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Grasshopper Manufacture is known for its excess and eccentricity, but not for its craft. Its titles like Killer7 and Shadows of the Damned were strong on style, atmosphere, and attitude, but always fell a little limp in their core mechanics, with only No More Heroes and its sequel standing proud as a uniquely enjoyable addition to the third-person action genre. The more Grasshopper has tried to ape its competitors like Resident Evil 4 and Devil May Cry, the more characterless and insignificant the studio's output felt. Let it Die is Grasshopper's furthest deviation in this direction, opting to shuffle its narrative quirks to the sidelines in favour of a distinctly Dark Souls-flavoured third-person "survival action" affair. Only this time, Grasshopper got it right.Let it Die's different, design-first flavour should come as no surprise to those who followed its development. As publisher (and now Grasshopper owner) GungHo Online Entertainment was quick to point out upon my visit to its Tokyo headquarters, Grasshopper founder and creative director Suda 51 was less involved in this project's development as he'd been in the studio's previous outings. This time Killer is Dead director Hideyuki Shin took the reins. Shin, who has more experience as a designer than a storyteller, is given a stronger chance to shine this time around with a title that's a more focused showcase for Grasshopper's hidden talents.
This may not be apparent in the first half-hour, however. Let it Die's opening act is heavy on awkwardly lackadaisical cutscenes, oddball character introductions, and reams of text explaining the complex systems that make up this procedurally-generated hack-and-slash affair. The story, which concerns a demonic tower sprouting in the middle of Tokyo while a skateboarding grim reaper, Uncle Death, sets frozen husks of former humans into said spire to uncover its mysterious source of power, is a dull paste of strange and generic. It lacks the skewed real world texture of its obvious inspirations like Escape From New York and The Warriors, while also failing to capture the surreal fever-dream stylings of Killer7 or El Topo. Let it Die still has a familiar Grasshopper personality - no one would mistake composer Akira Yamaoka's playfully sordid arrangements or a frog-collecting mechanic for anyone else's work - but, like the skater skeleton Uncle Death himself, it feels strange just for the sake of being strange rather than in service of anything.
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