Kadokawa Games in Japan, XSeed Games in North America and Deep Silver in Europe will publish grasshopper Manufacture's upcoming action title, Killer is Dead. The game sees players stepping into the shoes of an executioner named Mondo Zappa, whose aim is take out criminals and assassins.
Zappa who obtains his contracts the Bryan Execution Firm, which is operated by a cyborg named Bryan Roses. The player is contracted to kill various criminals across the world. Owing to his profession, Mondo hardly shows himself up in the outside world and normally lives a private life.
The game is said to involve the player's emotions by bringing a string of important themes that deals with the player's ability to protect someone as long as he can. Despite Suda's traditionally zany themes in games, Killer is Dead is filled with far more numerous serious situations.
The idea of Killer Is Dead was conceived just a few years ago, and development started in the beginning of 2011. The game is said to have some mature content, although vice president Ken Berry believes that the game can surely appeal to wider audiences.
"We definitely feel that Killer is Dead can appeal to a wide group of people, not just our usual core audience that mainly focuses on RPGs. The key will be getting the additional retail exposure at the mass market retailers like Wal-Mart, Best Buy and Target, which is essential to branching out to the more casual gamers that may not closely follow gaming news and upcoming releases," Mr. Berry told [a]list previously.
It was also later confirmed that the game was inspired by the "Transformers: Dark of the Moon." Director Goichi Suda previously revealed in an interview with Siliconera: "When I was creating the script had to do with the moon, earth, and sun. I started with a plot that related those elements, but it wasn't working out so I took that out. I still wanted to have some kind of focus with the moon."
"You know the latest Transformers movie? Nobody has seen the dark side of the moon. There could be a house there with somebody living in it and the main character needs to kill that person, but how do you get over there. That's how I started creating this game," he added.
Suda also confirmed later that the game would rely on Unreal Engine 4.
Killer is Dead is basically a routine hack 'n slash sword game that's combined with some wild use of firepower, not to forget a bit of hand-to-hand combat. Mondo is able to handle a sword with his right hand, but the best thing about him is his cybernetic left arm that converts into different weapon with different situation. These weapons not only include guns but also anything else that can be used as a weapon, for example, a drill. Nice to see Battletoads has influenced more than just GameStop prank calls.
Mondo's arm is also said to absorb blood from the people that he kills, used for a potential strike called Adrenaline Boost. To explain Mondo's abilities, Suda told Famitsu magazine, "One thing we got to do with this game is you fighting against a yakuza guy riding a tiger. You're in Kyoto, among all these old-style buildings, and [hero] Mondo is on this motorbike fighting against a yakuza on a tiger! And the game's packed with these sorts of situations, the kind you won't see in any other game. That Kyoto battle got [concepted] out surprisingly early on, too; I guess we felt like overseas gamers ought to see what Kyoto looks like."
"Mondo's an executioner, not an assassin. You have that 'execution' nuance added to the act of murdering your foes. The hero's job is to wipe out these serious villains, real AAA-class international terrorists," he revealed.
"He's dressed so smartly that you might wonder if he's actually capable of killing, but once the 'work' switch is pulled, his aura completely turns around. The story depicts him as a man who just does his job without putting much of any emotion into it."
Killer is Dead is set for an Aug. 27 release for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.
