I never understand why they always have this belief that westerners won't play weird Japanese games. They practically revived the video game industry after the crash.

An "elevator pitch" for EA is one where the elevator ride has the cable cut.

EA basically said: "y u make babby game? y u not schut?"

I actually got a little sad when Makami described Suda as "Heartbroken". Suda seems like such a wonderful and fun person in a professional environment. To take that away is just heartless, I expect nothing less of EA.

stories like this are every creative person's nightmare

EA: Why don't you make a game with us- Famous Game Director: NO

A savory EA dish with a sweet "Let's make it appeal to the West." glaze. **chef's kiss**

What I wouldn't give to get Suda's unfiltered version of his original Kurayami.

Indie games after a critically and financial success: Time to make my adventure into success EA: N O !

What pisses me off the most is that Demon's Souls was released around this time and began an entire subgenre. One that it sounds like Darkness would have fit into perfectly without actually "ripping off"

I actually enjoyed Shadows Of The Damned. Wasn’t a masterpiece by any means, but it was fun. I kinda miss the times where we’d get these sort of B-Movie games.

Game developers, for the love of God, *DO. NOT. TRUST. EA. WITH. YOUR. IDEAS.*

Imagine making your locally famous killer ramen but then the chef comes in, shits in it and says "they gonna love this"

This is one of those sad, disappointing episodes of wha happun. Let our silly japanese auteurs make their interesting games!

That Serious Moonlight level in Travis Strikes Again is so weirdly sad. The entire level is basically a fourth wall breaking conversation with Suda himself as he airs his laments about Shadows of the Damned directly to the player. I'm just glad it didn't turn into a completely negative memory for him and that he seems to have some fondness for it now going forward.

"So what's this game going to be about?" "The main character has a nice watch."

“Oh, hi EA…” I felt that.

One thing you can say, Matt didn't mention a single thing about the game itself. The game is fine, nothing ground breaking, but if this is what we got after 5 revisions and EA muddling then the original concept must have been something interesting for sure.

Man, suda needs to make his original idea. That sounded like it could’ve been a great game.

I’m adding Meddling with Shadows of the Damned to my list of reasons I hate EA..... and that list is already big enough.

So EA took interest in the product, but only insofar as they wanted to literally remake the whole thing as Dumber May Cry?

Moral of the story: Leave Suda51 to his own devices.

The fact that Suda could still make Kurayami and still pass over unassuming eyes that it had any involvement with Shadows of the Damned shows just how much ea really changed shit

Came here after the announcement of the remaster to see what the game is about.

I'm...actually a bit torn on this one. On the one hand, the final game does look pretty cheesy and awesome, kinda like an Evil Dead. But when you hear about everything Suda had planned, the final game pales in comparison. Like, if Suda51 could make a Silent Hill-like game, I think most of us would love it. (If it went better than his attempt at Fatal Frame, that is.)

I think Sonic Xtreme would make a great “Wha Happun” episode. Multiple engine changes, difficult hardware to develop for, numerous changes of direction from multiple different sides of the company, and a member of the development team nearly dying working on the game.

Okay first: Holy shit I didn't know Suda was involved with Report in Hell. That explains some things. XD But on the actual topic, I feel real bad for Suda especially with Mikami saying he could tell his friend's heart wasn't entirely in it.

The fact that we'll never have Purgatorio or Paradiso sequels to Dante's Inferno makes my life sad.

"Game needs to be a shooter or it wont sell" EA shooter sells poorly "I see no flaws in my logic"

As much as I loved this game for how dumb it was, I love suda's vision better and wish he could make what he wanted originally.

Anyone: Ok, here are some great, original ideas we can use for the game EA: ...Well, the chart says

Honestly, I loved this game when it came out. I really wanted an RE 4 style shooter at the time, and this scratched that itch. Had B Horror visuals, great gunplay, cool enemies, and a quirky sense of humor. Any shortcomings were lost on me while I played it. Without any knowledge that this was the product of a ton of compromise, and unfulfilled artistic vision, I was definitely able to enjoy it for what it was: just a silly, gory good time.

"He can't just wisecrack to himself." Dante has entered the chat.

Honestly this is one of the first stories on this show that directly pissed me off. The original concept was so cool and interesting, but EA isn’t interested in interesting, they want what’ll appeal to the most amount of people possible

I actually completed Shadows of the Damned and Dante's Inferno through Xbox BC not so long ago. As much as I despise EA I have to give them credit for greenlighting both games. After completing both the first thing that came to mind was that neither one of these games would ever see the day of light in 2021 in their current forms. I'm really glad I've got both in my collection.

I'm genuinely surprised EA would give the license back the Suda regardless of how worthless they felt it was. Most of the time it seems like these big companies would rather own as many IP's as they can even if nothing is done with them instead of letting someone else make use of it.

