* AcclaimedFlop: The game was adored by most critics and certainly has its fans, yet it ended up flopping so bad, it went out of print the same year it was released. Luckily, it's on Xbox's Games on Demand.
* CreatorBacklash: Thanks to the ExecutiveMeddling below, Shinji Mikami said he was somewhat disappointed by the final product, and that Suda was heartbroken.
-->''"It became a completely different game. That was a bit disappointing. I think Suda was unable to create the scenario he'd originally had in his head, and he rewrote the scenario several times. I think his heart was broken. He's such a unique creator, so it seems to me that he was not quite comfortable with making this game."''
** That said, it does seem that Suda has at least come to terms with the game in more recent years. He was able to rework his original vision into a manga, and it's telling that an entire chapter of ''VideoGame/TravisStrikesAgainNoMoreHeroes'' is one long meta commentary on ''Shadows'' that even has Garcia killed off in the intro cutscene, yet still remains overly polite with its criticisms. The fact that his company is currently working on a remaster also shows that his opinion on the game, whatever it was at the time, has softened over the years.
* ExecutiveMeddling: Well, it's an extremely creative director working with a company like EA - of course his vision isn't going to be intact. The game had gone through 5 design versions over its development until it was approved. The presence of guns in the game at all was EA's demand, for example.
* WhatCouldHaveBeen:
** Originally, Suda and Mikami envisioned a collaboration called ''Kurayami'', intended to be a pure {{Psychological|Horror}} SurvivalHorror game inspired by ''Literature/TheCastle'', though it fell into DevelopmentHell among Grasshopper due to their inability to secure a publisher. Once Creator/ElectronicArts got involved, they had initially been on board with the concept, but then abruptly started demanding changes and reiterations, rejecting any of their more eccentric ideas in the process ([[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_37pVVpzg98 Mikami believes]] that EA had consciously ''lied'' to them at first about interest in the game just to trap them into their whims). ''Shadows of the Damned'' -- being [[MidDevelopmentGenreShift vastly more action-y than it was meant to be]] -- is almost an entirely different game. Remnants of the original concept were later repurposed into a manga called ''Kurayami Dance'' while the second draft has turned into ''VideoGame/BlackKnightSword''.
** Originally, Garcia would have started up without a gun, and would gradually acquire weapons over the course of the game with the ability to purchase clothes. EA decided to have him start with one from the get-go because "westerners are about guns."
** Paula was initially designed as living inside Garcia's gun that would hop around like a rabbit, leading to a love story between them. EA was unable to grasp the concept, and it was eventually changed to the talking skull Johnson.
** Suda says that he would have liked to [[http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2011-09-30-suda-admits-shadows-of-the-damned-regret add online multiplayer in some functionality]].
----