Slitterhead Day 1 Edition

This game is everything I hoped for and more--sounds cliche but that's 100% how I feel after getting into Slitterhead I was excited when I heard Toyama Keiichiro and crew was developing a game as the debut title of his Bokeh Studio. The slivers leaked to the public of the game they were developing gave this longtime fan a good hint at what to anticipate. The Forbidden Siren games are my favorite games after the Silent Hill series, and considering Toyama was party to the creation of Silent Hill as well you can imagine my anticipation for the new creation. Keiichiro, Naoko Sato and company created the Gravity Rush games, which I played out of my love for the creative team behind those games. While Gravity Rush, a beautiful and family friendly fantasy game, is not the kind of title I would typically look into, I loved the fast-paced and fun gameplay, and the story, while gentle, was spectacularly imaginative. Naturally I gravitate toward the horror these game artists created with Forbidden Siren and Silent Hill. The bits of Slitterhead that were released made it clear to me that I was to expect a sci-fi / action / horror that had strong flavors of Forbidden Siren, with a heavier emphasis on combat and action. The horror, while prominent, is not as claustrophobic as Forbidden Siren. Those games were so suffocatingly terrifying that honestly I am happy to play a game that is like Forbidden Siren, but where the protagonist/s possess powers that make the monsters less of a threat, the gameplay is more relaxed, more fun, less terrifying but the element of fear is strong enough to highlight the intensity of the exploration, of the combat. I recall days of playing the bonus stage of Forbidden Siren where Kyoya Suda chops down “shibito”, thinking how the bonus game might become a more prominent element in future games…! Likely Toyama and crew had similar thoughts. This is a perfectly rounded sci-fi / action /horror. You could simply and accurately say that Slitterhead is indeed the dream game where the bizarre, outer horror of Forbidden Siren joins forces with the fun, fast gameplay of Gravity Rush, but of course the game is more than just that. I can’t give enough praise to the artistic direction of the Slitterhead’s look and feel, the grittiness of the fictional Hong Kong city(?), a city that fascinates me (in particular as a longtime lover of splattery Hong Kong Category III films, hello Anthony Wong and Herman Yau), portrayed to such great detail. I have always been drawn to fantastic stories taking place in very real environments. Silent Hill and Forbidden Siren were epitomes of what I wanted in a game for location and feel. The contemporary, gritty feel of the setting is matched, populated by people that look real. I am not drawn to manga, games, movies or really anything where characters are all unnaturally beautiful or cute. I am so happy the art direction of Slitterhead went this way to give something satisfying to those of us that want more visceral stories rather than more mainstream cutesy nonsense. Naturally I ordered the “Day One Edition” as you should also. I had not even realized that the one and only Akira Yamaoka had composed the soundtrack, but that is of course a very pleasing surprise to those of us who fell in love with his genius compositions, primarily his Silent Hill soundtracks. I am abiding the warning not to dig into the art book so as not to spoil the narrative of the game! But I’m looking forward to digging into that later. I’ve spoken of the artistic side, and other reviews should give more detailed insight into the crucial element of gameplay, but I’ll give my take. I saw one article calling he combat a “mess” which I completely disagree with. The combat is fast and can feel overwhelming but never to the point of frustration. The unique method of possessing multiple humans and giving them this supernatural strength by turning blood into a variety of gnarly weapons is perfect. I put the game’s settings to easy as I prefer enjoying the story and less of a challenge, so that’s a way you could go if you want a more relaxed play. I have not tried normal or difficult modes. The combat ranges from one-on-one to all out battles. Most recently, the military was battling Slitterheads and the protagonist enters the fray with his human companions, and it was awesome. Beyond battle I would like to address that originally I feared the combat would be the better part of the game at the expense of the exploration and investigation and clever challenges the story will set the protagonist up against. I’m happy to report that I was wrong and the overall gameplay is the absolute perfect cocktail of battle, exploration, dialogue and investigation. The game blessedly goes from intense battle, chases, to reflection, conversations, dream sequences, moments where you can simply relax and take in the breathtaking scenery, then ratcheting up the tension once more as you inevitably, gradually dig deeper into an evil organization that is being manipulated by the most incredible, demonic outer beings you’ve seen in a game or anywhere else. Toyama’s penchant for the convoluted science fiction-based narrative where fluctuating time and crisscrossing alien dimensions, psychic phenomena, telekinesis and the manifestations of evils of the most grotesque and outlandish nature fill this exquisite game to the brim. This is a fantastic experience that will no doubt appeal to lovers of Junji Ito, H.P. Lovecraft, John Carpenter, and of course the aforementioned Silent Hill and Forbidden Siren. It is a mature-rated game with violence aplenty and other, ahem, risky business so don’t play with kids in the room! And of course you don’t even have to be a fan already of those artists and items, if you are new to this kind of experience Slitterhead stands as an outstanding game created by seasoned artists and should be fun to play regardless of your tastes for characters and aesthetic. Be sure to get this game and show support because the audience that craves Slitterhead may be considered “niche”, but we need games like this to enjoy and to inspire us and keep the gaming market alive for stories that are not more of the usual bland, homogenized fun, but something deep, unique, true, frightening and exhilarating!