I love Shadow of the Damned, one of my favorite games of the entire generation. It's really satisfying to play & has this mega goofy, exaggerated style that's so funny to me. It's almost hilariously "edgy" in a way that reads like parody, the main character chugs whiskey as a power-up, it's hilarious.

"Sometimes having to compromise the vision and wild ideas of an auteur isn't always the best course of action." Too bad some companies see what's marketable in the present instead of taking that risk these days.

I'm fond of this game, no matter how flawed it is. Glad to see it referenced in the recent No More Heroes. Also, since you said you’d be open to do an episode on a show like Rise of the TMNT, could you also do one on Beware the Batman? From executive meddling and censorship, to lack of toy support and fan backlash, and a MESSY release schedule, I think it would be a great fit for this series.

Honestly, I liked the game as it came out. Shame the game that was supposed to be made when they started never got made though.

I was waiting so much for it and tbh i absolutely loved everything about Shadows of the Damned! The hero,story, bosses stories,ending theme, the hell world,gameplay,menus & art style, the dark comedy, everything ticked just right, i hope for a sequel for Garcia,Johnson & Paula, i loved the journey and the batner between these two was so good 😂❤ i wish Suda can make the game he wanted but this one was fantastic to me thru and thru!

Strangest twist in it all. Feels the usual outcome of these situations is the big company keeps the IP like a piece of dragon loot and just sits on it. In this case, EA just handed/sold it back with out much incident, instead of just saying "We published it, we own it now!" Think it's because it's a Japanese made IP and not one made in the west? Just feels like something you never see an American game company do with IPs these days.

Destiny 1's development history is pretty interesting with how it went and the many ideas they scrapped to eventually make a game with no story at all but some pretty amazing lore that could only be found on a website separate from the game instead of in game.

Just be thankful for EA, without them we wouldn't have half of your content

I've always been a fan of this game since I first played it and I was unclear why Suda 51 hated it so much. Now that I've watched your video I have a clear picture of what it was supposed to be vs what it actually became.

Travis Strikes Again was Suda making him own What Happened? about Shadows of the Damned in game form.

EA: "You can't just make a horror game and a single player only game! Those don't sell! (EA then kills the creativity in the original idea just to force Grasshopper to make another 3rd person shooter with the same plot as their own "Dante's Inferno". The game bombs.) EA: "See! We told you single player games and horror games don't sell! This is worthless to us now, you can have it back."

*new Wha Happun* "Oh boy! I wonder what this episode will be abo-" *EA* "Ah, it's another one of these" *grabs popcorn*

Can't stop addicted to the shindig...

I remember being so hyped for this game after the initial trailers since I loved Suda's previous games. After finishing it, I thought the overall end product was okay. But after seeing this video... I kinda wanna see Suda's original "Kurayami" idea fully realized. That concept art looks so badass!

Torn on this one. You hate to see peoples’ original vision compromised so much, but also, Shadows of the Damned was absolutely hysterical. I’m proud to own a physical copy.

I genuinely like Shadows of the Damned quite a bit. I would be interested to see Suda51 get a shot at getting his original vision for Kurayami made, but Shadows is a fun ride with the sense of humor and everything-and-the-kitchen-sink mentality that pervades No More Heroes front and center. And even the "rescue the damsel" storyline has some fun, clever subversions to it rather than just being played straight.

Would love to see an episode on the infamous Atari E.T.

Thank you for covering this one. I always love to see a Suda 51 game discussed even if it had a troubled production.

16:40 Man, i would love to see Wha Happun episode about Vanquish

It’s also great to hear Steve Blum’s voice in a video game

Ohhhh so that’s what that means.... (I memorized all 100 endings in The 25th ward and the one about twin peaks leads to “spend hours listening to theories on Kafka’s The Castle”)

EA, destroying the hopes and dreams of gamers.

I just had a flashback to playing the game. That part where you have to follow those strange slimey creatures with the light on their (heads?) And that psychedelic trippy music playing...whoaaa mannn lol.

Honestly, i loved it. Surprised it went trough such a process.

while I do like shadows of the damned, hearing this was pretty disappointing, on multiple levels, to say the least. poor suda really got shafted, and that sucks. But with that being said I would love it if he some how managed to make a kuriyama game later down the line, with complete creative control most importantly. Also hearing that the games 5 rewrites were mostly unique sounds intriguing and makes me hope he makes the other 3 down the line. Nice job on the video matt keep up the good work!

Wow this game before EA got its developer destroying hands on it seems really interesting

The visuals look really good, I loved the aesthetic

15:38 but okay can we talk about how chilling the title screen sequence is for Killer 7?

EA= Disney Hire creative directors. Tell them you hired them for their vision. Make generic crap. Voila!

