Suda 51
If you were to take David Lynch, Quentin Tarantino and a Luchador and lock them in a room surrounded by Sci-Fi movies, anime and Andy Warhol paintings, you'd get something quite close to the inside of Goichi Suda's mind.
Goichi Suda, or Suda 51 as he's better known, is one of the most Mind Screwing game designers out there. He's the head of Grasshopper Manufacture and is known for making games which create a unique, if slightly/extremely unsettling, experience. He frequently collaborates with music composers Masafumi Takada and Akira Yamaoka.
Common themes include assassins, hotels, Mexican wrestling and random pop culture references.
Games created by Suda 51 include:
- Super Fire Pro Wrestling Special
- Moonlight Syndrome
- The Silver Case
- Flower, Sun, and Rain
- Shining Soul
- Shining Soul II
- Michigan: Report From Hell
- Killer7
- Contact
- No More Heroes
- Frog Minutes
- Shadows of the Damned
- Sine Mora
Licensed games developed by Grasshopper Manufacture include:
- Samurai Champloo Sidetracked
- Blood Plus: One Night Kiss
- Fatal Frame IV (JP: Zero: Tsukihami no Kamen)
Games currently being created by Suda 51 include:
- codename D
- Lollipop Chainsaw
- Killer is Dead
On a side note, his alias comes from his name: "Goichi" is composed of the Japanese numbers for five ("go") and one ("ichi").
Frequently used tropes are:
- Author Appeal: Luchadores. He even occasionally asks for fans to do wrestling moves on certain people.
- Breaking the Fourth Wall
- Black and Gray Morality
- Deconstructor Fleet
- Deliberate Values Dissonance (A common theme in his games is that they examine the differing values between Japan and the West/U.S.)
- Gainax Ending
- Masked Luchador
- Mind Screw
- One, Two, Three, Four, Go
- Refuge in Audacity
- Rule of Cool
- Rule of Symbolism
- Shout-Out
- The Stinger
- You Bastard / This Loser Is You