Shadows of the Damned: Hella Remasteredrecently launched on PC and consoles, which let players experience (or re-experience) this bizarre third-person shooter made by Suda51 (The creator ofNo More Heroes,Lollipop Chainsawand more) and Shinji Mikami (The “father” of theResident Evilfranchise).
Players who may have already beaten this remaster may already want more, so where’s the sequel toShadows of the Damned, exactly? The thing is, it already exists inside another Suda51 game, as a parody ofShadows of the Damned‘s troubled development history which, of course, has something to do with its original publisher: Electronic Arts.
Shadows of the Damned fans can try out its sequel in Travis Strikes Again
In case you forgot,Travis Strikes Again: No More Heroesis a 2019 video game by Suda51 that served as a stepping point betweenNo More Heroes 2: Desperate StruggleandNo More Heroes 3, which he eventually released in 2021. In his first adventure in over 9 years, series’ protagonist Travis Touchdown forcefully teams up with Badman and gets inside the digital world of the Death Drive MK-II, a mysterious video game console that will grant them a wish if they complete every single one of its games.
So, Travis has to acquire different spherical cartridges called “Death Balls” that hold a different fictional video game inside, and the same character actually developed all of them: Dr. Juvenile. At one point, Travis is looking for the only copy ofSerious Moonlight, an ambitious RPG that Juvenile never released. He eventually locates the Death Ball that one of Juvenile’s former colleagues, Damon Riccitiello, took many years in the past.
Travis beats Damon up, gets the Death Ball and when he pops upSerious Moonlighton the Death Drive MK-II both he and the player encounter a huge surprise: an HD cutscene that shows Garcia Hotspur, the protagonist ofShadows of the Damned,escaping from demons and an unknown character, who eventually captures and manages to kill him. In his last moments, he gives all his power to his comedic gun sidekick, Johnson, who transforms into a bizarre superhero figure named Eight Hearts.
Introducing: Damned: Dark Knight!
In one of the most unexpected yet brilliant moments ever put in aNo More Heroesgame, players find out that Dr. Juvenile completely scrappedSerious Moonlightbecause the technology of the time couldn’t realize a game of such a big scope. Instead, she decided to make an unofficial sequel to one of her favorite games,Shadows of the Damned, simply titledDamned: Dark Knight.
Travis and Badman have to complete it in order to continue their adventure through the Death Drive MK-II’s catalog. Needless to say, Suda51 and his team filled the entire level with references to the originalShadows of the Damned,as the characters have to explore and fight enemies in locations from the game, while the player reads dialogue that references its many bosses and events. This is an absolute treat for fans of this third-person shooter, and it proves that Suda51 still has some appreciation for the project.
Naturally, Eight Hearts is the final boss of theDamned: Dark Knight, and Travis immediately recognizes him because he’s a self-proclaimed bigShadows of the Damnedfan who even played through the original game more than 3 times. After he kills Eight Hearts, Johnson talks with Garcia again, goes through a circled portal to the “4th Dimension” and promises to save his friend from that Hell.
Travis even concludes this exciting level with the phrase, “So, Garcia Hotspur is coming back. One more thing to look for…”, which seems to have foreshadowedShadows of the Damned: Hella Remastered, years before Grasshopper Manufacture announced it.
So, why did Suda51 did all of this?
For more context, it’s important that we remember the messy development history thatShadows of the Damnedwent through. This was a joint venture between Suda51 and Shinji Mikami (Both had previously worked together on 2005’sKiller7) andtheir original concept was simply titledKurayami. This was going to be a psychological horror game with little-to-no combat and no guns at all,and with art inspired byThe Castle, by Franz Kafka.
All this sounded very different from whatShadows of the Damnedis and this is because everything changed when Electronic Arts entered the frame. At one point, Suda51 and Mikami managed to get in touch with EA in order to get funding for their new project, since it was much more ambitious than anything they had done before. They pitched the idea to EA and, according toMikami in an interview with the YouTube channel Archipel, the executives “lied” when they said they liked it and the project began slowly “fading away”.
