Swery65 (also known as Hidetaka Suehiro) will be announcing a new game at PAX West this year during his very own panel titled “Coffee Time with Swery65,” according to the PAX West 2017 schedule.
Here is the description of the panel, provided by the PAX West 2017 schedule:
“Coffee Time With Swery65
How I design games, what I get inspiration from, why I became a monk…
And at the end, I’ll announce my first new game in 3 years, the first since D4: Dark Dreams Don’t Die!
I will have a cup of coffee at the talk, so please bring your cup of coffee as well. When you first come up to ask me a question, I’ll ask you about what kind of coffee you like. I don’t care who you are, if you don’t love coffee like I love coffee, I’ll ask you to leave. (Pending policy approval from PAX management).”
As mentioned in the panel description, this is Suehiro’s first game in three years. He developed game D4: Dark Dreams Don’t Die with Access Games back in 2014. In 2016, he announced that he was leaving Access Games and retiring from the game industry altogether.
“Day 360, Unfortunately I retired from Access Games after all. However Don’t worry, because my health condition is getting be fine. Love you,” he said in the tweet announcing his departure from Access Games. Suehiro will now be making his official return to the gaming industry after opening his own studio, White Owls, Inc. earlier this year according to Polygon.
His latest game, D4: Dark Dreams Don’t Die, received mixed to positive reviews. It received a score of 76 for Xbox One and a score of 67 for PC on Metacritic. One review from Gamer.no gave the game a score of 80 for Xbox One.
“As gamers we are taught that games should fit different formulas, game characters should be certain types, and stories should be told in certain ways. D4 refuses to accept the established methods and creates it’s own rules like a drunk man on a focused mission. Sometimes it’s good to let go of all inhibitions and join the drunk guy in his binge,” said Gamer.no in their review of the game. You can find Gamer.no’s review for D4: Dark Dreams Don’t Die here.
Suehiro is most famously known for the game Deadly Premonition, released back in 2010. The game shows off the kind of story that Suehiro is known for in most of his games — bizarre, unconventional, but incredibly original and interesting. It makes the player want to dive into the mind of Suehiro himself, and this game is a definite representation of his style.
Deadly Premonition received a score of 68 for Xbox 360, a score of a 70 for PlayStation 3 and a score of 59 for PC (which was released at a later date). One review from Destructoid gave the game a score of 100.
“There is absolutely nothing in this industry that can compare to how weird and wonderful the whole experience is. Judged as a piece of entertainment, as a game that consistently surprises and amazes and leaves jaws hanging, I have no choice but to say that Deadly Premonition goes above and beyond. This game is so bad, it’s not just become good. It’s pretty close to perfect,” Destructoid said in their review of the game. You can find the full review for Deadly Premonition from Destructoid here.
I’m excited about a new Suehiro game, considering the mind-boggling stories he put players through before. I’m surprised he is announcing it at PAX West, but the excitement for a new game still remains (especially considering he is creating it under his own studio).
Featured image via the official Deadly Premonition Steam page.
