Romeo is a dead man is a top-down Suda51 game. This is not to say that Romeo is a dead man is like every other Suda game – on the contrary, it's quite unique despite its obvious similarities to Lollipop Chainsaw and No more heroes. But it still has that Suda51 spirit, meaning it's expressive, bombastic, surprising and doesn't seem to care if you like it or not.
You play as the titular Romeo, a lovelorn cop turned intergalactic agent. He is in love with Juliet, a space-time criminal wrapped up in the troubles of various other ennobled beings throughout the Fragment Universe, a jumble of pocket dimensions created after a singularity event in the fictional town of Deadford, Pennsylvania, during which Romeo was nearly killed and subsequently revived as the Deadman. His genius, Rick Sanchez-coded grandfather, Benjamin Stargazer, has elevated him to a superhuman level and lives in a 2D image on the back of his grandson's jacket, acting as an assistant mentor of sorts.
If that description doesn't make much sense to you, you've basically gotten a taste of Romeo is a dead man experience. It's a psychedelic joyride through the time-space continuum, peppered with colorful and bizarre characters that only Goichi Suda could conjure up, and while I won't be surprised if it's not to everyone's taste, it certainly is to my taste.
Romeo is a dead man is a damn good time
There are many games, both good and bad, that feel designed by committee, as they say. They are clean and polished – no rough edges in sight. The story and gameplay are carefully tested and honed to appeal to as many people as possible, and every feature and system works in harmony with each other, like intricate clockwork. That's not how Suda51 and Grasshopper Manufacture make games, and Romeo is a dead man is proof of that.
Romeos gameplay can be divided into two main pillars: combat and environmental puzzles. The first pillar is simple and unsophisticated (Benjamin Stargazer literally tells Romeo not to think too much during the first combat tutorial), consisting of a mix of melee and ranged options. Romeo has four weapons in each category, all of which can be upgraded during gameplay, but only in an obvious, stat-based way. Mostly, the combinations and techniques that you learn in Romeo's the first few hours will take you to the final score.
However, this doesn't mean combat isn't fun. Actually, Romeo is a dead man could be a breath of fresh air for anyone longing for the PS3 era of hack-and-slash games, which often focused on making players feel powerful, not weak or disadvantaged as in so many modern action titles. I played Romeo on the hardest difficulty available on a first playthrough, and I found that this sense of power didn't completely trivialize enemy encounters: a combination of decent enemy variety and aggressive enemy AI created a gameplay experience that resembles a mix of Dark soulsmodern God of warand even a splash Resident Evil— a winning combination if ever there was one. RomeoThe combat is simple, but it doesn't suffer much from it.
Worth noting is Romeos bosses: while there aren't many of them, almost all of them are visually interesting and mechanically compelling, making them fun to fight, even multiple times.
Romeo is an unpolished man
I wish I could give the same praise to Romeos other mainstay of the game, its environmental puzzles. These puzzles are generally relegated to Subspace, a sort of alternate dimension made of shifting, nondescript blocks. Navigating these areas can be a bit of a headache due to their lack of distinguishing features, and because moving in and out of Subspace, which you have to do often, is a loading screen experience; it is not a seamless transition, seen in the likes of Alan Wake 2 and Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart.
There are parts of Romeos game formula that feels rushed and incomplete as well. For example, you can completely break the game's progression loop after unlocking a certain mini-game, which can be played indefinitely and provides a significant amount of upgrade resources in a short amount of time, making traditional progression trivial. You unlock this minigame very early in the story. There's also a farming minigame that's pretty important to continued progression and building experiments, but the process of harvesting, planting, and “merging” (AKA breeding) is incredibly slow and laborious. Basically, imagine Stardew Valleybut you have to watch a 10-15 second cutscene every time you harvest a plant, and you'll have a good idea of what Romeo is a dead mans farming minigame is like.
All of this is to say that Romeo is a dead man MAN is packed with stuff, but that stuff is often awkwardly implemented or tacked on. Even the game's supporting cast, Romeo's colleagues in the Space-Time Police, feel disconnected from the core gameplay and story, despite having colorful personalities, compelling character designs, and well-defined roles on the team. These side characters, who Romeos various minigames, seem to be forgotten by the game at many points, and so I often forgot about them as well.
Romeo is a dead man is more than the sum of its parts
Like the rest of Suda51's work, Romeo is a dead man succeeds through its unbridled creativity and panache. The game takes you through no-frills gauntlets, which can blend into Lynchian cut-scenes in different art styles, which can blend into surprisingly effective horror sections. On paper, there is a lot you can resist Romeo is a dead manbut Romeo is a dead man is not a work that can be captured on paper in the first place. It's an outlandish dream of a video game and has to be experienced first-hand to be understood.
That's why, despite my frustration with RomeoThe often disjointed and awkward mechanics, confusing narrative design, and minor stuff like sometimes amateur sound mixing and editing, I just can't dislike it. It's rare to see a game, or any contemporary art for that matter, that feels born of pure, concentrated creative energy, rather than the dictates of the market or some other governing entity. Romeo is a dead man is like a Suda51 brain explosion, a trippy and irreverent vision beamed directly into our minds by Grasshopper Manufacture. There isn't a stuffy, responsible business committee in the world that would approve of this game, which is exactly what makes it worthwhile.
- Released
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February 11, 2026
- ESRB
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Mature 17+ / Intense violence, Blood and Gore, Suggestive themes, Use of drugs, Strong language
- Fun, simple combat
- Great music and atmosphere
- Unpredictable gameplay and setpieces
- Charming, goofy characters and writing
- Ham systems, features and mini-games
- Disappointing environmental puzzle
- A general lack of polish, especially in cutscenes
Romeo is a dead man will be released on February 11, 2026 on PS5, Xbox Series X|S and PC. Game Rant received a Steam code for this review.
