. There were also a couple of fake adverts designed to look like YouTube ads and meant to confuse.
The first fake advert was a John Wick pisstake called Pistol Yakuza, about a mob killer who goes on a rampage after someone kills his cat.
The second was an aesthetically pleasing ad for Electric Thunder Tiger 14, another in-joke based on a game in the No More Heroes universe.
These were immediately followed by some quick highlights from the studio’s history of games including No More Heroes, Killer7, Let it Die, Yo-kai Watch Blasters, Ducks n’ Drakes, Tokyo Yamanote Boys, Shadows of the Damned, and more.
The Direct ended with a brief glimpse at Grasshopper’s upcoming game, with the two Grasshopper staff interrupting Suda-51 as he played a videogame.
From the brief look at the game, we can see the pause screen gives us a lot of information, complete with a blood meter, a blurred-out protagonist, a meter for Emerald Flowsion, two named weapons, ability slots, a timer, 15 item slots and even a photo mode.
That’s a little underwhelming from a gameplay perspective, but it’s still very early days and the game Grasshopper is working on is a third-person action title, from a team that has worked on titles such as No More Heroes and Let it Die. It also includes guns (let’s be real, it’s not a Grasshopper game without guns) and an in-depth loot system. We’ll have to wait and see how it turns out.
In the meantime, the Direct showed off a specially commissioned piece of 25th anniversary art, featuring Grasshopper’s protagonists with one ‘unknown’ character given prominence by the artist. It also included a few words from Suda 51, to wrap up the direct.
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Whether it was meant quite seriously or not, the Grasshopper Direct was certainly entertaining.
Check out the rest of our E3 2023 coverage for all the biggest news, previews, and trailers from the show. If you’re looking for something to play in the meantime, check out the best new games on PC that we have for you in the coming year.