Line #7 Creator/GrasshopperManufacture


1	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/grasshopper.png]]
2	[[caption-width-right:350:''[[{{Tagline}} Punk's Not Dead]]'']]
3	Grasshopper Manufacture is a Japanese video game developer founded and headed by Goichi Suda (a.k.a. Creator/{{Suda51}}) in 1998. The studio is well-known for its surreal adventure and action games that focus on stories with a bizarre execution of its ideas. Although a few of their smaller games had received obscure overseas releases, it was with ''VideoGame/{{killer7}}'' in 2005 that Grasshopper and Suda achieved worldwide recognition for making games unlike anyone else in the industry. Though their games are of various styles, from Suda's own noir-thriller adventure games, to over-the-top action-comedies, to postmodern [=RPGs=], almost all of them are very distinctive.
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5	Grasshopper has its origins in Creator/HumanEntertainment; after the development of ''VideoGame/MoonlightSyndrome'', a tight but small group of Human staff, headed by Suda, formed Grasshopper to develop games that were even more surreal and mature than they were allowed to create under Human. For [[VideoGame/TheSilverCase their first game]], they only had about five in-house team members.
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7	They slowly grew in scale as they became more popular. In 2009, Music/AkiraYamaoka joined the company as an audio director, ending his long-time career at Creator/{{Konami}}. After having achieved even more mainstream success with the ''VideoGame/NoMoreHeroes'' series, Grasshopper went through a period from around 2010-2013 where they had hundreds of employees; however, managing such a large company became an intimidating task, and CEO Suda took a step back from being actively involved in development to focus more on business management. During this time, they made more marketable games than they had before, but generally worked under publishers' demands for their major projects.
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9	In 2013, the company was acquired by [=GungHo=] Online Entertainment, who would publish ''VideoGame/LetItDie'' in 2016. They also downsized heavily around this time to a company of only around 35 employees. Due to these changes, Suda was able to become more active in development again and the company was freer to pursue lower-budget experimental projects again, such as remakes of their older, previously Japan-only works. In 2021, [=GungHo=] sold Grasshopper to Chinese company [=NetEase=] Games.
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12	!!Video games developed:
13	* ''VideoGame/TheSilverCase''
14	* ''VideoGame/FlowerSunAndRain''
15	* ''VideoGame/ShiningSoul''
16	** ''Shining Soul II''
17	* ''VideoGame/MichiganReportFromHell''
18	* ''VideoGame/{{killer7}}''
19	* ''VideoGame/TheTwentyFifthWard''
20	* ''Anime/SamuraiChamploo: Sidetracked''
21	* ''Anime/BloodPlus: [[VideoGame/BloodPlusOneNightKiss One Night Kiss]]''
22	* ''VideoGame/{{Contact}}''
23	* ''VideoGame/NoMoreHeroes''
24	** ''VideoGame/NoMoreHeroes2DesperateStruggle''
25	** ''VideoGame/TravisStrikesAgainNoMoreHeroes''
26	** ''VideoGame/NoMoreHeroesIII''
27	* ''VideoGame/FatalFrameMaskOfTheLunarEclipse'' (with Tecmo and Nintendo)
28	* ''Frog Minutes''
29	* ''VideoGame/ShadowsOfTheDamned''
30	* ''Anime/RebuildOfEvangelion: 3nd Impact''
31	* ''VideoGame/SineMora'' (with Creator/DigitalReality)
32	* ''Diabolical Pitch''
33	* ''VideoGame/LiberationMaiden'' (with Creator/{{Level 5}})
34	* ''VideoGame/LollipopChainsaw''
35	* ''VideoGame/BlackKnightSword'' (with Creator/DigitalReality)
36	* ''VideoGame/KillerIsDead''
37	* ''Anime/ShortPeace: Ranko Tsukigime's Longest Day''
38	* ''VideoGame/LetItDie''
39	* ''[[Anime/RebuildOfEvangelion Evangelion New Theatrical Edition: 3nd Impact]]''
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41	!!Tropes associated with Grasshopper Manufacture:
42	* BreakingTheFourthWall: Each game differs on how much they acknowledge the player, the game itself, etc. In some cases, it is simply the game LeaningOnTheFourthWall, such as ''The Silver Case'' or ''[=Killer7=]''. In other cases, there ''is'' NoFourthWall to lean on or break, as with ''No More Heroes'' and ''Killer Is Dead''.
43	* StealthSequel: Grasshopper tends to make some games this way, carrying on the story of a given game in another without making the connection clear at first. For example, ''VideoGame/FlowerSunAndRain'' carries on the story of ''VideoGame/TheSilverCase'', but both games control radically differently, with ''Silver'' being a 3D visual novel and ''F.S.R.'' being an exploration and puzzle game with free movement.

Context Creator / GrasshopperManufacture