Back in 2019, Goichi "Suda51" Suda and Hidetaka "Swery65" Suehiro announced a forthcoming horror game under typically bizarre circumstances. As Fraser reported at the time, the duo—who are responsible for No More Heroes and Deadly Premonition respectively—basically brainstormed the project during a livestream. At the time they decided it would be an indie horror game called Hotel Barcelona. The PS2 game Siren would be an inspiration, and Devolver would publish.
Six years later, it turns out Hotel Barcelona is an actual game that will see an actual release next month—on September 25 to be exact—but it has clearly evolved away from those early ideas. For one, Devolver isn't publishing: the relatively new Cult Games will handle that duty instead. Another big departure, at least to my eyes, is that Hotel Barcelona doesn't look scary. It's a 2.5D sidescrolling action roguelite set in a bizarre hotel, with all the surrealist flair you would expect from this duo. If you came away from that 2019 livestream thinking "great, two of the weirdest fellows in games are making a Siren tribute", then maybe keep your expectations in check.