Electronic Arts’ frustrating changes to Suda and Mikami’s vision
It didn’t take long for the upper management at EA to begin interfering with the production ofKurayamiand forced Suda51 and Mikami to change things. In the bookThe Art of Grasshopper Manufacture, Suda51 revealed that EA insisted on including guns in the game because “Westerners are about guns”, which forced them to turn it into a third-person shooter. He also shared another story in the same book, detailing how Garcia was originally going to have a small fairy named Paula that came out of his gun, but EA didn’t like his concept and preferred a classic “damsel in distress” love story, so Suda51 turned her in the main love interest in the final game.
According to Mikami, EA twisted their original concept around several times, and it resulted in a completely different game that what they originally thought of, since they had to write the script over and over until the company green light it. Not even their main character was safe, as Suda51 revealedin an interview with Gamespotthat he came up with 3 or 4 different ideas for a protagonist until he finally landed on Garcia Hotspur, who EA apparently liked.
Something that most fans miss is that neither Suda51 nor Mikami directedShadows of the Damned, as its main director was actually Massimo Guarini,a western developer who had years of experience working with Ubisoft, so he could more efficiently comply with EA’s demands. When the company completely overhauled the project, it was immediately evident that Suda51 was not enjoying its development anymore. He became hesitant to disclose details of the game on interviews and events,as IGN notedin not one buttwo different interviewswith him.
Shadows of the Damned broke Suda51’s heart
When EA and Grasshopper Manufacture finally releasedShadows of the Damnedon July 01, 2025, it received generally positive reviews, but it unfortunately didn’t sell very well in neither North America nor Japan. As for Suda51 and Shinji Mikami, they both have come out and stated how disappointed they were by EA’s interference on multiple occasions.
In an interview with PSX Extreme, Mikami stated, “I think Suda was unable to create the scenario he’d originally had in his head, and he rewrote the scenario several times. I think his heart was broken. He’s such a unique creator, so it seems to me that he was not quite comfortable making this game”. As for Suda himself,in the aforementioned Gamespot videohe said: “If I ever happen to work with EA again, I’d really appreciate it if they just… okay’d the first version of the script next time”.
But Suda got his revenge… in an unconventional form
Let’s go back toTravis Strikes Again: No More Heroesfor a moment. This odd title is not just another entry in theNo More Heroesseries, but it’s also a deep look at Suda51’s career as game development, with references to both his highest highs and his lowest lows. At many points during the game, it’s quite obvious that he created Dr. Juvenile as a stand-in for himself, and the same is true for her longtime rival, Damon Riccitiello.
Damon developedSerious Moonlightalongside Juvenile, and he later beat her up in order to steal the Death Ball that hadDamned: Dark Knightinside, that’s why Travis eventually had to hunt him down. But that’s not all, because Damon would later appear inNo More Heroes 3as the main antagonist of the game. In the final battle, Travis finally kills Damon in a bizarre yet amusing parody of theSuper Smash Brosseries.
In case you didn’t know, John Riccitiello was the CEO of Electronic Arts between 2007 and 2013, meaning that he was most likely around the timeShadows of the Damnedentered development. Now, Suda never explicitly stated that Damon is based off of him, but the unique last name of Riccitiello, coupled with the villain’s status as a former game developer who became CEO of a gigantic corrupt company clearly indicates thatDamon is a parody of John Riccitielloand that Suda51 was trying to get even with the CEO that interfered with the development of one his beloved projects.
Despite everything, Suda51 clearly appreciates Shadows of the Damned
At one point,Suda also revealed thatNo More Heroes 3was originally going to have an entire sequence that would featureShadows of the Damnedcharacters, which would have made the reference to its tumultuous development even more obvious.
At the end of the day, Suda51 has clearly made his peace withShadows of the Damned,and he likely holds some level of appreciation for this tragic project. This is evident not only in the references he included inTravis Strikes AgainandNo More Heroes 3but, also in his active participation in the marketing forShadows of the Damned: Hella Remastered.
Considering that Electronic Arts has nothing to do with the remaster and that Grasshopper Manufacture is currently listed as it’s sole publisher, it seems that EA finally sold the rights back to Suda and his company. Fun fact: Grasshoper includedEight Hearts as an alternate costume for GarciainHella Remastered, which is a fun nod to one of the most bizarre yet clever things Suda51 ever did in one of his games. Maybe this means that soon we’ll finally get to see a full fledged version ofDamned: Dark Knight, but only time will tell…
