Grasshopper's Suda51

"Mikami listens to all my ideas and he'll never be afraid to tell me what he thinks won't work, as well as what will," Suda explains.

"He has contributed a lot to the core action gameplay, which is his speciality. He plays a big part, but then so do I, and our inputs into the game design are different. We play a different role in designing and it works out perfectly."

On the subject of Japanese game auteurism, though, Suda seems conflicted. He agrees that having one author often makes a game more distinctive – "It's kind of like a movie, where the director has a huge influence" – but within his own studio, he's keen to spread that influence around a little more.

Nowadays, Grasshopper operates closer to what Suda considers the Western way. "It's true that in the West it's the studio that's important, not that one figurehead," he says. "I mean maybe you've got Cliffy B. But it's the studio brand power that is stronger in the West.

"But I think it's changing, and it will change, for Japanese studios as well. Of course I'm there at Grasshopper, but we have many other creators in our company. In order to create a big game nowadays, there's not just one person who's important in the project. So I think that our company will shift towards how it is in Western studios."

Shadows of the Damned is the first indication of a change in direction for Grasshopper, as a multi-platform game published by a large non-Japanese company in Electronic Arts.

"Definitely we want to start creating all our games for multiple platforms and not just one," says Suda. "That means different types of game for different platforms, including social games and mobiles.

"So we're very interested in looking into creating smaller games, like for iOS. We definitely want to challenge our young creators to achieve different things with those."

With this in mind, Grasshopper's newer hires are allowed to to test out ideas in a short, sharp format. The studio released its very first iPhone game just over a month ago, Frog Minutes, which is also its first game to feature actual grasshoppers.

This, it seems, is how Suda sees Grasshopper Manufacture shifting – away from single-platform and towards a wider, more international audience via more varied outlets. "Multiplayer is where the future is, and not just in the traditional sense of what 'multiplayer' means," he muses.

"I mean across console, mobile and PC social gaming. I think those will be connected in the future, so one IP can be played on all three platforms, even beyond. I think that would be an interesting advancement for our industry."

Suda seems happier about the future than most of the other Japanese development personalities I've interviewed in the past few years, many of whom lament the state of their home industry and the loss of what they perceive to be distinctive and unique voices in favour of internationalism.

For Suda, though, that's an achievement in itself. Asked about the Japanese games industry's increasingly global mindset he replies, "Oh yes, of course I'm happy about it. That's always been my goal - to be global!"