Shadows of the Damned Remaster Won’t Feature Any of Suda51’s Original Ideas

If you recall Shadows of the Damned, you might have been surprised to see that the game is getting a new lease on life. This title launched in 2011, so we wouldn’t be surprised if you don’t recall the game. Developed under Grasshopper Manufacture and published by EA, Shadows of the Damned had launched for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. However, it was very clear after the game launched that Goichi Suda, better known as Suda51, who founded Grasshopper Manufacture, was upset with how the game turned out. 

This is documented in the past, but the game development underwent a few changes. According to Suda51, the ideas were first presented to EA so that they could publish the title. While it looked like the game idea was well received, the famed developer revealed that EA suddenly demanded several changes. There was fear that some of the ideas coming from the development team would be lost on Western gamers. One example is that the game protagonist wouldn’t initially have a gun within the story. However, EA quickly killed off that among some of the more unique ideas Suda51 initially had. 

The result was a game that significantly changed from Grasshopper Manufacture’s original concept. Now that the game had since been announced for a remaster, VGC reached out to see if any of these ideas that EA initially forced to be scrapped would make a return. Unfortunately, that won’t be the case. Suda51 revealed that making some of these changes to the game would force the developers to create the gameplay experience from scratch.

If we were to make Shadows of the Damned in the way I’d originally planned and used all the ideas I originally wanted to use for the remaster, we’d basically have to remake the entire game from the ground up. Hopefully some time in the future I might get a chance to actually use the ideas that I wasn’t able to use in the beginning – I’ve got them stocked up for possible future use, so hopefully maybe someday we can see something closer to my original vision for the game.

Suda51 – VGC

So, players will continue to see the same premise and gameplay from what we received in the original game. As a result, you’ll still take on the role of Garcia Hotspur, a Mexican demon hunter that is forced to battle against all kinds of demonic scum in order to rescue his girlfriend. It’s worth pointing out that Grasshopper Manufacture owns this IP, so we could potentially see a sequel release. 

VGC asked about the potential of a sequel, and according to Suda51, he loves the characters and would love to see a sequel. Furthermore, he notes that they could use the remaster as a jumping-off point to further flesh out some of the characters. However, as it stands right now, there is no sequel in the works, and we’re still left waiting on just when we can get our hands on the remastered edition. For now, you can check out the Shadows of the Damned Remaster announcement in the video we have embedded below.