In a groundbreaking announcement at Xbox’s Tokyo Game Show 2023, renowned Japanese game developers Goichi “Suda51” Suda, famous for the No More Heroes series, and Hidetaka “Swery” Suehiro, known for Deadly Premonition, unveiled the first glimpse of their upcoming project, Hotel Barcelona.
Scheduled for release in 2024 on PS5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC via Steam, Hotel Barcelona promises to be a “2.5D slasher film parodic action” game that introduces a captivating time-looping system and boss characters inspired by iconic horror movies, including Stanley Kubrick’s masterpiece, The Shining.
In an exclusive interview with Xbox Wire following the announcement, Suehiro provided insights into the game’s concept, stating, “Hotel Barcelona, the central stage for all the action, is a sprawling leisure complex, featuring diverse facilities such as a casino and camping grounds surrounding the hotel, creating a unified, living world comprised of seven smaller interconnected realms.”
Given Suda-san and Suehiro’s creative minds at work, each of these worlds is imbued with its own peculiar and twisted surprises, each guarded by a serial killer boss. The primary objective of the game is to confront and defeat these bosses, ultimately clearing the seven distinctive worlds.
When delving into the essence of the boss fights, Suehiro clarified that these adversaries aren’t direct adaptations of film characters but rather embody the essence of various horror subgenres. He explained, “They’re more like an embodiment of a subgenre of horror films. For instance, numerous subgenres exist, including slasher movies, zombie horror, summer camps, babysitters, and more. Our bosses are crafted from the tropes that have evolved within each subgenre over time.”
Swery’s most recent venture was The Good Life, an RPG that launched in 2021, while Suda51’s creative genius was showcased in No More Heroes 3, the latest installment in the long-running action-adventure series.
The Xbox Tokyo Game Show broadcast was packed with exciting reveals, including the news that Like a Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name and Like a Dragon: Ishin! would be joining Xbox Game Pass, adding to the anticipation surrounding the gaming world.
