Romeo Is a Dead Man Review

Why Kill the Past when you can just change it?

There is a certain structured chaos to Romeo Is a Dead Man, the newest game from creator Suda51 and Grasshopper Manufacture — the development studio best known for titles like the Kill the Past and No More Heroes series. Grasshopper’s latest surreal third-person action game sticks with and smoothes out combat from the studio’s previous titles, while keeping the developer’s staple abstract storytelling.

Publisher: GRASSHOPPER MANUFACTURE INC.

Developer: GRASSHOPPER MANUFACTURE INC.

Platform: Played on PC

Availability: Released February 11, 2026, on Steam, PS5, and Xbox Series X|S.

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The main story has depth, although it can sometimes feel unintelligible. Despite this, Romeo’s motivations are easily understood and followed throughout. After almost being killed by a demon, Grandpa shows up and saves Romeo’s life by turning his mangled body into Dead Man. Somehow dying in the process of facilitating this transformation, Grandpa is now an animated patch on the back of Romeo’s jacket. Always animating without ever being too annoying or distracting, Grandpa helps guide Romeo to find Juliet, who might be at the center of some space-time anomalies. Oh, did I mention that after being saved by the Space Time FBI, Romeo is now drafted into their ranks to hunt down the disruptions and therefore correct the corresponding anomalies?

Third-person action, although being the only method of combat, surprisingly takes up only half of the game. The other half being within a digital realm that vaguely mirrors the real-world zone in which the combat takes place. Combat feels responsive with multiple melee and ranged weapon choices available to pick from. Choosing to deviate from the default katana to a heavy two-handed sword, gauntlets, or a two-part spear does affect fights and how to approach hoards of smaller enemies. Having a light and strong attack option simplifies combat, requiring a stronger awareness of positioning and patience over a more complex system. 

Stronger attacks can have purposefully longer uninterruptible animations, encouraging the optimization of combos mixing lighter and stronger attacks to stay mobile and evasive, or opt for heavy, immobile high-damage options during a stun or opening. Almost all larger enemies have weak points that are only breakable with ranged weapons, necessitating the use of one of four ranged weapons: a pistol, shotgun, machine gun, or rocket launcher. Having a diverse set of eight weapons that can be swapped at any time— even during combat — is great and can make encounters feel fresh again. Although a lack of findable upgrade materials forces committing to two or three weapons to avoid becoming underpowered and needing to grind for materials to buy more upgrades.

Romeo has an eclectic variety of styles to showcase.

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Breaking up the combat, Subspace is a digital area used to find portals that lead to new, previously unreachable areas in the real world. No combat happens here, making early instances feel like an interesting break to open doors and solve puzzles in a more laid-back area. Later on, Subspace fills with uninteresting and frustrating tedium. All areas look the same, made with simple colored cubes that make it difficult to discern your position. Later, more complex levels become hard to reliably traverse, leading to accidentally retreading areas and often trying to remember which path has not been checked. Additionally, levels that have many portals make remembering which line up with what area in the real world much more difficult. With subspace increasing in size and complexity, the last level consists of slogging through an hour or more in subspace, mixed with short bursts of combat in between real-world portals.

Upgrading and customizing a build in the home base — visitable between and during missions — is a standout departure from other games in the best way. Quicktime minigames to cook buff-producing katsu curry, a retro game to upgrade stats, and growing your own allies from seeds are fun changes of pace that feel unique and fit the overall grab-bag style this game has to offer. While having several currencies that can be used multiple ways was initially confusing, stat increases are easily noticeable in gameplay and keep the upgrade loop rewarding.

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Overall, style is the main standout of Romeo Is a Dead Man from beginning to end. Using avant-garde approaches to cutscenes, whether it's told in the game’s normal 3d style, 8-bit, comic panels, or hand-drawn animation, nothing feels cheap or phoned in, and that includes the soundtrack. These changes in style feel intentional and always keep scenes interesting. Unfortunately, this artful shift in tone and style makes the much less unique designs of combat and puzzle areas feel generic in comparison. While not perfect, this unique approach to storytelling and systems is a statement that deviating from standard practice can make a large impression without completely leaving convention behind.

Verdict

Romeo Is a Dead Man is a stylized, third-person action joyride with fun, albeit repetitive, combat. Boss fights are diverse, with a great soundtrack and interesting designs. Cutscenes and upgrading both diverge from standard practice in the best way, oozing with style to stand apart from other offerings. Pacing suffers with the diverse approach to mechanics and forcing frequent puzzle sections later into the game; however, the main story’s relatively shorter twenty-hour playtime with refreshingly little padding keeps the overall experience short and sweet.

Image Credits: Grasshopper Manufacture

Disclosure: We received a free review copy of this product from the publisher.