Back in 2019, iconoclastic Japanese indie creators Goichi “Suda51” Suda (No More Heroes, Killer 7, Let it Die) and Hidetaka “Swery” Suehiro (Deadly Premonition, The Good Life) announced they would be teaming up on a horror-flavored game named Hotel Barcelona. In the years since we’ve heard very little about this team up, but when pressed, Suda and Swery have continued to insist it was happening. Well, during this year’s Tokyo Game Show Hotel Barcelona was finally revealed, and it looks every bit as strange as you’d expect.
Described a “2.5D slasher film parodic action,” Hotel Barcelona takes in the titular hotel, which seems to be a destination for serial killers (the game takes some inspiration from Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining). Players will take on multiple bizarre bosses, ranging from a robotic shark to a giant evil doll, and the trailer seems to hint at some sort of roguelite elements. Check out the weirdness for yourself, below.
At TGS, we heard a bit more about the origins of Hotel Barcelona – it was Suda who decided to announce the game to the world, even though only the vaguest idea of what it would be existed at the time. That said, it was Swery who ultimately pushed to finish the game, doing a lot of work on it “all of a sudden.” Here’s a bit more detail on what the game is actually about…
“Hotel Barcelona is the long-awaited collaboration between game design legends Swery65 and Suda51, and our Xbox Digital Broadcast brought us a never-before-seen gameplay trailer from the self-styled “2.5D slasher film parodic action” game. Drawing influences from across horror’s history, you’ll be pitted against everything from alien entities to AI-enhanced sharks, all while stuck in an endless time loop filled with serial killers – and only your deceased past selves to help you.”
Hotel Barcelona is coming to PC, Xbox Series X/S, and PS5 sometime in 2024. What do you think? Ready for another slice of weirdness from Suda and Swery? Or does this not look up to the standards of some of their past projects?
