Killer Is Dead Seems Killer So Far

Killer Is Dead is the next game from Goichi “Suda51” Suda, the Japanese designer best known for stylish action games like No More Heroes and Killer7. It’ll be published by XSEED in North America, and it’s out on August 27 for PS3 and 360.

Those are the basics. I got my hands on Killer Is Dead a few weeks ago at E3, and although I didn’t spend much time with it, enough Kotaku readers seem interested in the game that I felt like I should share some basic impressions.

Some things you should know about the game, based on the few minutes I spent with it:

It’s an episodic game, and there are 13 chapters. Each takes place in a different location, XSEED tells me. The last one is on the moon.

You play as a nerdy Japanese businessman with glasses and a robot arm. He is a composed killer. He is very good at slashing things with a katana, and he’s rather different than your average dudebro action hero.

When your guy defeats enemies, he sucks up their blood and fills up what’s called the blood meter. When that meter is full, he can go into overdrive and kill enemies faster.

In many ways Killer Is Dead reminds me of 2011’s very-underrated El Shaddai—the stylized cel-shading, the crunchy hack-and-slash battles, limit-break-esque special powers. It’s neat.

The level I saw was set in Japan, and there were cherry blossoms everywhere. We had to find a bunch of scrolls, beat up a bunch of baddies, and then assassinate a boss.

This boss was a Japanese gangster—or yakuza—on a tiger. First we had to chase him down and slice him down in a FFVII-motorcycle-like mini-game, and then we had to beat him down, but not before he… well, you know what, I won’t spoil it for you. It’s a fun experience.

That’s Killer Is Dead. I’m digging what I’ve seen so far, and I’m looking forward to playing more next month.