Sexuality a touchy subject - Suda 51

Suda 51's new game Killer is Dead features a "Gigolo Mode," where players chat up a woman at a bar, attempting to discretely sneak glimpses of her underwear with the help of x-ray specs. It's distinctly in line with Suda's history as a creator, but it's also the sort of problematic treatment toward women that has become vocally decried in the games industry of late.

Speaking with GamesIndustry International at E3 last week, Suda said he had heard criticisms of how his games portray female characters. For example, Lollipop Chainsaw's protagonist runs around slaughtering zombies with a chainsaw while wearing a cheerleading outfit, and No More Heroes' taskmaster Sylvia spends the game using sex as a reward for the player character doing her bidding.

"I think in a way when you get criticism, that means people are paying attention to your work," Suda said through a translator. "Any kind of artistic value, anything you create, there's always some kind of criticism behind it. Which means we're making an impression and an impact. So I think we'll stay with what we're thinking and just keep going with that way of thinking...And when I say that, sexuality is a touchy subject. We don't want to make people offended, but we're trying to create something that makes people laugh a bit because we're [dealing with] that topic."

Suda also addressed his prolific history as a developer. Killer is Dead will be the eighth game on which he's worked since 2010.

"We would love to slow down," Suda said. "Especially the past four years, we've been in a very high-paced mode with Shadows of the Damned, Lollipop Chainsaw, and then Killer is Dead. They're all on HD machines. It would be nice to slow down a bit. And on top of those titles, there are downloadable and social games as well. But at the same time, I don't want to disappoint fans who are waiting for our titles, so we won't take too much time slowing down."