I beat Shadows several times and loved every second of it, lol. What a terribly made fun game. I particularly enjoyed the evil dead easter egg.

what's often not known about this story is that suda later collaborated with a manga artist named Syuji Takeya to make the manga Kurayami Dance, which was based off of the original concept for Shadows of the Damned that EA forced him to change. Check it out if you're curious about what the game was originally going to be!

Quick Travis Strikes Again trivia: Damon Riccitiello , main villain of TSA and NMH3, is based on John Riccitiello, the CEO of Unity who was also CEO of EA back when Shadows of the Damned was released. He was a part of the team for the game Serious Moonlight , that was supposed to be a huge open-world RPG based around darkness, that got stuck in development hell since it basically was main dev's, Dr. Juvenile 's, dream game, and she kept adding new stuff into it. Damon left the team due to that, however he was too pissed about the fate of that game, so at one point he beat Juvenile to her losing her consciousness and stole the Death Ball (game cartridge). However, Juvenile already revamped that game as a sequel to Shadows of the Damned (yes they're in 90s, no I don't know how it works). Anyway, considering his real life counterpart is now a CEO of Unity, that might be one of the main reasons TSA points how it is made on Unreal Engine at every available moment lol.

This was a really good game; I’d even call it a hidden gem.

Idk I really like this game, I think its a lot of fun. I like that its gorey, funny, quirky, has moments that are disturbing and artistic, plus I enjoyed the music. I get it can be cringy too but its part of its charm. As far of the original idea, I like the sounds of it, idk if I'd enjoy as much but I'd definitely still play it.

Matt. I'm gonna ask you do a what happen video on the shift from WHFB to AOS. Nowdays there's a fair lot of info on the matter and it's really sommething worth looking into as: -There's a very strong IP undergoing downturn. -Management has a plan to strengthen it. -Managament changes. -New management decides fuck it. -Massive ammounts of corporate meddling. -Tons of cut corners and re-dos. -Some crunch. -Lot of miscommunication. -Poor messaging. -And attrocious launch accompanied by the successful launch of TW:WH.

Shadows of the damned popping up in travis strikes again was awesome

12:59 - Minor correction: Guilty Gear 2 Overture wasn't on PC on launch. It was console exclusive and was only recently (a few years ago) ported to PC.

Next episode should be Plants vs. Zombies and their rise and downfall due to EA.

Hell, this is one of my favorite PS3 games. I've owned it 3 times since it first launched. Now it goes for hundreds on eBay.

Ending the video with "Philistine". Nice man, just nice.

[Matt:Darkness.....] “Konosuba flashbacks”

I'd love to see a Wha Happun for Final Fantasy XV, or Persona 5. Two games that were really well received in the end, but had incredibly troubled dev cycles.

Even though the games creation had so many bumps and bruises, it's still one of my favorite games ever

I guess when Suda's heart broke some dark ritual in EA's basement was finished, or at least one step further, to keep the lights on there, powered through hell's energy and they chanted in unison: "We did it again!".

Whoa. I had no idea Shadows had such a tortured history. It's hardly my favorite Grasshopper game, but I found it to be a pretty fun little dark comedy/action-adventure title. I'm kind of amazed it turned out as good as it did with so much meddling from EA.

So thanks to EA, instead of an interesting psych horror game with more unique play, we got... Diet Fake Dante.

I still have shadows of the damned and the music voice work was amazing

I still love Shadows, but oh man I'd kill for a sequel with Suda's full control

If the elevator pitch was like an Mass Effect 1 elevator pitch they would have succeeded in making Kurayami.

Alot of these can just be Wha happun?: EA happun.

That description of Kurayami sounded really cool and I'm sad that EA didn't allow it Maybe Grasshopper will give it another try sometime, I hope

Your playthrough of this was so good that I can't help but love the game.

LOL Not gonna lie, I do know so little about this, but dang. It is almost like a leson to ALL developers that the "easy" rout is not always the best Thanks Matt! :D

game is getting a remaster soon... yay? i like this game and honestly deserves a secon chance *cough cough* sequel *cough cough*

So happy to see this game getting a remaster!

I played this game without knowing much about it for my first time last year and loved it

"A wisecracking demon killing badass." aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

Now I want a "let it die" wha happened

And here we are now with the game getting a remaster 😊

This was one of my favorite games when it came out

Is it wrong that I would've preffered another episode of The Ringu LP?

This makes me want to vomit.

To be fair, there was a time during the PS3/360 era where it felt like every game had to be the same if they wanted to sell big $$$. I still can't forget that time where games were shades of brown/grey with little vibrant colours. Dark times. Even in today's era a game needs to be extra extra perfectly good if it wants to sell us a different genre or experience. Either that or be indie because everyone seems more forgiving if the game is indie and it has new concepts.

"Taste my Big Disappointment" -leather jacket man